Your experiences with PT10 and SSD OS drives

[NewdestinyX]

I have a project coming this month that will have me onsite with a client for a while. Don't want to take my MacPro with me and I'm just plain ready to update my 'rig 3' below from that old MBPro 2,2. I want to be able to mix on my laptop and have an option that maybe one day will even replace my MacPro. I was doing a lot of reading and was getting ready to land on a MBPro option until I came upon a Gearslutz.com thread that was talking about what amazing results a guy was getting with a MacBook Air in terms of track count now that PT10 has leveled the playing field in taking 'drive speed' and Firewire/eSata controller bottleneck issues out of the equation with their amazing new RamDisk cache implementation.

Has anyone seriously considered making a great "'mix prep'/'edit'/'record no more than 16tks at once'" rig out of a mere MacBook Air with the i7 dual core option that you can add only in 'built to order' with Apple?

I know 4GM of Ram is the cap with Air. But 35+ tracks with 5 plugins on each - was what this guy was reporting. Any of you here using an Air as serious rig now with the benefits of PT10?

And with that thunderbolt port on the MBAirs too- the options for ext drives/audio interfaces seem endless.

And one other pertinent question - are SSD drives, as OS drives 'quieter' in laptops than their 5400rpm sata counterparts? I would imagine so. And is there any truth to what I hear that the 'stock Apple SSD OS drives' that ship with the MBAir or that you can add in build to order at Apple for the MBPro's are NOT THAT FAST and you need to go with another company's SSD drive?

Sorry for the hodgepodge of questions. But maybe we can start a dialogue for those of us only interested in staying all native and want to spend as little as possible for maximum work output.

Thanks in advance for any input you could offer!

[CME]

I'm pretty sure the airs only come with ssd's and they're not 2.5" ones like all the other laptops use. But I think owc does sell upgrades that are faster. Typically apple chooses price and reliability over speed. Not saying they ones they use are slow, but there very well could be faster options.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by CME

I'm pretty sure the airs only come with ssd's and they're not 2.5" ones like all the other laptops use. But I think owc does sell upgrades that are faster. Typically apple chooses price and reliability over speed. Not saying they ones they use are slow, but there very well could be faster options.

Right. And just how fast does a system drive need to be versus 'how reliable' ;-)

[edadema]

I Sold My 12Core HD2 and went with the 17' 2.5 Quad. I have a 256 system SSD Drive and 750 7200 internal as well. I use the 7200 for my sessions and samples and it Rocks. I can mix anything on my laptop that I could on my 12Core. I am so happy I got out of the Big Desktop

I am Running PT10HD so I can Cashe the entire session so there is no noticeable latency either. The Time are a changing!!!!

[GKinTN]

I have PT10 on my "ultimate" spec 13" Macbook Air. Truly the computer seems to cruise along nicely and when doing live tracking of 16 tracks in (44.1/24bit) the CPU and HD meter in PT only show about 1-2%. That said even though it works well on the surface I can't seem to make it reliable for live gig multitracking over the long haul. Problem I'm having is it will crash after 1-3 hours of recording, thowing 6101 errors that emply non ample HD throughput even though the HD meter only shows 1%. I did a bunch of test this week and couldn't get it to go more than a couple hours at a stretch before a crash, sometimes it would crash after only 20 minutes or so. It will run some plugins nicely, but I can't get passed the basic raw tracking stage yet...

With the same Macbook Air I installed Reaper on it and got over 12 hours of straight recording time crash free basically going until the SSD was full. I've tried a few other test runs with Reaper and I haven't seen one crash yet.

It was noted on the Macrumors site that some recent Airs came with one of two different 256gig drives from two different manufactures. One was reported to be slightly faster than the other (though both very quick) and yes I do have one known to be a tad slower. Still the computer screams with other apps and even Reaper DAW so I think something else is the problem...

Wish I had better words to report on running PT10 on my Air but at this point I've run out of setting tweaks to try. FYI I'm running an RME UC.

Perhaps the solution is related to the internal SSD...maybe an external Thunderbolt SSD is the answer though that won't be cheap!

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by edadema

I Sold My 12Core HD2 and went with the 17' 2.5 Quad. I have a 256 system SSD Drive and 750 7200 internal as well. I use the 7200 for my sessions and samples and it Rocks. I can mix anything on my laptop that I could on my 12Core. I am so happy I got out of the Big Desktop

I am Running PT10HD so I can Cashe the entire session so there is no noticeable latency either. The Time are a changing!!!!

yes they are!! I too have been dreaming about the day where shortly I wouldn't need my Mac Pro anymore. And I was absolutely blown away last year when I took my son's MacBook Pro July 7 to Spain with me. I do recording sessions and editing over there for audio for video. I had four stacks of eight background vocals and about 32 tracks of band (60+ tks playing back from system drive NO LESS). Editing, premixing, tweaking; and that beast simply took a beating and never stopped working. Not a single error message for hours on end. He has the 6,1 version of MB Pro... Call mid 2010 I think. But when I saw a thunderbolt port on the newest MacBookAirs I began rethinking if I even need a MacBook Pro?? Thanks for your input.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by GKinTN

I have PT10 on my "ultimate" spec 13"...

Wish I had better words to report on running PT10 on my Air but at this point I've run out of setting tweaks to try. FYI I'm running an RME UC.

Perhaps the solution is related to the internal SSD...maybe an external Thunderbolt SSD is the answer though that won't be cheap!

Thanks GK. I too have read from the gearslutz guys that it really matters that you swap out the SSD drive from factory for an OWC SSD drive if you're going to use the MacBook air. But even if that ended up being problematic Reaper is a very effective choice for very large multitrack recording even on an Air which ever way I go with a MacBook air or a MacBook Pro what I am hearing that I'm convinced of is that having an SSD drive as your internal system drive is a must. First of all much of the time I'm recording in the same room where my mics are and I have to have silence from my computer. I'm interested to know also if this new Lacie Thunderbolt drive is quiet. Anybody know? Thanks for your very complete report, GK!

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by GKinTN

Perhaps the solution is related to the internal SSD...maybe an external Thunderbolt SSD is the answer though that won't be cheap!

GK,
In reading thru this again it occurs to me you're talking about cutting audio to the internal system drive which has never been approved/supported by Avid. That doesn't mean it can't work - but for large count multitrack digital recordings, audio engineers have always realized you needed an external drive or second internal drive to cut to. It doesn't surprise me you're having trouble. I would never use the Air that way. Only cut to an external thunderbolt sata or SSD drive. There isn't a 2nd internal drive bay to fill in an Air - but there is one in the MBPro. Imagine 2 SSD drives in a fast MBPro. Totally quiet - monster multi-trak rig.. Don't you think?

[GKinTN]

Still I find it frustrating that the code in PT10 must be less efficient at simple tracking compared to say Reaper. I know that tracking to the system drive isn't supported by PT, but it's quite interesting that other DAW platforms are apparently more efficient and can handle this with ease.

[RegenerationMix]

i don't run pro tools 10, i run PT 8, but my macbook pro is smokin fast with the OWC SSD drive for the system drive and a second internal 750GB 7200 drive for recording.

This combo is great for Pro tools and for video editing with final cut pro. Love it, love it, love it.

now if i could just get my external LCD TV monitor to run at 1920x1200 resolution from the MBP, that would be stellar.



Chris