Ideal external FW harddrive for audio

I am building a quality (humble) recording studio off of an iMac G5, and need an external harddrive for fast accessing/processing of audio data. I will not be using this harddrive for backup purposes.
These are my specifications:
-- firewire
-- 100-200GB
-- Oxford 911 chipset
-- less than 9ms seek time
-- at least 2MB buffer, greater if possible
-- min 7200RPM
-- ideally less than $200
If you're curious, I am using ProTools M-Powered and possibly Logic Express.
Do you have any models that you highly recommend or that I should avoid? Thank you, your advice is greatly appreciated!
~Nicholas

96kHz * 24bit * stereo = 4608 kilobits per second
4608 / 8 bits per byte = 576 kilobytes per second per track
24 tracks will require 13.8 megabytes per second of read/write throughput
Either can handle 13.8MB/s fine (most drives do 40-70MB/s for single files, or 25-30MB/s for multiple files). The LaCie fw800 interface capability is higher than the drive inside it. Try both and see which open/loads faster. Open Activity Monitor when working inside your DAW and see if the CPU usage is higher when working from the fw device vs. the internal drive. I'd probably use the internal drive, backup to the FW, then ship the FW drive off to the mastering house.

Similar Messages

Help - missing "External" plug-in for Audio Instruments

I am trying to set up some external MIDI devices. I understand that the "external" plug-in is available to audio instruments for this purpose. However, when I try to select the plugin in the I/O area for an audio instrument, it does not exist. I have researched this on the web, and cannot find anybody else having the same problem. I have tried verifying permissions and deleting the preferences, but it makes no difference. As far as I can tell, all of the other plugins are available.
Im running Logic 7.1.1. Can anybody provide an answer (that does not involve re-installing or re-imaging), or give me a clue how to go about troubleshooting this?
Thanks very much.
Nick.

when
I try to select the plugin in the I/O area for an
audio instrument, it does not exist.
Do you have audio inputs enabled on your audio card configuration app?

Seeking advice regarding the purchase of an external hard drive for audio

Hi,
Two questions:
1. I have 2 firewire ports on my iMac. Currently I have an Edirol FA-66 plugged into one of these and the other is free. These ports appear to be identical. Can I plug a firewire 800 hard drive into these or am I limited to firewire 400?
2. Is there any practical difference between a firewire 400 aud a USB 2 hard drive?
Thanks

rainguitar wrote:
I'm assuming, by your response, that there is little point in getting a FW800 drive so I will get a FW400 drive.
That's a toss-up, depending on your future plans and current budget. My iMac is FW400-only, but I just ordered a USB/FW800 external enclosure. A little future-proofing, and the price difference didn't break my budget. OTOH, an essentially identical unit with USB/FW400 costs $30 less, and will have exactly the same performance on a FW400 machine (or on any iMac connected to an FA-66).
USB/FW400 @ $50: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198004
USB/FW800 @ $80: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006
That FA-66 might be just what I'm looking for -- not a pro, just a hobbyist, like yourself. Any recommendations on vendors? I've had good luck in the past with MusiciansFriend -- but I haven't shopped for musical electronics in years.
Looby

Replication VDP 6.0 data to external usb harddrives for offsite backup purpose

Hi Team,
I have been using Vmware VDP from last one year and going to update it to VDP 6.0 (thanks to vmware for making it free now) , so before upgrading just wanted to confirm that does the new version have any option to replicate the appliance to an external USB drives so that i can run the replication on monthly bases and keep the USB HDD offsite.
Thanks
nitin

Hi Team,
I have been using Vmware VDP from last one year and going to update it to VDP 6.0 (thanks to vmware for making it free now) , so before upgrading just wanted to confirm that does the new version have any option to replicate the appliance to an external USB drives so that i can run the replication on monthly bases and keep the USB HDD offsite.
Thanks
nitin

External harddrive for Mac G5

Hi
I would like to get an external firewire harddrive for my mac G5 any sugestions out there.
Kindest Regards
Joe

This reply may not be very popular, but here goes...
I usually watch the Sunday paper for circulars from places like CompUSA, Staples, Office Max, ect. If you look at the sale section, you can normally find Firewire external cases. I have built five of these and the cost has been minimal. The nicest cases, in my opinion, are two Acom Data cases I found at CompUSA for $29.99. They came with Firewire (400) cables too! In these two cases, I mounted a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 300GB drive and a Maxtor Diamondmax 9 200GB drive. So, with these two drives I have almost 500GB of storage. I believe I paid $79.99 (after instant savings and mail-in rebates) for the 300GB drive (at Staples, I believe). So, for $110 I have a 300GB external Firewire drive. The drive is fast and I can boot my machine from it.
My daughter needed a drive for her iMac about 6 months ago. I bought a 40GB Maxtor mechanism for $20 on eBay. I found a Firewird case for $20, also on eBay. I think it cost me less than $5 to ship each item to me. So, for less than $50, she has a 40GB external Firewird drive.
Just last week, my son needed a new drive. Office Depot had a special in their circular on a 100GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 drive. After all of the rebates, the drive mechanism's cost is $19.95. I found an old Firewire case in the garage and now he has a 100GB external Firewire drive.
If you don't forsee the need to boot from the drive, you could buy a case that only has a USB 2.0 interface. These are actually more readibly available and usually less expensive.
I don't know why more people don't put their own drives together. It's really easy and saves lots of money.

Power Mac DaulCore 2.3 - USER FEEDBACK FOR AUDIO PLEASE?

Hello everyone,
I'm interested in replacing my Powerbook G4 17" 1.33 model for the new Power Mac DualCore 2.3. I plan on using this in a Pro Audio situation.
(I'm not interested in the Quad model, because of the price and the problems other users are having with Pro Tools LE 7 and other audio apps.).
I would be using the DualCore 2.3 with my existing setup, which consists of the Digi 002, External Firewire drives for Audio, Pro Tools LE7, Live 5, Reason 3, etc.
I'd like to get feedback before I purchase the computer and find out how this computer works with Pro Tools ( amount of RTAS plugins, Audio Tracks, speed, performance etc). As well as how the DualCore is working with the other above mentioned programs.
Being that I'm working in a small environment, I would also like to get feedback on how the computer itself is working (fan noise, noise in general, speed, performance etc.).
I know that the computer hasn't been out for that long, but I'd like to get one of the last, so called PowerMacs before Apple switches to Intel.
I'd like to replace my existing computer in the next few months so that I can get to work.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

You don't need to post the same discussion in the same forum 3 times within 5 days. You've already received responses on your previous threads, so just leave it at.
If you'd llike to repsond to your own post in an effort to bump it to the top of the list, feel free. Otherwise the discussion hosts will most likely delete your duplicate entries.

Power Mac DualCore 2.3 - USER FEEDBACK FOR AUDIO PLEASE?

Hello everyone,
I'm interested in replacing my Powerbook G4 17" 1.33 model for the new Power Mac DualCore 2.3. I plan on using this in a Pro Audio situation.
(I'm not interested in the Quad model, because of the price and the problems other users are having with Pro Tools LE 7 and other audio apps.).
I would be using the DualCore 2.3 with my existing setup, which consists of the Digi 002, External Firewire drives for Audio, Pro Tools LE7, Live 5, Reason 3, etc.
I'd like to get feedback before I purchase the computer and find out how this computer works with Pro Tools ( amount of RTAS plugins, Audio Tracks, speed, performance etc). As well as how the DualCore is working with the other above mentioned programs.
Being that I'm working in a small environment, I would also like to get feedback on how the computer itself is working (fan noise, noise in general, speed, performance etc.).
I know that the computer hasn't been out for that long, but I'd like to get one of the last, so called PowerMacs before Apple switches to Intel.
I'd like to replace my existing computer in the next few months so that I can get to work.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

hi
i m a audio user to i use DP4.6 and logic with 828 and 869hd interfaces, with protools i use the 002 rack version with protools le the machines that i use are a powermac 2.5 quad, powermac dual2.0 and a powerbook 1.5 15" and i never have a problem of any kind except with the protools le and the 002 rack with the quad 2.5 but with the last update and the last drivers i dont have any problem or any big issue to report except of course the bip's ups noise from the g5's but apple never got a solution for that, but dont worry if you want to go for the 2.3 g5 do it, you dont will get any mayor problems.
good luck

Can I back up my photos on my iphone directly to an external harddrive for safekeeping?My Mac laptop is full.

can I back up my photos on my iphone directly to an external harddrive for safekeeping?My iPhone is full and my Mac laptop is full. What is the best solution besides buying a new laptop?

Not "directly" but you can use the MacBook to send the backup to the external HD.
iTunes > preverences > advanced
Use the function buttons to change the location of the Media Folder Location.

Best Raid 5 expandable external harddrives for video editing & storage.

Hi,
I'm hoping to get opinions and recommendations from the community concerning the best Raid 5 expandable external harddrives for HD video editing and storage. Initially, I'd like to start with an 8tb and have it expandable to 16tb, that will work with both Mac and PC. There seem to be a number of options, but it's difficult to find reviews from video editors. It would be nice to stay under $ 2,000.00.
Thanks for any input.
Heather

If the brief includes "fast enough for video editing", you are looking for an editing solution.
If you want it to be fast enough to edit video and be shared by two computers, you are looking at a server type system connected through a very fast network interface (fibre, dual channel iSCSI)
If this is the case, $2k is not going to do it.
What it comes down to is this - Basic backup can be had relatively inexpensively as can direct connect RAID systems. The complexity and cost comes from the shared network storage with enough bandwidth to support multiple systems.
What do you want for your $2000?
Regards,
x

How Much External Hard Drive Partition Recommended for Audio Recording?

Hi,
I have a glyph 300 gigabyte drive. Does anyone have thoughts on how to partition it? I was thinking 200 gb for samples, etc and 100gig for recording audio? Is that too much or too little for recording audio? Or should I use all 300 gigs for audio recording. I also want to do video editing in FCP eventually.
Thanks

Okay...There are 3 guys and each has a basket full of marbles. The 1st guy has a basket full of red marbles, the second guy has a basket full of blue marbles, and you have a basket full of red and blue marbles. All three of you have your left hand tied behind your back. You are in competition with the other two guys, you are on your own and they work as a team. Someone starts shouting give me 3 reds and 2 blue marbles. You reach in your basket and grab 3 reds and 2 blues as fast as you can, but the other guys are way ahead of you because there are 2 of them and they each only have to worry about grabbing one color of marble at a time. So you lose the contest badly... that is why you need at least
2 hard drives instead of just one (whether partitioned or not). Buy an external firewire drive. you'll be glad you did.
RealDave

I just bought a Macbook Air. I also have an external harddrive for which to transfer and save all my existing music from my PC. Will I have any troubles with iTunes recognizing where my music is located if I keep it on the external harddrive?

I just bought a Macbook Air. I also have an external harddrive for which to transfer and save all my existing music from my PC. Will I have any troubles with iTunes recognizing where my music is located if I keep it on the external harddrive and not save it on the computer's harddrive?

Just be sure to Follow the steps here to transfer your iTunes to an External Drive...
Backup iTunes to an External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

Can I use another computer as a external harddrive for time machine?

I have a mac mini from a few years ago and it is never used. I was wonder if it could be used as an external hard drive for time machine. If this can be done how do I go about setting it up for this type of useage?

Thanks for your reply. I looked at the Troubleshooting, but can't find my exact problem. It is as follows:
I use a new iMac running Snow Leopard with a 500 GB external WD drive.
-I looked the other day to find that time machine had failed, and when I looked at the backups, there had not been a successful backup since September 2009. I think this is when I installed Snow Leopard...
-I went to run a backup, and it failed, saying I did not have room (I have about 220 GB to backup)
-I decided to format the external hard drive and try again from scratch.
-I began getting an error 11, and specifically -8062 and -36 (as examples) which specifically list files that it could not copy.
-I reinstalled snow leopard from disk.
-I excluded time machine from spotlight as recommended in some forums
-I started ommitting some of the files that were listed as not being bale to copy, but now its into my music, and that's half the reason I back up.
I am now backing up to laptop as above post, and if that works, I will conclude that the External HD has seen its day.
If I get the same errors, I will conclude (nervously) that my computer has issues.
Here is an example of an error message:
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/Shared/Music/Compilations/(album name)/(song name).mp3 to /Volumes/Time Machine 20100504/Backups.backupdb/Riskin's Computer/2010-05-04-222232.inprogress/F9243DA..(many letters and numbers)...D19/Macintosh HD/Users/Shared/Music/Compilations/(album name)/(song name)
then below in another message says:
Copy stage failed with error: 11
Backup failed with error: 11
I get this same original error with different files, and with different error numbers.
Apple support told me that by formatting external drive, and reinstalling snow leopard, they were 99.9% sure it would be fixed, but it is not.
Frustrated,

Designated Hard Drive for Audio

Hello,
Anybody into audio recording?
I'm making the switch from PC to Mac and from Cubase to Pro Tools.I'm been leaning towards the new imac. The drawback is there is only enough space for the one harddrive in the imac. Every audio person I know, runs a separate, discrete harddrive for their recorded audio files. If any of you are doing audio recording and do own an imac,I'd like hear some suggestions. I know, I'll have to buy an external drive but unless it's in an enclosure, i would suspect a lot of noise from it.
Cheers

I am by no means an expert, but I have been using my 20" iMac for some audio and video work and I have been very satisified with the firewire drives I have used. My friend uses the newer 24" version and hasn't mentioned any difficulties.
My advice is to be cautious about where you read about the firewire difficulties. As you know, support sites usually only feature the people who had things go wrong and not the many that are happily using their setup. Also take note of the date of the complaint as is common for products to have some problems early in their life cycle that are resolved later.
As for performance, if you're going to be working consistently on heavy multi-track audio segments, the Mac Pro's power would be ideal. For most else, the iMac will likely be suitable and is certainly easier on the bank. The benefit of the 24" iMac over the smaller sizes would be the Firewire 800 port which is great for edit intensive work and large files, and the larger screen space. I love my 20", and hope to make the move to a 24" in the next year or so.
Both my friend and I have used a variety of external firewire enclosures and neither of us have had any firewire difficulty with the macs. The more usual problem is an drive failure or heat issue.
Whichever you decide, I wish you the best of luck.

Mac Mini for audio recording???

Hello,
My name is Gavin Brinck. I have been fishing in the pc market for about 6 months. I just bought a BEAST of a PC with all the parts. I assembled everything, and seemingly the motherboard is fried. That's another story.
I am looking into the mac mini, seeing as I have a nice HDTV + HDMI cable as well as a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse bundle to use with it. I am intyerested in audio recroding, mostly guitar, vocals, and hopefully MIDI controlling in the future. I like the idea that the mac mini can be a very portable device.
I will be using it to write, record music, play Starcraft 2 HOTS as well as surf, research, and continue to learn. I am on a budget and am looking into my options.
Is audacity(free music recording software) decent? Do I really need 8 GB of RAM? In the future I will probably get an external harddrive for storing all of my information. I am also looking into getting a camera. WILL THE MAC MINI FIT MY NEEDS?? I do not need a mac pro, and the mac air does not have hdmi . I think I have found a decent solution. Please help! Thank you.
all the best.
-Gavin Brinck

In addition to BDAqua:
You will probably want to purchase and use an external "sound card" or DAC via USB or FireWire to get decent audio quality from external sources into the Mac.
Audacity is sort of an 'industry standard', but not for complex recording purposes as I read in (and in between) your lines. Free on bord with a new Mac will be Garageband. Once you've got your head around it, you'll love it.
Gaming - I have no clue, but don't expect the lower-end models of Macs ideal for heavy gaming... even the higher-end versions can lack, depending on the games. Check around here and elsewhere, there are gazillions of gamer forums.
Budget & portability: Keep in mind that for a Mini you'll need an external screen, and if that's supposed to be your TV, make sure it accepts data (PC or Mac) signals on HDMI. Or has DVI as well. Otherwise disappointment - not due to Apple!
Eventually take a look at MacBook Pros, they are portable, do come with a screen, and can do more than an Air - depending on model.

What imac for audio recording?

I am currently a PC user that is looking to switch to a mac. Over the past year or so I have been debating over an imac and a mac mini. Ever since the announcement 2 months ago, I have essentially decided on a new imac. Now the question is WHICH imac to go with.
Obviously I will do all of the normal "stuff" that everyone else will do with their computer (pics, internet, dvds, etc). For me, I will also be using this for music creation. I want to start out with Garageband (since I am new to mac) and then move to Logic Express/ Logic as I gain experience.
i mostly record guitars, bass, vocals and program my drums. On my old PC I can record and play simultaneously without any latency or freezing. My normal projects play up to 20-30 tracks (with some effects) and record 1 track all at the same time. I am planning on getting a firewire audio interface, as well as, an external harddrive for writing to.
My only concern is which imac will be best for me. I have read some things regarding imac dual core and quad cores. I am confused regarding which to go for. I do not believe (at this time) garageband, logic express or logic actually utilize the quad cores.
Am I asking the right questions? Should I be looking into anything else? Are there other places to look for suggestions?

I would recommend any entry level iMac, particularly if you are the type of individual that likes to upgrade every 2-3 years. I think even an entry level refurbished iMac would be fine for your needs. For your needs unless you're making your living making music there really isn't a major reason to go with anything more robust. However if you like to keep machines longer and you want to future proof your machine a bit then take a look at the i5 or i7 machines. What you're going to be doing isn't really that taxing, I'd save my money and use it for software and any new peripherals you may want or need like external drives, music keyboards, etc..
My rational is musicians have been using far less powerful Macs for creating music for quite awhile. Having the extra power is a luxury, what really matters though is do you really need it or not.
I would recommend you purchase AppleCare though, it's a modest cost and protects your new iMac for 3 years, yes even an Apple refurbished machine.
Prior to making the change I'd also recommend you go over these site if you haven't already:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
Regards,
Roger

Ideal external FW harddrive for audio

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for