When is it going to happen Digi

[TheGreeneSound]

What i want to know is when digi is finally going to put out a useful le interface lets hypothetically call it lightbridge LE it will be capable of doing 16 tracks in at 44.1/48 24 bit lightpipe, or 8 tracks 88.2/96 24 bit smux, spdf, word clock, midi , and a pair of monitor outs and headphone out. Yeah i know profire light bridge but this thing will actually work right. I mean they finally did mbox micro right?
i guess ill keep dreaming

[rwc]

make LE too good and no one will buy HD.

why compete with yourself?

other companies make better stuff in the LE market, software and hardware wise anyway.

[fossiltooth]

make LE too good and no one will buy HD.

why compete with yourself?

other companies make better stuff in the LE market, software and hardware wise anyway.

Exactly!

Digi won't change until they have to.




...However, due to the power of newer native systems, they may have to change their game soon enough...

That day just isn't here yet.

[digitaldrummer]

what about this one? (M-Audio Profire 2626)

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=241817

yeah, it requires PTLE M-Powered but this actually looks more appealing than my Digi 002r or the 003.

anyone have one yet?

Mike

[Trick Fall]

I have a feeling that if I upgrade my interface this is what I will get. I've been very happy with my 1810 though

[rwc]

There's little excuse to not be able to track, mix, and master a full record in logic 8 without buying any extra shit and it costs less than some reverb plugins.

digi has more competition than they think. :X

[John Jeffers]

Digi has a lock on the high-end market, but if I wasn't running a commercial studio, I wouldn't bother with PT. I used Cubase for years, and only switched to PT out of necessity. I actually like Pro Tools software, and there are some really great RTAS-only plugins, but the LE hardware and Digi-imposed limitations really suck compared to what else is out there.

Only 18 ins, relatively high latency, and no full automatic plugin delay compensation are the ones that piss me off on a regular basis. If I want to increase my I/O count, I have to spend over $10,000? Fuck you, Digi.

[TheGreeneSound]

I can handle the 18 in/out limitations there are workarounds for latency but yeah screw no ADC i mean you can delaycomp everything but it is so annoying at this point what natives dont have ADC

[JohnDavisNYC]

well... we still don't use PT... i have an mbox mini at home now just for prepping files that come in for mixing or overdubs... but there hasn't been a single session when i wished we owned PT. between 2", radar, and logic, there is ABSOLUTELY no need for PTHD, for real. I can export from radar to the computer via FTP faster than PT can consolidate and save.

john

[Professor]

I'm always confused by these threads.
If the software sucks that hard, then use something else. If the hardware is so terrible then use something else.

Computers have limitations in processing power, that at least until very recently have limited how much data you could slam through anything but the most high-end systems. I have an HD-4 rig, and yes it has ADC, but if I throw on a really slow plug-in, then it really taxes the TDM cards and sucks up several processors. No problem with 4 cards installed, but if that were my CPU and I were trying to playback 24 tracks with 1200-samples of delay across them to catch up with a particular limiter plug, it would crash most computers.
The problem with native systems is that you have to try to anticipate the native systems people will try to use. They can build something like the M-Box family that can run on almost any cheap piece of crap someone might buy, or they could build something that would try to slam 32-tracks of 88.2k/24 down two firewire-800 busses or eSATA or something, and incorporate full ADC into it, charge $500 for the rig, and people would complain that it only runs on the biggest & baddest 8-core systems that cost 5 or 6 grand.
Likewise, if they open up their software to work with any damn interface on the market, it means they have to program the software to do so. Then they have to constantly maintain the compatibility with the hundreds of different products out there, and prepare for all the service calls when someone can't make the gear work, and expect the software to get hacked and passed around the internet. It would do nothing but lose money, and that's not what anyone goes into business to do.

Don't get me wrong, I think there is a huge hole in their business plan between about $2000 and $10,000. It's like they are chasing the top of the market and the bottom of the market and leaving out the middle. I think opening up LE to accept two 003r boxes, or maybe building an 003 expansion box, or something similar to get more channels in would be very cool. Or maybe an HD 1/2-core card for about $3-4k that could maye use more than one firewire interface - the card would still act as a dongle while giving the extra juice for ADC, etc.
But I have to say that I understand why they use only their own hardware - it's for predictability in programming, predictability in service calls, and to act as software copy-protection.

Apple's Logic with the Appogee Symphony system can supposedly slam dozens of tracks into a native system. Has anybody out there built up a 32-channel rig or larger and pushed it to its limits? Has it performed as advertised? Or maybe a similar MOTU system? Both of these rigs can fill in the $2k-10k hole in Digi's line up and I'm curious what the limitations on the computer system are.

-Jeremy

[Jay Reynolds]

There's little excuse to not be able to track, mix, and master a full record in logic 8 without buying any extra shit and it costs less than some reverb plugins.

digi has more competition than they think. :X

I just wish I could see the waveform when I drag a Region in the Arrange window. And if Apple could get the audio editing in Logic to rely less on opening the Sample Editor for things like gain change or inverting phase, they'd have a lock IMHO.

[leigh]

What i want to know is when digi is finally going to put out a useful le interface lets hypothetically call it lightbridge LE it will be capable of doing 16 tracks in at 44.1/48 24 bit lightpipe, or 8 tracks 88.2/96 24 bit smux, spdf, word clock, midi , and a pair of monitor outs and headphone out. Yeah i know profire light bridge but this thing will actually work right. I mean they finally did mbox micro right?
i guess ill keep dreaming

As someone mentioned here, check out the Profire 2626, for PT M-Powered. It's got everything you listed. Plus an onboard DSP mixer, which you can pretty much completely ignore, or use to do low-latency cue mixes, or whatever else you might think of...

I've had one about a week, so far it's working out nicely. Two tiny shortcomings from PTLE: for some stupid reason, they don't include the Pow-R dither with PTMP, only Digi's old Dither plug. And also, when I press the down arrow during playback (to set the start marker), the sound stops for a split second, then resumes. Annoying for me, since I do this a lot on playback. There might be some setting that fixes this, I haven't had a chance to look into it yet.

cheers,
Leigh

[Jay Reynolds]

Likewise, if they open up their software to work with any damn interface on the market, it means they have to program the software to do so. Then they have to constantly maintain the compatibility with the hundreds of different products out there, and prepare for all the service calls when someone can't make the gear work, and expect the software to get hacked and passed around the internet. It would do nothing but lose money, and that's not what anyone goes into business to do.

By restricting the hardware compatibility for LE, Digi also narrows the compatibility requirements for their systems in general. This makes it a lot easier for their customers to build a machine to run their hardware when Digi tells them what they will and won't support as far as motherboards, operating systems, video card, etc. That it, provided their customers haven't fallen victim to the crap MI marketing lie of "you can make platinum hitz on any compyooter".
But, considering that M-Audio's full line of interfaces runs with M-Powered, I'm not sure you can really say that the exclusivity of LE interfaces is somehow making Digi's job easier. Its not like Avid bought M-Audio and then dropped some of their products. After all, that hybrid keyboard-controller/interface/mic-pre they make will run M-Powered.

[thecheat]

In response to the Multiple Input and Output challenge of any system other than DIGI.....


I used to run a 48 input and output MOTU HD192 System running on WinXP athlon 4800 with nuendo three and routinely used 40-60 tracks at 88.2 or 96k. Still used the ASIO Direct Monitoring for virtually no latency (i think it works out to like, less than 1 mS)

i NOW currently run a 40 i/o MOTU system at 44.1k, that is also routinely maxed out to 50 tracks or so. The whole system also runs Nuendo 3 (gotta get Cubase 4 or Nuendo 4 oh BABY those look nice) ANd all this is done natively on an AMD Athlon 3000 (!!!!) now admittedly, i use alot of outboard reverbs and compression but i still use my fair share of waves plugins and Kajerhouse (sic) Audio stuff but the fact of the matter is, yeah, i have lots of I/O, no DIGI, No monitoring latency and the whole system works great.

ON a side note it just cost me 75 bucks just to OPEN .ptf files so i could work on this mix... Le Sigh.....


Chris

[Professor]

But, considering that M-Audio's full line of interfaces runs with M-Powered, I'm not sure you can really say that the exclusivity of LE interfaces is somehow making Digi's job easier. Its not like Avid bought M-Audio and then dropped some of their products. After all, that hybrid keyboard-controller/interface/mic-pre they make will run M-Powered.

True enough.
But then, when they bought M-Audio they also acquired their entire development team. I'm not sure if they hired/fired/consolidated/etc. but that at least means they can have a separate team solely focused on making sure the M-Audio products work with M-Powered.
And that's still a considerably narrower target than making sure it is compatible with every Presonus, Focusrite, RME, Echo, Behringer, Apogee, MOTU, Tascam, Mackie, Lexicon, Edirol, or countless other interfaces out there on the market. (Musician's Friend lists 49 manufacturers under "audio interface".)
If putting a limit on compatibility means that the products that are compatible are better supported and perform as intended, then that's fine. Sometimes the restaurant with 20 menu items does a better job at those 20 than the place with 500 items. Why the hell should a sushi bar have eggs benedict on the menu, or should the local slurp-n-burp bar be serving fois gras and caviar?

-Jeremy