Macbook capability

[Sidhu]

Hello!

I am contemplating purchase of a 2.2Ghz macbook. Seeing that it comes with only one FW slot (i use the 1814), i was wondering if it is capable of doing 16tracks of simultaneous audio recording at a very low buffer size, to the internal HD ?

Currently I use a HP nx6150, and a FW cardbus to connect the external FW HDD. While PT is very sluggish on this machine, other sequencers work well.

Cheers!
Sidhu

[mingustoo]

Not a chance on the internal drive. It spins at 5400 rpm and you need to be spinning 7400 at least. Plus your internal drive will be running the software. But daisy chain your harddrive off the 1814 and there should be no problem. You may have to reformat your drive in order to run it with a mac though. Macs dont use NTFS. So, external drive (at least 7400 rpm, Oxford chipset)plugged into the 1814 which is plugged into the Macbook abd you are good to go. You'll be hanging gold records on your wall in no time.
ps. dont forget lots of Bhang lassee

[Sidhu]

Well... I was under the impression that daisy chaining isn't really the best option either.. Pity the Macbooks dont come with an expansion slot, then i cudve used another FW cardbus. I own a D2 already.. so im sorted with the external drive. Maybe ill just go with a HP... recommend ?

BTW, Bhang Pakoras are more like it during the winters!

Cheers!
Sidhu

[mindnoise]

hi,

For an external HD you NEED 7200RPM drive with at least 8MB cache and an
Oxford Firewire chipset. All other things might lead you into trouble or sub performance.

You also have to connect first the FW Interface to your computer and then the HD to the interface.

regs

[Esko Turpeinen]

Why is that?.

ProFIre Lightbridge has only one FW connector so that´s not possible.
Would that be the reason why my system is a bit unreliable and gives clicks to recorded audio from time to time?

[mindnoise]

HI,

the problem is that if the interface is last* in the chain PT might have probs
recognizing it.

But my Transit USB also works goo over a hub.

Don´t know about a good solution about your problem, though.

I was also considering a Profire but I allways assumed it had 2 FW ports.
Which obviously brings up some problem when yu have only 1 FW port on th MacBook

best

*corrected

[Sidhu]

I did read the daisychaning the FW interface to the HDD (instead of the other way around), is a secure way of ensuring that data is not corrupted in case the audio interface happens to loose power, or connectivity.

[mindnoise]

AH,
I always confuse the order.


e.g with the digi Interfaces it´s like this:

Should I hook up my FireWire drives to the second FireWire port on the Digi 002?
No. The second FireWire port on the Digi 002 is NOT intended for external hard drives or other storage devices, as this may result in unexpected behavior. It is recommended that Digi 002 be connected as the last device in the FireWire chain, or be connected to a dedicated FireWire port.

so I guess this will be the same here.
BTW
did you read this? ProFire Lightbridge - Troubleshooting Pops & Clicks
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...05b68022e1871f

sorry!

[mike.x]

Go for it mate. The difference between what Digi recommend and qualify, and what actually works is Huge.

Real world scenario is that the internal MacBook drive will indeed do 32 tracks at lowest buffer setting without any problems. I agree 7200 rpm external FW drive is desirable, but these later machines (Intel C2D 2.0 GHz and above) blow Dual G5 towers away from 3 years ago - and THEY were powerful enough to do what you were after.

Respect

Mike

[mindnoise]

HI,

how good reocording to the internal drive will work varies.

There is another issue which shold be mentioned , one that you most likey to run in trouble with when filling the internal HD constantly over the 50% fill ratio.

Apple uses Hotfile adaptive clustering, which reorganizes and optimizes the System HD
by itself. Google for the notion. This also needs a lot of space and if not provided
Performance issues will at some point rear their ugly head.

so this is just an info to let you be prapared if things starting to act up.

best