I want to use my notebook for professional level recording, using Protoole LE and M audio Firewire 410 kind of I/O box but when you do that you need a second HD to stuff the audio into. Now I was looking at these HD cases you can get now for 50 bucks or less that allow you to put in a regular PC HD and I/O it into the notebook via a USB-2 port which I have three of on my laptop. I have one firewire port which the 410 has to use. So a sales dude at Circuit City today told me that if you use a USB-2 port for a HD it is very slow, like a flash stick. Anyone know that for a fact? It would save me having to use the one card slot just to get extra firewire ports if I could get a regular speed HD connection via USB. Anyone know if that is true the HD is a lot slower going through the USB2 port?
Originally posted by sonhouseI use my laptop for prof. recordings too. Never had problems with music stuff at the outer HD. What's more, my friends who are studio computer freeks,use USB and seldom FW(only for outer music cards). But it is only my opinion.
I want to use my notebook for professional level recording, using Protoole LE and M audio Firewire 410 kind of I/O box but when you do that you need a second HD to stuff the audio into. Now I was looking at these HD cases you can get now for 50 bucks or less that allow you to put in a regular PC HD and I/O it into the notebook via a USB-2 port which I have ...[text shortened]... nection via USB. Anyone know if that is true the HD is a lot slower going through the USB2 port?
USB2 and FW are much the same. Both quick, but neither as quick as your system's internal HD connection (SATA or the like).
Your best bet is to use an area (ideally a partition) on your laptop's HD for your audio input: there's less strain on the system that way. Then copy the audio data to an external drive at the end of your session (or whenever if it is getting too big).
Originally posted by ToeThanks for the replies, guys. The problem with using the internal HD for that purpose is those little drives only run at about 4000 RPM and are fundamentally about half the speed of an IDE drive which runs minimum 7200 RPM and some are really cranking at 10K. So you contend with that and then have the program (protools and sonar) running is BS and then stuffing the resultant audio into the single HD is not good for the HD and can get the audio screwed up, missing bits, etc. The HD is whacking itself to death doing all that work and may miss a beat in the process and can contibute to an early death of said HD. So to avoid all that, you use a second higher speed drive which keeps the whole system happy. My daughter is a pro in this field, she has a masters degree in music and synth from Berkelee in boston and Wesleyan and has addressed this issue. From what the first poster said, I should have no problem using the USB-2 port which eases my mind a bit, it means I don't have to use the card slot just to buy more firewire ports, what I have is already enough. So maybe that solves the problem. Thanks for the advise.
USB2 and FW are much the same. Both quick, but neither as quick as your system's internal HD connection (SATA or the like).
Your best bet is to use an area (ideally a partition) on your laptop's HD for your audio input: there's less strain on the system that way. Then copy the audio data to an external drive at the end of your session (or whenever if it is getting too big).
Originally posted by sonhouseMost important issue here, is what do You intend to to with it. To work with an audio file stored on a HD,USB shall do. Problem might be appear with some recordings,especially while you use more than one device,and make a many-tracked recording.
Thanks for the replies, guys. The problem with using the internal HD for that purpose is those little drives only run at about 4000 RPM and are fundamentally about half the speed of an IDE drive which runs minimum 7200 RPM and some are really cranking at 10K. So you contend with that and then have the program (protools and sonar) running is BS and then stuf ...[text shortened]... ports, what I have is already enough. So maybe that solves the problem. Thanks for the advise.
Originally posted by ChoreantThat is the idea, multiple tracks and all effects in software, reverbs, crossfades, eq, editing, that last of course is not in real time, it consists of squashing down all the tracks to a stereo pair, truncating the beginning and end, adding fade-in and fade-out, etc. But all those effects in real time really cranks up the CPU usage and you need as much horsepower as you can get in both CPU and HD speed.
[b]Most important issue here, is what do You intend to to with it. To work with an audio file stored on a HD,USB shall do. Problem might be appear with some recordings,especially while you use more than one device,and make a many-tracked recording.[/b
Your snag is that you are using the same device to both record and apply the special effects. Two channels of 24-bit 96kHz audio (as output from the M-audio) is only form 5Mbits / sec, well within the performance of a 4000rpm drive. The snag comes when the CPU (and it's HD disk cache / swap file) are also in action: two systems writing at high speed to the same disk equals 'problems'.
On a PC system, one would normally have the PC's temp directories, swap file and the like on a seperate IDE channel to the audio stream storage, so that these do not clash. You likely only have one drive in the notebook, so that is not a solution for you. Thus it seems the USB external drive for the audio is a good solution here (or a seperate machine to record and one to apply effects: after all, one never stores the effects-modified data, as then you can't remaster).
Again, 5Mbits / sec is easily within USB2's bandwidth. As a wee note: you wouldn't want to use an external firewire drive when using the M-audio box (apparently): according to their own FAQ, using multiple firewire devices when using the M-audio can lead to problems: probably caused by them as Firewire is entirely capable of handling it, but there you go.
Originally posted by ToeThat does seem to be the catch. I found out from my local music center you can't daisy chain m audio firewire boxes, which sucks because you could get a lot more tracks available but you are limited to one box at a time. The same people told me the USB port HD's have a speed about the same as a flash card. Do you know if that is true? Don't know the speed of a flash card, would it theoretically work to capture audio in real time?
Your snag is that you are using the same device to both record and apply the special effects. Two channels of 24-bit 96kHz audio (as output from the M-audio) is only form 5Mbits / sec, well within the performance of a 4000rpm drive. The snag comes when the CPU (and it's HD disk cache / swap file) are also in action: two systems writing at high speed to the same ...[text shortened]... probably caused by them as Firewire is entirely capable of handling it, but there you go.
The data rate of USB2 (and of USB2 external hard disks) are capable of the required transfer rate. Your concern is thus the data buffering that goes on in the notebook, as your system memory is doing quite a few jobs (data in from firewire; data out to usb; data processing in application; data out to soundcard). (Edit: this is why most audio PCs have sooo much RAM).
It sounds much like a "suck it and see" situation. As an external hard drive is fairly handy to have anyway (for the always-mentioned-but-rarely-done "backup", or more likely, your mp3 library), its not 'money down the drain' if it doesn't pan out well on the audio recording front.
Originally posted by ToeGood point about the ram, forgot all about that on the notebook. I have to check that out too it seems.
The data rate of USB2 (and of USB2 external hard disks) are capable of the required transfer rate. Your concern is thus the data buffering that goes on in the notebook, as your system memory is doing quite a few jobs (data in from firewire; data out to usb; data processing in application; data out to soundcard). (Edit: this is why most audio PCs have sooo much R ...[text shortened]... , its not 'money down the drain' if it doesn't pan out well on the audio recording front.