!Firewire to Ultrawide SCSI conversion!

[Mr T]

Upgrading your system of back up by using tape storage instead of CDR?...
I don't get it...One studio I'm working in is using tape storage ( DDS with Retrospect) , this surely is a good and safe back up device, but it sure takes for ever !! Have you ever tried to restore a 1 Gb session from one of these tapes?...
You'd better have some friends to visit or a good (large) book to read !!!
I would stick with CDR...Just my opinion...

[ripe]

I use a Digi001 on my G4 400 with a Samplecell card and Serial port pci card for use with my Studio 4 midi interface. This of course uses up all of my available pci slots.
I am trying to upgrade my system of backing up data by using ATI tape storage media instead of CDR. The problem is that ATI only works with the ultrawide scsi interface. So, I found a firewire to scsi converter made by Ratoc that would apparantly seem to do the trick.
I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience in using this conversion or if anyone else using ATI backup might have any suggestions for other possible solutions. Thanks.

[ripe]

Oops, I mean AIT media. . . . a moment of dyslexia, sorry.

[aka21stCentury]

I would speak with Dantz first- if you're a Retrospect Desktop user?

[ripe]

I'm Choosing AIT over CDR for a couple of reasons. First, my client CDR backup catalog is getting way out of hand, close to a thousand total for clients in the past year alone. Second, it's not cost and time efficient if I'm having to burn a new backup everytime a small change or edit is made to a song and I've even got a 16 speed burner. With AIT only the new changes are saved and not the whole file once its been saved the first time. Also, this is for my B room. The A room here at the Zone already has AIT backup for use with its PT mix plus system. Compatability is very important because often times a project will be started in one room and finished in another and loading sessions from AIT is really not that much slower than from CDR, especially if it's a large session over 700 MB. I could go on and on about why I'm choosing to go this rout, but the main issue I'm interested in here is the firewire to ultrawide scsi conversion. I guess I'll try to check with Sony and the people at Mezzo who make the software we use for handling the AIT exchange. I appreciate the input.

[aka21stCentury]

I had a very 'early' Ultra SCSI to USB adapter.

It was soooooo slow.

But, if these SCSI3 convertors would work with 1394 (at IDE 66 speeds). That would be cool.

Apple is saying the latest Firewire drives they are selling are IDE 100 but operate at 66 (is that because of the adapter?)

[ripe]

Well, I just spoke with tech support at Grey Matter, the company that makes the Mezzo file exchange software that I would be using. There current version doesn't support firewire so it looks like I'll have to find another way to hook up to an ultrawide scsi connection.

Maybe there is a firewire to serial port connection that I could use to connect my Studio 4 midi interface. That would free up a pci slot and would avoid the whole USB thing. I don't know anyone who's had a favorable experience using USB and midi, especially if there's an adapter involved. Either that or maybe I could find a used or cheap expansion chassis to go ahead and make room for more gear! I'd prefer to spend the least amount of money possible of course.

Any Ideas?

[Allen Hallada]

If you have a firewire connection, why not just go with a firewire external hard drive. I found a good 20GB External Firewire Hard drive for around 150.00. Check out www.pricewatch.com for best prices.
Just a thought.
Allen [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[ripe]

Well, I just wanted to keep my current configuration as much the same as possible. I've decided to remove the serial port pci card that my Studio 4 is using to make room for an ultrawide scsi card. This will also give me the ability to use a hotswap drive in the future for versatility between studios as well.

Now I just have to figure out how to get a connection to my serial port Studio 4. Firewire to Serial? USB to Serial?

[Slim Shady]

if you don't need your internal modem, the 'stealth serial port' replacements from www. geethree.com are excellent. I run my MOTU Midi Express from that port, and it is thousands of times more stable than it was when I tried to run it using USB [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]