Is pro tools ever gonna go to 64 bit?

[charlie2]

I'm thinking of getting the east west samples, so I was looking into a new computer to hold it.

I priced sweetwater's creation station, audiodaw (i think their name is) and pcaudio's roxbox. The roxbox had the most bang for the buck. From what I understand they were all similar computers and the rox box was around $1000 less, plus it's small which is good.

Anyway, this new computer would be connected to my old one which has pro tools 7.3 on it.
I'll be able to keep the 7.3 and record just like i always do on my old computer, but with the east west samples.

PS. the sweetwater guy said linking the two computers is really difficult.

Another possible way to go is to use just one computer and change my DAW. If I do this, I might also have to get rid of my M box because the guy wasn't sure that it could be used with other daws. Anyone, know if it can?

I'm thinking of taking this possible route because one guy said that pro tools will never be 64 bit and you need 64 bit for memory and you need the memory for the big east west type samples. Anyone know if this is true?


What do most pro people use besides pro tools...sonar, cubase, logic which is mac,...what are the pro DAWS? Is that it in the pro league?

but if I do that, I wonder how long it will take to learn and get up and use a new daw.

PS. I'll most likely also add addictive, or another drum program to the mix, plus a decent drum pad.

Anyway...thanks again for all the help.

[Len911]

Charlie, I don't see the purpose of just putting the samples of east west on a new computer, and using pro tools on the old computer.
It would be the same as if you just put the east west samples on a hard drive, and you are still processing them via pro tools on the old computer. Just linking computers is not going to divide the processing power between the two processors, the old computer would still be doing all the processing within protools and the east west software, it would just stream the samples off the hard drive of the new computer.
What computer do you have now? You may not even need a new computer. I am pretty sure m-box will work with most other daws out there.
If you are wanting to buy a new computer so you can use east-west in 64 bit mode, that is fine as long as you have a DAW that operates in 64 bit mode. The problem I think is mixing 64 bit programs with 32 bit. So for example if you had 64 bit cubase running 64 bit east-west, on the new computer. I don't know why you couldn't keep the old computer with the pro tools, and run your 32 bit vsts or rtas,lol, and 32 bit programs. If you have a plan exactly what you want to do, it would be easier to determine what configuration would work. I would probably have the new computer with cubase 64 bit, east west 64 bit only inside the box, so you wouldn't need external ins and outs, and save that for the old computer with protools setup. You could even have cubase operating 32 bit on old machine also, but you would need to attach dongle on whatever computer you were working in cubase on. Once you get your mix of east west,on the new computer, you can then import that into your protools and add 32 bit stuff and analog stuff if need be, on the old computer, probably with a flash drive.
If you just use one computer in 64bit mode there will probably be several 32bit products that you will never be able to use, easily I should say,lol!
Personally, I would just do 32 bit, and render sections at a time, because it would probably be easier to re-mix a section if necessary, rather than have the whole dang thing open at once, although convenient, actually might cause greater inconvenience in the long run. On the other hand,lol, if all you were doing were orchestras inside the box with east-west samples, and all your favorite
processors were 64bit, you wouldn't need the other computer or pro tools, it's the versatility that complicates matters.

[charlie2]

You lost me. I'm not that tech oriented.

The reason I'm thinking of getting another computer is because I want to use the east west samples and I don't think my dell xps400 computer could hold them, even though I have 4 gigs of ram in it.

My other concern is east west is 64 bit and my pro tools is 32 bit which people say doesn't work together. (or does it?)
Therefore to use east west I either have to get another 64 bit DAW, (which I rather not do because I'm now getting better on PT) or put the east west on another computer so I could use both pro tools and east west together.

Anyway, from what I understand, the east west on another new 8 gig computer, which is connected to my old one would enable me to use those samples and memory as I record on PT on my old computer. It would give me the benefits of 8 gigs of east west memory as I record on my old 32 bit pro tools. Wouldn't it?

Also, I would like to know if pro tools is ever gonna go 64 bit. If it isn't, then maybe I need to switch, but this is not something I look forward to because it would take more time to learn a new DAW. I'd much rather keep my PT if possible.

You lost me when you say render sections at a time, and vst or rtas. are they plug ins? Also only inside the box means what? dongle is what again? Anyway, thanks for your reply.

[charlie2]

I just remembered, someone told me that structure is something that could make pro tools and east west work together. Anyone know anything about this?

[mojobone]

There's no reason whatsoever you couldn't stream samples from a computer running a 64-bit OS to a ProTools rig running on a 32-bit machine; the audio streams are independent of the operating system. The machines don't even have to be the same platform, cuz MIDI and digital audio data are platform-independent. It's pretty much the ideal way to do what you're trying to do, imo. That way, you don't need to learn a new DAW, but can still wrangle a massive number of instruments, though you may have to record them as stems if your master machine doesn't have enough digital inputs. Alternatively, you could transfer eight tracks (or fewer) at a time, but that's hardly ideal.

The advantage of a 64-bit system is the ability to address more RAM, and sample playback is very RAM-intensive; more so than simply streaming audio, because samplers typically load a portion of each sample into RAM buffers. (DAWs use RAM buffering, too, but typically don't need near as much) Before 64-bit systems became available, Hollywood composers dealt with this by using multiple XP machines (I think Hans Zimmer had as many as fifty!, at one point) running Gigastudio and spending thousands on MIDI and digital audio I/O for their master machine running their DAW of preference, be it Performer, Logic, Nuendo or ProTools. (there were racks upon racks of MOTU interfaces) It's really not terribly difficult to connect two computers, it's just complicated, cuz there are a number of ways to do it. How you do it depends on your DAW and your interface hardware.