Pro Tools Mix with PPC G5 (PCI) any ideas how?

[dynamike]

Okay I just won the auction for a 2.0DP G5 with pci slots and the radeon 9600 video card. From my research I can't get a more compatible G5 for my mix system.

I also have a 7 slot expansion chassis with 2 core cards, 2 mix cards and 2 uad-1 cards.

If anyone actually cares about all this stuff I can keep this thread going. Or I may post back with my insolvable issues - fingers crossed.
Worst case, I run only 3 mix cards - and ditch the uad and last farm card. I recently got a Distressor that I LOVE so my dsp needs are greatly reduced



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[boomboy]

You should be fine with the expansion chassis. I ran my Mix set up - 1 core, 4 cards and 2 SampleCell TDM cards in a 13 slot chassis and, when I did update to HD Accel, ran an Accel 3 + HD 4 card system in the same chassis also from a dual G5.

[dynamike]

Cool. Mine is a Magma and Digi approved, but from what I recall it is an older (slower) bus speed chassis. I'm not sure how that is affected by the G5 though.

Any advice on which slot to put it in? Or is it still the first slot that is recommended?


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[boomboy]

Yes, my chassis is Digidesign branded but with Magma internals. I believe I connected it to the first slot of the G5.

The only problem I recall was the occasional but regular appearance of a particular DAE error which was linked to use of the chassis and my particular G5 (dual 2.7GHz PPC). The error, (can't remember the number) would appear only on boot up but was usually remedied by trashing the ProTools prefs. If you do find that you are effected by this error I suggest installing a copy of the Pro Tools Prefs & Database Helper available here

[dynamike]

Already using that prefs trasher, thanks

I'll post my results as i go.


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[RoundBadge]

Do you guys know how I can use my older Protools Pci[G5] HDaccel cards with a newer Intel mac?
which chassis would work?
I need to upgrade to a newer tower but don't want to do the expensive HD card exhange
thanks in advance.

[dynamike]

I'll just trade trade my chassis, mix cards, and converter for your accel cards

That should work.

Okay, ignore me… I'm of no help in your situation. Sorry.


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[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by RoundBadge

Do you guys know how I can use my older Protools Pci[G5] HDaccel cards with a newer Intel mac?
which chassis would work?
I need to upgrade to a newer tower but don't want to do the expensive HD card exhange
thanks in advance.

Ah found the Magma .

[dynamike]

YES!!!!

It took me a minute to get my OS/Pro Tools drive cloned to a disk image and onto the G5 (which shipped with Tigers so i couldn't just install from a disc).
But once i got it going it was instant pleasure. No tweaks, no nothing. It just works. Only thing plugged into it is my iLok and my keyboard/mouse.

I ran the regular trasher stuff from that app, and repaired permissions before i tried to run PT too.

The only test i did so far was making a little change on a mix i did earlier today (on the G4) and bouncing that mix. Everything went fine.

I did some scroll wheel testing and it was everything i hoped for. Screen redraws were WAAAYYYY faster. Everything in general was a little zippier.

I'll post more after i try some real sessions.

G5 FTW!

[dynamike]

Btw- I have an older 7 slot magma (not digi stamped) chassis in the first slot after the video card. The chassis has 2 core cards, 1 farm card and 2 UAD-1 cards. I have 1 more farm card I just got that I haven't put in yet too.


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[menno1000]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for the g5 upgrade as well.
But I'm not sure you really need a pci only machine. In some of the replies people report about flawless working rigs on pci-x machine's.

So i want find out if it really is necessary to get a pci machine? Or is a PCI-x machine fine as well after all?

It makes it easier, also keeping in mind to upgrade to a used pci x hd system in some kind of future.

Thanks

Menno

[dynamike]

Some people I spoke with had pci x machines working but they said it required a few more 'tweaks' to get it stable.

I've been getting a few pci errors already. First was from a FireWire drive, the others were gremlins I think. No idea what caused them.
Possibly the Magma.

I'm scared to try my USB midi controller and my Korg Triton for fear of pci troubles! Maybe I'll ditch the expansion chassis if it keeps troubling me.


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[nato7]

Hey Dynamike.

How's everything going with the G5 Mix setup? Anything new to report? I'm tempted to give this a try so any info you can give is helpful.

Nate

[dynamike]

So far so good. I had a mix already finished with 50-60 tracks loaded with plugins, I fired it up to tweak a setting and rebounced a couple times with no problems.

I had a full on crash/quit of pt when I had a FireWire 800 external drive plugged in. I already knew not to leave my flash drive in while running pt's - add that too the list. It seams anything plugged in besides the keyboard/mouse and iLok will cause pci bus errors. It's nothing dangerous, but it stops pt during playback and once mid record for me.

I still haven't tried my Korg Triton keyboard yet. That's kind of an important one too.

Other than that I am LOVING the speed boost, redraw quickness, and quiet/cool running of the G5. Even compared to my DP G4 MDD with a verax silencing/cooling kit.

From all my research the model I got is the most compatible with mix systems without crazy tweaks. It's the 2.0 Dual G5 PCI with the Radeon card, not the NVidia.

Honestly the hardest part was cloning/restoring my Panther/Pro Tools drive was the most difficult part. I'm having wifi issues and apparently need some T Antenna fro Apple. That's annoying.

Also I didn't realize G5's came with SATA drives too. That's a nice speed boost too. I picked up a 1TB drive for cheap to use as my audio drive.

Keep the post going if you go for it.

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[billwarner]

So you are running the UAD-1s in the same chassis as the Digi hardware? I've read that that is not advised for stability reasons. Seems that I read all the chassis should contain is Digi stuff. Glad you have it working.

[dynamike]

Yes 2 uad-1 cards. In the chassis after 2 core and 1 farm card. Since I got my Distressor I never use my uad plugs though. Maybe I'll take them out and see what happens.


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[nato7]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to be giving this a try in the next week or so. I just picked up a Dual 1.8 with PCI slots so I should be able to install Panther directly. IF it works out I plan on ditching the G4 Quicksilver running PT 5.1.3 or whatever the last version was on OS9. Yes, I still run OS9. I'll keep you informed of my results.

Thanks again!
Nate

[dynamike]

Ahh OS9, the plugs… all those darn plugs. I finally went legit and stepped up to the still ancient 6.4. It felt good

My Dual 1.8pci (early 2005) shipped with Tiger so I had to do the cloning and all that. Either way it wasn't too bad.


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[RopTerzett]

hi,
i´m the one with the pci-x machine dynamike mentions. if you´ll go the pci-x direction, you should know something about chud tools. without that you run into pci bus spikes. the dual 2.7 G5 plus magma expander is an exception an should run fine without chud tools installed.
Some Firewire800 bridge chips wont run with G5 and 10.3.9. Nothing to do with PT. My FW800 drive read files fine under 10.3.9 but i cant write onto the disk. Under 10.4 its doing the job well. sounds weird? indeed!

dynamike: i´ll send you a PM bout midi when i´m at home again.

rop

[dynamike]

Originally Posted by RodrigUeZ

Some Firewire800 bridge chips wont run with G5 and 10.3.9. Nothing to do with PT. My FW800 drive read files fine under 10.3.9 but i cant write onto the disk.

rop

My FW800 external drive reads and writes fine as long as it's not pro tools related. I get pci spikes/errors if I run pt with it plugged in. Not even recording to that drive either. I may have mentioned that in an earlier post, not sure.

Sent from my iPod touch using Gearslutz

[RopTerzett]

hi guys,
dynamike asked for usb- midi solution. i coundn´t get usb midi interfaces to work correctly. midi notes hang sometimes and if you go for a little more traffic the pci bus error kicks in.
well, my solution was a stealth serial port from geethree. it substitutes the internal modem card and gives you a serial port for your old midi interface. i used two mtp´s. worked great.

[dynamike]

Yes, the serial port. Someone else mentioned this to me.

The best solution to my whole situation is actually quite different.

I'm switching to Reaper.

[Filmusic]

hi - as far as a safe bet - am i correct in stating that all g5 1.8duals will run a mix system

[dynamike]

People have gotten just about all the older G5's to work. It just depends on your needs and how much tweaking you wanna do. Read page 11 or the whole thread to see what you're getting into.


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[Filmusic]

well, ha ha, i think i'll stay in the pc world, got to love old xp pro...10 years strong and still going on

any suggestions on a windows box that would fit the bill - i've been watching ibm intellistations on ebay