Mac with DP, PC with Giga

[Tripi]

I use a crossover cable in my studio. Keep in mind that this is a mac and a pc. If it were two macs, a crossover might not be necessary. At least with Windows XP, I believe it is.

I hate to argue, but I believe Wormhole is definitely worth the trouble. I would need a soundcard with 32 mono / 16 stereo pairs or 2 adat outs (and another card with the ins) to match what one cable does in my studio. When you are working in big orchestral environments (well, virtually), having control over the sections of the orchestra is imperative. Mine are broken up into families, then sections. IE>>>> Strings Hi Reverb, Strings Low Reverb, Strings Staccato/Marcato, Strings Basses. Hi Brass, Low Brass, Hi Perc, Lo Perc....... you get the idea. The point of doing this is mainly from a mixing standpoint. Especially when a mixing board is not present and it happens in the box. If you set up multiple reverb busses, it allows for correct reverb placement for each section. Just my 2 cents.

tripi

[pencilina]

I agree having stems is the way to go. I do sort of the same thing but analog through my console (which also has very nice eq). For me the latency of wormhole is a drag- also cause I use GS 2.5 I have to feed GS's audio into a VST host then wormhole via giga vst adapter so its a complete hassle. Since I use a console its no big deal getting stems. It might be worth the upgrade to gs3 but then I'd have to upgrade my currently well behaved P4s. Tripi, what kind of latency do you experience with Wormhole and how fast are your PCs and how many do you use? I'm wondering if it might be worth the upgrade. Also, I'm going to check out synergy - looks rad.
Best
b

[Tripi]

Pencillina - my PC is fairly modest: P4 2ghz, 1.5 gig ram, 2 pata drives for samples. Looked great when i built it five years ago

I haven't used giga 2.5 in quite some time, but I seem to remember being able to insert vst plugins directly in the giga mixer. If not, it certainly is a good excuse to upgrade to giga 3. If you use a VST host for giga+vst instruments, you may just want to hold off until Giga4 comes out. It supports kernal level vst instruments.

Anyways - my latency in DP is fairly small. I have a preset MIDI time shift plugin in my clippings window for MIDI tracks that require a dead-on attack. If I'm working with mostly giga-MIDI, I have a Buffer-Delay plugin for my audio in DP that does the same thing (only makes it play later to line up with the giga MIDI).

tripi

[pencilina]

Tripi, thanks for the response.. Great food for thought. Using all those buffers and delays would drive me nuts though. If I was going to upgrade I'd pick up a honking PC to replace my P4s, and a lightpipe card to go into my mac. Or better yet a macbook with a firewire lightpipe box and finally ditch the PCs. Another solution- check out this article:

http://www.createfilmscores.net/?page_id=9

rock
b

[Tripi]

That's a good article. I've seen John's setup.... certainly drool inducing (even if he uses Logic). That m-audio lightpipe box is an ideal solution for giga->pc audio. I've always been a big believer in reducing the clutter, so optical cables are not so bad. At least they aren't connecting to an old SCSI patchbay!


tripi

[pencilina]

Tripi,
One more thought/?- did you every try networking your pc and mac via firewire? I know this is possible and think I had it working once. I'm wondering if this would improve wormhole's latency....

[brubru]

Thank you so much to Tripi who helped me solve the problem. Apparently on the Aux channel in DP, an actual Audio Input needs to be used and not just a bus. As soon as I changed that, everything worked perfectly.

now to setup templates.......

thanks everyone!

[mckelly]

brubru -- I do it the old fashioned way. I treat the PC as if it were an old school MIDI SYNTH MODULE like a Roland JV.

Count me in - 8 MIDI in/out and 16 tracks of ADAT. I was toying with idea of ditching the setup for MoL, but I figured why fix what's not broke?

This setup has worked like a charm since day one.

[emulatorloo]

Count me in - 8 MIDI in/out and 16 tracks of ADAT. I was toying with idea of ditching the setup for MoL, but I figured why fix what's not broke?

This setup has worked like a charm since day one.

I have not tried the ADAT route yet, but that would be perfect for me --

PC card ADAT out ------------------> 2408mk ADAT in

Super low latency, and so simple even a dummy like me could get it.

Thanks for reminding me of this option.

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