001 basics

[Marvin the android]

dear folks.

I am the proud owner of a dual 450 g4 mac & a digi-001 with 512mb ram.
I run OS 9.2 & Protools LE 5.2 on it (nothing else!) & it does everything i need it to..
I also write & read to an external firewire drive as the internal is only 30gb.

Anyway thats my system I have a few questions that i would love to have answered:

1. what are impulse responses & why does pro-tools always ask me to show it where the folder containing my impulses responses is everytime I start up? I just select cancel & it works fine but i'd like to know in case it is contributing to my next issue

2.my computer has been freezing when i am doing chop & drag edits & i am unsure why.. I have gone into the manual & made sure that the disk cache is set to 512k, virtual memory off blah blah... & i also went in and changed the dae buffer size to one setting larger than the default because i thought that might be the issue.

Are there any 001 users who could help a man out?

cheers
marvin

OH & 3. should i upgrade to 10.3 & PT - LE 6.3 to take full advantage of the dual core in my g4?? If it will make these problems cease to exist i would happily do so.. though i imagine i'd need to purchase more ram..

[Marvin the android]

one more point to mention. Pro tools freezes only when i am dragging a selected piece of audio from one spot to another.. not when i am chopping.. dont know if this indicates a Ram deficiency, a processing problem.. a fragged up drive or...??

[albee1952]

A few things to consider here. Impulse responses are likely part of a convolution reverb plugin so go thru the DAE.plugins folder and look for 2 files named Altiverb(its the only convolution reverb I can think of that goes back to PT5). If you find Altiverb, drag the 2 files to the unused plugins folder or just anywhere.(or go thru your plugins and look for a reverb plugin that doesn't work when you try to use it). Next, a 30gig firewire drive is probably really old. I would not trust it for anything important. Your freezing up glitch could be a drive problem(remember what I just said) or maybe you need more RAM(I would up it to a full gig on your system). You should also check to see how much free space you have on both the audio drive AND the system drive as they tend to get funky when they get full. I suspect your problems will not be helped by an upgrade to an later version of Pro Tools and only 7 and newer take advantage of dual core so you are out of luck on that(unless some 001 users know somethig I don't know).

[M.Brane]

Going to 6.4 will enable you to set your CPU usage to 99% which is about a 10% boost. Not enough to offset the extra CPU requirements of OSX. With a dual 450 I think you're better off staying with 9. I would get more RAM regardless. 512 is not really enough even for 9.

Does your external FW drive have an Oxford chipset? If not that could be the source of your editing problem. It could also be a bug if you're running 5.2 which is the 32 track beta.

[Marvin the android]

Many thanks for the answers both were extremely helpful.
If i could propose one more option I'd appreciate opinions on its viabilty.

I have been given an Imac g5 1.6ghz (1 CPU) with 512mb ram...
I am considering trading the 001 for the 003 & simply upgrading the ram in the imac to max capacity.. (not sure what they can take, i assume 2gig)
I will also use my external firewire drives to read/write to..

Does that sound like a better option than trying to revitalize my dual 450 or will this imac also be undergunned trying to run leopard & PT8?? Bearing in mind i hardly use any plugins. Really I just record,chop & drag things about at most..
cheers
marvin

[albee1952]

The 003 interface calls for PT version 7.3 or later and on a "not very powerful" computer, you may have better performance with the older system and PT5. Just an opinion based on what I read here. Could you take all these freebies and sell them for enough to get into something a little more powerful? A Mac mini dual core might be a solution. Let's have more opinions than mine though.

[Marvin the android]

Yes i'd appreciate a further guess at that because i was told by a pro tools dealer that althought the Imac i describe might be undergunned for extensive plugin use that it should operate fine for recording/ editing tasks.
But i do want an alternative opinion(s) on that from an unbiased vieqpoint.

when you say 'not very powerful computer' wouldnt my imac fall into that category & thus be useable?

[M.Brane]

The G5 iMacs tend to run very warm, and are prone to failures because of it.

If all you're doing is basic recording/editing/mixing with minimal plugs the G4/001 will serve you well. It's a very stable, and reliable system. If it were me I'd use that while saving for a new Intel Mac, and skip the G5 generation of Macs completely.

[Marvin the android]

Ok great thats good i'll stick with the g4-001 combo its always worked well til now. which takes me back to the beginning of this thread..

Regarding these freeze issues I have when dragging files about.
I had assumed that if i did a clean install of the OS 9.2 onto the G4 & reinstalled pro tools 5.1 (which is the only copy of the program i have from the original purchase- im not to sure how i got 5.2 on there..) that would get me back to a relatively clean slate.
Then my next options if that doesnt work are to perhaps upgrade to more ram (i only have 512) & perhaps the old hard drive inside which runs the OS & PT is failing.. maybe i need to replace it.. If so dont these older hard drives sell for more than the newer ones because there is less demand for them?
BTW i only read & write to an external firwire drive the internal is just for OS & PT
cheers
marvin

[M.Brane]

You can still find 120GB drives, but they are no longer manufactured so the supply is drying up. You can use a larger drive, but you'll have to partition it so the first partition is less than 128GB. The rest will be wasted space.

If you could find an PCI ATA/SATA host card cheap that would open up more possibilities for storage options i.e it gets you past the 128GB limit, and gives you a speed boost. You could also go completely internal for your recording drives, and use the FW for backups. If it buys you enough time to save up for new Mac then it's worth it, but only you can do the math on that.