2 questions ...Hd omni question, native, imac

[doyoung123]

Hi
After using an mbox 2 for many years, I've decided to upgrade to the HD system.

The HD omni sounds cool to uprgrade.
My question now is the connectivity and the expandability

1) Do I need to get an HD / native card?
I would like to use the omni with the imac i7, I don't see any firewire connection, so is it possible to use the omni with an imac? are there any other ways to connect or no?

2)How many things can I record simultaneously in real time 4?, if I wish to record more inputs is it possible? and if so, where do I connect this? What are some other interfaces besides or recommendable gear besides the 96, 192 i/o I could use to expand my inputs with the omni?

Thanks for your time

dkimcohn

[filosofem]

Unless someone is going to correct me otherwise, Apple iMac is not compatible with Pro Tools HD Native. PCIe equipped Apple MacPro or MacBook Pro via ExpressCard/34 slot and Magma ExpressCard to PCIe Expansion Chassis.

[nst7]

No matter what, you will need to hook it up to an HD card. Your only option possibly for an iMac will be the Sonett Echo Express, which is coming out soon, and it's a PCI-e to Thunderbolt chassis, which will work with the new Thunderbolt iMacs and MacBook pro's.

[doyoung123]

Cool so when the Sonett Echo Express is out then I can put the HD native card in there and use connect it to the imac through thunderbolt correct?

Thanks

[doyoung123]

also if you guys can help me with question 2 I'd appreciate it


2)How many things can I record simultaneously in real time with the omni ..4?, if I wish to record more inputs ...I guess it's possible right? and if so, what port do I use? What are some other interfaces besides or recommendable gear besides the 96, 192 i/o I could use to expand my inputs with the omni?

thanks guys

[nst7]

That's basically how it should work. There's a little more info about the Sonnet Echo Express here, near the bottom of the page:

http://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/


As for the HD Omni, you have up to 8 inputs and 8 outputs maximum on that unit. And there's only 4 analog ins, the other 4 inputs would have to be external digital converters that hook up by adat, spidf, or AES. For outputs, there are 8 analog outs. So basically with the right combination you could record 8 channels simultaneously with just that unit.

However, the HD Native card will take up to 64 inputs and 64 outputs. Through a combination of daisy-chaining and/or the second port on the card, you can add more interfaces. These can be any combination of the 192, the 96io, the new HD IO interfaces, etc.

Note that only one Omni can be hooked up to the system, but multiples of the other interfaces can be hooked up.

Also, there are a few 3rd party interfaces that will hook up to the HD native card, and Protools will see them as an Avid/Digi interface. These include the Lynx Aurora (with HD card option), the Apogee Symphony IO (no extra adapter needed), the Mytek 8 x 192 (with HD card option) and maybe a couple others that I can't think of right now.

There are a couple of now discontinued Apogee converters that previously have worked with the HD TDM systems, but I hear are not compatible with HD Native (and no further support or development will be happening). These include the AD16x and DA16x, and the Rosetta 800.

[Bill Denton]

Just a thought about the Sonett Echo Express/Thunderbolt combination...

Unless you are willing to have your system "down" for some period of time, I would recommend you not be an early adopter of this combination.

While I'm sure that everybody will do a reasonable amount of testing, it's no secret that Avid hardware can be a little "picky" about who it wants to play well with.

At this point, as far as I know, no consumer has yet actually plugged anything into a Thunderbolt port "in the wild" and had it work.

And, of course, the Sonett Echo Express is not even on the street yet.

Personally, I think putting forth the Sonett Echo Express/Thunderbolt solution to someone without a fair amount of experience with higher-end Avid hardware is doing them a disservice.

Wait until the Sonett Echo Express/Thunderbolt combination has been on the street for three months or so; let the experienced guys sort out the inevitable hardware/software/driver issues.

Once the bugs are sorted out, I think the Sonett Echo Express/Thunderbolt will be a "godsend" for the iMac and Mac notebook users, but probably not from "day one"...

[Jon_Atkinson]

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

Once the bugs are sorted out, I think the Sonett Echo Express/Thunderbolt will be a "godsend" for the iMac and Mac notebook users, but probably not from "day one"...

Good advice...

I should also point out that Thunderbolt is in no way the completed article.

Lightpeak when completely up to the intended spec (and using Light not copper wiring, as per the name) will run much faster than it's current form in the future.

Thunderbolt runs 2 simultaneous lanes with a maximum of 10 GB per sec. PCIe as used on the current Macs runs at approx 100Gb per sec in one direction.

Do with that information what you will, but it strikes me that an HD Native (or indeed a TDM card) in a Thunderbolt chassis will not have anything like the speed throughput when using in a PCIe slot in a Mac Pro.

A great technology for sure, and destined for good things... But not just yet IMO.

[doyoung123]

Thanks guys yeah I guess the imac connectivity with the HD native card through Sonet will give lots of bugs, and wouldn't want to risk that. I bet there will be a lot of more threads about it in the future.

Anyways thanks everyone