“How do I describe to you the world of professional music recording in the new millennium? Well, it recently took a giant leap forward thanks to a fantastic marriage between the AMD Opteron processor and Nuendo digital audio software,” says Ray Benson of Bismeaux Studio and Asleep at the Wheel.
In an exclusive interview with AMD, Ray Benson speaks out about the many features and benefits of the AMD Opteron processor and how this technology is continuing to simplify his professional digital audio needs by saving his studio both time and money.
“Although most commercial audio and video producers long ago moved into the all-digital world, the top-end “original music for CDs” crowd continues to use analog, tube and transistor technology to make records. Why? The simple truth is – or stated more correctly was, that analog sounded better than digital for rock, country, jazz and other types of music. However, the inherent and unsolvable problem with the old technology has always been:
- It’s expensive to own and maintain
- It adds unwanted noise to the recordings
- It’s time-consuming and imprecise to recall effects (i.e., trying to precisely recreate one great sound you got yesterday for another session tomorrow)
When Pro Tools and “plug-ins” came around as digital replacements for the old analog gear, these concerns were mitigated with the grand exception of one problem. The sound was not as warm and appealing as the gear they were replacing. Add to this the traditionally expensive nature of proprietary hardware-based digital audio workstations (DAWs). The older generation DAW systems typically require new purchases of hardware for each ”upgrade” as opposed to a software program running on standard PC technology that is much easier and less expensive to upgrade.
We searched around and finally found Nuendo, a digital audio program from Steinberg/Pinnacle that was fantastic! Nuendo is software, therefore easy and inexpensive to upgrade. It had all the plug-ins and compatible features needed, and most importantly, IT SOUNDED GREAT! It capitalized on the advantages of floating point digital technology, which made a huge difference between digital sound generated on fixed point!
So we hooked up Nuendo to the fastest and best 32-bit dual-processing PC we could find and began using it as a mixing tool. Having a vintage, late 60’s API board, we had no desire to retrofit it for mixing, besides DAW’s greatest advantage is total recall! It was great, sounded incredible, and performed well but -- there were some problems.
Essentially, the dual-processing platform we ran it on was not powerful enough to handle the amount of plug-ins and tracks we were mixing. We got around this by “printing” the effects as we went along, a viable solution but not what we wanted in the long run. For total recall to be effective, we needed to have complete recallable control of all parameters of the plug-ins. Essentially, what Nuendo needed was a much more powerful engine to power it.
When we were introduced to AMD Opteron processor running RackSaver's DAW, we were anticipating great things and boy, did it deliver. First, the power was amazing. We found it could handle over 125 VST plug-ins! Plus, it sounds better and works at our speed.
We did some testing to see the power limits of the AMD Opteron processor and were impressed by the sheer number of plug-ins it could handle. For VST plug-ins the number was well over 125. For each UAD card, of which we have two with four being the maximum number of cards the system will allow, we were able to utilize seven per card of the UAD plug-ins for a total of 14! Quite a difference from the 12 or so VST plug-ins for our other platform and two or three of the UAD plug-ins. Down here, we’d call that a “Texas-sized” difference!
We also have recorded and mixed at 96Khz and although the processors have to work twice as hard or more, we are still able to do multi-track recording and mixing at this higher sampling rate without crashing! The bottom line is that the DAW64 system based on dual AMD Opteron processors has made it possible to track to Nuendo as well as mix on Nuendo, both saving time and money. But here’s the kicker – it all works great on a 32-bit operating system. As the 64-bit operating system becomes available, we anticipate another significant increase in functionality!
All in all, the advent of the AMD Opteron processor has made software-based digital audio a reality and a force to be reckoned with. With the addition of a PC-based DAW in the audio world, we now have an alternative to Pro Tools that is not only BETTER in sound quality but competitive in price and functionality too! This is the new millennium!
Be sure to check out Ray’s studio online to see how vintage analog meets the latest in digital versatility-first hand.
