Pro Tools 10.2 is very good news for HDX users.

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by Neil Pickles

Hi fellow HDX users out there in case you're wondering should I go to 10.2 here's some info. I've also posted this on the DUC but as there seem to be some people here who aren't on there, I thought it might be useful to someone. So here's what I posted.

Hi Guys

There seem to be big improvements in the DSP handling and plug in optimisations, in addition to the better fan control on the HDX card itself.

The card updates it's firmware and that takes about 5-8minutes. It worked faultlessly and the card now seems less annoying in the "noise from fan" department and I mean a lot of difference.

The firmware did take about4-8minutes to upload, but a big message appeared on screen before it did this saying that was going to happen. One of the improvements in 10.2 is listed as better fan control on the Avid site.

I had it running today and there's some nice temperatures in London 28c and my room isn't air conditioned and the fan noise was noticable in that there is a huge reduction even in these far from ideal temperature conditions.

Re the DSP allocation I did a quick test session just for fun so here's what I noticed.

At 44.1 24bit

Revibe II will now do 2 instances per chip up 1. (I wonder if they can get that to be even better ? 4 would be nice ! 2 is still only what you got on the old accel cards but still it's better that 1!)

Reverb One 5 instances per chip

D Verb 8 instances per chip

Its worth noting we have a new AAX DSP version amp sim now.

Sansamp 5 instances per chip 97%, but here's an interesting thing, when I added a mono EQ3 HDX slotted that onto the the remaining 3% of the sans amp chip and it changed into a plug in sharing chip.

Mod Delay III 6 instances per chip 91% (I'm pretty sure that's more than it was can anyone check on a 10.1 rig?) it also allowed me to add a stereo channel strip to the remainder of that chip i.e. more intelligent use of DSP really making sure chips get fully ustilized.

Just some other things I did for fun;

BF 76 39 instances per chip. I don't use it myself but that's a lot.

Channel Strip 29 instances per chip. Not bad for a very high quality gate/comp/eq with eq on the sidechain.

EQ3 7 Band 68 instances per chip. Way beyond what I used to get on my accel chips.

I also got a Facebook message from Sonnox in answer to a "where are the AAX DSP versions?" saying, now 10.2 is out they are beta testing and will be releasing their first EQ and Inflator plugs any week now. Now on my accel system that used just a bit more Accel DSP than the EQ3, but not much, so if the plug in optimization of Sonnox is anything like on the Avid EQ3 AAX DSP, that will be a lot of sonnox 7 bands per chip. (Fingers crossed!!)

I'm also wondering if any Softube users are seeing increases or maybe Softube could confirm if they are also improving optimization in a future release. So far they've released the biggest collection for AAX DSP by far and I know of a few early adopters who've taken the plunge with them because of it.

I get the feeling that allocation in general seems more efficient. I didn't make notes of "x" number of HEAT and "X" number of Channel strip but it might be higher on those too.

All tracks were mono except the FX plug ins which were in stereo FYI.

I haven't had a chance to see if it simply halves at 88.2/96khz but I would guess so, however, as the system is showing itself to be quite a lot different to HD that isn't a given.

When I get a chance I'll save session copy to 96K and find out.

So far so good.

I'm doing a 12 hour session 5.1 DVD project at the weekend so we'll see in a real session how this goes, but so far a very big

Very Cool Neil,

I aim to test out a 10.2 HDX equipped rig tomorrow!

Should be lotsa fun!!

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by Neil Pickles

...The card updates it's firmware and that takes about 5-8minutes. It worked faultlessly and the card now seems less annoying in the "noise from fan" department and I mean a lot of difference...

I can't afford an HD system for what little recording and mixing I do these days however I think the fact that Pro Tools software revisions update the new HD hardware is a really big deal.

[Neil Pickles]

Originally Posted by Doc Mixwell

Very Cool Neil,

I aim to test out a 10.2 HDX equipped rig tomorrow!

Should be lotsa fun!!

The 5.1 session went really well, totally stable no issues whatsoever apart from the lack of third party PI's running on DSP. In fact 10 has in general been very crash free for me. It does have bugs but nothing thats been show stopping for me.

I'm running stems through analogue outboard and re recording back into Pro Tools, but I like to have plug ins available on the destination tracks, which of course I can't if record enabled. I know you can insert a DSP and then a RTAS but the latency of this/lag really gets me down. I love the "snappyness" and speed of adjustments on DSP plug ins regardless of buffer size.

The impression I get reading between the lines is that 10.2 is an important release for TP PI developers and I for one can't wait to start getting TP PI's on these DSPs.

I demoed the softube stuff it's very impressive, the FET comp is great, but not what I want for this project. I really want precision as apposed to flavour EQs, things like Sonnox and GML. I'd love it also if Sonoris released a DSP version of their excellent mastering EQ. That'd make my day!!!

Well as an early adopter I knew I'd be on the bleeding edge so I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer, but with 10.2 things definitely improved.

[Neil Pickles]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

I can't afford an HD system for what little recording and mixing I do these days however I think the fact that Pro Tools software revisions update the new HD hardware is a really big deal.

It is after an all day session I can confirm the fan noise has dropped significantly since I installed new firmware in the hDX card with 10.2.

I'd say it's similar now to my HD3 in the G5, The pitch of the fan seems to have lowered as well (it must be slowed down) and that makes a big difference to the invasive nature of the noise on the original firmware of HDX.

[traumerei1838]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

I can't afford an HD system for what little recording and mixing I do these days however I think the fact that Pro Tools software revisions update the new HD hardware is a really big deal.

Blowing all your money on the ladies again?

[Joe Porto]

I can't get the Omni to output anything after the update to 10.2. I've tried resetting it, have deleted and recreated all i/o and busing...nothing. Meters show output activity, but no signal on DB-25, TRS, or headphone outs. HDnative card and Omni firmware up to date...and yes, I do have the mute button disengaged....

[Neil Pickles]

Originally Posted by Joe Porto

I can't get the Omni to output anything after the update to 10.2. I've tried resetting it, have deleted and recreated all i/o and busing...nothing. Meters show output activity, but no signal on DB-25, TRS, or headphone outs. HDnative card and Omni firmware up to date...and yes, I do have the mute button disengaged....

Hi my system is a HDX with 16x16 and as I stated no issues whatsoever, we also have a HDX on OMNI we updated and again, no issues.

I don't believe there was any firmware update to the omni either. I don't remember doing one only to the HDX cards.

It's worth going into the hardware set up of the omni and making sure the monitor page etc is correctly set up as well.

I have had our OMNI mute in the past also but generally changing, the hardware set up, re booting, checking the busses (as you've already done ) etc has sorted it.

Finally check that your card is properly seated and a real obvious one to miss has the digilink cable come loose or is not properly seated.

Failing that Avid tech support you got one ticket when you purchased your system. I haven't needed to use mine at all yet.

[Joe Porto]

Originally Posted by Neil Pickles

Hi my system is a HDX with 16x16 and as I stated no issues whatsoever, we also have a HDX on OMNI we updated and again, no issues.

I don't believe there was any firmware update to the omni either. I don't remember doing one only to the HDX cards.

It's worth going into the hardware set up of the omni and making sure the monitor page etc is correctly set up as well.

I have had our OMNI mute in the past also but generally changing, the hardware set up, re booting, checking the busses (as you've already done ) etc has sorted it.

Finally check that your card is properly seated and a real obvious one to miss has the digilink cable come loose or is not properly seated.

Failing that Avid tech support you got one ticket when you purchased your system. I haven't needed to use mine at all yet.

Thanks....

Yes, I did everything I was supposed too....except hard boot the computer. After the firmware update, I did a restart as prompted and had the problem. I decided to actually shut down the computer, then restart it, and now the Omni is working. Only issue now is that I'm getting a dropout about every 20 seconds when using Eleven, which never happened before.

No big deal, I'm just testing 10.2 w/ OS 10.7.4 on a secondary partition. I have OS 10.6.7 running 10.1 on my primary working partition.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by Neil Pickles

It is after an all day session I can confirm the fan noise has dropped significantly since I installed new firmware in the hDX card with 10.2.

I'd say it's similar now to my HD3 in the G5, The pitch of the fan seems to have lowered as well (it must be slowed down) and that makes a big difference to the invasive nature of the noise on the original firmware of HDX.

this is great news!

[Sino]

Just a question, I heard you speaking about fan..

I've installed my HDX card in the 2nd slot (just like avid said) near to the ATi Radeon..
Should I move up to the 3rd or 4th slot?