M-Powered vs. LE? Any Differences?

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SoulOfJonas
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M-Powered vs. LE? Any Differences?

Post by SoulOfJonas » Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:10 pm

Can someone with experience with both PT versions tell me if there is any difference besides required hardware?

Digidesign support was closed today and I've asked around but got a few contradictory answers.

I'm putting together a mobile rig and instead of getting a 002, which I think is a ripoff, I'm looking into getting M-Powered PT, an M-Audio Profire and a PreSonus Digimax FS for around the same price as a 002. I think this rig would give me a lot more options for the same price.

Also, do you have to have an iLok plugged in in addition to an M-Audio interface in order to run M-Powered?

-JV

PS: I tried asking a much longer version of this question before but no one answered. :(
Last edited by SoulOfJonas on Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:16 am, edited 2 times in total.

ctmsound
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Post by ctmsound » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:43 am

Yes, you need an ilok. There are no differences between m-powered and LE.

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Post by spankenstein » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:48 am

ctmsound wrote:Yes, you need an ilok. There are no differences between m-powered and LE.
M-powered will not work with DV Toolkit.

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Post by mertmo » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:52 am

With M-powered, you are forced to use the M-audio monitoring interface
software in between you and PT. With straight up LE, it's just you and PT.
This alone is enough to make me never go M-powered. I do not have time
to be shuffling back and forth between two programs to sort out what my
monitoring levels are. YUCK.

Other than that, it's a great setup. The singer in my band has this setup
and it is pretty slick. Save that one detail, which for me is absolutely huge.


EDIT: plus, the knobs on the interface of the M-powered stuff are those
lame knobs that aren't actually potentiometers, they just spin forever and
ever.... I HATE that. The knobs are very annoying to work with for me. For
instance, on the FW 1814 (which is I think what my singer has...), on the
master volume knob, the distance between "off" and "full volume" is
GIGANTIC. You just sit there, spinning that fucking knob for a week and a
half to get yourself to a reasonable volume. Another thing I don't really
like about it. Admittedly, that's being petty, but still... The 002 does have
a "real" potentiometer for the master volume and all the other controls.

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RodC
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Post by RodC » Fri Feb 09, 2007 9:41 am

One question that keeps bothering me about PT M powered, they claim up to 32 simultaneous tracks, how do you do this with M-audio hardware. The Delta 1010 only has 8/ (10 if you count the digital) inputs, and PT M powered will not allow you to use more than one interface, from their KB:

Q: My M-Audio Delta card allows me to link/synchronize multiple cards together for increased I/O, can I use this feature with Pro Tools M-Powered?

A: While many M-Audio Delta cards feature the ability to link & synchronize with other Delta cards for increased I/O, the use of this feature requires that your chosen software application also allow the simultaneous use of multiple audio cards. Pro Tools M-Power is designed to work with only one audio interface at a time, so it is not possible to used multiple linked audio cards with Pro Tools M-Powered.


Sorta funny considering many other DAW packages will allow it just fine.
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SoulOfJonas
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Post by SoulOfJonas » Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:42 am

Woohoo! Feedback! Hooray! Thanks, guys.
With M-powered, you are forced to use the M-audio monitoring interface
software in between you and PT. With straight up LE, it's just you and PT.
This alone is enough to make me never go M-powered. I do not have time
to be shuffling back and forth between two programs to sort out what my
monitoring levels are. YUCK."
Really? As in having to have another program open that would route/control your monitoring? That's the first I've heard of that with M-Powered but if true that would definitely be weird.
M-powered will not work with DV Toolkit.
The absence of the DV Toolkit doesn't mean much to me as long I can still upgrade later with the Music Production Toolkit.

Still definitely considering the switch to M-Powered for tracking but I have another question...

Anyone know if you can have both M-Powered and LE installed on the same computer? I thought I read this in the latest issue, but now looking back, I can't find it.

-JV

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Post by jv » Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:35 am

Does m-powered come with an ilok?

mertmo
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Post by mertmo » Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:56 am

Really? As in having to have another program open that would route/control your monitoring?
Really and truly. It's designed for being able to monitor with zero latency,
kind of like "cuemix" with the MOTU pieces. (I hope I have that right)
Maybe it does a great job, but nonetheless you are stuck with it, it has to be
running for ProTools to be up. Maybe I have some magical 001, but I never
have issues with latency, and I have yet to have a client complain about it.
So I could never handle the two program shuffle just to solve a tiny bit of
latency. Also, I think control of the master clock source is in the M-audio
portion, which seems weird to me. Our rig also has a Behringer ADA-8000
adat interface and I am still trying to figure out how to set up the rig so that
it will clock to the ADAT input and not be continually popping... I'm sure there
is a fix that I haven't figured out, but it bugged me that the clock control was
not just in PT the way I'm used to on my rig.

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Post by KyleHale » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:30 pm

there is way to run PT LE if you have an m-audio interface. Its an easy trick, but it allows you to bypass m-powered and go straight to LE, and Ive even successfully installed TDM. PM me if you need info
check me out!

kylehale.net

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Post by chris harris » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:37 pm

the monitoring situation doesn't sound like that big of a deal... kinda similar to going back and forth between the input section and the monitoring section of a big board.

ceilingcat84
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Post by ceilingcat84 » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:40 pm

jv wrote:Does m-powered come with an ilok?
I think you always have to buy the iLok separately...ugh :x

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Post by chuckfurok » Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:03 pm

ceilingcat84 wrote:
jv wrote:Does m-powered come with an ilok?
I think you always have to buy the iLok separately...ugh :x
From the m-audio site: Software includes an iLok USB Smart Key that additionally requires Internet access and a free www.iLok.com account. I am so scared of losing that stupid little thing. ugh

ceilingcat84
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Post by ceilingcat84 » Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:11 pm

ohhhh...i stand corrected.

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Post by SoulOfJonas » Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:20 pm

KyleHale wrote:there is way to run PT LE if you have an m-audio interface. Its an easy trick, but it allows you to bypass m-powered and go straight to LE, and Ive even successfully installed TDM. PM me if you need info
i can't see how that would even be possible.
Really and truly. It's designed for being able to monitor with zero latency,
kind of like "cuemix" with the MOTU pieces. (I hope I have that right)
Maybe it does a great job, but nonetheless you are stuck with it, it has to be
running for ProTools to be up. Maybe I have some magical 001, but I never
have issues with latency, and I have yet to have a client complain about it.
So I could never handle the two program shuffle just to solve a tiny bit of
latency. Also, I think control of the master clock source is in the M-audio
portion, which seems weird to me. Our rig also has a Behringer ADA-8000
adat interface and I am still trying to figure out how to set up the rig so that
it will clock to the ADAT input and not be continually popping... I'm sure there
is a fix that I haven't figured out, but it bugged me that the clock control was
not just in PT the way I'm used to on my rig.
merto, what kinda m-powered setup are you running? I'd be interested to know.

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Post by mertmo » Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:33 am

Sounds like KyleHale has some magic tricks...

SoulofJonas: I will have to check that out for you. I have a long session today, but afterwards I will contact the owner of the rig and ask about
specific model numbers, software version etc.

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