MORE POWER! No Latency! Bring it on!

[stakeoutstudios]

I must admit that despite owning four UAD cards in an SBS PCI chassis on a dual G5 2.7 I've decided to hold off buying any new plugins.

I also have two powercore MK1s

the new Neve compressor looks, and sounds wonderful I don't doubt it for a minute - but I don't actually have enough power to be free with the plugins I want to use in my sessions as it is!

My G5 is pretty much idling away not doing much at mixdown. I am getting the odd CPU overload when I get close to maxing the cards which no doubt is something to do with Pro Tools LE7 and the maxing of the PCI buss. Or worse, the crappy USB Mbox 2 when combined with a command 8! The firewire 002 system downstairs seems to fare better.

I'm getting really annoyed with not being able to use my plugins while tracking thanks to the stupid latency issues. I end up using Oxford EQs or Digi 7band EQs because they don't incur latency and are convenient to set things up as you go. They just don't sound as good.

I'm really hunting for good native plugins now, but really I would kill to have native zero latency versions of the UA plugins. I jump through so many hoops to use them, because they sound amazing.

IF a new hardware UAD2 is introduced (which I actually hope not - get a mac pro, go native!) Then I really hope they find a way with the new PCI express buss to make sure they incur no plugin latency!!

Additionally, this running four cards and having no power is a bit silly. When the card was introduced it was quite impressive, but with the introduction of four and eight core machines we'd better see a monster powerhorse - or better yet at least the option to run plugins native as well. Have a card as a dongle!! that I don't care about. I WILL buy the native versions. I'm sure UA can make a fullproof copy protect, as they have with the UAD1.

One card with the power of 24 UAD1s would only be a starting point.... otherwise it will be obselete so fast. Think how much CPU these new plugins are using!!

Jason

 

[Trace]

Many times we think of the DSP in our systems only with respect to PCI cards and FW Rackmount DSP. I added a yamaha Mixer Controller the O1X to my system to augment my DSP and it has a lot of power under the hood. I can monitor with FX on input with near zero latency and I must say that the only problem I have is that my system is a G5 with the AMD 8131 and when I open an instance of Multiband Limiter it will cause my O1X to lose contact with the system. It's annoying as heck, but obviously I only use the Limiter on mixdown, but still it's annoying. I just reconnect via software but when I do it doesn't have the Controller features only the Audio.

Now the entire point of me brining this up is that a Digital mixer is a very good way to add the needed DSP you're looking for to your system. My works great with the exception of the above combination. Other than that I love working this way. The O1X is actually quite affordable. I believe it's about $1,000.00 US at this point. There are other digital mixers of course, but you get the idea. Even tho you have the other imput devices for your Pro Tools setup, you can still get a small Digital Mixer and use it as a stand alone addition to your setup for the FX.

TRACE

 

[NEWRIGEL]

I must admit that despite owning four UAD cards in an SBS PCI chassis on a dual G5 2.7 I've decided to hold off buying any new plugins.

I also have two powercore MK1s

the new Neve compressor looks, and sounds wonderful I don't doubt it for a minute - but I don't actually have enough power to be free with the plugins I want to use in my sessions as it is!

My G5 is pretty much idling away not doing much at mixdown. I am getting the odd CPU overload when I get close to maxing the cards which no doubt is something to do with Pro Tools LE7 and the maxing of the PCI buss. Or worse, the crappy USB Mbox 2 when combined with a command 8! The firewire 002 system downstairs seems to fare better.

I'm getting really annoyed with not being able to use my plugins while tracking thanks to the stupid latency issues. I end up using Oxford EQs or Digi 7band EQs because they don't incur latency and are convenient to set things up as you go. They just don't sound as good.

I'm really hunting for good native plugins now, but really I would kill to have native zero latency versions of the UA plugins. I jump through so many hoops to use them, because they sound amazing.

IF a new hardware UAD2 is introduced (which I actually hope not - get a mac pro, go native!) Then I really hope they find a way with the new PCI express buss to make sure they incur no plugin latency!!

Additionally, this running four cards and having no power is a bit silly. When the card was introduced it was quite impressive, but with the introduction of four and eight core machines we'd better see a monster powerhorse - or better yet at least the option to run plugins native as well. Have a card as a dongle!! that I don't care about. I WILL buy the native versions. I'm sure UA can make a fullproof copy protect, as they have with the UAD1.

One card with the power of 24 UAD1s would only be a starting point.... otherwise it will be obselete so fast. Think how much CPU these new plugins are using!!

Jason

As the computers get faster UA will have to do something because native systems will definitely have the horsepower to drive a really DSP intensive session (if the application developers utilize the multi core architecture). Could this be the end of PRO TOOLS HD3 Accel as we know it? Seems inevitable because why rake out the $$ for the same performance.

 

[JuergenW]

I'm really hunting for good native plugins now, but really I would kill to have native zero latency versions of the UA plugins. I jump through so many hoops to use them, because they sound amazing.
Jason

Jason, I had the same problem at home - because having a lot of
old analog synths here, which I want to tweak and EQ while composing...

To me, I save dynamics mostly for mixdown - but having good EQ while tracking (of course non-destructive) is essential.

Check out Eliosounds AirEq: it´s amazing good and nearly no latency issues! http://www.eliosound.com/aireq

 

[Akis]

Check out Eliosounds AirEq: it´s amazing good and nearly no latency issues! http://www.eliosound.com/aireq

Amazing indeed and there's a group buy taking place as we speak.