New iMac and Pro Tools LE

[stackjones]

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[Darryl Ramm]

You use one of these.

Apple stopped putting Firewire 400 ports on iMacs well before they started adding Thunderbolt ports. The last thing I would be doing is in any way complaining about having Thunderbolt ports and the future connectivity they will provide.

That was easy. Next problem?

Hope you are running OS X 10.6.7, have a second audio drive to record sessions to - e.g. an external Firewire (or internal SATA if you are booting off a SSD drive) 7200 rpm or better audio disk, and have read all the compatibility grid and optimization instructions in the links at the top of this forum page. Oh yes and having only one FW ports on your iMac this means that any external connected Firewire drive may well end up running at 400 not 800 speeds (depending on FW interface-disk chaining order requirements).

Darryl

[Avid]

i`ll be purchasing g-technology g drives - 2tb running at 7200rpm. looks like i will now have further connection issues

You would just connect the G-Drive to your iMac using the included FW800 to FW800 cable, and your 003 to the G-Drive via FW800 port to FW400 port on the 003.

In looking at the G-Drive photos and Specs, I'm not sure, but it looks like it comes with a FW800 to FW400 cable. So you might not even need to purchase an adapter.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by stackjones

excellent darryl.

i was using maxtor drives for my audio files, but now i`ll be purchasing g-technology g drives - 2tb running at 7200rpm. looks like i will now have further connection issues - plugging in the pro tools le, and the back up drives for the audio files? what`s your poison? what do you suggest?

any other suggestions? because obviously that FAD-824 connector was something i knew NOTHING about. thanks!

do you know when pro tools will upgrade their rack modules? it would be nice to see the thunderbolt connects on them.

i did speak to reps at seagate, g-technology and a couple other external drive companies, and they all repeated that they don`t expect to make drives with thunderbolt for another year. what have you heard on this? the delays are probably licensing issues.

have you seen the new final cut pro x for a mere 299.99? simply amazing.

fyi - i`m living in japan and doing a documentary, and writing a book on this triple disaster. the radiation issue reads like a george orwell novel. scary stuff. really scary.

Your specific questions are well covered in other threads on this forum that you can search for.

I kind of expect Avid interface Thunderbolt connectivity to appear first for HD devices, either directly or via a Thunderbold to a HD native outboard adapter box or board for a HD I/O box. That addresses a pressing need to get a read HD interface for high-end users with laptops. A market I expect Avid really wants to keep happy.

For other interfaces there is nothing wrong with Firewire (except in the Windows world where it more of a bit more of a PITA for compatibility/support). I would not expect Apple to drop FW800 support for quite some time. Disk sure, go Thunderbolt tomorrow that is a great thing to do with the technology (tunneling PCI over Thunderbolt to an onbord SATA chipset -- or do even fancier with PCI direct to flash a'la FusionIO (and yes I know no Flash drives are supported currently for Pro Tools audio volumes)).

I'll avoid comment on FCP X and its issues... you can also search here for other people's comments.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Avid

You would just connect the G-Drive to your iMac using the included FW800 to FW800 cable, and your 003 to the G-Drive via FW800 port to FW400 port on the 003.

In looking at the G-Drive photos and Specs, I'm not sure, but it looks like it comes with a FW800 to FW400 cable. So you might not even need to purchase an adapter.

Ah be careful. Other users are reporting the need to chain g-tech drives off of the 003 (yes the otherwise not recommended ordering). In which case you need one adapter as I described from the iMac and then use the adapter that comes with the G-tech to chain it off the 003.

I think the OP needs to read through the forum on this. Some experimentation may be needed.

As for general FW800 to 400 adapters I highly recommend the Sonnet model I linked to. Other ones I've used have problems. Some companies make obvious Sonnet looking knock-offs make sure you get the real thing. I have several portable G-tech drives and have had no problems with their FW adapter cables when I've needed to use them. I don't own a 003 so cannot specific advice there.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by stackjones

more confusion on my part.

is there an adaptor with two ports for firewire 800 and firewire 400? perhaps an input for both firewire 400, and firewire 800, and an output for the PT LE?

are their speed issues - staggering - stuttering audio and record/playback issues now that there are no ports available for the PT LE.

Yes, there are potentially issues (there always is), you may need to experiment with the Firewire chaining order, playback engine settings, etc.

There are Firewire hubs and you probably don't want to use one. They are not supported by Avid. I know some folks have gotten them to work with an interface but generally most people are likely better off avoiding them and keeping things as simple as possible. Go search for the threads here on 003 and hard drive Firewire chaining order and you'll then likely know as much as anybody else.

Darryl

[ejwells]

Originally Posted by stackjones

i went to an electronic store and found a cable that is firewire 9pin to 6pin. that seems to address the imac to the PTLE system.

i don't think companies with reputations like avid and apple should have their client/customers RELYING on experimenting to get their systems to operate properly at this stage of the game.

simply, apple had no insight as to its end users, and i would like to think apple, and avid communicate about the release of new products and their impact on the consumer-user end.

apparently, not!

Firstly...1000's of folks are running iMacs and Pro Tools successfully.
That said, Apple didn't develope/release the iMac with Pro Tools in mind.
Saying they had no insight to their end users is simply not true.
If it WERE true, it'd be hard to explain the millions of happy iMac owners.
Pro Tools users are a very small percent of iMac users.
The iMac was never intended to be a professional DAW/DVW...it's essentially a glorified standing laptop, intended for home office use.
Thankfully Apple has a tendency to over engineer, so an iMac works fine with Pro Tools in a lot of situations.
Most wouldn't consider one as their main DAW in a professional studio.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by stackjones

thanks ej, but some of us don't have 10k to lay out for a stand alone harddrive. i probably have about 60k in gear, audio, video and photography, and currently saving up a bundle for a ton of new photog gear. another long laundry list of audio gear and equipment.

my pro tools ran well on a portable system - powerbook. but, i just didn't even consider that there would be no available ports for a pro tools rig.

just dumb of apple. why? because despite technology they want to push for licensing purposes, there are still millions of people using firewire 400, and sata, which is not on an imac. meanwhile, they still use usb 2.0 instead of 3.0?

some things change but, inevitably some things remain the same.

"$10k for a stand alone hard drive"?? - what are you talking about? Go buy a 7200 rpm Firewire 800/400 drive for $100-$200 (with Avid approved Firewire chipset).

What's the big problem? Chain the interface and disk together and get going. Have you actually tried doing that? As has been said there are many people running a 003 or 002 and Firewire disk off a single port. Go try it. If you need help there is discussions in this forum about this.

Apple is not likely to support USB 3 any time soon, and that is not a small oversight, its a big deliberate poke in the eye to the USB 3 supporters. Apple are supporting/driving Thunderbolt and do not want to see USB 3 succeed in the higher-end peripheral space. Being upset that Apple does not provide USB 3 support in their computers is like being surprised the Vatican gift shop does not sell condoms. And standing around the gift-shop lobby complaining about that isn't going to change anything.

If this is such a huge issue you could have spent some time looking at what you were about to purchase. And maybe you should have purchased a Mac Pro if you wanted native Mac based multi-port Firewire or SATA. Or, and especially if you want USB 3 support, you could have purchased a Windows PC. As I've already said, the Firewire 400 port was removed from the iMac product line-up well before Thunderbolt ports were added so this should really not be a surprise. eSATA has never been offered by Apple in the iMac, which are intended as a nice closed/integrated easy to use desktop computers, I don't ever expect Apple to offer eSATA connectivity in an iMac like product (except maybe via encouraging use of third party Thunderbolt interfaces).

Sure it would be nice if every computer we brought had _exactly_ the configuration we wanted but Apple cannot stand still supporting old interfaces like offering multiple FW400/800 ports forever. Apple is doing nothing unexpected or wrong here. With the iMac they are making a mass-market consumer computer at a pretty good price given all it offers and their historical and ongoing good support for Firewire and their new support for Thunderbolt is all goodness, in the big picture, for folks that care about Pro Audio. Give it a little time and we'll all have interesting and affordable Thunderbolt disk/SSD storage and hopefully interesting audio interfaces. Until then you have Firewire for your disk and your interface.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

Probably a bad idea and a waste of money. RAID is not supported by/compatible with Pro Tools, if this box can be used as JBOD (or maybe a concat volume) then you maybe could use this but they don't describe that as a supported configuration. I've given you the advice already to just go buy a standard supported type FW hard drive and start doing stuff. You should see more suitable and lower cost Thunderbolt storage products over tine.

Your comments on who/what/where of this products design are a bit strange. This RAID box is very much designed for the Mac. Promise acquired Apple's storage products business, continues to work closely with Apple and very much aims at Mac markets. Promise products have a pretty high-end fit and finish and I have no doubt that the brushed aluminum finish complete with Apple style perforations etc. on these RAID boxes was designed to compliment current Mac product ID. You may not like it for sone reason but it does clearly have Mac ID influences.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

Nope. Its SSD and again not something supported/recommended for Pro Tools.

I pretty much know what is out there and made a recommendation already for you to get a FW drive. So you don't need to keep asking about other stuff or we'll be here forever. Whether you prefer a more portable drive of a higher performance desktop one etc. you can work out and pick from the several popular FW drives with the supported chipsets. Read the recommended hardware/compatibility grids if you have not done so already--it is worth you taking time to do this.

Probably the most interesting product coming or you is the Sonnet Allegro FW800 Thunderbolt Adapter. That will give you another FW port/buss to plug your FW drive into--the FW drive you should have already purchased and be using

Darryl