Various questions involving PowerMac 7100, 8100 and Pro Tools

[ArmorAlley]

What DAW do you use on your 8100/80?

I had in an AudioMedia II in there for a while but I never got around to using it, so I took it out. Once I had a choice to make about the Sonnet Crescendo card, I decided to keep it in and turn the 8100/400 into my file server.

 

[CMW85]

I had in an AudioMedia II in there for a while but I never got around to using it, so I took it out. Once I had a choice to make about the Sonnet Crescendo card, I decided to keep it in and turn the 8100/400 into my file server.

A lot of people say that the Audiomedia II has a really unique sound, even compared to the later Pro-Tools stuff. There's an interface called the Pro IO that has 18-bit Apogee converters, made for the Sound Accelerator card. I think it is compatible with Audiomedia II. Apparently, it is one of the best interfaces that Digidesign ever made. I'd like to try it out with Sound Designer someday.

It seems like with a lot of Pro Tools stuff - unless the user buys a turnkey system with plugins - it becomes somewhat obsolete before being able to use it. I wish companies like Waves would keep all of their old plugins available for legacy systems in a download archive. There's a constant upgrade culture among these companies.

 

[paws]

AudioMedia II has normal digital I/O, so you can use it with many converters if you like. The Sound Accelerator has some custom connection to a breakout box.

As for upgrade culture, you're very much right. It goes way back - I actually saw a website on archive.org that referred to NuBus PT systems as "antique" - in 1998, not more than two years after the first PCI system was introduced! But at least with this era it's still possible to get things running, and a lot of software has been saved. It'll be hard to impossible to recreate a 2023 DAW in 2043: everything is subscriptions and web-based activations.

 

[CMW85]

One article stated that 80 mhz Power Macs were actually preferred to the 100s because of the slightly faster 40 mhz bus speed. Were you able to use any plugins on your system? I've read that early Pro-Tools software was often better optimized for the hardware than current systems.

I saw an article that had an expired link to the Waves TDM bundle from 1998. The download was 11mb in size! Given that the average hard drive size in 1998 was 4GB, that's not too bad. Now, a person has to have gobs of free space just to install anything. I used to think that a 700mb hard drive was too small to do anything with. I find it amazing what kinds of programs could be run with so little space. There was a lot less bloat in software back then.

 

[CMW85]

I recently acquired two SampleCell 1 cards. Apparently, the first version of the piggyback from 1991 is not compatible with Quadra machines. This makes me wonder if the original SampleCell 1 piggyback is compatible with the PowerMac 7100/8100 models. Hopefully, it's just a Quadra-specific issue. (Probably not.)

 

[CMW85]

I've gotten conflicting information about 888 interfaces. Various users have said that the 888/24 isn't compatible with Nubus; however, a few have said that it is. I haven't gotten an 888 yet because I don't have clarity on this issue. Digidesign 888/24 compatibility was introduced with Pro Tools 4.1, and Nubus support was dropped after 4.2. So my question would be: Can an 888/24 be used on a Nubus system running Pro Tools 4.2? Did people assume the 888/24 was incompatible because Nubus support was dropped almost immediately after its release?

Would anyone here know?

(@paws @ArmorAlley thanks for answering my previous questions, by the way.)

 

[paws]

I don't know, I've also seen both. It might be more complicated than that - maybe they work with some drivers but not others.

Where in the world are you? I've got three original 882s that definitely do work with Nubus, and that's probably at least one too many.

 

[CMW85]

I don't know, I've also seen both. It might be more complicated than that - maybe they work with some drivers but not others.

Where in the world are you? I've got three original 882s that definitely do work with Nubus, and that's probably at least one too many.

I PM'd you.

 

[CMW85]

One the other things that I would like to find out - if the Mackie HUI interface is compatible with Nubus. It was launched concurrently with the release of the 888/24 and is compatible with Pro Tools 4.1. The article mentions PCI, but nothing of Nubus. I wonder if there were any other control surfaces prior to this one that were compatible with full versions of Pro Tools. I think the Mackie was the first that actually allowed for monitor inputs on the surface itself.

Mackie HUI

Session 8

I think it's kind of funny that Digidesign made a control surface for the Session 8 system in 1992, but couldn't be bothered to make a surface for regular Pro Tools users at the time. (Unless I'm missing something.) Seems like it would be a pain to use a 16-track, 442-based system with just a regular keyboard.

 

[paws]

I don't think HUI cares about the hardware you're using. If you're running the right version of PT, it'll work.

 

[CMW85]

I don't think HUI cares about the hardware you're using. If you're running the right version of PT, it'

Cool! I want to get a Mackie HUI eventually. It's good to know that compatibility is based on software.