Need advice for UAD system

[danickstr]

Hi I am interested in building a UAD system and am not in a big rush, so what are the recommendations? I will be using DP and a G5. I am curious if this system can be tweaked to run smoothly without the kind of crashes I get on PTHD3 when I use plug-ins and soft synths. I can't believe how crashy that system is. I don't care how many cards I need to get, I just want it to work or I won't keep it. I am tired of buying stuff that doesn't work. All input would be appreciated, but professional input would be especially helpful. I will use any Edit software that is recommended although right now I own Peak. This machine will not do anything other than DP, so there can be no reasons for multi-task/third-party error crashes, other what is inherent in OSX, DP and UAD drivers.

Will it be crashy or not?

Thanks in Advance.

 

[MPC]

If you will be using an older G5 with Panther things are running pretty well here. I use both Nuendo and DP, and things are just fine with UAD 1. I've have no UAD related crashes in DP with moderate use (maybe 15hrs. a week) and none with Nuendo with extensive use, about 40 hrs. a week. What Tiger will bring to the table is yet to be seen, UAD has yet to come out with a Tiger driver, which they say is forthcoming soon.

I can't say it crashes less than an HD3 rig, because (as long as I don't use softsynths) the HD rigs I've been on have been incredibly stable.

To be honest with you DP has been much more apt to crash when I introduce softsynths (other than MACH5) than Nuendo. Still, DP is more stable IMO and experience than PT, when you introduce softsynths. The only crashi-ness out of PTHD that seems really consistant from my experiences and the users I know are from softsynths...BFD, Stylus, Mach5, Trilogy...I just think PT is not quite there yet with any of the instrument stuff IMO. ALL other platforms seem to work much better IMO.

Others may have differing experiences, I'm curious to what they may say.

 

[brunjic]

I had to create a second user on my single G4/Jaguar to use DP 4.52, but I guess it had something to do with language preferences (audio was fine, but menus were blank). 4.12 crashed a lot, problems with PT coreaudio driver.

On Powerbook/Panther both Pro tools LE and DP 4.52 are working fine.

I dont use softsynths since I keep processing power for plugins, maybe that will change once when I buy G5.

But, reading above post, maybe the problem is not in the processor but in PT. While DP have no probs in running StylusRMX, PT crashes.

 

[danickstr]

thanks both for those completely on target replies. This is exactly the kind of info I am looking for. you are 100% right that PT is the soft synth nightmare, and for what it is, i am laughing or crying that it runs them so poorly. I could be happy with stylusrmx absolutely along with mach5. I konw this it totally off topic, but i was also looking at acid 5 and wondering what it was all about. I have been a DP buy since DP 1 and cant give it up, so if uad can come to the rescue, i am at least wating for tiger and a new G5 2.7. I will shoot my PT manuals and post the picture of a bullet hole in them. Am I bitter? well ya cause i have sunk so much time into that beast and it has never been anything other than a clunky jalopy with a huge v16 engine that stalls a lot.

I post this an every forum, but why doesnt someone make a linux box that runs uad cards and vst wrapper and maybe DP/MAS and Cubase would jump on board. apple will be their emena (enemy) now with their ownership of Logic. I like logic guys and thier lives will be better now that apple owns Logic. Logic will probably work so much better than anything else, and the os changes will keep the rest of the companies in second place. Only problem is that logic is the most unlogical program in the known musical universe. DP is so dreamy in comparison, but MAS is always a bit convoluted when merging with other stuff. If UAD made a linux os that didnt have to cowtow to Steve blojobs's whims, all of us would be better off. OSX is just a messed up version of unix, so why not? and i am not dissing macs since i am obviously getting one. linux is not pc or mac either, and it is small and efficient. what it needs is for the nerds to stop making it, and let a regular guy make it easy to install the kernel, and then uad makes the gui (oops it looks like OSX, well oh well) give it a browser and spec 3 video cards and two cpus and a bunch of uad cards. that would be a v16 engine in a formula 1 body. ok i will throw in 100k.

 

[brunjic]

I'll be buying new (\"low-end\") DP 2.0 since it's the fastest G5 with PCI not PCI-X, so UAD should have better performance. Buying new Magma is to expensive for me, eBay is complicated when you live in Croatia.

But I'm a kind of torn between PT and DP since some plugs are coming only in RTAS variety, most importantly SoundToys which I really like.

OTOH not having automatic plugin delay compensation proved to be nightmare on PT, especially with UAD.

I hope that PT LE 7 would include ADC, or that SoundToys will be ported to AU/VST.

Cubase is very popular here in Croatia, but Logic is gaining groung among Mac crowd. I heard many remarks that it just SOUNDS better than Cubase. I was under impression that all big four were \"created equal\" regarding quality of sound, but maybe I was wrong?

 

[danickstr]

boris..i looked at the sound toys website and it looks like a bunch of tweaker stuff. that kinda thing drive me nuts cause it is so \"engineery\", but if ya like it, ya outtta have it. I am more about making music with samples and synths and audio tracks, but i understand that some people like the weird effects. DP does have some stuff like that, but maybe not as comprehensive as the sound toys stuff. Croatia...ya that makes it tough i would bet.

regarding logic sonics, well some of the best engineers on forums couldn't tell a big difference between PT and a big console, so a difference betweenSX/ DP and logic seems even less likely to me. Of course there are so many other factors, but when I record something in DP on a host system, it sounds exactly the same to me as when i tracked it. when i sum in a bunch of tracks, if I solo any of them they dont sound any different than they do if i play them alone, so I am not sure. I have never heard artifacts in any of the big DAWs and they all have sample accurate playback, so I can't see how Logic would sound better. It's just a bunch of 0's and 1's being added together in real time, and sent out the DAC. No real room for voodoo to happen.

 

[danickstr]

wrong soundtoys site...

well i have to say that the included plugs from DP do 90% of what I saw...at least it's worth looking into before dropping all that cash on that site...no offense to the creator..it looks great, but if DP has most of it for free...

the nuance is the thing...for me to tweak a synth sound i don't need a 500.00 program. many nice midi plugs in DP can emulate the sound of tremolo or pan or delay, etc.

for audio, well, the palate in DP is awesome and for fx, they are all weird anyway, so oneor two flavors of weird is ok for me.