Pro Tools Recording Setup Suggestions

[heychandler]

Obviously I was not saying that other software is not capable of making good music. I was simply stating that if you wanted to record a project, and then carry that project to a large studio, 99 out of 100 times that studio is using ProTools and not some other software package.
i disagree that any other recording software can give the same results as ProTools.
I do several large live recordings every year. I track the whole thing with hard disk recorders and dump it into protools. I then edit for a few weeks before I go into the studio for mixing. When we go to the studio we carry a $200 firewire drive with our project on it and open it right up on the SSL console. I am very meticulous about mixing music and have tried almost every recording software out there (digital performer, logic, nuendo and several others). None have given me the results that I have acheived using ProTools.

[Gracetech]

The fact that Digi doesn't officially support raids makes me laugh everytime.

I mean do you think the recording software can look at where it's recording media and say "oh no their are a bunch of drives grouped together we shouldn't go over there.

The only thing that needs to support raids is the OS. The only thing you need to worry about with your Audio application is that the throughput is high enough to cover the multiple streams of data and still have about 30% head room. I myself have striped WD Raptors to keep up with the amount of data streams i use and have plenty of head room. I tried splitting over multiple drives like i could before but it was way to much work to keep it organized with the amount of data being moved every week.

Oh and if you think the PT HD software actually cost alot of money you are wrong. It's actually cheaper than Nuendo. The deal is the DSP cards are what cost the big change$$. In this world of up to 12+ core machines i find DSP a waste unless you need to process at or close as possible to real time. For my Studio purposes i would recommend Nuendo over ProTools HD but that's only becuase of the final cost. When you look at the tool set between the two you will find that they are pretty evenly matched with a few exceptions. You would also be crazy if you could tell the difference between a project that was edited on Nuendo vs ProTools HD. If you have endless funds go ahead and get an HD system but for me(poor broke me) i will go with Nuendo.

crt

[pdc]

The FACTS are, Digi does not allow the use of local OS based RAID volumes.
This is a statement from tech support:

"We never intentionally 'crippled' RAID - Pro Tools was initially developed at a time when RAID wasn't even around and standard OS disk handling was abysmal, so we had to write drivers that handled disk tasks directly and they just happen to not work very well with RAID volumes.

Due to how tightly integrated those drivers are, it would be a pretty significant engineering effort to decouple them so that RAID arrays could be used. It's probably on our list of 'things to do' somewhere, but probably below several other more significant issues.

Hardware RAID may work, as it's invisible to the OS and Pro Tools. We don't specifically support it, but we don't do anything that would prevent someone from using it."

So, if you want to go external, you can go with an ATTO fiber card, do fiber drives. That CAN work for session work, not for long term storage. Why? In a 0, if one drive loses data, you are hosed for the session. Back it up.

I bought my fiber drives from a closing studio. I already had Glyph Trip Racks with SCSI drives. So for me it has worked out. But to tell a new customer that it works on an LE system without clarification is misleading. If they should go out and buy a Mac and try to do the software thing, they are in for a big surprise. If someone has the money for an HD rig, then buying a fiber RAID-0 should not be a problem.

[pdc]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

The fact that Digi doesn't officially support raids makes me laugh everytime.

I mean do you think the recording software can look at where it's recording media and say "oh no their are a bunch of drives grouped together we shouldn't go over there.

The only thing that needs to support raids is the OS. The only thing you need to worry about with your Audio application is that the throughput is high enough to cover the multiple streams of data and still have about 30% head room. I myself have striped WD Raptors to keep up with the amount of data streams i use and have plenty of head room. I tried splitting over multiple drives like i could before but it was way to much work to keep it organized with the amount of data being moved every week.

Oh and if you think the PT HD software actually cost alot of money you are wrong. It's actually cheaper than Nuendo. The deal is the DSP cards are what cost the big change$$. In this world of up to 12+ core machines i find DSP a waste unless you need to process at or close as possible to real time. For my Studio purposes i would recommend Nuendo over ProTools HD but that's only becuase of the final cost. When you look at the tool set between the two you will find that they are pretty evenly matched with a few exceptions. You would also be crazy if you could tell the difference between a project that was edited on Nuendo vs ProTools HD. If you have endless funds go ahead and get an HD system but for me(poor broke me) i will go with Nuendo.

crt

First off, no Nuendo system will have the near zero latency of an HD rig, period. This is where PT kills everyone. Second, you do not buy PT HD software. PT HD is an integrated system with hardware and software. This is why people start looking at cost and almost always get this wrong. Nuendo and most others are not system solutions, with software working on specific purpose built hardware. They are generics working with generics. BIG difference. This is why you NEVER see posts on the DUC asking why Digi hardware is not working with Digi software.

PT HD does much more than Nuendo, because Nuendo is geared for the post side of things. PT8 has many more features geared toward the composer, the MIDI musician, etc and is bundled with other notation software that you will have to buy with Nuendo. Is Nuendo great? Sure. I have seen it work well with Euphonix and other systems. There are many great DAWs. But when it comes down to benefits of TDM processing and near zero latency, complete system integration for a musician, complete dedicated control surface support, they are king.

If you have the money for an HD rig, also consider the Fairlight systems, which seamlessly integrate audio with video in the same processors and control surface. This is the next generation and this is where Digi should be looking over it's shoulders.

I think Yamaha could have pulled off something like this had they had their head in the game, but they are selling off Steinberg I think. So, who knows if they will even have a future in studio recording/broadcasting. They may just have their eggs all in the live sound basket and not care anymore.

[GeekGirl]

I have been doing some serious procrastination. Had some personal issues. Sorry I haven't been responding in a while. To everyone who responded you are awesome and if i ever met you i will buy you a cookie : )

So I finally am looking online now. I thinking about this setup to get us started:

• (2) MOTU 24i/o with the PCI-424 card
• Logic Studio
• Euphonix MC MIX as a control surface

What do you guys think? I didnt like the idea of doing everything in Logic itself so I thought the Euphonix would be a solution. Only 8 channels, but it is expanable so that was a plus for me. We also dont have a lot of room in the church at the moment so just 1 for now would be fine.

That is just below $3,000 minus cables and other accessories. I think that is a pretty good price, expecially to get started.