Quote:
Originally posted by Roland
I would agree with you on most of the above points. Sequoia is a good system and great for the money. In my view it still is a mid range product partially because of its price point, but also because unlike Sadie, Pyramix, and Sonic it doesn't have its own proprietry hardware. Argueably that limits it to the available 3rd party hardware. I myself have tried out the demo of it and agree that it is a good system.
That makes sense in your reasoning. I approached it in a different way, though... Dedicated hardware in the long run can actually be a detriment in terms of speed. In the PC world, CPUs have gotten so fast that they have presented a serious challenge to DSP chips. I like SADiE's implementation as the DAW is completely seperate from the rest of the computer. If the computer has a hiccup, the DAW will continue. It is the only rig on the market that is like this. Pyramix and Sonic both have dedicated hardware, but they rely on the computer for much of its work.
In the case of a hardware dependent system, what do you do when the hardware becomes obsolete? This is an issue in today's day and age. At least with a native system, you just have to replace a computer (and perhaps a sound card that is relatively inexpensive).
The 3rd party hardware thing was indeed quite a limit for a pro operation for quite some time. I ended up with a RME Hammerfall DSP interface here (which is ADAT only). To get my AES inputs, I ended up adding a RME ADI-8DD (which is a pretty awesome format converter). Now, though, there are great cards with whatever interface you want. On the AES end of things, Lynx Technologies and SEK'D have great 8 channel cards that can be cascaded for multiple inputs (both give you 192kHz capability). Sequoia will also work with a Mykerinos card using ASIO drivers, but it can't take advantage of the DSP, though...
As for implementation, that is very much in the eye of the beholder. Early on, I wasn't very in to SADiEs interface (I learned on Sonic and felt more comfortable with that). Now, I like it quite a bit, but don't have the $$ for such a rig. SADiE has a lot of great things going for it. I also seriously considered Pyramix. I played with one for a couple hours at AES this year and while I liked certain things about it, I felt it didn't work particularly well for my workflow. The weaknesses being particularly evident on the mix end of things. If I was only doing mastering, things may have been a bit different.
--Ben