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Post by sirthought on Aug 10, 2021 16:30:36 GMT -6
Have y'all noticed the recent promo for Avid's Carbon interface?
Buy a Carbon and get Free Pro Tools Ultimate with a perpetual license. They are also offering an Auto-Tune Hybrid software, but I haven't even looked into what that is.
Still, software that normally costs you just under $3K is tempting, especially if can do your work with just eight or fewer inputs. (Why they haven't made this expandable I'll never understand.) That's a (somewhat) affordable way to get into a PT DSP system if you have wanted to pull the trigger before.
Now some folks will work for years on the perpetual license without paying for the upgrade fee, which makes this pretty cool. I'm wondering if Avid will charge an upgrade fee once they make PT M1 compatible (not just Rosetta supported).
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Post by notneeson on Aug 10, 2021 17:01:30 GMT -6
Yeah if Carbon had legacy ports that would go a long way.
On the other hand, I seriously can't figure out how the session I just did on a thunderbolt Symphony rig and PT Vanilla was so successful.
Latency just wasn't an issue at all and we didn't need to crank down the buffer either. 2018 Mac min. Multiple aux sends to headphone cue mixes. What else do ya need?
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Post by sirthought on Aug 10, 2021 17:31:41 GMT -6
PT Ultimate does have some features that just aren't in PT vanilla. If you are doing a large mixing session, DSP can be a real asset. And a Symphony's price tag isn't all that different from Carbon if you consider the preamps. I also like that Carbon is networkable and uses AVB. Symphony is definitely a quality product.
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Post by notneeson on Aug 10, 2021 20:19:40 GMT -6
PT Ultimate does have some features that just aren't in PT vanilla. If you are doing a large mixing session, DSP can be a real asset. And a Symphony's price tag isn't all that different from Carbon if you consider the preamps. I also like that Carbon is networkable and uses AVB. Symphony is definitely a quality product. I’m on HD at my place, vanilla at home. Just marveling at the options, I get that DSP systems have value. Just no longer sure it’s a requisite for tracking, for me.
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Post by ragan on Aug 10, 2021 21:16:28 GMT -6
PT Ultimate does have some features that just aren't in PT vanilla. If you are doing a large mixing session, DSP can be a real asset. And a Symphony's price tag isn't all that different from Carbon if you consider the preamps. I also like that Carbon is networkable and uses AVB. Symphony is definitely a quality product. I’m on HD at my place, vanilla at home. Just marveling at the options, I get that DSP systems have value. Just no longer sure it’s a requisite for tracking, for me. I assume you were using the Apogee Control app for low latency monitoring and not monitoring through native PT (for live/armed inputs)?
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Post by notneeson on Aug 10, 2021 22:34:43 GMT -6
I’m on HD at my place, vanilla at home. Just marveling at the options, I get that DSP systems have value. Just no longer sure it’s a requisite for tracking, for me. I assume you were using the Apogee Control app for low latency monitoring and not monitoring through native PT (for live/armed inputs)? No, that’s the thing, I didn’t do anything different than I would on HD and tracking was seamless. Monitored off of aux sends in PT. We could listen in input mode, no issues. I didn’t open/touch Apogee Control once. Would not even know what it looks like, honestly. I mean unless these musicians just couldn’t tell? But they’re experienced record makers and have a lot sessions in the books. I do regret not throwing on a pair of cans and listening for myself. It was an unusual situation (For me) where the house engineer set up day one and I was just stepping in to the chair on day two. Plus the live room is upstairs from the control room, which is a tad challenging for self directed tests.
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Post by ragan on Aug 10, 2021 22:39:11 GMT -6
I assume you were using the Apogee Control app for low latency monitoring and not monitoring through native PT (for live/armed inputs)? No, that’s the thing, I didn’t do anything different than I would on HD and tracking was seamless. Monitored off of aux sends in PT. We could listen in input mode, no issues. I didn’t open/touch Apogee Control once. Would not even know what it looks like, honestly. I mean unless these musicians just couldn’t tell? But they’re experienced record makers and have a lot sessions in the books. I do regret not throwing on a pair of cans and listening for myself. It was an unusual situation (For me) where the house engineer set up day one and I was just stepping in to the chair on day two. Plus the live room is upstairs from the control room, which is a tad challenging for self directed tests. That's really interesting. Unless the buffer was down at at least like 128 samples I don't know how they weren't hearing/feeling the latency. Maybe it was already cranked down when you took over and the machine was up to the task. Well, it worked!
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Post by notneeson on Aug 10, 2021 22:45:41 GMT -6
No, that’s the thing, I didn’t do anything different than I would on HD and tracking was seamless. Monitored off of aux sends in PT. We could listen in input mode, no issues. I didn’t open/touch Apogee Control once. Would not even know what it looks like, honestly. I mean unless these musicians just couldn’t tell? But they’re experienced record makers and have a lot sessions in the books. I do regret not throwing on a pair of cans and listening for myself. It was an unusual situation (For me) where the house engineer set up day one and I was just stepping in to the chair on day two. Plus the live room is upstairs from the control room, which is a tad challenging for self directed tests. That's really interesting. Unless the buffer was down at at least like 128 samples I don't know how they weren't hearing/feeling the latency. Maybe it was already cranked down when you took over and the machine was up to the task. Well, it worked! I did speak to the house engineer about that and it’s possible it was running at 128, although I don’t remember it that way. In my mind it was higher. He showed me that the rig would go down to 64 no problem if you’re not running plugins, he just thought it wasn’t really necessary. Now that I think about it that could get to be an issue when overdubbing to a large, plugin reliant session. Anyway, I am in no real need of an upgrade, just found it interesting.
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Post by kilroyrock on Aug 11, 2021 14:27:47 GMT -6
Have y'all noticed the recent promo for Avid's Carbon interface? Buy a Carbon and get Free Pro Tools Ultimate with a perpetual license. They are also offering an Auto-Tune Hybrid software, but I haven't even looked into what that is. Still, software that normally costs you just under $3K is tempting, especially if can do your work with just eight or fewer inputs. (Why they haven't made this expandable I'll never understand.) That's a (somewhat) affordable way to get into a PT DSP system if you have wanted to pull the trigger before. Now some folks will work for years on the perpetual license without paying for the upgrade fee, which makes this pretty cool. I'm wondering if Avid will charge an upgrade fee once they make PT M1 compatible (not just Rosetta supported). Looks like you can do 16 channels of adat preamps for 24 mic/line total, maybe that last one is spdif or a talk mic? If you're talking HD I/O expandable, then yeah. either way, you're better than 8 channels if need be
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Post by kilroyrock on Aug 11, 2021 14:44:22 GMT -6
And now that I've gone down the rabbit hole of "should I get this, ditch my pre8x, sell that and pony the difference?" - it's mac only (i'm pc only) and apparently avb is pretty well dead in the water as a standard, where Dante has continued to hold... Maybe Pro tools should have considered including the ...industry standard <ducks> networking protocol? I'd probably buy it for that perpetual license and dsp! audioxpress.com/article/avid-pro-tools-carbon-audio-interface-is-a-dead-end
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Post by sirthought on Aug 11, 2021 16:41:30 GMT -6
I don't believe AVB is dead whatsoever. Any University, corporate campus, or things tied in with video is very interested in it. It was always more appealing to the video customers than audio. But the industry conglomeration who hashed it out are committed.
Carbon has barriers compared to a lot of units attractive to home studios. But the benefits for pros who know what kind of install they need to tackle it might be a good price point, with the whole system considered.
And naturally Avid is committed to getting people using Avid products for video production.
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Post by Quint on Aug 11, 2021 16:46:28 GMT -6
If I were considering Carbon, I wouldn't be willing to pull the trigger until Avid has released (and proven it to work, trouble free) the means to network more than one Carbon with AVB.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,937
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Post by ericn on Aug 11, 2021 16:46:45 GMT -6
Oh how I miss the days when a software lic. was linked to your hardware. Yes the transferring was a pain but you knew you had a lic.
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Post by subspace on Aug 27, 2021 14:11:14 GMT -6
Nice, I was an early adopter of Carbon so didn't qualify for the promo, but Avid just dropped a perpetual Ultimate license in my account. Guess they got complaints from other folks who bought before the promo, whatever, I'll take the freebie!
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Post by sirthought on Aug 27, 2021 14:19:24 GMT -6
Nice, I was an early adopter of Carbon so didn't qualify for the promo, but Avid just dropped a perpetual Ultimate license in my account. Guess they got complaints from other folks who bought before the promo, whatever, I'll take the freebie! What are your thoughts on the Carbon?
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Post by subspace on Aug 27, 2021 15:56:03 GMT -6
Nice, I was an early adopter of Carbon so didn't qualify for the promo, but Avid just dropped a perpetual Ultimate license in my account. Guess they got complaints from other folks who bought before the promo, whatever, I'll take the freebie! What are your thoughts on the Carbon? Thought 1: After tracking on a native DAW the prior twenty years, the headache finally went away when I put down the hammer and bought Carbon. Last week's sessions were all fixes on vocal soloists, just the music director, soloist and myself on phones. "Can we pick up the 'the' in the middle of that line?" Quickpunch "That sounded good, lets replace the 'finally' at the end of verse 2." No playbacks, what they hear live is what's expected on the final product, no latency. Thought 2: Take a listen to the conversion if you get the chance, the hybrid recording engine is great and all, but as just a straight interface it's awesome the first time you play back a capture.
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Post by Vincent R. on Sept 3, 2021 9:45:37 GMT -6
Oh, crap. I caved!
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Post by subspace on Sept 3, 2021 13:52:27 GMT -6
Welcome to the club! The bundled software is kinda crazy, I had a perpetual PT9 and a perpetual PT10/11/12 license on two machines before buying. After registering I ended up with two new active subscriptions that revert to perpetual on their anniversary and now this bonus perpetual PT Ultimate license waiting to be activated. You get new licenses to the Inner Circle plug-ins with each PT activation, so they start to stack up!
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Post by progear on Sept 5, 2021 7:08:43 GMT -6
I also caved ….
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Post by Vincent R. on Sept 5, 2021 17:22:58 GMT -6
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Post by guitfiddler on Sept 5, 2021 18:57:20 GMT -6
What are your thoughts on the Carbon? Thought 1: After tracking on a native DAW the prior twenty years, the headache finally went away when I put down the hammer and bought Carbon. Last week's sessions were all fixes on vocal soloists, just the music director, soloist and myself on phones. "Can we pick up the 'the' in the middle of that line?" Quickpunch "That sounded good, lets replace the 'finally' at the end of verse 2." No playbacks, what they hear live is what's expected on the final product, no latency. Thought 2: Take a listen to the conversion if you get the chance, the hybrid recording engine is great and all, but as just a straight interface it's awesome the first time you play back a capture. So, quality(conversion) and functionality is above and beyond anything on the market in this price range, is what you are saying? I'm still on the fence
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Post by Vincent R. on Sept 6, 2021 9:08:52 GMT -6
Of course my cables were delayed…
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Post by subspace on Sept 6, 2021 9:41:55 GMT -6
There may be native interfaces with similar quality conversion in this price range, but nothing with this level of Pro Tools integration. I was using a MOTU 16A with PT12 prior to installing Carbon and frankly the punch-in monitoring process was better on ADATs compared to that. The main limitation with Carbon is recording more than 8 inputs requires ADAT expansion, which only adds 8 more at 96k.
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Post by Vincent R. on Sept 6, 2021 10:27:52 GMT -6
Holy pro clarity Batman! I've never heard my monitors this clear!
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Post by subspace on Sept 6, 2021 10:46:03 GMT -6
Holy pro clarity Batman! I've never heard my monitors this clear! Did I mention the conversion is really good? I ended up bypassing the monitor controller, sounds best straight in.
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