When “Batman: The Dark Knight” hits theaters this month, few moviegoers will be aware of the massive Pro Tools HD scoring setup required for Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, the film’s composers.
But Peter Snell, the film’s technical scoring engineer, has firsthand knowledge of it as well as using the Solid State Logic XLogic Delta-Link to streamline the setup. The MADI-based Delta-Link, which provides up to 64 channels of audio over a single optical cable, greatly reduced the amount of traditional I/O units and requisite cabling needed to accomplish the same task.
Snell prefers the Delta-Links in a Pro Tools rig for Zimmer because the composer “doesn’t do anything small,” he said. The maximum Pro Tools setup for digital I/O is 10 16-channel Digidesign-192 units, or 160 channels, he explained. The Delta-Link modules, which each handle 64-channels, allowed Snell to make a significant reduction in the amount of rack space needed. For “Batman: The Dark Knight,” he used two Delta-Link systems for each of two Pro Tools rigs, replacing 16 of the Digidesign-192 I/O units.
The XLogic Delta Link MADI HD is a MADI-to-Pro Tools HD converter for studio, live and broadcast applications. MADI-enabled audio equipment, such as routers, digital mixing consoles and converters, can be directly interfaced with Pro Tools HD.
For more information, visit www.solid-state-logic.com.
