CoreAudio: Digidesign finally gets it right!

Phil Jeffers · Post by **Phil Jeffers** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:08 am

P.S. the 002R or 003R *with* the Black Lion mod and CoreAudio 7.4 *could* be a good front end for DP... HD Digi gear is just far, far too expensive IMHO - one would be far better off spending the cash on a couple of UAD-1 cards, or a PoCo etc...

Phil Jeffers · Post by **Phil Jeffers** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:14 am

This topic really speaks to me, because I use a Digi 002r for everything, ever since I got my G5 and couldn't use my old 2408 because of no PCI slots.

The original 2408 also 1224 etc work perfectly with a brand new 424 PCI-X or PCIe card... the latest driver DOES NOT exclude these earlier interfaces. This alone was a major reason why I *expanded* my rig to include DP 4 and 5 for mixing ~ surround ~ ADC ~ huge digital I/O etc.

Phil Jeffers · Post by **Phil Jeffers** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:16 am

One more reason to upgrade to Pro Tools 7.4... it's compatible with Vista (only as 32-Bit) - FINALLY! Yep, $49 USD... worth the upgrade...

Phil Jeffers · Post by **Phil Jeffers** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:43 am

Might wait for this to be fixed though!!?? Can't load or save plug-in presets... maybe it's just certain 'unqualified' plug-ins:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php? ... =1#1226254

I'll save any further Digi thread/posts for the DUC!

Cheers, Phil J.

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:19 am

I had written:
This topic really speaks to me, because I use a Digi 002r for everything, ever since I got my G5 and couldn't use my old 2408 because of no PCI slots.

Phil Jeffers replied:

The original 2408 also 1224 etc work perfectly with a brand new 424 PCI-X or PCIe card... the latest driver DOES NOT exclude these earlier interfaces. This alone was a major reason why I *expanded* my rig to include DP 4 and 5 for mixing ~ surround ~ ADC ~ huge digital I/O etc.

Alas, I sold the 2408 to some young dudes, along with a G3 desktop that was taking up space. (i'm not using many VI's). And at the time I also thought that the $295 would be better spent elsewhere in my rig, because the 2408 was only 16 bit, I think?

I *do* miss Cue-Mix non-latency when using DP (which is over 95% of my workflow relative to PT...) with the 002r, but I have some workarounds that are cool except for VI's.

FWIW, my G5 2.3DP is PLENTY of muscle to run PT 7.4, elastic and all. And if you see red lights when using elastic audio, it's not processor overload - there's the potential to clip audio when elasticizin' it - so those lights just tell you to go to the window where you can attenuate any track's signal before elasticizin it, to avoid this clipping.

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:38 am

stiefelmusik wrote:
tommymandel wrote:I always have to restart after using DP before I launch PT LE, but not the reverse...
I'm not sure if it has anything to do with my being on an Intel machine, but I never have to restart before switching to PT LE from DP. I can launch either app, in any order, and the Digi002r initializes as expected.

Maybe it is the Intel thing. I don't have too many other 3rd party stuff that could be the culprit.

stiefelmusik wrote:Regarding your Quicktime issue, doesn't PT always need "exclusive access" to the hardware while it is running? I never try to use Digi CoreAudio while PT is running, so I can't confirm, but according to the documentation you're not supposed to be able to do this anyway (See CoreAudio Read Me.pdf).

That makes sense about PT, and may be part of its reputed 'stability.' But DP is cool that way, in that I can do a bounce-to-disk or export, and then preview it in QT Player against other mixes, really conveniently, and still have DP up and running for a re-tweak.
Thanks for this useful information.

PS. OB-Xa - I LOVE them! and a Prophet 10 - wow.

stiefelmusik · Post by **stiefelmusik** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:07 am

tommymandel wrote:
PS. OB-Xa - I LOVE them! and a Prophet 10 - wow.

Yeah, I'm kinda proud of that Prophet 10 -- but I gotta be honest with you: it needs some serious work. It's not even set up in my studio right now. I've been having a difficult time finding anyone who will service it. A friend finally hooked me up with a guy who's done some tech work for Kraftwerk in DÃ¼sseldorf, near where I live, and he agreed to have a look at it, but wouldn't promise anything. It seems most techs around here really hate working on old Sequential Circuits gear. I guess I can understand. Unfortunately, I lack the skills to service it myself, else I would.

Anyway, the OB-Xa is my baby. I'm currently working on a synthpop project using mostly the OB-Xa and the Jupiter-4.

Cheers!

P.S. Is that a JX-3P on the lower rack of your avatar?

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:25 am

It's a Karma, not a JX-3P tho we did use that JX-3P synth on old Shannon records in the early or mid 80's I think.... and they had an MC-500 too! argh. I am much more comfortable with my LinnSequencer, which I still use a lot, it's from 1986 I think. . . the sequencer half of the 9000, but with updates by the Forat Brothers, in LA's Valley. They might know someone who likes to work on Sequential gear. What about Wine Country? I suppose the shipping would be too expensive to send it over here anyway. I have a Prophet Five, well, it's a Prophet Four-and-a-Half, since pulse widths on the 5th voice do very very strange things. I can turn it off by holding the offensive voice and simultaneously pressing 1 and 8 on the Program Select Buttons, but sometimes it really fattens up a unison sound. Lately I've had it patched through an Adrenalinn 3 (there's that Roger Linn name again!) most of the time. And a Prophet T8, which I love but don't use as much as I should. I could never get it to sound just like the Prophet Five, but it's a sensitive beast - lots of control (polyphonic Aftertouch can be routed to LFO speed, depth, filter, vca, and release velociy can be routed to filter and or vca release, the velocity can control the attacks, lots of useful routings.) But I still have great memories of playing Ian Hunter's OB-Xa, and programming some cool fat rhodes/high bell layers (4 voice polyphony

though) before DX-7s even came out.We played RockPalast in Essen too! (mit Herr M.Ronson auch). But a complete project using mostly OB-Xa sounds really cool. Is it somehow MIDI'd? Maybe some Tangerine Dream people would be more excited to get their hands on your Prophet-10. Are they near by you? or maybe Berlin? My neighbor has a 10 and his is also krank.

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:27 am

Apologies - I just retried launching DP then quitting and launching PT then quitting and launching DP without a restart and it worked fine - Apologies for wrong info. Must have been some other factor at work.

Don T · Post by **Don T** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:41 pm

Hello,
I am running PTLE 7.4 with DP 5.12 on the same partition of OS 10.4.8 with no problem (G4 dual 1.7 002R 424 24I/O). I can quit / start back and forth with no issues except for the first time after installing DP disappeared. It was ok after re-opening DP. The Digi core audio manager will not allow playback of QT or Toast preview audio through the 002R. I haven't looked into it to see why but it reminds me of my old G3.

AND, PT recognized all of my add on plugs from DP 5.12

Now my Students can learn both DAW's on the same machine......COOL

stiefelmusik · Post by **stiefelmusik** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:48 pm

tommymandel wrote:We played RockPalast in Essen too! (mit Herr M.Ronson auch). But a complete project using mostly OB-Xa sounds really cool. Is it somehow MIDI'd?

You played RockPalast? That's very cool. I got curious and checked out your website. Dude, you've had one seriously rockin' career! Congratulations!

About the OB-Xa, yes it's been retro-fitted with a simple JL Cooper MIDI kit: MIDI In and Out w/ Program Change. That's it. There are better kits available these days which would enable a lot more MIDI control which I've been kicking around having installed. Priority one though is to replace the bushings on the Obie's Pratt keyboard. I just ordered a kit that's supposed to restore the keyboard to it's original "buttery smooth action."

tommymandel wrote:Maybe some Tangerine Dream people would be more excited to get their hands on your Prophet-10. Are they near by you? or maybe Berlin? My neighbor has a 10 and his is also krank.

Tangerine Dream is from Berlin. I live about 30 minutes north of DÃ¼sseldorf, so it would be easier for me to let that former Kraftwerk tech have a look at the Prophet. Sending it to Wine Country would be WAAY too expensive. Heck, if worse comes to worse, I'll encase it in glass: it would make a FINE coffee table -- and I can use the road case as my coffin.

Cheers

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:38 am

Phil Jeffers wrote:One more reason to upgrade to Pro Tools 7.4... it's compatible with Vista (only as 32-Bit) - FINALLY! Yep, $49 USD... worth the upgrade...

Vista for LE and M-Powered, but not HD yet. Still stuck at 10.4.9 'officially' for all versions on the Mac, but .11 appears to work fine.

Phil Jeffers · Post by **Phil Jeffers** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:37 pm

because the 2408 was only 16 bit, I think?

Nope, 16 or 24 Bit, but only up to 48k, and only unbalanced 8 out. The Mk II had 8 balanced/TRS outs. All 3 models have 3 X TDIF or ADAT which is awesome I/O in conjunction with other hardware...

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:14 pm

ah, i stand corrected, thanks. I didn't realize the 2408 did 24 bit - i guess when i had it, i was still doing things 16 bit at that time. well there goes my 24 bit multi-interface studio. . . for now anyway.
what i'd like would be a 24i/o. the ins and outs would mimic my departed ampex 2" machine...

pcm · Post by **pcm** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:17 pm

As an aside, even though PT doesn't run on Leopard yet, I was able to use my mbox2pro with DP 5.11 today on Leopard, simply by downloading the latest Digi Core Audio Driver (7.4).

The mbox2pro has a turntable input (complete with go=round lug) which was handy for the LP transfer I needed to do for a client today.