Does lighbridge support more than 18IO with PTMP?

[digidesigner]

your problem is probably the usb drive. in spite of the specs of usb 2 vs firewire, firewire is still much faster and much better suited for audio. usb is only half duplex. this means data only flows one direction at a time. picture it as a one way 5 lane highway. this makes usb a great application for backup, but when you are writing to and reading from the same drive, it can cause problems. firewire, on the other hand, is full duplex. it is an eight lane highway, 4 lanes in each direction.

get a firewire drive


hope this helps...

Hi and thanks for your reply. I understand your point but I only have one firewire port on my MBP and Lightbridge is already sitting there Would I be better off with 3.5" external usb drive instead of 2.5" that I have right now? Or should I get another computer with both FW400 and FW 800?

[therecordinghouse]

what computer do you have? if you have a macbook pro, you can buy an express card 34 that adds firewire ports. or, most firewire drives have two ports. just hook up the firewire drive to the computer, then the lightbridge to the firewire drive. i did this with my 002r for a while. worked just fine recording 18 inputs. i have found higher buffer settings work better in this situation. try around 512....

[digidesigner]

what computer do you have? if you have a macbook pro, you can buy an express card 34 that adds firewire ports. or, most firewire drives have two ports. just hook up the firewire drive to the computer, then the lightbridge to the firewire drive. i did this with my 002r for a while. worked just fine recording 18 inputs. i have found higher buffer settings work better in this situation. try around 512....

uh, I have never thought of adding stuff with that slot! In this case wouldn't it make more sense to get e-sata card?? Would have more thruput I think than firewire and would not overcrowd the firewire bus either I believe

[therecordinghouse]

true, a sata controller would be the best option. however, it is more expensive, as well as the harddrives are more expensive. i will eventually go that route, but firewire is working fine for me now....

the expresscard 34 slot and built in firewire are on totally independant busses. bottlenecks wont be an issue.


fwiw, i have a belkin expresscard 34. it gives me 2 firewire 400 ports, and another usb 2 port...works great.

[digidesigner]

It seems I found the problem, its vibration. You need to put your harddrive and preferably laptop too on a soft surface so it does not vibrate. The hard drive must work way harder in heavy vibration situation and it might not be able to perform well ending your tracking with drive too slow message.

[M.Brane]

Just make sure when you do that you still have airflow underneath or your 'Book will slowly cook itself to death.

[maxpidge]

o.k. kids here's how you do it...
macbook pro 2.33ghz running 10.4.9 combo update, m-audio lightbridge, 4 presonus digimax lt's, m-powered 7.3.1, lightbridge in rightside firewire 400 and i-lok in right side usb port, belkin firewire 800 card in left side slot, and lacie 250gb extreme in left side belkin card.....
this system is foolproof, i own a fleet of mobile studio's running this setup...
why does digi not just release and accept this?

p.s. i put aurolux moniter pads under all my macbook pro's, plenty of airflow and no vibration's.

[wiseal1]

I saw one of you posted that you use the ddx3216 with the light bridge I own the 3216 as well and was actually wanting to know if they are compatible?

Please let me know if this combination works well.

Thanks

[djani]

Nobody says anything lately about which cs update of ProTools M-Powered 7.3.1 they are using.
Which version is "safe" for 32 I/O with Lightbridge ?
cs1, cs2 or cs3 ?
Please someone answer this. For a future users its important.

[Sam Amato]

The DDX3216 works fine, except that the fan is too loud. Maybe there is a problem with mine but for me it makes it unusable in some situations. Obviously to get 32 channels of ADAT I/O you need 2 ADAT expansion cards.

Anyway, here's my setup:

(3) Behringer ADA8000's
(1) M-Audio Profire Lightbridge
(1) MacBook, C2D, 2GHz, 2GB RAM
(1) Behringer DDX3216 w/ 2 ADAT expansion cards


I run ADAT out of the ADA8000's to ADAT ins 1-3 of the Profire Lightbridge. Then ADAT outs 1-3 to ADAT ins 3, 4, and 1 (in that order) to the DDX3216. The reason for this order is a little complicated but basically it's so I can use the preamps on the DDX3216 while taking advantage of the input delay feature available on the first 16 channels of this mixer. This way I can monitor the signals coming into the DDX3216's preamps with the same amount of latency as the outputs of Pro Tools. Then ADAT out 2 of the DDX3216 goes to ADAT in 4 of the Profire Lightbridge. ADAT out 4 of the Profire Lightbridge goes to ADAT in 2 on the DDX3216. Everybody's clocked via wordclock (BNC T method) with the Profire Lightbridge as the master right now.

The setup is much less complicated if recording 24 channels or less but I wanted to explain how I'm getting 32. Also, it would be much easier for me to get 32 if I had one more ADA8000 (or other 8 channel preamp/converter).

Having said all that, I did have a problem on a pretty simple gig the other night. I was recording a stand-up comedy routine. 1 mic onstage, 4 audience mics around the room. Total of 7 tracks to Pro Tools, including a stereo track for a live to 2 track "rough mix". Everything was fine until at 1 hour, 4 minutes into the recording I got a "CPU overload, try increasing buffer" or whatever message and the computer stopped recording. I lost about ten seconds of the show. I had the record time preference set to "use all available space". I'm recording to the stock internal HD of the MacBook. This could be the problem but I had tested several times this way with 32 tracks so I thought it would be fine. Just goes to show, you always need a backup recorder in a live situation.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully it is of some value for a few of you.