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Written by Mike Moeding
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Friday, 21 December 2007 |
So I have been thinking about potential LE and M-Powered setups and ways to get the most out of these systems and I think I may have found a way to unlock great potential for M-Powered systems. Using this configuration I have designed an M-Powered system that can match or exceed the voice limits of an HD system!!! Though this may stretch the budget boundaries for the average home hobbyist it is an interesting configuration to ponder.
Devices needed:
.A network of 2 or more computers (4 to match HDAccel voice count)
.M-Audio ProFire Lightbride. One for each computer on the network
.4 Lightpipe cables per computer.
.cables for wordclock connections
.Pro Tools M-Powered
.Music Production Toolkit (optional)
The Facts:
A single Pro Tools M-Powered system is capable of 32 tracks of audio. You can upgrade with the Music Production Toolkit to up the track count to 48 tracks and 48 voices. Here is the potential problem. Some people do not realize the difference between tracks and voices. When you use a mono track you are using 1 "voice" because a voice is essentially used every time the audio of a track is being "sent" somewhere. This mono track uses a voice when it has an output or send assigned. Here is where it gets tricky. Say you are using stereo audio tracks and you are sending them strait to the main outputs of your interface with no plug-ins inserted, and no sends assigned to any audio, aux, or master tracks. you have now cut your playable track count in half of the original because you are using 2 voices per track, so 24 basic stereo tracks will be the maximum that can be simultaniously played. Now if you use RTAS plug-ins on a stereo track you are using 4 voices by inserting that stereo plug-in. If you start sending your audio to aux tracks the voices pile up. You can see where this is going and how limited you can become in serious mixing projects.
The Solution:
By Running Pro Tools M-Powered on each computer you have multiplied not only your track counts and voices but also multiplied your processing power. Now you need to be able to route the audio back and forth through these systems. There are two logical ways to do this that have different benefits. I call them Circular and Star configurations. I do not have diagrams so you will have to try to picture this in your mind.
The M-Audio ProFire Lightbride has 4 banks of 8 channel Lightpie i/o giving you a total of 32 audio paths back and forth.
Circular:
In a Circular setup you simply start with computer 1 and route all of the outputs of the ProFire to the inputs of the ProFire on computer number 2. If you have more computers you simply continue this daisy chain. Once you reach the last Profire you would then route those outputs back to the inputs of the Profire on computer 1. You will want to sync the word clocks to a master clock or you will have some serious jitter. Now you can use these in sync strait down the line and they will all playback and record simultaniously. Here is what I would do with this system. Record tracks to Computer 1. Send the auido to computer 2 for subgrouping and or adding plug-ins for mixing. Sending down the line you have decdicated processing for each computer and a complete number of track and voices. The last computer I would instert any instrument tracks on because you have the outputs going back to computer 1 so you can have the virtual instrument being processed on the last computer but being routed and tracked to computer number 1, then this audio can be sent down the line for more processing. Now computer 1 only contains raw audio and can be greatly edited and automated with out the processor being bogged down. Be careful with your routing so you don't cause feedback loops.
Star:
With a star system you will be able to send tracks from any computer to any other computer to create complex routing schemes and open up your possibilities. This would be ideal for a 5 computer setup. The ProFire has 4 sets of lightpipe inputs and outputs with 8 channels of audio on each. You would route the individual lightpipe outputs to one input on each of the other 4 ProFires. Once you have done this on each computer you have the ability to send 32 cannels of audio from each computer slit up into 8 seperate channels for each computer it is being sent to. I know your head is probably spinning in circles and you wondering WTF I am talking about, but if you can grasp this concept you will start to realize the crazy routing possibilities you have just created. Add the music production toolkit to these computers and you now have 240 voices!!!! WOW that is more than an HDAccel system is capable of. And all this on an M-Powered system!!!!!!!!!!
Now remember that if you have the Music production toolkit addon your voice limit and track count are boosted to 48 but you will still only be able to send 32 channels at a time out of each ProFire but you still have full playback capabilities.
Now start the routing madness!!!!!!!
This is probably just all crazy talk but let me know what you guys think about this setup or if you have any other crazy Pro Tools setups you have come up with.
There is is an M-Powered Turbo. no need for DSP cards now.
Cheers,
Moeding
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