How powerful is the actual DSP on Carbon?

[TNM]

I can't believe I keep forgetting to ask that.

I think there's 8 chips, yes? Is there any kind of chart that gives dsp usage of AAX DSP plugins? I am wondering how far 8 DSP can actually get me, whether I should expect more than input monitoring only, i.e. if there might be some power left over for DSP effects in the mix.

If anyone can help in this regard, do let me know! Cheers

[Darryl Ramm]

Carbon has 8 DSP processor chips vs 18 on a HDX

There is no table of DSP plugin usage that I know of, something others have very reasonably wanted as well. You can google DUC (site:duc.avid.com qualifier in google) for folks talking about different scenarios of what they can run on Carbon.

[smurfyou]

I would plan for using native plugins during mix. No real reason to rely on DSP there.

Unless you mean during tracking what kind of leftover resources you'll have?

[dominicperry]

There's no good reason to use the DSP during mixing. That's not what it's there for. The right question is whether there is enough DSP for tracking a lot of channels with lots of plugins at high sample rates. The answer is no. So the compromise you will have to make is that you might have to use less DSP-intensive plugins (like Avid's channel strip) if you want to track 24 channels at 96KHz.

Dominic

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by TNM

I can't believe I keep forgetting to ask that.

I think there's 8 chips, yes? Is there any kind of chart that gives dsp usage of AAX DSP plugins? I am wondering how far 8 DSP can actually get me, whether I should expect more than input monitoring only, i.e. if there might be some power left over for DSP effects in the mix.

If anyone can help in this regard, do let me know! Cheers

So here is a video I did more or less about that subject.
Now understand this is just a very basic quick user test I did when I first got carbon and not real scientific or comprehensive. BUT may give you some preliminary notion of what it can do with 50 tracks ( I usually have no more than 20 tracks ) but decided to just experiment with 50 and some basic Avid bundled AAX DSP plugins.
And I show the System Usage window while adding plugins so you can get an idea of what is happening. I am simply speculating on some things and NOTE there is no audio on the tracks that would be being processed so keep that in mind.

https://youtu.be/0Qz2lcE9I0Y?feature=shared

[LDS]

Carbon has a pretty mediocre amount of DSP in it. If you're become accustom to expanded HDX systems over the last decade, be aware that Carbon is quite a bit different in application. It leans more heavily on very targeted DSP usage through the hybrid engine to side step any latency you *might* be experiencing with native sample buffers.

The AAX-DSP format seems too well optimised to allow for a UAD style instance chart. The first AAX-DSP instance of a plugin always seems to use an alarmingly higher portion of a DSP chip than any subsequent instance that gets added. AAX-DSP usage isn't predictably linear like UAD.

To toss some vague numbers around in a 48kHz session. 6 instances of EL Arousor will use 1 whole DSP chip. 8 instances of bx_console SSL 4k G will use a whole chip. Similarly to HDX, DSP is also required for routing. In simple sessions, 1 chip will be used for the DSP mixer. If you rely on more complex routing in your template, the DSP mixer might take up as many as 3 DSP chips...

Carbon really isn't a powerful DSP system in the slightest. Its power comes from the way it lets you tip-toe around whatever native clusterf&$k you might have going on that ruins your chances of running low native sample buffers.

[tetonica]

Originally Posted by TNM

I can't believe I keep forgetting to ask that.

I think there's 8 chips, yes? Is there any kind of chart that gives dsp usage of AAX DSP plugins? I am wondering how far 8 DSP can actually get me, whether I should expect more than input monitoring only, i.e. if there might be some power left over for DSP effects in the mix.

If anyone can help in this regard, do let me know! Cheers

For "tracking" the DSP power of Carbon is simply perfect. Won't have the capacity for multi-tracking an orchestra (leave that to full HDX systems), but for a small band you can multitrack the drums, bass, a couple of guitars, two mics for vocals and a couple of synths without issues. We jam with Carbon, no latency, and when we like what we're playing, we just start recording. (NOTE: we use zero virtual instruments)

For "mixing" just use native, no need for HDX DSPs. If there's need to punch-in another vocal or another guitar, then Carbon HDX DSPs will be used just for the punch-in and the rest will stay on native.

For tracking or even rehearsing, Carbon HDX DSPs are just amazing!