Allenstein OctaPC(8-core) and Quadzilla(4-core) *OS Update

[rpowell]

Shane, on the hybrid system you are using, are you using HD software as well as HD plugins?

I have an 002r and PT7.1 with the Music Prod Expansion to 48 tracks. All of my plugs are RTAS LE versions. If I wanted to go to your hybrid system, what would be involved (besides buying a core card)?

thanks

MP toolkit is redundant if you go to HD1. You can use all your RTAS plugs in HD, but you will also have the option of using TDM plugs in an HD system, with the limitation that a few plugs will only work on Accel cards (in which case you would need at least an HD2 system with an HD core and an Accel expansion card). You'd also need an interface such as 96 i/o, 192 i/o, or one of the Apogee converters with the x-card to take full advantage of the low latency factor while tracking, or mixing with external boxes.

I suppose you could omit the interface, continue to track with the 002r if you wanted to, and transfer your session to HD for mixing; but you really wouldn't get the full advantage of the HD system in this mode.

I'm sure Shan will chime in here with more insight.

RP

[Shan]

Shane, on the hybrid system you are using, are you using HD software as well as HD plugins?

You will have to use PT 7 for HD to go hybrid. As far as plug-ins go, I'm 100% RTAS. I still consider this a native system for the most part and feel this is the future of PT for awhile. You will also have a few extra TDM DSP chips for any TDM only plug-ins you may want to use. You could use these on the aux returns such as your verbs and delays etc or something like that if you want to pay those TDM plug-in prices. Another bonus is all the upgrading you can add if one needed to expand the system. A core card can handle 32 I/O which is way more than I would ever use for quite some time. You also have a great selection of I/O from Digi and others that you can use. Another cool thing is you can use the UAD-1 or PoCo cards with PDC if you really like those plug-ins. 8 UAD-1 cards for the price of 1 Accel card isnt to shabby. You can really expand this system with all types of budgets from small to large.

There arent many differences between the HD and LE software wise these days. I'm almost certain that will change greatly with the release of 7.2. But the handful of HD only software things can come in handy now and then. A really cool feature is that any RTAS plug-in that clips, will turn red so you will know. That one is VERY cool and handy.

I have an 002r and PT7.1 with the Music Prod Expansion to 48 tracks. All of my plugs are RTAS LE versions. If I wanted to go to your hybrid system, what would be involved (besides buying a core card)?

The Tyan Quad does HD 1 and LE perfectly. You can keep and use ALL your RTAS plug-ins. Plus, you no longer have to pay double the price for TDM plugs.

If you buy it used you can get an HD 1 rig with a 96I/O going for around $5000-$6000. That's a pretty good mid level system if you ask me. I feel it's the mid level system that many of us have been begging for from Digi. If Digi sold this at that price they would probably have alot of HD 1 sales. But that's ok, it all works the same whether it's new or used.

There are a few things I should mention though, the lowest H/W buffer you can use in HD is 128, unlike the 64 in LE, which the Quad does very well. This only really effects softsynths and isnt to big of a deal. Also, all your RTAS plug-ins will be bypassed in HD when you hit record.(On the recording track only) To me this is no big deal. I never record with effects on. But if you must do something like this, just use TDM plugs for that purpose. I'm sure as more guys go the hybrid route we can get some of these things changed like the H/W buffer setting etc.

Most guys will find that HD 1 and below with a quad(or higher) is more than you'll need for music production. Many of my productions are massive but the HD core and quad can handle it all.

I'm up to about 85 tracks on this new production I'm working on. Not a problem. And I can also tell you that if we had true 96 mono tracks in LE, it would still be not a problem on the Quads.

Shane

[filosofem]

Shane

Shoot me an email

Shot.




filosofem

[cfrantow]

Full agreement here. Quadzillas rule regardless of the OS (or should I say despite the OS? )

Kris: you can get away with 1 stick of ram *per CPU socket*. There are a few quads on this board that use one dimm per side, which means both physical CPU's can only access the ram at single-data-rate (SDR) speeds. It takes a pair per socket to get double-data-rate (DDR).

In the case of the Asus K8N-DL you can only get DDR to CPU2 if you've got four dimms for CPU1 and two for CPU2. Don't ask me why, but trust me, I found that out the hard way. My quad still has 4x 1GB, and only one GB is recognized for CPU2 at SDR, the other one is ignored. You need 6x 512MB dimms for full ram implementation in XP on this mofo mobo.

Once Vista is out (and supported by Digi) I'll pop in another 2x 1GB for 6GB DDR

That's a bit unfortunate, oh well, I'll take your word for it, 6x 512 dimms it is.

How loud is your quad with that silverstone case, and I thought the case only fit ATX mobos?

[Shan]

That's a bit unfortunate, oh well, I'll take your word for it, 6x 512 dimms it is.

How loud is your quad with that silverstone case, and I thought the case only fit ATX mobos?

[/QUOTE]

If you are going to try and duplicate 3J's results, then I would copy his system to the letter, right down to the same bios version, settings, drivers etc.

Shane

[Shan]

Ok everyone, many of the quad users actually communicate via email so not everything gets posted in this thread.

There are two DUC members who are going to build 3J's system to the exact spec. One uses an Mbox and the other uses a 002. So 3J, we even need to go as far as using the same bios, bios tweaks and drivers etc to make sure nothing is different. If we cant duplicate the 3J results with the Mbox and 002, then a few of us will pool our money together to get the same Maudio hardware and send it to the 2 guys with the same system. When we are through with testing we will probably give the Maudio hardware away as a prize on the forum or something.

So stay tuned. And 3J, we'll need a hand in a few areas.

Shane

[Shan]

I will soon be taking the plunge within the next couple weeks. Shan, this thread is truly inspiring.

I am getting a 3JDemon-similar system, and I calculuted up the cost of the thing, and it was pretty hefty, I just had a few questions:

1) Anyone know a mediocre E-ATX case, because I can only find ones for a couple hundred bucks.

2) Where's a good place to buy the gear near Toronto? The first sites that come to mind are www.tigerdirect.ca, www.ncix.com, www.canadacomputers.com

cfrantow, shoot me an email. You dont have one posted in your profile. You and Filo are going to be guinea pigs for some testing on the 3J system.

Shane

[rocketeer]

I'm really waiting for this- I've been holding off on the quad for a variety of reasons, but I really want to see if the M-Audio drivers are the root of that incredible performance. Either way, I already have the 002, but I could always get an Audiophile 192 or something for mixing (like the Quad with an 002 wouldn't be enough!! Hahahaha, I'm a moron).

I may just get the mobo with one dual core for now and upgrade when I've got more of a ahem... cash flow.lol I can do that right?

You should've seen my students' faces when I brought this up to them... we may have some more Quads on the way...:)

you guys rock

rocketeer

[Greg M]

I know this is the quad thread, but I thought some here might like to know about the D-Verb test with PTLE 7.1 and PTMP 7.1 on the same machine with the Music Production Toolkit.

I have an 002rack and an Audiophile 192 installed on my computer. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, ASUS A8N-E Mobo, 2 gig ram, SATA system drive, IDE audio drives - It's pretty much the Allenstien machine.

I'm not sure I did the D-Verb test per the standard, but I did it the same way with both LE and MP. 5 D-Verbs per track just as they come up on selecting the insert (no adjustments). I used a mono audio track so the D-Verb had something to work on. I duplicated this first track until I ran out of CPU. HW buffer was at 1024, session was 24 bit, 44,100 Hz. I got 75 D-Verbs before I hit the red with both systems.

There really didn't seem to be much difference performance-wise. I loaded a fairly heavy PTLE session into MP to compare CPU usage (the session was at 24 bit 48,000 Hz). Both PTLE and MP used about 75% CPU on this session.

There was a difference sonically. The AP192 definitely had more high end. When I heard it, my first inclination was to reach for an EQ and start to cut at about 5 kHz and up. This can only be due to the AP192 converters since the AP192 output is routed through the same monitors as the 002rack. I'll have to bounce and burn the session and listen to it an a few other playback systems to see which one seems more accurate. I will try the Null Test within the next few days to see if MP nulls better or worse than LE.

Maybe quads are different, but the software seems to perform nearly identically on my system.

Thanks,
Greg

[JCBigler]

Okay, I'm so damn close to building a new ProTools workstation I can taste it.

Shan, you mentioned some time ago that you were planning on testing your quad set up with just one Opteron CPU. Have you had a chance to do this yet?

I'm looking at either a regular AMD64 X2, or a one CPU Opteron 270 (I'm going to buy through Newegg, but they don't have the 265). I can't afford the whole quad set-up just yet, but will likely be able to get the second CPU and RAM in August/September.

I'd really like to see a performance test of the Athlon 64 4400+ X2, vs. one Opteron 270.