After months of conjecture, rumoured leaks (they obviously couldn’t be confirmed) and flame wars on the bulletin boards, Avid have come out of the darkness to announce a milestone release – Avid ProTools HD Native. Basically a host based system (no DSP Accel cards) that can connect to the new HD interfaces (that are expandable up to 64io) with all the features of PTHD (automation features, track counts, VCA faders, etc) AND automatic delay compensation for RTAS plugins AND extremely low latency!
The way it works, is a PCIe host card allows you to connect to your HD interfaces (including Sync HD, its got a digiserial port) using the new mini-digilink connectors, launched with the new Avid interfaces.
Interestingly, the specifications state it runs a 64bit floating point mixer, is this a potential step up or sideways from the 48bit fixed mixer on the existing PCIe Accel architecture? Fixed bit processing makes for less “rounding off” of data to the nearest binary integer, so it was always sold as superior to floating point, but if you throw in that extra resolution of 64bits, even with floating point holding it back, it will be interesting to do listening comparisons to the summing between the two systems.
For those in post, there was a link to the Satellite technology page from the HD Native home page, so I guess we are to assume its all good to go to lock up native rigs with HD rigs – Can anyone say cost effective video satellite/dubber? The US dollar value of their gear puts a HD Native system with a MADI interface and Sync HD for $10.5K. Throw in a Decklink card and you’ve got a 64 track native dubber with HD picture playback for around US$11K (plus a CPU). Not bad value really! For a comparable system before this release you’d need a minimum HD2 core instead of the native core and the difference in price would be US$7.5K. That’s a pretty big saving! (maybe you could afford to renew your WUP or something?)
For a cost effective surround edit suite, the bundle price WITH an OMNI interface (7.1 monitoring system built in and 2 preamps) is US$6K. Open HD sessions immediately – VCAs, all your automation features, syncing and dubbing options if needed. I mean, 6K in Australia would barely have gotten you a 192io a few years ago (when the dollar was down, admittedly).
Interesting times! I wonder what else they’re working on??
Brent as an ex Digi employee could you tell us more about the specs and how this will function in the real world. They say it’s not an TDM replacement. Thanks
Hi Rob,
Obviously, since leaving the company, I cant talk about what was discussed internally during my tenure, however, we can certainly chat about what is public knowledge about the PT line history and where this fits in that context.
I have questions myself about how this 64 bit floating engine performs in comparison with a 48 bit fixed engine. Key things that will determine sonic quality will be that this is a card to connect to their IO range. The existing line of 192s are well known and fairly well respected workhorse ADDAs, but the new IO apparently lift the bar significantly. I have yet to hear them. Hope to soon. So the sound of this system will likely be determined by the quality of the new IO.
As for system performance, its native. Comparing good native performance against current TDM highlights a few key workflow issues.
Instantiating plugins, changing routing, anything to do with the mixing engine, can be more fluid on a native system than on a hardware assisted TDM rig. I’ve heard this quite a bit from guys comparing CPTK rigs on fast macs against HD rigs on slightly older macs. On HD you get that pause while DSP shuffles, you wouldn’t get that on a HD Native rig as I understand it.
Feature wise, they are apparently identical, ICON support, automation engine, VCAs, etc ie same code. Same ADC specs (4000ish samples on long) but I don’t know many people running all their EQs and Dyns as RTAS on a TDM rig to even see what sort of ADC load that would put on a machine.
For composing and thrashing ideas around, early in the production phase (like at a producers home studio or composers house) a native HD rig would make total sense. Same sonic quality as wherever they mix, potentially same ADs and DAs to record with etc, but more fluid to move things around. For big track count mixing with loads of processing, I suspect you’d still be better off with a HD3Accel (or greater with chassis).
Thanks Brent for your reply.
The more videos the better. The new one just showed up in my RSS feed.
See ya.
Brent any chance you’ll get your hands on the HD Native unit to demo?
Not sure yet but I’ll definately be hitting up the local Avid team to play with it once it starts shipping. No units for sale over here as yet to my knowledge…
Did you get a chance to try this card?
Great job on the blog. Thanks