So, when Avid announced Pro Tools|HD Native, based on a single PCIe Core card, I was eager to try it out. Was TDM really the reason Pro Tools was “Pro”? My guess is that it wasn’t.
As computers began to get more powerful, I started to wonder why I really needed all those on-card DSP chips for the TDM plug-ins? Most DAWs besides Pro Tools had been running native for years now. I often had less experienced engineers call me into a session to “solve the problem” of a TDM plug-in inserted before an RTAS plug-in, at which point I’d have to explain that you can’t actually do that. I also realized that we rarely came close to using the TDM processing power of the cards most of our clients tried to avoid TDM plug-ins because they didn’t transport as well and didn’t mix well with RTAS plug-ins. My legacy system uses PCI, not PCIe cards, so I knew at some point, it would be another candidate for the electronics recycler - four PCI cards originally valued at over $20,000 retail rendered worthless by the inevitability of computers relentlessly marching forward. The system worked - and still works - fine. Over the years, I bought two more pre-owned HD cards and a Magma expansion chassis (#67) to house them in. The HD system worked out great, and it was nice not to have clients who were frustrated with the LE system not meeting their needs. (The Digi 002 system is still used on a daily basis in our B-room with no complaints.) But clients demanded PT|HD, especially when they were bringing in sessions with track counts in the triple digits. It worked great, never ran out of CPU power, and for the way I worked, it had plenty of tracks available.
Personally, I never had any problems with the Digi 002. So, about 7 years ago, I upgraded my Digi 002 (Tape Op #33) and Apogee Rosetta (#40) system running Pro Tools LE to a pre-owned PT|HD2 PCI system. Like it or not, Pro Tools is the closest thing to a standard in the world of DAWs most every commercial studio needs to run Pro Tools, and if you’re working at a certain level, you need Pro Tools|HD.
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