PTHD Users... What can i get out of an HD2?

[Steve Smith]

How much power can I expect for a HD2 rig with a 1.8 gig G5? I am considering an upgrade from a Mix+ rig wih 2 farms on a G4 933.. will I see a huge leap in power, or not so much?

I am not looking for a "weather or not PTHD sucks vs other software,recorders, etc thread, wea re talking Mix3 vs HD 2 here.. and If you could do a 30 - 40 track mix on a HD2 in the box ( except for verbs, they would be outboard)

Any takers?

[littledog]

Steve,

I can relate to your question because I did pretty much that same upgrade. I had a Mix+ system on a G4 with an additional vintage DSP farm card installed and two 888/24's, and upgraded to an HD2 system with the 192 interface keeping one of my 888/24's connected via the legacy port.

In TDM systems it doesn't matter all that much about host processor speed. Your CPU is basically drawing the screen and saving to disk. The only time you'll notice a really big difference in a faster CPU is doing things like sample-rate/bit rate conversions.

It seems your main concern is "power", so we'll leave aside other issues like better converters, summing, and clock.

When I was on my mix+ system (even with the extra farm card) I was constantly running out of DSP, and would have to print processed tracks to free up some. This was partly because of lack of horsepower, but was also largely due to the inferior system of having two kinds of DSP chips, only one of which could be used for certain types of plug-ins. So you'd have the frustrating situation where you had all kinds of completely available DSP, but couldn't add another reverb because it was the wrong kind that was available.

This never happens on the HD system, since all DSP is once again the same. Plus you've got more total DSP to use. So in practice, I almost never even come close to maxxing out my DSP after making the upgrade.

That's not to say that you can't do it, but it won't happen nearly as quickly as in the Mix+ system. Now, of course, with the HD Accell. systems you get way more DSP than even with the regular HD.

I haven't really done a study of track count. I never usually even get to 64 tracks, and have been able to do 40-50 tracks easily in both Mix+ and HD2. I think theat HD2 gives you even more tracks, at least in theory.

So in summary - yeah, I feel i gained a lot of power. I also gained some cool features like built-in ADAT digital interface which the Mix system doesn't have without additional hardware.

[K.C.]

Go for it Steve, you'll get that kind of track count without a problem at 24/96. I have an HD 2 system in a dual 1.25GHZ G4 and am very happy with it.

[tommyd]

Steve,
I can't really give you an accurate comparison to a mix rig, but I'm running an HD2 setup on a 2.6ghz p.c. I am always working at 96 /24 as it sounds better to me with the 192 I/O convertors (I have two) I'm mixing a project right now, and each song is from 32 to 40 tracks with ample amounts of plug-ins ( Sony E.Q.s, B.F. HD comps, etc.) I have yet to run out of horsepower. As LittleDog stated, your processor speed doesn't come into play that much on a TDM system, HOWEVER, with a substantial host processor you can also add RTAS plug-ins to the TDM plug-in count. THis has come in handy for me when I'm just wanting to add say a HPF to track, and save the TDM chips for dynamics or "critical" e.q.s , effects, etc. Bottom line, the HD2 has served me well thus far.
I'm in the area if you'd like to do some hands testing. As I said, p.c. platform, but you'd still get a pretty good idea of what to expect. pm me and let me know if you're interested,
Tommy

[Steve Smith]

i am 90% sure I am going to go HD2 and a 1.8gig G5 in a few weeks when i finish this current project. I went and checked out the g5s today at Microcenter... wow.. stupid fast. I knw that doesnt really translate into PT, but really a cool box. not sure I can get the bosses to swing for a dual 2 gig, but the 1,8 should rock none the less.

[Steve Smith]

Thank Erik, I appreciate the info.

Originally posted by bombguy
HD is basically 2 to 3x the MIX instance count, and HD ACCEL doubled that again.

Keep in mind that there are 9 chips on an HD card versus 6 on a MIX card, and that an ACCEL card is 2 HD chips and 7 ACCEL chips.

We have a chart on our website that shows instance counts from PCI to MIX to HD to HD ACCEL. It gives you an idea of the relative boost:

http://www.bombfactory.com/faq/faq.asp#TDMPERF

Quick counts across an entire card show the difference more clearly;

Bomb Factory 1176/LA-2A/LA-3A:

PCI: 4
MIX: 18
HD: 36
ACCEL: 64

Bomb Factory Pultec EQP-1A:

PCI: 4
MIX: 12
HD: 27
ACCEL: 48

Hope that puts it in perspective a bit.

--Erik

[The MPCist]

HD2 should be adequate. I just finished a mix with my PT HD3 system and only used HD2's worth of DSP.

[Alécio Costa]

HI!
Now we have different plugs again, exactly as in Mix farm/dsp farm days.
So, are the problems little dog described present again in your daily studio sessions?
Nice weekend

[littledog]

Originally posted by Alécio Costa
HI!
Now we have different plugs again, exactly as in Mix farm/dsp farm days.
So, are the problems little dog described present again in your daily studio sessions?
Nice weekend

Not for me. I don't have HD Accel. Probably eventually I'll be forced to, when nothing works anymore on HD2. But until then I'm doing perfectly fine with my present system, and can think of a lot of more useful ways to spend money.