Workspace problems and firewire weirdness

[fasttraxx]

I try to audition a wav or aiff file in the "workspace" and it get's choppy sometimes. Sometimes it draws a "flatline" for the wav file view and doesn't play anything. Other times if I try to use the tempo detection button for the currecnt session it plays the tempo way faster. I have used the workspace for a while now and haven't had a problem until I starting updating my 7.4 to cs 1 through 6 if I recall correctly. I also am having problems with my accessing on my hard drives. I use three firewire hard drives that now seem to have access issues which cause crashes and lock ups that require rebooting. Sometimes playback will have loud random beeps. Crazy stuff, not to cool. Because of PT 7.4 requiring an OS update, I am not sure what my Apple OS is responsible for. I have updates from 10.4.3 ( which was pretty stable for me) to 10.4.9 and recently as Digi recommends 10.4.9 combo install.
I am not to happy with how my system is running now and it is not very stable since I have went with PT 7.4.

[crizdee]

I try to audition a wav or aiff file in the "workspace" and it get's choppy sometimes. Sometimes it draws a "flatline" for the wav file view and doesn't play anything. Other times if I try to use the tempo detection button for the currecnt session it plays the tempo way faster. I have used the workspace for a while now and haven't had a problem until I starting updating my 7.4 to cs 1 through 6 if I recall correctly. I also am having problems with my accessing on my hard drives. I use three firewire hard drives that now seem to have access issues which cause crashes and lock ups that require rebooting. Sometimes playback will have loud random beeps. Crazy stuff, not to cool. Because of PT 7.4 requiring an OS update, I am not sure what my Apple OS is responsible for. I have updates from 10.4.3 ( which was pretty stable for me) to 10.4.9 and recently as Digi recommends 10.4.9 combo install.
I am not to happy with how my system is running now and it is not very stable since I have went with PT 7.4.

Hi,

Seems all your problems are related to getting the audio or samples from the drives fast enough! Can you put any more drives into your mac and have all your audio, samples and loops stored on the internal drives? this will work much faster than using external drives! you don't say whether you are using 400 or 800 firewire drives, but even 800 drives i find are too slow to audition from the workspace browser, there is always some lag before you can audition the loop or sample etc.

Its the same thing for recording audio! internal drives are just so much faster and capable. the firewire 800 drives i find are ok for recording some extra tracks on large sessions, but trying to run all your audio from firewire will be too slow for large sessions.

also your firewire bus will work at the speed of the slowest device!!

Chris

[fasttraxx]

Chris,
I use firewire 400 drives. I have just recently been using the workspace more to audition tracks, cd's, etc... I was also told that my firewire cables could be the problem. I remember awhile back I had a different issue and changed firewire cables and the problem went away. I am going to try that next. Thanks for the info on ussing internal drives. I use my Mac drive ( I know this is notty) from time to time, and it never gives me problems, but what my needs are clients stuff on their hard drives. I guess I could always drag stuff over to my MAC drive, but that's kind of a hassel for every session.

[crizdee]

Chris,
I use firewire 400 drives. I have just recently been using the workspace more to audition tracks, cd's, etc... I was also told that my firewire cables could be the problem. I remember awhile back I had a different issue and changed firewire cables and the problem went away. I am going to try that next. Thanks for the info on ussing internal drives. I use my Mac drive ( I know this is notty) from time to time, and it never gives me problems, but what my needs are clients stuff on their hard drives. I guess I could always drag stuff over to my MAC drive, but that's kind of a hassel for every session.

Hello Bill,

I to have firewire drives, and use them mostly for storage, but the time it takes to drag even large sessions from the firewire drive on to my second internal audio drive is only a few minutes and with firewire 800 its almost done before you know it.

I would definitely put another internal SATA drive in your mac and use that to record to and store your loops/samples etc.

Once i have finished a project i then copy them over to the firewire drives and USB to archive them etc.

If you do use USB drives, its best to unmount them before using Pro Tools as it will slow your system down! opening plugins etc will be much slower with slow USB drives connected.

Chris

[fasttraxx]

Hi Chris,
You record to internal drives? I know I can put one more sata drive in my MAC (G-5 dual 1.8). I have been recording to external firewire 400 drives. How about large sessions over 48 tracks?

[Neps]

Originally Posted by fasttraxx

Hi Chris,
You record to internal drives? I know I can put one more sata drive in my MAC (G-5 dual 1.8). I have been recording to external firewire 400 drives. How about large sessions over 48 tracks?

I found that recording or mixing more than 20 tracks on an external drive makes my machine extremely sluggish. The only times I do use firewire drives is when I have a mother of a live recording to do and then I also only use them as a backup recording source (eg. recording straight to my extra internal drives and also duplicating them on my firewire drives.)

You also dont have the possibility of accidently knocking over the drive if its in an inconvient spot. Just had an extra SATA drive installed in my mac. works like a bomb! Them only question is "to spotlight or not to spotlight?!"

[fasttraxx]

Neps,
You say your extra internal drives. How many drives extra do you have internally? I am on a MAC g-5 dual 1.8 and can only put one more SATA internal drive.

[Scott Goldberg]

Originally Posted by Neps

I found that recording or mixing more than 20 tracks on an external drive makes my machine extremely sluggish. The only times I do use firewire drives is when I have a mother of a live recording to do and then I also only use them as a backup recording source (eg. recording straight to my extra internal drives and also duplicating them on my firewire drives.)

You also dont have the possibility of accidently knocking over the drive if its in an inconvient spot. Just had an extra SATA drive installed in my mac. works like a bomb! Them only question is "to spotlight or not to spotlight?!"

Hey Guys,

Here's my 3 cents...

1) Listen to Chris!
2) I have 6 firewire drives all running at once (400) and I have no problems, go figure.
3) SATAs will always be better, because, as Chris or one of the other posters put it, the firewire drive will only be as fast as it's bus. If you have one Internal SATA, you can do all your sessions on that drive and transfer them to cheapo firewires when you are done. You can also unmount some of the drives you are not using while tracking and editing. That will cure a myriad of other problems which can occur also. Good Luck!

[Neps]

Originally Posted by fasttraxx

Neps,
You say your extra internal drives. How many drives extra do you have internally? I am on a MAC g-5 dual 1.8 and can only put one more SATA internal drive.

I just bought a 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Mac, so I do have the option of having 4 bay slots. But on my old G5 (dual 2 PPC) I have an extra 500Gb drive installed apart from my OS drive. When I'm done with a project I do what Chris suggested, and copy stuff over to my Firewire drives (running on FW800)

I dont know how technicaley right the following is but, a mate of mine had, on his studio mac, a 'caddie' drive space built via SATA. Dont know how it works or how stable (when it comes to stuff like that Im useless), but he's managed to increase his drive space that way. Never bothered to ask him how it works.

[fasttraxx]

I installed and additional internal SATA drive (I can only put one extra in my MAC)and tried it for a couple of days now with no problems. I haven't put much of a load on it though. 16 tracks recording a band with one Amp Farm plug. We'll see what it can do once we get a higher track count and some plugs going for the mix.