This is a compilation of stuff you need to get up and running with your very own Pro Tools 24|MIX system!
You will need the following parts:
*At least one MIX Core PCI card
This is the Core of the system (well, duh?).
Contains six (6) Motorola 56k DSP's and the hardware dongle in order to get Pro Tools TDM running. The basic MIX 24 system only concists of this PCI card.
*Any number of MIX Farm PCI cards (optional)
This is what you use to expand your TDM system.
A MIX PLUS system is a MIX Core and MIX Farm card together.
MIX Farm card is exactly like the MIX Core card, but does NOT contain the Pro Tools dongle, just the six (6) DSP's. You can use up to 10 cards in one MIX 24 system, with the last 3 of them being DSP Farm cards. You can also have multiple MIX Core cards together if you get some cheaply. Only the Core card located at the first PCI-slot will be used as the dongle, the rest of the Core cards will act like Farm cards.
If you stumble upon a load of DSP Farm cards (Digidesigns high-end system before the 24|MIX) these will work with the system as well, but are less powerful than the MIX Farm and MIX Core cards.
Use only if you stumble upon them for next to nothing or you get them for free.
*Ribbon cable to connect all the cards with each other (optional)
If you have more than one card, you need this little ribbon cable.
Can be found easily for around $20USD on ebay. There are 2-connector, 5-connector and 10-connector versions of this cable avalible. Buy the 5-connector version directly, even if you only have two cards. Makes is more easy to upgrade the systems with more MIX Farm cards later on.
*An A/D interface
This is what connects you to the analog world. Comes in a 1RU or 2RU cases, the ADAT Bridge, 882, and 888.
ADAT bridge has optical in and out capable of 16 ins and 16outs using external preamps.
The others have 8 ins and 8 outs and internal preamps, but the 888 has balanced XLR connections.
There are allso different versions of these. The original ADAT Bridge, 882 and 888 can be used at the most for 48khz and 16bit sound. The 882/20 for 48khz and 20bit sound (works in 24bit projects too) and the 888/24 and ADAT Bridge/24 for 48khz and 24bit sound.
So what you want is the 882/20 or 888/24. Perhaps the ADAT Bridge/24 if you allready have preams or a digital mixer with optical in and out.
Two of these boxes can be used with every MIX Core or MIX Farm card, for a total of 24 rack boxes, 192 ins and 192 outs if you have 12 cards. Pretty much endless expandability. The ADAT Bridge takes up both connectors on each card using a Y cable, since it supports 16 in and 16 out using external preamps.
*Cables
You need a single and a "Y" cable depending on how many A/D boxes you want to use with each card. It's a special digidesign cable and can be found very easily on ebay. Every card can take one ADAT Bridge or two A/D boxes using a "Y" cable, making a total of 16 ins and 16 outs per card.
*Software
This is the hardest part. You need at least Pro Tools 4.1, but recommended is of course the last OS9 version, which is 5.1.3. You can use your 24|MIX system with OSX Panther and Pro Tools 6.4.1 if you feel like that too, but the plugins are not compatible and need a hardware look (iLok), so 5.1.3 is the best option. TDM plugins are accelerated, but RTAS plugins can be used on the host CPU at the same time as well. It's pretty hard to find this software. I have it and will upload it very soon.
That's pretty much all you need. The cons of this system is that you really need to know what you need since you have allmost endless expandability. It's also pretty difficult to find a "turnkey" system, so you are better off collecting all the parts individually from ebay or craigslist (or a similliar site). The pro's are the expandability, stabillity, sound quality and DSP-power.
