oxford/firewire /// eSATA sata quick question

[greenwood63]

Hi I am just about to buy my first enclosure I have a firewire port on my laptop and also usb/eSATA port I plan to use the usb/eSATA port.Anyway rather than someone telling me a sata chipset is okay or buy oxford etc I would appreciate a basic understanding of why so here,s what I think if you buy oxford chipset it will deal with eSATA or firewire,if you buy one with a sata chipset it will deal with eSATA but not firewire. Or maybe you need an oxford chipset always??Anyway thanks in advance if anyone can make this clear for me.

[aka21stCentury]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other...g/MEFW924AL1K/

• Oxford Semiconductor 924 (OXUF924DS)

This is the oxford chipset you want. Sorry been busy, I could have saved you a lot of trouble. It has all three connections I mentioned. Post back if you can't get it shipped, or purchase in the UK.

21stCentury

[aka21stCentury]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...3.5-SerialATA/

Ok. Hitachi -- you want the Ultrastar. Not Deskstar.

WD- Western Digital Caviar -- Black not Green... sorry my Celtic Friend.

Check out the multi-drive enclosure below. More Oxford. Mini profile.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer.../MS3S7750GB32/
You don't use the raid setting on the enclosure above. Set it to 'span'.

This one link below a bunch of dual or quadra drives. Looks also to be oxfords. Don't know if they ship overseas from Chicago, I bet they do. If not, get model # check and see if Sweetwater will ship to you.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...W800_FW400_USB

www.MacSales.com is Other World Computing... long long time they've been in business, pc or mac. They are older than dirt. CDW. Newegg. Amazon. All newcomers. Only thing I don't like is their plastic enclosure USB-firewire 800. Still an oxford chipset:

Get the aluminum case it acts as a heatsink vs a plastic peice of **** with a tiny fan.

Sweetwater: http://www.sweetwater.com/

www.BHphotovideo.com is offline for the Sabbath. Their site is impossible to negotiate at the moment.

Perhaps someone else could jump in. Personally, why buy a single enclosure except for a backup to keep offline. Get a dual or a quadra enclosure. If you can only afford two WD caviar blacks, put two in, wait... get another pair later. This is the beauty of eSATA's bandwidth. 4-5 drives easy.

>My advice. Get a single enclosure for a 1 or 1.5 tB Seagate drive (backup only) Amazon is selling em cheap. You need to upgrade the Seagate's firmware on the 1.5 Amazon is selling then it'll be ok. Simple deal with a PC. http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barrac.../dp/B00066IJPQ

Go to www.seagate.com download new firmware follow simple instructions with the drive installed in the single enclosure USB-2 connection.

Most enclosures come with cheap cables. Use em but keep in mind www.kimber.com for a better USB-2 cable. www.granite.com for firewire. I forgot, do you have an mBox-2 USB or Firewire?

>>>Then a dual or quadra enclosure for audio drives. This would be your main setup next to your laptop. Most cables are about 3 feet long. So, get one that looks good, is quiet, aluminum dissipates heat.

[greenwood63]

Thanks 21st century owc and BH both ship to the UK,I guess I was just hoping that because Im not going to use firewire I would,nt need to hunt down the oxford chipset.Its a pity because the cavier blacks are available here in the UK,and there are many usb/eSATA enclosures also available,with sata chipsets.I know what you mean about buying an enclosure that can take two hard drives or more and I know your right because I will no sooner get 1 cavier black and a single enclosure and within a week of learning how to format it for windows and using it I,ll realise how badly Ive restricted myself.Im going to go with omc I dont care that it will take longer to arrive and I know dual drive enclosure is just one more thing for me to learn about but if Im going to do this then Im going to do it right and stop trying to cut corners.They also have a technical support section and my guess is if they know you,re going to purchase goods they will be happy to help ha ha.I read somewhere that you should be sure the wd cavier says 3gbs the ones Ive seen here say 3.0 and some say 300mbs just one more good reason for using owc. Well actually two good reasons because it means you get a bit of peace and quiet and that cant be bad!!!! Im reading up on formatting ,disc utility jumpers etc to get a head start when the gear arrives at that point I will create a new thread if I get stuck.On a happy note my beautiful 22 yr old daughter has just made me a Grandad so my head is in a fantastic place at the moment when you read this reply answer me one question is the oxford chipset only important if your using firewire or is it needed for all audio recording the reason I need to know is because when I googled it this thread came up how ironic is that????? anyway you prove you dont need to meet someone to consider them a friend take care AKA

[aka21stCentury]

Time to break out the cigars... actually my daughter turned two at Cluny Hill back in 1978 (Christmas Day). Flaming pudding for all. We climbed the Torr that day.

NTSF is what you format to - you will meet Macintosh users with Pro Tools, this is why you need the Oxford besides it is the best and AVID approved. Mac users have a program called NTSF - 3g that allows Macintosh users to read and write to your NTSF hard drive. Macs support Fat 32, Fat 16, but for audio they write to HFS+ (journaling off). But you can transfer to NTSF which is what I do as I use both. Many use both. In Pro Tools preferences 'enforce' Mac/Pc compatibility.

Amazon's price on those older firmware Seagates 1.5 tBs is good -- but you must promise to upgrade the firmware first.

Upgrading firmware but only on windows (if seagates): You will see the eSATA in a PC tower comes out as a SATA cable that plugs into the motherboard. So the enclosure if quad or dual will handle slave/master type of stuff itself (I think), that 'Span' deal is new, I've never seen this before, whether it is just turning hardware RAID off (which is OWC's explanation) but ask and get the newer tiny bridge pins... they are smaller than the older ATA-100 or ATA- 133 (or sometimes called IDE which is called PATA now to make matters even more confusing -- you don't need those older drives like I do. Use SATA 2 (3 gBs)).

Sometimes jumper pins come with drives (if packaged) if OEM bare bones drive... not. So ask about this. You will need just one per drive. Seagates, WDs, Hitachi will have pin lay out to push the junction jumpers onto the proper two pins. Just match up the visual with drive and locate where the DC power comes in. Use that as a reference.

Otherwise the newer vs 12 Seagate's sold here OEM, have only 16 mBs cache and the same cost but only 500 gBs. Those drives Amazon is selling are 1.5 tBs. 3x the storage. But the newer drives run cooler, and a bit quieter.

If dual drive enclosure (eSATA oxford) format the second drive into one large NTSF partition and then a smaller partition 30-50 gig partition for samples (both logical partitions). Label them Audio_Drive-1, Audio_Drive-2, Sample_Drive-2

W-7 will automatically assign them numbers I: F: H: whatever. But you will see the drives mount with label names on the desktop.

Round Robin... if you decide to use 96k audio (or 88.2) you assign tracks (stereo or mono) to whichever drive, I can't speak for this higher sample rate, but I imagine 16 tracks per drive is safe. Pro Tools does not use raid. You have to manually assign the audio drives in PTs prefs, and need to know which track goes to which drive.

When you back up, two backups. One continuosly backing up of JUST the Pro Tools file on desktop w/o audio. Don't over write them in case a corrupted file overwrites a backup. Keep a set of copies (use the copy file option audio files duplicated (all files)). Pro Tools files came become corrupted so keep these backed up. We are asked to delete Pts prefs, but I don't know what the path is on windows. Others may know.

Major Backup:

AUDIO + MIDI + Pro Tools file backup. Go to Save As: copy all files and folders to a remote disk. I mentioned screen snapshots PNGs or GIFs, very helpful when PTs is open, do this also stick it in the backup folder, with track names, etc.

Some here convert mixes to Mp-4, have each version of mix as Mp-3, or Mp-4 (windows lossless is better) but if you can get Quicktime Pro MP-4 will play on both Mac and Windows. Stick these in the backup folder and into iTunes as well.

Naming conventions refer to the previous thread. MP-4 or MP-3 help when going back to audition which mix you like best and what many do is to burn to a CD audio (WAVE) and play it in your car, your friend's car, check for bass levels. On Macs we use AIFF to burn CD audio (Apple Interchange File Format)... changed to audio interchange file format.

Sony MD 7506s headphones I use these because they are flat and hold up extremely well. Some use the Sennheiser Pros. Sony's are $99 USD here. Senn Pro HD 250+model {Not HD 201} but check the link here in Discussion for model # are $120 and supposedly you can swap out cables if they go bad.) My only experience with hi-end Beyers was a bad one, a loose connection on one ear. Just like AKG, Audio Technica, I gave up on all but the Sonys. This is why many of us stick with the Sonys (as in all TV stations, film crews, etc). DJs use the Senn Pros more for better isolation.

Congratulations... Shlanta Out!

[aka21stCentury]

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=291760

Personally I am about to give up on XP... I've had it.

So I purchased a PCM-CIA Firewire card for a Macbook, all you do is stick it in the slot. But for windows, a whole heap of installers, all this in one language: Chinese! I kid you not. W-7 Firewire issue, one must upgrade at the Texas Instruments download center: unibrain

This is why I say, you are going to collaborate with Mac users without a doubt... most use Oxfords, check that link, avoid the green hard drives, good luck. READ THE STICKIES here first before you install, don't plug in your box when instructed, you have to upgrade to 8.04 first, then plug in your USB-mBox-2. These are the correct instructions, don't follow the onscreen instructions.

[greenwood63]

Hi Aka I so envy your knowledge Ive never seen a mac or snow leopard but I think windows is a poor cousin or at best a small cat.Im sitting here trying to put a total on the last month,lets see bought a nice Toshiba 2 drives 500gb 4gb ram amd dual processor slimline black £650.00 bought pro tools le 8.0.4 £220.00 Bought the new Avid m box mini 3rd generation £170.00.Wots that your Toshiba wont run pro tools Oh well thems the breaks,gave that to my daughter,one week later,got a new one 7200rpm 4gb ram intel i5 blah blah £850.00 then someone says oh by the way dont buy dell they are a bit of a crapshoot.I am so sick of the word compatable I could knock out a horse with one punch.Even the idiot in the shop where I bought pro tools said to me do you want one with midi connections and I said I dont know Ive never used midi so he suggested m box mini saying it would be £60.00 cheaper,but did,nt mention losing God knows how much bandwidth,one of my usb ports and the will to live.Right there and then I should have hooked him up to the jump leads of my pick up and checked for signs of brain activity.For the price of the Toshiba and the dell I could have bought a mac!!!!! Everything Im buying from now on,Hard drives,enclosures etc will be firewire enabled and if the dell or win 7 give me one more sleepless night they are going on e bay and Im buying a tower the size of an ompalumpa.Im not even looking into cables at the moment Im scared what I might use them for!!! Im sitting watching the Patriot (Mel Gibson) great flick and my baby Grandaughter on my knee so who needs windows and the horse they rode in on.The only decent part of this sorry six week episode has been chatting to you.Im ordering the stuff we spoke about from owc tomorrow but its all firewire compatable its the only safe road to go down in case I need to stop the rot,I cant let my girlfriend read this if she finds out Ive spent two grand she wont speak to me for a month.In fact maybe I should let her read it.I,ll create a new thread when the gear arrives maybe you,ll throw your two cents worth in.take care Aka

[aka21stCentury]

Greenwood,

I posted a link here a while back about 'working' PC laptops w/ Firewire... well guess what. There was not one with a Texas Instrument Digi approved Firewire chip onboard. Not one!

Besides Sunburst here on this board, very few have the knowledge or generosity to offer assistance. Just one other guy, Albee.. basically that is it. Occassionally an old Pro chimes in from Nashville always with good advice. Bob O.

Everyone else, is frustrated sys admin, computer nerd not by choice, trying in vain to keep Pro Tools running. Thus the sour attitude on this board, unlike 1999 when I joined.

The Toshiba many users found the DPClatency to be unacceptable for audio... then someone here links it...FRY's on sale... only $500 bucks USD.

There should have been a warning... but Toshiba would probably sue. i5 for 500 bucks. It has interrupts up the wazoo and is unuseable.

Some salesman has fed you a load of rotten smelt. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard, USB-2 for anything with MIDI or Audio not USB-1.1 legacy.

If you have a MIDI synth, Native-Instruments Maschine is USB-2 comes with sample library and battery, Kore 2 (RTAS and VSTi). Plug in the MIDI din connector at back, or Axiom Pro from M-Audio keyboard with drum triggers again USB-2. XP will not allow dual MIDI interfaces. Period.

I discovered laptop manufacturers (there are 4 worldwide -- all in China) change chipsets when their stock runs low. So IBM, HP, they refuse to publish info on TI (texas instruments or Ricoh or Via firewire chipsets) even Apple once changed to Via -- but fortunately they are back with TI (and their firewire since they now own the 1394 group based here in Santa Cruz, all former Apple employees like BeOS (now owned by Palm) obviously know what they are doing and all engineering and design is here (in house) and that is why you pay more for a macintosh.

That comment, I swear is true, a 1394a PCM-CIA card with only Chinese Instructions and a CD with Chinese installation instructions -- fortunately OWC tech support told me, ignore it, just plug it in, and it does work even on an older powerbook. But not on a PC, one needs to know one of three Chinese languages.

Newegg was selling a RED ARMY Linux box, complete with hardware backdoor for hackers to get into our networks, not just a software backdoor... what are people thinking? Burn those dang things. Smash em in the streets.

Pro Tools 9 (64 tracks NOT!) how in the blazes with a firewire 400 mBox Pro 3 interface and an Apple without eSATA (17 inch laptop) or MacPro Tower $3K apeice can you get 64 tracks?

Ditch that legacy USB 1.1 mini and force them to upgrade to at least an mBox Pro 3 (USB). eSATA for audio/sample drives. Maschine from Native-Instruments or Axiom Pro from m-Audio depending on whether you have a decent synth controller with a din MIDI connector out. Both have a single MIDI in/out and both are USB-2. Only USB-2!

Maschine comes with Battery for Drums and a lot of other sample libraries: RTAS version or VSTi version for Ableton, even AU version for Digital Performer or Logic (Apple platform).

I'm getting the baseball bat out... saiyanara PC. I'm done. (Update... the case and CPU are just too quiet compared to my older mac towers... no way. Updated to W-7 Pro x64).

[aka21stCentury]

man... was I in a foul mood. Three years of this chronic sinus migraine on top of everything else. Particularly bad sunday. I should be thankful my children are healthy.

If you don't have a keyboard (Synth) my advise is to buy one of those inexpensive 48 note analogue synths w/ a USB MIDI port. That makes more sense than a controller, even if the newer Axiom Pro has a better keyboard action and triggers. The AKAI triggers are no longer the original design from. Only other option for drum triggers besides Alesis drum kits (Costco had these on sale here) is Maschine... it comes with Battery for drum work and Scarbee Pre-Bass, as well as some Abbey Rd 70s samples, Session Strings, and vintage keys (Kontack samples) and player.

Hopefully you can exchange the mini if not, get a Maschine from NI. Besides it has a MIDI in/out on the rear and decent well designed triggers, besides you can use it's LCD to scroll through sample libraries, drum, snare, whatever.

(Maschine 1.6.. it now has plug-in mode)

[albee1952]

For midi controllers, I'll give you another idea(that requires searching and a bit of luck). I found a fully working Ensoniq Mirage for $50. Makes a dandy 61 note midi keyboard(and actually feels way better than most any sub $400 controller)