Going pro tools questions

[mahoobley]

Sorry if these are issues that have come up in the past again and again - I did do a search of past messages which did answer a few of my questions, but I still have a few issues outstanding and wondered if anyone can help.

Basically im a student who mainly uses cubase but wants to learn how to use PT as its a pretty essential thing to know how to use, and our access to pro tools gear at uni is inadequate to say the least. So I was thinking of getting a second hand 001 and teaching myself.

My issues thus unsolved are:

- My motherboard - I have an ALi chipset ASUS A7A266. PT support says this is incompatable, but then last time i checked the most recent AMD-based motherboard chipset they said worked is the KT133A. Does this mean its just unsupported because they havent tried it out yet, and the issue of incompatable boards is a remnant from the bad old days of certain soundcards not working with certain boards, or will it definitely not work?

- Windows XP - I use windows XP and im getting mixed messages about PTs effectiveness and reliability on this platform. Anyone care to straighten me out?

- VST Wrappers - last time i checked there were no pc vst wrappers but plenty on the mac as for some reason digidesign wont let 3rd parties develop them for the PC (but will happily let them for the mac). Has this changed? I have a few expensive VST plugins and VSTi that I dont want to render redundant just yet. Or otherwise...

- ASIO Drivers - i'll still probably want to use cubase (or maybe nuendo 2 when it comes out) from time to time if PT doesnt offer me all the features I need (hence the previous question about vst wrappers). How are people getting on using a 001 with the asio drivers?

Thats all i need to know for now, I do hope i'm not asking too much or going over well treaded ground, and thanks in advance for helping me out!

[mjames08]

Originally posted by mahoobley:

- Windows XP - I use windows XP and im getting mixed messages about PTs effectiveness and reliability on this platform. Anyone care to straighten me out?

-

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I have never had a problem with XP and PTle. It actually works when you install it [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I had several problems with Windows 98 but nothing with XP, besides a hard drive failure that had nothing to do with XP. In my opinion, PTle in XP is by far the most stable audio program I have used.

[Bastiaan]

My motherboard - I have an ALi chipset ASUS A7A266. PT support says this is incompatable, but then last time i checked the most recent AMD-based motherboard chipset they said worked is the KT133A. Does this mean its just unsupported because they havent tried it out yet, and the issue of incompatable boards is a remnant from the bad old days of certain soundcards not working with certain boards, or will it definitely not work?

I would not go with the ALI-chipset. It may work, but with every problem you encounter everyone will say: change the mobo. So you better do that now. Maybe thats all you ahve to change

Windows XP - I use windows XP and im getting mixed messages about PTs effectiveness and reliability on this platform. Anyone care to straighten me out?

pt runs stable and sweet on winXP. It indeeds uses a little bit more resources as win98, but the added stability and tracks count more IMHO

VST Wrappers - last time i checked there were no pc vst wrappers but plenty on the mac as for some reason digidesign wont let 3rd parties develop them for the PC (but will happily let them for the mac). Has this changed? I have a few expensive VST plugins and VSTi that I dont want to render redundant just yet. Or otherwise...

the reason there are a lot of plugins for the mac and fewer for the pc is mostly due to the fact that a widely used programming-language for the plugins (max dsp and cycle '74)is only available for the mac. They are porting it over to pc, but that will still take some time. Be on the lookout. Also, digidesign announced rewire 2 support for ptle 6.0, and it will be free. So maybe your stuff can run standalone with rewire....

ASIO Drivers - i'll still probably want to use cubase (or maybe nuendo 2 when it comes out) from time to time if PT doesnt offer me all the features I need (hence the previous question about vst wrappers). How are people getting on using a 001 with the asio drivers?

I myself wasnt even able to install them, but i've seen happy reports from other users.

[Bastiaan]

You could also look into the mbox, or even a second hand amIII card. These will all give you the ability to run ptle up to the latest version (ptle 5.3.1 on winXP). The downside is that the mbox only has 2 channels in/out and the mbox only 4. But it could very well be hat this is not a real problem for you if you use RTAS-softsynths...

The upgrade will cost you $75 max...i believe

[Brad Ferguson]

I've got ASIO working fine on my system. I'm using Nuendo, and it works without any glitches at all

[mahoobley]

Thanks for the tips - I guess my only immediate problem would be my motherboard. I've been thinking of upgrading it anyway so I guess if it doesnt work on my existing board then would be the time to upgrade.

One final question if I may - being a poor student, i'll probably be trying to get my 001 second hand - i've seen ads for second hand 001s usually between £350-450 (about $500-600). Should I find out which version of PTLE this includes? I'm not entirely sure how the upgrade process works but I want to make sure im able to get the latest version at as little cost as possible and be able to upgrade to v6 when it comes out. Any tips?