Frustrated!!!

[amateurtool]

Hey everyone!

I purchased a 003 rack earlier in the year with protools 8 LE for my Macbook pro (bought july 2010) with 2.4 GHz i5 processor, 4 GB of ram and a 5400rpm hardrive. I had countless problems with record and playback usually something to do with buffer size. The computer hard drive crashed not too long after buying it, not sure if it was related or not.

But anyway Ive since found out that i should purchase a firewire external hardrive with minimum rpm of 7200. The computer actually has since been stolen and I will have to purchase a new one. I was thinking of buying the same computer and hoping that it was just an external hard drive issue causing the problems before. I was wondering if it was worth upgrading the processor to 2.53 Ghz and putting a 7200 rpm internal hard drive in also wondering if this would improve performance? Also would getting the i7 model macbook pro be of any help with protools? Any advice to specifications would be good. Im at a point where i dont mind spending a little more cash, I just want the friggin thing to work!! Since iv been investigating this also, Iv spoken to someone at the macshop who said I shouldnt run protools on a laptop, only a desktop. Is this true? I hope not.

One last thing, if an external hard drive could be recommended, that would be great as Iv heard also that it must be fitted with an oxford chip or I will run into more trouble? Not sure what models contain this chip so any help would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks very much :)

[mattrussell]

for starters, take a deep breath.

running PT on a macbook pro is fine. i have a 2.4 dual from about 3 years back that i use for portable editing and often to get my mixes underway. i was able to get a 4GB stick of RAM, so i have 6GB running in it. for sheer performance, my mac pro quad-core 2.66 is far superior and now machines are available with more processors. these machines will outperform a laptop by a whole lot. that said, the problems you were having sound like they had nothing to do with the machine itself and were all about how you were using it.

keys you were missing are:

- run your audio media (sessions and VI installs) from a portable FW800 drive. NEVER run sessions from the internal macbook drive. doing so is a recipe for nightmares. (i've done this on simple two-track edit sessions, but that's all).

- keep your playback buffer as low as it will run while tracking and at 90% on 2 processors with the buffer at 1024 when mixing (i've never had to go higher, but others will probably tell you to go beyond that).

- READ. there are so many resources online that could have helped you. for starters, READ THE MANUAL. it clearly states all of this. then, come here and post questions that you can't find answers for. i don't understand how people spend thousands of dollars on computers and software and then walk around in the dark, tripping on every little thing when all they needed to do was turn on the well illuminated light switch - the manual is accessible through the app itself.

you'll have to be the judge as to whether or not portability outweighs horsepower. for many, a laptop is the only answer and they get good results using one. i know i like having both and i certainly understand that there is only so much i can do on the laptop. that said, the laptop runs very well and i get a lot done on it.

[drumster]

I also agree with the above poster. You shouldn't have any issues using a laptop with Pro Tools as long as you set it up correctly. Just follow all the instructions in the manual on how to optimize your Mac for Pro Tools.

Regarding your decision for a new laptop, my recommendation would be to purchase the fastest model you can afford and then expand the RAM on it. If you plan on running VI's with a MacBook Pro, the optimal configuration is to have two external FW 800 drives (one for audio and the other for VI's) running off of the FW 800 port. I recently purchased 2 of the Glyph PortaGig 50 drives for my MacBook Pro for this very purpose. The PortaGig drives use the Oxford 934 chip set and are compatible with Pro Tools. Check them out here: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PG50-500/

If for some reason, it isn't possible for you to have 2 external drives then I would recommend running your VI's/Samples off the system drive and your audio off the external drive. It won't be as optimal as the 2 drive configuration, but will be more stable than running both audio and VI's off of one external drive. If you do choose to go the route of 1 external drive, I would suggest upgrading the internal drive to 7200 RPM when you purchase your new Mac.

[drumster]

I should also note that your external hard drives need to be 7200 RPM. The Glyph PortaGig drives I was speaking about in the above post both run at that speed.

[mattrussell]

i've used two of these for years and drive performance has never been a problem:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other.../MS8U7320GB16/

[amateurtool]

Originally Posted by drumster

I also agree with the above poster. You shouldn't have any issues using a laptop with Pro Tools as long as you set it up correctly. Just follow all the instructions in the manual on how to optimize your Mac for Pro Tools.

Regarding your decision for a new laptop, my recommendation would be to purchase the fastest model you can afford and then expand the RAM on it. If you plan on running VI's with a MacBook Pro, the optimal configuration is to have two external FW 800 drives (one for audio and the other for VI's) running off of the FW 800 port. I recently purchased 2 of the Glyph PortaGig 50 drives for my MacBook Pro for this very purpose. The PortaGig drives use the Oxford 934 chip set and are compatible with Pro Tools. Check them out here: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PG50-500/

If for some reason, it isn't possible for you to have 2 external drives then I would recommend running your VI's/Samples off the system drive and your audio off the external drive. It won't be as optimal as the 2 drive configuration, but will be more stable than running both audio and VI's off of one external drive. If you do choose to go the route of 1 external drive, I would suggest upgrading the internal drive to 7200 RPM when you purchase your new Mac.

Hey thanks drumster. Not sure even what a VI is!! Can you please let me know? I might not even need to worry about VIs if im just basically recordng my band.

Thanks dude

[amateurtool]

hey drumster also wondering what the avantage is of having two external hard drives is? I know I should record to an external drive but why two? I should run the 003 rack from the firewire port of my computer then daisy chain to an external hard drive then daisy chain to another one? Which drive does it record to? both??

[drumster]

Originally Posted by amateurtool

Hey thanks drumster. Not sure even what a VI is!! Can you please let me know? I might not even need to worry about VIs if im just basically recordng my band.

Thanks dude

No problem! I guess I should have clarified what a "VI" actually was! A VI is a short acronym for "Virtual Instrument". If you browse these forums long enough, you'll hear people talking about Virtual Instruments such as Superior Drummer, Kontakt 4, and Omnisphere. These are all essentially sample libraries or software synthesizers that can be triggered from a Midi controller/keyboard, or in the case of Superior Drummer, an electronic drum kit.

From the sounds of things, Virtual Instruments are probably not important to you as your goal is to simply record your band using Pro Tools as a tape machine. Given this fact, you will only need 1 external, FW 800 (7200 RPM) hard drive to record audio to and save your Pro Tools sessions. I only suggested the second hard drive because I thought you might be running virtual instruments. Based on your needs, however, it doesn't look like you need the second hard drive. If you did want to record a few VI's using some of the stock instruments that come included with Pro Tools i.e. Boom, Mini Grand, or Vacuum, you could always leave them on the system drive without any major issues.

With regards to connectivity, my suggestion would be to daisy chain the 003 off your external hard drive as the the firewire ports on the 003 aren't meant for hooking up hard drives. I believe that they even state this in the manual, so just make sure that the 003 is the last link in the chain. You will probably also need a FW400 to FW800 adaptor to connect from the FW 400 cable on your 003 to the extra FW800 port on your external hard drive. I hope that makes sense.

As for hard drive selection, either the Glyph PortaGig model that I suggested or the OWC drive that Matt Russell suggested would work fine. I've used OWC drives in the past and have had nothing but good experiences with them.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[amateurtool]

hey this is just an update for anyone reading this who may need a solution.
I ended up getting the same computer I had before, the macbook pro. I also purchased the firewire glyph portagig 50 online from sweetwater as suggested by drumster. I still had the exact same errors occur. The buffering error would come up yet again.
In the end I took the whole setup into where I purchased the 003 rack and showed them. I had the firewire 400 lead plugged into a firewire 800 converter which allowed me to plug it into my portagig hard drive as there are only firewire 800 ports on this hard drive. It then plugs into the 003 with the 400 connection. They said that was right but sure enough the errors came up also. We changed the lead coming out of the hard drive so that it had an 800 plug on one end but a 400 plug on the other. So without the adaptor, its just a lead with two different plugs at each end. It also is braided or screened which you can see through the clear sheath. This worked!!! Couldnt believe it. Whether the lead i had which came with the 003 was dodgy in the first place im not sure but i truely believe its a 400 to 800 issue. It doesnt like being converted but with this cable i bought, it has resloved the problem.
Thanks for the hard drive tip off also drumster. Its a nice little unit.

[Keybeeetsss]

WELCOME TO THE FORUMs...


Jus makin u aware that u posted in the wrong forum so u may not get as much help as u could...

Maybe Digi will move it...