What are Digidesign Mix Core or Farm cards?

[imdrecordings]

Just curious. They are all over eBay for cheap...
Anyone?
Thanks

[JGriffin]

Prior to the new HD systems, the processing in a top-end PT system was done by Mix cards. They reside in PCI slots in your computer, or in an expansion chassis when you run out of slots.

[imdrecordings]

Prior to the new HD systems, the processing in a top-end PT system was done by Mix cards. They reside in PCI slots in your computer, or in an expansion chassis when you run out of slots.

So can you hook them up to an Apogee Rosetta 800 with a Digi Card or use them with PT 7.4?

[JGriffin]

Prior to the new HD systems, the processing in a top-end PT system was done by Mix cards. They reside in PCI slots in your computer, or in an expansion chassis when you run out of slots.

So can you hook them up to an Apogee Rosetta 800 with a Digi Card or use them with PT 7.4?

That, I don't know. I kinda doubt they'll run with 7.4 but don't quote me. The Digidesign User Conference over at Digi's site may give you more information.

[imdrecordings]

did some research...
only up to 48k
no ADC
no upgrades past 6.4
will work with other AD/DA besides 888/24's
but...
Seems pretty dead or dyeing.

[JGriffin]

did some research...
only up to 48k
no ADC
no upgrades past 6.4
will work with other AD/DA besides 888/24's
but...
Seems pretty dead or dyeing.

Well, they did stop supporting it about 3 years ago. But if you wanted a cheap proTools setup you could build one. You'd jsut be stuck back at 6.4.

[KamikazeKyle]

Most of the studios around here still run off of these with the 888 converters. You can run other converters and i think you can infact buy something to connect the Rosetta 800 to a Mix Card with a special addon from Apogee but the 888s are not bad converters (despite what mixerman says). A few restrictions, You can only go up to Pro Tools 6.4, if you're going mac you can only run on a G4 with OSX 10.3 (I'm not sure what the max Windows comp is but I'm sure its probally Dual Core XP Pro/Home) it maxes out at 48k.

Also one thing to note the Mix core card is your primary hardware card, a farm card adds extra I/O and track count as well as DSP. The DSP farm card is next to worthless because it takes up a PCI slot and doesn't do much for you compared to a Farm Card. I think a core card and 2 farm cards will give you 64 virtual tracks and probally a reliable platform for 32 i/p

All in all they aren't bad, I've worked wth them before and I know some guys that are running Neve and SSL rooms around here that haven't been able to make the jump to HD and are turning out great records and guys who are making exceptional records with less equipment.

Hope that's helpful.

Peace,
Kyle

[sonicmook56]

I bought a used mix system a year and a half ago and love it because it never needs updating. Rock solid.

[joel hamilton]

I was wondering when people would start to get hip to this...
I have had more than a few people asking me about "what protools" to get.. If they dont want to get an HD rig, I almost invariably tell them to get an old TDM rig. I would rather track on an old TDM rig with 888's than on an LE rig in most cases. They can be had for really cheap, and you could build a SICK system with a fast computer and PT 6.4. The limitations are still less annoying than the limitations of an LE rig, including the ZERO latency recording. SO for tracking, the old TDM rig with old apogee ad8000's would totally get my vote over an 002.
With 2 farm cards you would have a whole bunch of processing power. Keep in mind that getting a mix+ rig puts you in the super top end of the DAW based world of recording from not that many years ago... like some people have said in this thread, you still kind of bump into mix+ systems in certain places. I was just working on one out in san francisco all this week, and it works just fine, even with stock 888's and no clock, it works just fine. The incremental "better"-ness of an HD rig is getting into finer shades than most hobby/ semi-hobby level engineers would even bother with.
I record at 44.1 almost all the time these days, so the "only goes to 48" thing really doesnt bother me at all. As long as you arent trying to use the 16 bit 888's, you will be totally psyched on owning one of these rigs.

[JGriffin]

Agreed with Joel. I've definitely thought about putting one of these together.

[Jess P]

I was wondering when people would start to get hip to this...
I have had more than a few people asking me about "what protools" to get.. If they dont want to get an HD rig, I almost invariably tell them to get an old TDM rig. I would rather track on an old TDM rig with 888's than on an LE rig in most cases. They can be had for really cheap, and you could build a SICK system with a fast computer and PT 6.4. The limitations are still less annoying than the limitations of an LE rig, including the ZERO latency recording. SO for tracking, the old TDM rig with old apogee ad8000's would totally get my vote over an 002.
With 2 farm cards you would have a whole bunch of processing power. Keep in mind that getting a mix+ rig puts you in the super top end of the DAW based world of recording from not that many years ago... like some people have said in this thread, you still kind of bump into mix+ systems in certain places. I was just working on one out in san francisco all this week, and it works just fine, even with stock 888's and no clock, it works just fine. The incremental "better"-ness of an HD rig is getting into finer shades than most hobby/ semi-hobby level engineers would even bother with.
I record at 44.1 almost all the time these days, so the "only goes to 48" thing really doesnt bother me at all. As long as you arent trying to use the 16 bit 888's, you will be totally psyched on owning one of these rigs.

Great. Now that it's been endorsed we'll see the ebay prices skyrocket and the supply deminish.

[joel hamilton]

I was wondering when people would start to get hip to this...
I have had more than a few people asking me about "what protools" to get.. If they dont want to get an HD rig, I almost invariably tell them to get an old TDM rig. I would rather track on an old TDM rig with 888's than on an LE rig in most cases. They can be had for really cheap, and you could build a SICK system with a fast computer and PT 6.4. The limitations are still less annoying than the limitations of an LE rig, including the ZERO latency recording. SO for tracking, the old TDM rig with old apogee ad8000's would totally get my vote over an 002.
With 2 farm cards you would have a whole bunch of processing power. Keep in mind that getting a mix+ rig puts you in the super top end of the DAW based world of recording from not that many years ago... like some people have said in this thread, you still kind of bump into mix+ systems in certain places. I was just working on one out in san francisco all this week, and it works just fine, even with stock 888's and no clock, it works just fine. The incremental "better"-ness of an HD rig is getting into finer shades than most hobby/ semi-hobby level engineers would even bother with.
I record at 44.1 almost all the time these days, so the "only goes to 48" thing really doesnt bother me at all. As long as you arent trying to use the 16 bit 888's, you will be totally psyched on owning one of these rigs.

Great. Now that it's been endorsed we'll see the ebay prices skyrocket and the supply deminish.

I knew SOMEONE would call me out on that... GREAT. I wish I could have the same effect on the fu@##$ing stock market...

[imdrecordings]

I was wondering when people would start to get hip to this...
I have had more than a few people asking me about "what protools" to get.. If they dont want to get an HD rig, I almost invariably tell them to get an old TDM rig. I would rather track on an old TDM rig with 888's than on an LE rig in most cases. They can be had for really cheap, and you could build a SICK system with a fast computer and PT 6.4. The limitations are still less annoying than the limitations of an LE rig, including the ZERO latency recording. SO for tracking, the old TDM rig with old apogee ad8000's would totally get my vote over an 002.
With 2 farm cards you would have a whole bunch of processing power. Keep in mind that getting a mix+ rig puts you in the super top end of the DAW based world of recording from not that many years ago... like some people have said in this thread, you still kind of bump into mix+ systems in certain places. I was just working on one out in san francisco all this week, and it works just fine, even with stock 888's and no clock, it works just fine. The incremental "better"-ness of an HD rig is getting into finer shades than most hobby/ semi-hobby level engineers would even bother with.
I record at 44.1 almost all the time these days, so the "only goes to 48" thing really doesnt bother me at all. As long as you arent trying to use the 16 bit 888's, you will be totally psyched on owning one of these rigs.

Great. Now that it's been endorsed we'll see the ebay prices skyrocket and the supply deminish.

I knew SOMEONE would call me out on that... GREAT. I wish I could have the same effect on the fu@##$ing stock market...

Quick Joel, KILL THE THREAD!
I swear I just picked up an EQ magazine that had you in it.... no? yes?

[joel hamilton]

I was wondering when people would start to get hip to this...
I have had more than a few people asking me about "what protools" to get.. If they dont want to get an HD rig, I almost invariably tell them to get an old TDM rig. I would rather track on an old TDM rig with 888's than on an LE rig in most cases. They can be had for really cheap, and you could build a SICK system with a fast computer and PT 6.4. The limitations are still less annoying than the limitations of an LE rig, including the ZERO latency recording. SO for tracking, the old TDM rig with old apogee ad8000's would totally get my vote over an 002.
With 2 farm cards you would have a whole bunch of processing power. Keep in mind that getting a mix+ rig puts you in the super top end of the DAW based world of recording from not that many years ago... like some people have said in this thread, you still kind of bump into mix+ systems in certain places. I was just working on one out in san francisco all this week, and it works just fine, even with stock 888's and no clock, it works just fine. The incremental "better"-ness of an HD rig is getting into finer shades than most hobby/ semi-hobby level engineers would even bother with.
I record at 44.1 almost all the time these days, so the "only goes to 48" thing really doesnt bother me at all. As long as you arent trying to use the 16 bit 888's, you will be totally psyched on owning one of these rigs.

Great. Now that it's been endorsed we'll see the ebay prices skyrocket and the supply deminish.

I knew SOMEONE would call me out on that... GREAT. I wish I could have the same effect on the fu@##$ing stock market...

Quick Joel, KILL THE THREAD!
I swear I just picked up an EQ magazine that had you in it.... no? yes?

Yes.

[echosound]

these systems are rock solid and sound great. had mine for almost 5 years, never changed a thing, never updated. no need to. i do have a couple of laptops that get used on stage or for writing. but i treat my mix3 like its my tape machine. everything gets mixed off of that platform. way more powerful than any LE setup. added bonus no ILOCK and most plug ins came with the system at the time. try to find a package deal nearby if you can... i.e. computer and pro tools, turnkey ready to go. by the way i can't believe how cheep these things can be had for. i remember when JUST the core card was like 2 grand.