Its hard getting the info that I want, everything seems to be rather disjointed, but I will try to ask the questions as conherently as possible, so you PT guys can understand me, the newbee.
I want to get into PT, but avoid the whole 001/LE thing. I dont think I need mix plus, or any interfaces (ie 888, or ADAT links) because I want to use the new ADAT HD24 as my digital I/O (via ethernet ONLY, not lightpipe) mixed with 4 channels of Apogee Rosetta and 32 channels of Apogee IntelliDAC, so this setup will be reality in the next few months.

Q1) What is the street price of a typical Mac 9600 (ala Ebay?) and a PT24 (not mix or mix plus) system? I want to upgrade the 9600 with the G4 card or whatever it is. What is required to tweak out the 9600, and what is this?

Q2) What will my real world abilities be on a PT24 system (tracks and tracks with plugins? I use the WAVES PPII on my Native system now (Samplitude 24/96), so I want to use Waves & Bombfactory, and thats about it...Maybe if GML/Massenburg comes out with TDM plugs that will be good to.

Q) How involved is the Data tranfer via ethernet from the computer to the Alesis HD24 (I understand that you might not know the complete protocols of the HD24, but its probably the most basic setup they could come up with)?

The reason I want to mix the HD24 in with the setup is mostly for playback and record stability. I will record to the Alesis, transfer it to the PT for processing (I might possibly get 48 tracks of the Alesis...can two ethernet cards be used at once?) and dump it back hopefully VERY quickly to the Alesis which will be going to a 32 channel analog console with lots of good Class A and discreet outboard. :confused: :confused: