Quote:
Originally Posted by JKR
My new iMac 3.4 i7 arrives tomorrow and I'd appreciate any tips on setting it up for the best performance with PT's 9 (10 soon).
Will be 16G Ram and using an Apogee Ensemble.
Should/Can I partition the drive and record internally or use external HD's only.
Should I set the PT's to use 6 or 7 cores?
Any other killer tips to help?
Thanks
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Congrats on your iMac!!
I have a 17" 2.3 i7 Macbook Pro as a mobile setup. I use a Glyph Portagig on the firewire and an Mbox 3 on the usb. I also use an Axiom Pro. The iLok is on the third usb. A UAD Solo laptop is on the express card. I can't say enough about the M Audio, UAD, and Mbox 3. Pro Tools 9.05 runs nicely. I am trying to figure the best way to get to the disc cache function without spending two grand, or else I'd already be on Pro Tools 10.
So far as setting processors--leaving on 8, at 95% is fine. But go ahead and try 7 processors, at 99%. That works as well. The i7 is a great processor.
Now regarding the daisy-chaining on the firewire bus. I also have an iMac core 2 duo and M Audio Profire 610 at home. I use a Glyph GT050Q for my audio drive. You must use a separate audio drive!!! A spinning one at that. SSD's as a system drive, though not officially supported, seem to work, but you must use a separate, 7200 rpm drive for audio!! Daisy chaining over firewire works on the iMac with the Profire 610 like this:
1-Firewire 800 to 400 adapter or cable to your audio interface.
2-Firewire 400 cable from your audio interface to the hard drive.
***If you are only recording one to two channels simultaneously, you can take the hard drive off the firewire bus and use a usb port on the iMac instead.
I have tried many setups with the iMac, and after consulting numerous times with people from M Audio, Glyph, and Pro Tools, I have my iMac set up as #'s 1 and 2 above. This has been the most stable/error free setup for my iMac (and only two processors, not 8!).
For a while, I had my drive on the usb port, as suggested by the fellow from Pro Tools. It worked fine--error free-- but I felt better with it on the firewire bus (slightly more bandwidth).
Keep in mind that you have to get yourself a firewire 800-400 cable or adapter. Not too pricey and can be found anywhere. Also, OWC has some nice, relatively inexpensive external drives that are tested to run on Pro Tools. I highly recommend Glyph or OWC.
When I got my laptop, I could have opted for a firewire audio interface, (Duet perhaps?). But due to my experience with the iMac, I opted to keep everything on a separate bus; usb audio, firewire hard drive, and express card external dsp processing. Everything works well (no errors or clicks--nada), is bus powered, and can run off battery for at least an hour or so. Very cool!
I am looking forward to a quieter drive than the Lacie, cos then i can use Thunderbolt for the audio drive (Where are the Thunderbolt drives?!!?), a UAD satellite on the firewire, and open up the express card for ---Native HD perhaps?!? Sorry, just dreaming a little!!!
Anyway, good luck and have fun. You've got a nice setup!! The folks at Avid and M Audio have been doing a nice job imho, and the Macs just work.
