Recording at a rate of 5 Gb/s efficient enough

[[email protected]]

When using Protools 10 and using an external hard drive for the recording only and at a transfer rate of 5 Gb/s is that fast enough to not have latency issues?

[mesaone]

Yes. USB 3.0 is probably the third-best choice (behind Thunderbolt and eSATA) for an external recording drive... Although you will find that it is only 5 Gb/s on paper. There are more factors at play here - real-world USB transfers depend on the CPU, destination drive speed, and a few other things.

Technically USB 3.0 (which I assume you're talking about, since it's the only 5 Gb/s spec I know of) is faster than SATA II, which is what most internal hard drives use. That's not to say that all USB 3.0 external drives will be faster than internal drives, but it should be just fine for recording and playing back.

[sw rec]

AVID says USB for Windows and Firewire for MAC.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by sw rec

AVID says USB for Windows and Firewire for MAC.

I've used both USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 record drives on both systems, no issues. I've only used FW800 a couple times on Mac, so I can't say much about it. This was an external enclosure that had USB 2.0, FW400, FW800, and eSATA connections.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mesaone

I've used both USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 record drives on both systems, no issues. I've only used FW800 a couple times on Mac, so I can't say much about it. This was an external enclosure that had USB 2.0, FW400, FW800, and eSATA connections.

I would never use FW400 for a recording drive, especially if you're working with more than a small handful of tracks. I have both FW800 (Glyph) and Thunderbolt (LaCie) drives and can't say enough good about them. 50+ tracks - no problem; could probably go bigger but that's the biggest session so far.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by musicman691

I would never use FW400 for a recording drive, especially if you're working with more than a small handful of tracks.

Maybe not. But it was my only option at the time, and it worked. It was only seven tracks.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mesaone

Maybe not. But it was my only option at the time, and it worked. It was only seven tracks.

That's why you got lucky and I said what I said.

[[email protected]]

Wow thanks for the information, that helps me out a lot. What would be a good external hard drive to buy and use?

[sw rec]

Mac or PC? FW for MAC, USB for PC. Something with a WD black..

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Wow thanks for the information, that helps me out a lot. What would be a good external hard drive to buy and use?

If on a Mac - OWC drives and they're okayed by Avid for use with PT. Personally I use Glyph GPT50's on FW800 bus and LaCie's on Thunderbolt. All with 7200 rpm platters.