PT 6.4 and the 001

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:42 am

because the 001 is now old and probably out there second hand and cheap
... it might be a good starter unit for the kids with a cheap but modern PC

The modern PC (it needs a PCI slot ) will be much better than the computer at the time when the 001 was released
with more grunt and more memory
so virtual synths and plugs becomes more usable

So a fresh install of an old XP operating system with a magazine SP2 added
a copy of PT 6.4
which is the last and latest that will work on the 001 as far as I know

Reason Adapted came with the 001
BUT
what is the best FULL version of Reason that works well with PT6.4 ?

Any other suggestions for soft synths

Favourite plugs for this vintage ?

Remember we are looking for cheap BUT LEGIT !
something to recycle these oldies and give the kids ... to new starters ... to leave at the holiday house etc

suggestions please

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:18 am

I still use a Digi001. By using the lightpipe I can run 16 ins and 16 outs. Certainly not state-of-the-art, but still a viable interface. It gets knocked around here at RO for it's unimpressive pre's / AD conversion. The consensus among the critics seems to be, 'it's not that the 001 is bad, but it's kinda neutral'. I would generally agree with that, and I don't find that to be a bad thing. I thought 'no-coloration' was the point of digital recording. Get your color when and where you need it has been my philosophy. We often run focusrite green-range pre's into it, and you have no trouble hearing the character of the focusrite or whatever. Granted, I'm not as jaded as some others on an SSL/Neve budget might be (should be), but I've never heard the Digi001 get in the way of anything. I think you'll still get your money's worth out of anything high-end you put in the signal path.

I have a couple old Native Instruments soft synths that work really well with it. I have the B4 organ, and the Prophet - both highly recommended.

I use the Waves Gold bundle as my primary plug-ins. The bombfactory compressors are awesome. The Antares Mic-Modeler is interesting. And I added RealVerb from KindofLoud/UA to complement the Waves Renaissance Reverbs - which sound great, but hit the CPU pretty hard.

And on that topic....

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this is true, but I find the 001 runs as well (or maybe better) on my old computer that is of the same vintage as the 001. I'm sure up to a point the next generation of computer would be an upgrade. But if you leapfrog the computer too far ahead it may outperform the PCI card and create a performance limiting bottleneck.

In my case, when I got my 001 many many years ago, I was running a Mac G4 500MHz and OS9 (with the maximum RAM it would take - I forget what that was then). I was using a firewire 400mbps Glyph drive, and the 001 ran very well. This computer would have been hot-stuff at that time. Like any other DAW, if I ran too many RTAS plug-ins at mixdown it would hog up too much of the CPU processing power. In those cases if I wanted to add more plug-ins, and the CPU had already issued a warning, I would have to process the track or clip using the AudioSuite version of the plug-in, which allowed me to remove the RTAS version from the track. This essentially committed the compressor/EQ/whatever to tape to free up more processor power for more RTAS plug-ins.

Fast forward several years (but still several years ago) and I got a new Mac G4 that was vastly superior in every specification. Notably more than 4x processor speed and a much higher capacity for RAM (again I maxed the RAM), so I'm thinking .... 'OK, if I use this new machine to run the Digi001 I should be able to run at least twice as many plug-ins and it should be a piece of cake for this new computer.'

It did not work out that way. Whether using the same 400Mbps Glyph drive or a newer 800Mbps version, I'd estimate the net increase in my ProTools power and performance was about 1%. The old G4 would have been essentially cutting-edge when the 001 and PT LE software was in development, and I'm not sure they can engineer and infinite amount of forward compatibility into this kind of interface and software. To this day, ProTools and the Digi001 still run very well and have never missed a day of work for any reason.

Someone with more hardcore computer skills may have completely different results, but these were my observations. But then again, I'm from the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of thought. So I'd be reluctant to dismantle a system that, although slightly limited, still functioned perfectly. Since you cannot have multiple versions of PT coexist on the same system, once you jump off that cliff and "upgrade" it can be a long difficult climb back up the cliff if it doesn't work out.

I hope this is helpful. Best of luck.

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:59 pm

i still use my digi 001 as my primary interface. although i no longer use pro tools (i am all for cubase nowadays) it works perfect. i have mytek convertors (and use their clock) and a vintech x73 pre, good mics and my channel is as good as anyones for tracking one at a time. i have an '03 computer that is super tweaked and i dont look forward to the day when i eventually replace my pc, for i will have to buy a new interface.

just wanted you to know that you are not stuck with using only pro tools 6.4

if i am wrong in thinking my channel is as good as anyone's i hope someone will correct me.

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:55 am

trust me

I'm not stuck on PT 6.4
the 001 rigs ( I have a couple ) are just for knock about live and location tracking
the real stuff gets worked on the HD rig

the vintechx73 into the mytek is fine and I;m not going to correct you
don't feel compelled to change until you are ready and want too
and if cubase works for you then stick with it

dvdhawk
I agree with the G4 experience with the OS9.1 universal

but
I do think it is worth a little effort with a quicker PC and XP
cheap modern equipment
hot swap SATA drives
quicker USB for sticks and file transfers
perhaps a bit of networking on the side so some of the band can be editing drum tracks on another system while you are laying more tracks into a different session

I do agree
twice the grunt doesn't seem to translate to twice the plug count

AND
those old Native Instruments soft synths ... B4 organ, and the Prophet were great

Waves is good
but the shell and the latency do make things a little difficult

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