We don’t have to wait for press releases around here; an enthusiastic Apogee employee (not from the sales and marketing end, he says) writes in to brag about Apogee’s support for the new Apple Mac Pro. Not only are drivers available today for using the Apogee Symphony PCI-Express audio card, but Apogee says the combination of Apple and Apogee hardware acheives an unheard-of 2ms latency. From Apogee’s official statement:

Apogee’s new Universal PCI-Express driver, in combination with the powerful Intel processors in the Mac Pro, lowers the latency of the Symphony PCI-Express card by over 50% into the 2ms range. This achievement is a significant increase in performance beyond other native solutions on the market and compares favorably to the latency on other hardware-based systems.

Symphony PCI Express Product Page

That’s impressively low latency for native-processed audio, and it makes native software solutions like Logic Pro, DP, and Live all the more appealing. I don’t want to get too overexcited based on marketing materials, though; anyone out there who’s lucky enough to get a Mac Pro and a Symphony card, I’m sure we’ll all be anxious to hear your real-world experiences.

Apogee’s Ensemble FireWire card also has drivers (in beta, but evidently useful) for all Intel Macs, in case you’re using that with a new Mac Pro.

If you imagine these cards are only being used in studios, think again. Via Apogee’s news page, the 16:9 Art Installation at IRCAM/NIME 2006 let visitors spatialize sound on 144 speakers, all using a visual, painterly interface. [Project page] The resulting sounds, using two Symphony cards for 64 channels of audio, include lots of happy gurgles:

happy gurgles

Ed. note: Apogee Digital appear to have crashed their server; I’ll update once it’s back up. Guess those Mac Pro users don’t want to wait for Digidesign and HD? -PK

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Apple Mac Pro announcement, Digidesign has announced today they expect to release an Intel Mac-compatible version of Pro Tools HD 7.2 in September. Pro Tools LE and M-Powered are already available as Universal binaries for use with Intel Macs. The HD version lagged behind the lower-end releases because it requires a TDM card to operate, and the Mac Pro is the first machine from Apple with both an Intel chip and a PCI Express slot.

As for using LE and M-Powered with a Mac Pro, theoretically, you should be able to do that already. Digidesign has given it a shot:

Based on preliminary testing, Digidesign is also expecting that the current version 7.1.1 of Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered software (already compatible with Apple’s existing range of Intel-based computers such as MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMac) will function on the new Mac Pro without problems.

[Full details from Digi]

Official qualification for LE and M-Powered won’t come until the last quarter of the year, says Digidesign. That’s typical given Digidesign’s testing process; I expect some Mac Pro users will go ahead and take the leap. And, of course, there’s already broad Intel Mac support for audio hardware from M-Audio, Edirol, MOTU, and many others, plus support for software from Ableton, Apple, Propellerheads, and others. Mostly what we’re missing at this point is final support for Native Instruments products, Max/MSP/Jitter, and many plug-ins.

Note: while it’s not part of the official certification process, Digidesign does recommend that you equip your studio with lava lamps for maximum performance, as illustrated here.

Lee Sherman is live at the WWDC keynote. Phil Schiller has good news regarding the new Mac Pro tower, singling out pro audio applications to demonstrate the new machine’s speed:

1. Intel Xeon Woodcrest-based: Core 2 dual core CPUs up to 3GHz (that’s Core 2, not Core Duo, meaning the latest version of Intel’s Core architecture — and probably exactly what Apple was waiting for to go to Intel in towers); 64-bit, 4 MB shared L2 cache
2. Good “performance per watt” (that’s not just Apple blowing smoke this time; PC press have confirmed that about Core 2)
3. Quadruple your pleasure: Two dual-core CPUs, 2.1x faster than the existing top of the line G5 quad
4. Faster audio performance: Logic Pro is 1.8x faster than the G5 quad; Soundtrack Pro 1.6x faster. (These are the first we’ve heard of Soundtrack benchmarks, but we verified the basic claims of the Logic benchmarks on the Intel laptops at Macworld)
5. More storage: Finally, Apple is addressing the gripes about the G5 design: 4 hard drive bays for up to 2 TB of storage, a second optical drive, more front panel I/O and slots, but all fit in the same enclosure; thanks to the fact that there’s less need for cooling, there’s more space for expansion


6. US$2499 buys you a single, standard configuration: dual 2.66 XEON, 1GB RAM (underconfigured there, but okay), and 250GB HD, plus SuperDrive
7. “Highly Configurable”: You can configure options from there; NVIDIA Quadro graphics are available as an option

And so, Apple has “completed the Intel transition.” I have to say, it really sounds as though Apple has delivered here. I had hoped Apple would either go with a smaller case or deliver more storage options. The latter of these options is really ideal, given the pro market. The big question will be performance, as compared to the previous Power Mac G5s. The G5s perform so well, ironically, that unlike the laptops there may be less incentive to upgrade immediately if you have a late-model G5. But with Intel’s roadmap as healthy as it is, the long haul looks very good indeed, and if you’ve got an older tower that you’ve been waiting to upgrade, you may finally have a reason to spring. We’ll bring you more details on these machines as we get them. Now, since the case is the same, I hope we see more options for toting these giant towers on the road.

Now that Apple has delivered pro towers, you can also expect Digidesign will be making the TDM version of Pro Tools Intel-native very soon, too, so stay tuned for more on that.

Mac Pro [Apple.com]