More information on Pro Tools 2 and 3 Systems

[mrkirkby]

Anyone with cards or hardware from these systems, can you please post any images you have? They are fairly difficult to find in any decent resolution online and I'm looking to collate information on them.

I'll add a few of my own. I have PT2 cards and single interface master boards for them as well as 3 nuverb units, one of which has a TDM board.

Looking for images of the PT3 specific nubus cards with their piggyback boards removed

Also, if anyone has any hardware to sell, I have a post open in the trading post.

Many thanks!
Andrew

 

[mrkirkby]

I'll start with this, the elusive Grey Matter Response Sysaxe card. Used to combine 4 Pro Tools Audio Nubus cards together to record and play back 16 channels. There's a 68020 CPU on the card in addition to a SCSI controller. They're very hard to find in the wild. I found mine for sale as a SCSI card.

Can someone tell me, with PT2.5 and this card, presumably you need to add TDM piggybacks for x card DSP sharing?

Earlier versions of PT2 run with this card quite happily but recording and mixing is done on an external console still.

 

[mrkirkby]

Next, the Lexicon Nuverb. Adds a Lexicon 300 to a nubus mac on a card. I/O is on AES/EBU and with an optional TDM daughterboard you can route in and out of it in PT3. I have the card + daughterboard but lack the rest of a PT3 system so don't actually know how it integrates properly. There's a shortcut to launch nuverb in PT2.. A very early plugin.. You plug it in

I love the sound of these. They hold their own today for various tasks even when stacked up against a Bricasti M7 when used with decent converters.

 

[mrkirkby]

PT2 Audio card with single interface master. The original PT2 card shipped without the TDM board but this was added later with PT2.5 as a TDM upgrade option. It's pretty hard to find the blue ribbon cable that connects the cards together. They're often sold without it.

I believe a single interface master was used for a single PT2 card and dual piggybacks were used for the PT3 era cards? Please correct me if I'm wrong..

 

[paws]

Nice to have a ProTools thread again! We had one with some good info but it was unfortunately lost in a crash a few years ago.

I don't personally have a Nubus ProTools setup running at this moment. I've had a few different ones:

* Simple, minimal two-card TDM setup in a Quadra 700 with 882 interface
* Two cards + SampleCell TDM + 882 in a Quadra 650 and PowerMac 7100/80
* Lots of cards in an expansion chassis with three 882s and a PowerMac 7100/80

The hardware I bought in two lots, as complete sets without computers).

I have had all of this running with both ProTools 3 and 4, and also some version of Logic. I recall ProTools 3 really being too primitive for my tastes, as far as the editing goes. I've never tried the earlier versions at all. Everything I needed, softwarewise, I got from this collection: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/ppc-audio-software-os7-osx58-some-68k-apps

I've seen some people talk about having trouble with different versions and such. Everything was quite smooth for me as far as I remember. Started with a clean 7.6.1, added DAE and ProTools. I think the last compatible version of PT4 wants MacOS 8.1, but the details escape me. I think that had some copy protection stuff as well, something about needing to install everything then run some cracks from the above collection. I don't really have the space to set up the full rig again at the moment to test it out, unfortunately.

 

[paws]

The two-card setup I mention is one Core card that connects to the HD and interface, and one card that has just DSPs. This is the minimal setup for TDM. I think you can use the HD/interface card on its own, but then there's no software mixing. Maybe if you're recording instruments and mixing in hardware that's cool.

I really rate the SampleCell card, especially with Turbosynth (but then my music is just weird noises). That combined with the TDM NuVerb sounds like a pretty good combination. I don't really enjoy the bulky 4U NuBus chassis and the Macs I have have only 3 slots, so I don't have the space for it. Not that I'll be able to find a NuVerb anyway...

There's a long Nine Inch Nails thread on Gearspace where Charlie Clouser talks about using the SampleCells for his remix work a lot, chopping up guitar parts and doing the arrangements that way. NIN used Turbosynth extensively in the early days, apparently.

 

[David Cook]

I recently bought a Quadra 950 with two of those Pro Tools cards and a SCSI card. If anyone is looking for any of this software, please let me know and I'll upload it.

 

[mrkirkby]

I recently bought a Quadra 950 with two of those Pro Tools cards and a SCSI card. If anyone is looking for any of this software, please let me know and I'll upload it.

View attachment 79924

That's definitely useful! If anyone has the tools needed to clone / reset an auth floppy, it would be good to have up somewhere handy too. Not sure if it's kicking about on the garden or not. It's mentioned in a few places here and there.

 

[mrkirkby]

I have a few bits more hardware out now so I'll share. I've also just uploaded a few pro tools images to the garden with auth floppys. You'll need a greaseweasel though.

A PTIII farm card without its TDM piggyback board

 

[mrkirkby]

Samplecell II with and without TDM board


View attachment IMG_5886.jpeg

 

[mrkirkby]

Lexicon Nuverb with its TDM daughterboard

 

[CMW85]

@David Cook If you could upload all of the Pro Tools/Avid/Sound Designer stuff, that would be awesome!

What is the AudioStation software for? What version of Sound Designer and Pro Tools are on your Q950? Also, is the Avid Drive Utility for the SysAxe card? That would be very useful to have. (For anybody else that manages to find the card... lol.)

 

[CMW85]

I've got two Sample Cell I cards. I've been looking for a copy of the original editor from 1991. A guy from Germany told me that his Sample Cell card had a rectangular piggyback, whereas mine have square. He was able to use his card in a Quadra. I've also read that the original Sample Cell cards have to be modified to work with said machines and most certainly will not work with Nubus PowerMacs. Revision 4 Sample Cell II cards will only work in a Quadra; revision 5 cards will only work in Nubus PowerMacs.

Also, I read that the PowerPC ECI card won't work with certain versions of the PowerMac 7100 due to a bug in one of the motherboard chips. Earlier versions of the Nubus Digidesign chassis' backpane board had to be modified to work with PowerMacs. These cards are so fickle. I also think that there was an earlier iteration of the Digidesign chassis that was only compatible with II-era Macs, but I've never seen one for sale. It would have been used around 1991-1992.

 

[Callan]

I have a number of cards and a dongle that plugs into the adb port i'd like to get running. It will pass autorization, but is looking fornsomething else to boot. I also have a copy of the drive / software (Bluescsi image - used initiator) if someone needs a copy. I'll check my software / cards tonight after work if interested.