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#1
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Recommended Firewire Drives
Other than the 2 recommended on the digi site - what firewire hard drives are reliable as PT audio file drives -and which is the best deal? Is there a problem with using a drive thats too large (in gigabytes that is)? Also, is it common to put samples and PT audio on the same drive - or have separate drives? Also, is the firewire 800 standard being utilized?
Thanks for help, -c |
#2
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
buy a good disk (7200rpm, 8Mb cache) and an enclosure. They work great and you'll save money.
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#3
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Granite Digital is my favorite place to buy enclosures. I put Western Digital 7200 RPM drives with 8 MB caches in them (JB series).
I don't know of specific problems with large drives. You could partition them. In general, it doesn't pay to keep huge amounts of material from completed projects on your audio drives. To keep fragmentation low, it pays to reinitialize the drives on a regular basis (that way, you eliminate fragmentation as well as get a new directory). I would not store samples on the same drives as audio. Actually, it's a better idea to keep one or the other on a different bus. Personally, I keep my samples (that will be streamed) on internal ATA drives, and use FW drives for audio. FW800 currently seems to be going through growth pains. Digidesign doesn't recommend it. Also, the first generation of G5's has problems with FW800 hardware that supposedly will be fixed in later models. I haven't heard if the recently released G5's have had the problems fixed. Lee Blaske |
#4
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Any one have experience with the Glyph 103 hotswappable Firewire drives? I am considering purchasing this unit...
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#6
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Quote:
There are other companies that make excellent rack-mount enclosures. If, for instance, you bought a rack mount enclosure and trays from Granite Digital and loaded them up with Western Digital JB series drives (newegg is one of the better online retailers to deal with for drives), you'll save a LOT, and the quality and dependability will not suffer. Save that money and send it to your favorite charity, or take a well-deserved vacation. FWIW, here's a little price comparison (I'll use Sweetwater prices on the Glyph equipment)... (1) Glyph GT103 rack @ $669.97 + (3) Glyph 200 GB GT Key (HD mechanism not identified) drives (3 x $569.97)= $2,379.88 as compared to... (2) Granite Digital 1024 two drive rack mount bays (2 x $559.00) plus (4) 250 GB WD2500JB drives (4 x $185) = $1858 So, for over five hundred dollars less, you can have an additional drive online AND 250 GB drives rather than 200 GB drives. You'll really save if you add additional removable drives, because buying GD trays and HD mechanisms from a good online retailer is considerably cheaper. If you're a busy facility, and buying (or selling) separate drives for different clients, this will add up really fast. Also, for me, three drives is kind of an odd number if you're running a PT HD system. If you go with 32 tracks of 44.1/48k audio per hard drive (this has always worked well for me - even though Digidesign recommends six drives), four FireWire drives will get you the full 128 voice count out of an HD system. If you went with six drives, you'd obviously save even more. Lee Blaske |
#7
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Many thanks for the tips and advice Lee... my prices are slightly better ... $599 for the rack, and $344 for 3 120GB drives... plus there is a fourth "table top" drive for $215. Total cost: $1818 although that's for 120GB drives...
Another thought, I've heard that the Glyph unit is made of a special metal (Quietmetal) that dampens noise. Do the Granite enclosures have such a feature? Also, I received correspondence from a person who informed me that the Glyph units actually sound better than other FW drives (tighter low end) due to a certain combination of parts used along with their Oxford chip set... I was skeptical at first but he argues a good case which I quote below: "....even though other drives that have the Oxford chipset, the firewire bridge (it's the only thing the guys at Glyph and I could figure out) makes a difference on playback. You can record to any FW drive with the Oxford chipset, but if you transfer the session to SCSI or a Glyph Drive you will hear a difference in the bottom end. SCSI is looser... FW is tighter. On the glyph drives its big and tight rather than sounding cold and smaller. I've been told this is technically impossible, but it's there, which is how we came up with the bridge board idea. That is the streaming choke point." What do you think of this? Any input is appreciated. |
#8
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Hey Ray, I'll do you a bit better even:
Allpro I was thinking the same as you, although I like Lee's suggestion and have also considered the Granite Digital route. Haven't decided yet.... Lee, I just downloaded their latest price list and unless I misssed something (which is quite possible ) I think those prices may be a bit off... Also a quick question: Are those drives quiter than the GT 103? -Abbott
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PT 12.7 HDX 2/Mac OS 10.10.5 2012 Mac Pro 3.46GHZ/64GB RAM |
#9
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
LaCie FW D2 Drives work great with Protools. They have custom drivers for their Oxford 911 bridge boards. I can get 64 tracks off one drive unless i have tons of edits. I just got a LaCie FW800 drive and that is working well on my Powerbook too.
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10022 I have 5 friends that use LaCies and we all love them.
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www.LiveFromDarylsHouse.com |
#10
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Re: Recommended Firewire Drives
Glyph's customer service is tip top. Had a drive go down in the middle of a session and they had a replacement in my hands the following day. First class.
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MacBook Pro M1 Max • 64 GB RAM • macOS Monterey 12.2 • PT 2021.12 |
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