Daisychaining 003R+ and external drive: likely problems?

[David Topple]

I'm doing a recording tomorrow (using a Macbook Pro) during which it will be helpful if I can daisychain my external Firewire 400 audio drive and the 003R+. I understand you get a limited track count using this set-up, but can anybody tell me exactly how limited the track count is? Presumably still a lot more than the 8 recording tracks I have available?

Also, is it preferable to have the 003R+ as the first device in the chain, or to have the external drive as the first device and daisychain the 003R+ from that? If one of these set-ups is preferable, can you explain why?

Thanks for any assistance.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by David Topple

I'm doing a recording tomorrow (using a Macbook Pro) during which it will be helpful if I can daisychain my external Firewire 400 audio drive and the 003R+. I understand you get a limited track count using this set-up, but can anybody tell me exactly how limited the track count is? Presumably still a lot more than the 8 recording tracks I have available?

Also, is it preferable to have the 003R+ as the first device in the chain, or to have the external drive as the first device and daisychain the 003R+ from that? If one of these set-ups is preferable, can you explain why?

Thanks for any assistance.

Daisychaining shouldn't limit your track count at all... I run daisychained hard drives with an 003 all the time, with 40-70 tracks no problems. Have done the same in a live setting, with 16 tracks recording simultaneously.

As per the recommended requirements, you should have the hard drive(s) first in the chain. The reasoning: if for whatever reason the 003 loses communication with your computer, you risk losing data from hard drives that might be connected after the 003. With the drives in front, they will continue working fine, even if the 003 drops connection.

[David Topple]

Thanks for the comments.

On track count, the 003R+ set-up guide states that 'connecting the 003 Rack+ to a Firewire port of an external drive that is connected to a computer does not support maximum track count'. It sounds like this might be incorrect - or are you only daisychaining the audio drives, not the 003 as well?

As regards the 003 losing the connection with the computer, I assume the 003's ability (according to the set-up guide) to daisychain power from the computer even when it's off, doesn't therefore apply to data as well.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by David Topple

Thanks for the comments.

On track count, the 003R+ set-up guide states that 'connecting the 003 Rack+ to a Firewire port of an external drive that is connected to a computer does not support maximum track count'. It sounds like this might be incorrect - or are you only daisychaining the audio drives, not the 003 as well?

As regards the 003 losing the connection with the computer, I assume the 003's ability (according to the set-up guide) to daisychain power from the computer even when it's off, doesn't therefore apply to data as well.

I daisychain as such:

Macbook Pro > Hard drives > 003.

Have yet to experience any track count limitations.

I suppose it might depend on how powerful your computer is, but it hasn't been a problem for me.

An 003 might lose connection in a crash, or an occasional error. It's not a frequent occurance, but it has happened. If you have the drives before the 003, you won't have to worry about your drives crashing as well.

[CME]

Yeah the drives def go before the interface. And I have never had any limitations as far as track count goes daisy chaining. Maybe if you're doing a ton of tracks with a 96khz session. But with 48khz I have had sessions with 40-50 tracks, and PTLE's system usage was registering maybe 20% disk usage.

[Bender]

I never knew that. I have been going from computer 003 to external hard drives for as long as I have had my 003 and 002 before that and never had an issue.