pro tools external hard drive fire wire

A V A

i have been on the digidesign forum about the problems i am having with my pro tools stopping and glithing and i have been told that i need a external fire wire hard drive and not use the systems hard drive ill show the original post from the forum

pleas help me out my pro tools keep stoping i have 4 tracks made and and on each of them i only have one plug in on the track for example i have boom the drum sequence software playing and i have another track playin ( some bass line recorded) and on the other two i just have piano and vocals.but when i just have the both just playing through so when im writing i have a beat to play to etc and work from that .out of no where it would glitch and sometimes stop and a window would come up saying decrease the buffer size etc and take out some plug ins.iv decreased the buffer size to the lowest it will go and i only have one plug in on each track and thats even without the any compressors or anything on the tracks ???? i dont know what to do i am new to pro tools and i do not know what to do if some one could please help me that would be great because i some ideas that i would like to play live and i do not want it to start glitching and stoping

thank you for reading


if you can help please do as im really confused on what to do and what firewire hard drive to get with a decent price tag

Mataguri

Shouldn't you be increasing the buffer size?

A V A

a window comes up saying i should decrease my buffer size tho??

Strings.ie

Pro tools LE is a b*tch about what computer it will play nicely with. Are you running it on Mac or PC? Post your computers specs if you can.

I struggled for years with buffer errors. One minute it tells you to raise then it asks you to lower it. In the end I picked up a 2nd hand mix TDM system which is a delight. I also have pro tools 8 on an imac and that still shouts occasionally :mad:

A V A

MAC OSX 10.6.3


2 GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO

2GB 1067 MHZ DDR3



ye a good few people seem to be having problems with the mbox etc im just looking to decent recording im not looking to do big serious projects or anyting

MilanPan!c

Mbox = junk.

Buy a decent card and learn reaper.

That's my honest advice.

If you want to buy popular software try cubase or (my fave) Sonar.

Sorry you're having these problems; you're not alone.

A V A

MilanPan!c wrote: »

Mbox = junk.

Buy a decent card and learn reaper.

That's my honest advice.

If you want to buy popular software try cubase or (my fave) Sonar.

Sorry you're having these problems; you're not alone.

cheers dude im just not happy that retail music stores are advising that the mbox is a good way to start out in recording to be honest i thought pro tools is the most decent way you would get a great sound out of a recording,i just wanted the basics of pro tools of the tutorials iv seen would be enough to get me by without doing proper recordings

MilanPan!c

A V A wrote: »

cheers dude im just not happy that retail music stores are advising that the mbox is a good way to start out in recording to be honest i thought pro tools is the most decent way you would get a great sound out of a recording,i just wanted the basics of pro tools of the tutorials iv seen would be enough to get me by without doing proper recordings

Totally cool... I am always surprised at the total allegience to PT here in Ireland. I have asked a few retailers about it and it is apparently a historical quirk.

Anyway, my opinon is that if you drip the big bucks on the top range PT system it's ok, but for people just trying to get a foot in te door it's not great. And a lot of my opinion is based on the fact the mbox is junk. I have yet to meet someone that hasn't had issues with it.

And PT is certainly missing features that other DAWs have.

So, really, my advice stays the same: if you can swap it out for something like a presonus or delta 44 and get the free v of reaper. The community around Reaper is amazing. You won't have ANY trouble learning how to use it and you'll be able record very high quality stuff (as good as the mbox/PT combo for certain).

Good luck either way!!

A V A

cheers mate its just for the past while iv been trying out different ways of recording but when i just got the pro tools its seemed ok and i am able to record fine and it sounds great but its just these little problems

artvandulet

If you have an mbox and ProTools, its a very good and useable system.
I've had an mbox for ages and had no problems, once I knew how to setup my system properly.
When your PC/Mac is set up correctly, you shouldnt either. Just saying its junk ain't helping you out and simply isn't true.
I'm a PC user, so I know what hardware profile you'd need to set up to make PT run smoothly, and it's really fairly straightforward. For Mac, I wouldn't be an expert, but I'm sure there are system tweaks that will help. You basically need to free up system resources. Do you use that computer as your day to day machine as well as for PT? Ideally you should have a dedicated machine for your DAW. But if you are going to spend money on an external hardrive, just make sure its FW800 and that you have the correct port on your Mac. I'd also recommend a ram upgrade, that will help.

A V A

artvandulet wrote: »

If you have an mbox and ProTools, its a very good and useable system.
I've had an mbox for ages and had no problems, once I knew how to setup my system properly.
When your PC/Mac is set up correctly, you shouldnt either. Just saying its junk ain't helping you out and simply isn't true.
I'm a PC user, so I know what hardware profile you'd need to set up to make PT run smoothly, and it's really fairly straightforward. For Mac, I wouldn't be an expert, but I'm sure there are system tweaks that will help. You basically need to free up system resources. Do you use that computer as your day to day machine as well as for PT? Ideally you should have a dedicated machine for your DAW. But if you are going to spend money on an external hardrive, just make sure its FW800 and that you have the correct port on your Mac. I'd also recommend a ram upgrade, that will help.

this is my day to day computer and i use it for pro tools aswell could recomend or show me an example of where u can egt a fw800 ?? i dont have firewire
where would igo about upgrading the ramon my computer and how much would it cost ??

cheers

11811

A V A wrote: »

this is my day to day computer and i use it for pro tools aswell could recomend or show me an example of where u can egt a fw800 ?? i dont have firewire
where would igo about upgrading the ramon my computer and how much would it cost ??

cheers

If it a new macbook there will be no Firewire port on it, if its an older one or a macbook pro it will have a firewire port,

here's a reasonable enough firewire/USB harddrive for use with mac http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iomega-eGo-Portable-Mac-external/dp/B002BWOO2K/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271064452&sr=8-19

To upgrade your RAM i would recommend Crucial - http://www.crucial.com/mac/index.aspx - they're good to deal with and deliver quickly.
But still, you're machine should be running protools easily enough, I have had 8 running on machines with only 2gb Ram easily enough.

Have you upgraded to the latest version for Snow Leopard? Should be 8.03?

studiorat

A V A wrote: »

MAC OSX 10.6.3

2 GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO

2GB 1067 MHZ DDR3

I can run 24 tracks in record on my Powerbook G4 which is half the size of that.

What speed does the hard drive work at? it should be at least 7,200 rpm. As well as that you shouldn't really be using your system drive to record on to. They tell you this everywhere!!

As far as I know, Pro Tools won't run on a USB external drive, none of times I've tried have anyway.

Pro Tools is popular because musicians bought into the whole thing most not actually realising that there was a world of difference between the Pro Tools that they would see in their local professional studio and the protools that was for sale in their local music shop. Just like Marshall or Fender or any other brand name they just bought into it thinking all Pro Tools was some sort of standard.

It does have it's advantages though, a simpler learning curve and easy to find support in the form of hard copy and software manuals. Something that Reaper doesn't have enough of just yet.

A V A

11811 wrote: »

If it a new macbook there will be no Firewire port on it, if its an older one or a macbook pro it will have a firewire port,

here's a reasonable enough firewire/USB harddrive for use with mac http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iomega-eGo-Portable-Mac-external/dp/B002BWOO2K/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271064452&sr=8-19

To upgrade your RAM i would recommend Crucial - http://www.crucial.com/mac/index.aspx - they're good to deal with and deliver quickly.
But still, you're machine should be running protools easily enough, I have had 8 running on machines with only 2gb Ram easily enough.

Have you upgraded to the latest version for Snow Leopard? Should be 8.03?

yes i have protools 8.3 i always check for upgrades and stuff

am i able to get a converter or connection or something if i dont have a firewire port (sorry if that sounds stupid)

thats hard you showed would be out of my price range all i have is €70/80

A V A

studiorat wrote: »

I can run 24 tracks in record on my Powerbook G4 which is half the size of that.

What speed does the hard drive work at? it should be at least 7,200 rpm. As well as that you shouldn't really be using your system drive to record on to. They tell you this everywhere!!

As far as I know, Pro Tools won't run on a USB external drive, none of times I've tried have anyway.

Pro Tools is popular because musicians bought into the whole thing most not actually realising that there was a world of difference between the Pro Tools that they would see in their local professional studio and the protools that was for sale in their local music shop. Just like Marshall or Fender or any other brand name they just bought into it thinking all Pro Tools was some sort of standard.

It does have it's advantages though, a simpler learning curve and easy to find support in the form of hard copy and software manuals. Something that Reaper doesn't have enough of just yet.

did you use a external hard drive ?? firewire or usb

studiorat

Firewire, always firewire.

If you don't have it you are kind of stuck with using the internal drive I guess. I'd suggest partitioning it into system and project drives. Although if you are running into difficulty with such a low track count there may be issues elsewhere.

You could also check is the computer using the system drive as additional RAM. Maybe I'm showing my age, does OSX still do this? I can't remember. That was always an issue back in the day.

It's a real mess since Mac dropped the firewire support for the lower end machines. I'm still not 100% about pro tools working with USB 2 from my experience it won't.

It's pretty bad that someone sold you a Pro Tools system without telling you about the fire wire thing or trying to address compatibility issues with you. Mind you I have a friend who's a computer science graduate and has had serious grief with Pro Tools and Windows 7 on installation, so it would seem that it's not just solely a Mac problem.

However, although it may be tricky to install and get working properly an decent stable Pro Tools rig is simple to use for pro and enthusiast alike. So stick with it, update all the drivers and systems you can, you will find a set-up that will work.

A V A

so after i finish at the end of a recording session and i want to save the track im working on i cant save that onto hard drive?? i thought you could do that and i dont know why digidesign are like that wish there wasnt this much hassle
kind of getting fed up now all i want to do is a simple few tracks with plugins and at the end save it on a hard drive

MilanPan!c

A V A wrote: »

so after i finish at the end of a recording session and i want to save the track im working on i cant save that onto hard drive?? i thought you could do that and i dont know why digidesign are like that wish there wasnt this much hassle
kind of getting fed up now all i want to do is a simple few tracks with plugins and at the end save it on a hard drive

why not TRY Reaper? It's free and like 12Mb...

PaulBrewer

studiorat wrote: »

Firewire, always firewire.

Yup - either that or buffer or clocking , innit ?

A V A

just want to stick to pro tools because later on down the line i plan on getting away from the laptop recording and get a imac or what ever and get the rack 003 so i know my feet

DamagedTrax

you could always get a simple firewire convertor card that slots into your card reader on the laptop and then use an external firewire drive.

A V A

dont mean to sound really tivk here sorry but would i have to go into separate options to save in the fire wire card or what ever

A V A

alryt guys could you help me out here

is this machine good and capable it is a bit pricey for me but im working on it


http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=216337&cat=250

and then there is also this one


http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=211853&cat=250

decp

AVA, there are a few PCM slot Firewire cards out there. Firewire uses localised processing of data transfer and that means no loading on your main CPU and faster data (more tracks). What model Mac do you have ?. If you have a full PCMCIA slot you can pick up cheap and cheerful firewire interfaces. You can lower the cost of the drive by choosing a SATA drive with a firewire\usb interface as mentioned in previous links.

A V A

Macbook 13 Unibody late 2008
Processor speed: - 2.0 GHz
Installed RAM: - 2 GB (2x1)
Hard Drive: - 160 GB, 5400rpm.
Processor Type: - Intel, Core 2 Duo (Penryn)
Max. Amount: - 4.0 GB
Drive Bus: - Serial-ATA
Number of Cores: - 2
Amount of Slots: - 2
Optical Drive: - This unit has an 8x SuperDrive built in.
Bus Speed: - 1067 MHz
RAM Speed: - 1067 MHz
Optical Bus: - Serial-ATA
Cache: - Information unavailable.
RAM Type: - PC3-8500, DDR3, SO-DIMM


thats my specs really of the mac i have now !!

Paolo_M

A V A wrote: »

Macbook 13 Unibody late 2008
Processor speed: - 2.0 GHz
Installed RAM: - 2 GB (2x1)
Hard Drive: - 160 GB, 5400rpm.
Processor Type: - Intel, Core 2 Duo (Penryn)
Max. Amount: - 4.0 GB
Drive Bus: - Serial-ATA
Number of Cores: - 2
Amount of Slots: - 2
Optical Drive: - This unit has an 8x SuperDrive built in.
Bus Speed: - 1067 MHz
RAM Speed: - 1067 MHz
Optical Bus: - Serial-ATA
Cache: - Information unavailable.
RAM Type: - PC3-8500, DDR3, SO-DIMM


thats my specs really of the mac i have now !!

5,400 is too slow of a hard drive for pretty much any software, let alone ProTools.
Recording to the OS drive is never a good idea for any software either.

You need a drive that spins @ least 7,200rpm, and preferably on firewire as has already been mentioned.
This meets the requirement of speed and using a seperate drive from the OS.
The drive should use the Oxford firewire chip.
Try here http://cgi.ebay.ie/Portable-500GB-2-5-Firewire-800-7200-Disk-Drive-K507-/390057395681?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item5ad13b85e1
This will almost certainly solve your problem.

A V A

Paolo_M wrote: »

5,400 is too slow of a hard drive for pretty much any software, let alone ProTools.
Recording to the OS drive is never a good idea for any software either.

You need a drive that spins @ least 7,200rpm, and preferably on firewire as has already been mentioned.
This meets the requirement of speed and using a seperate drive from the OS.
The drive should use the Oxford firewire chip.
Try here http://cgi.ebay.ie/Portable-500GB-2-5-Firewire-800-7200-Disk-Drive-K507-/390057395681?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item5ad13b85e1
This will almost certainly solve your problem.

but you can upgreade your rpm yes?? i havent enough money to buy a mac brand new with 7200 rpm??? but the likes of adverts i cant find one with 7500 either !!are you talkin about an external hard drive being 7500 or the mac hard drive?? i dont know what you mean when you say an oxford firewire chip ???

A V A

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=206749&cat=fav

i should be getting this in june

Paolo_M

A V A wrote: »

but you can upgreade your rpm yes?? i havent enough money to buy a mac brand new with 7200 rpm??? but the likes of adverts i cant find one with 7500 either !!are you talkin about an external hard drive being 7500 or the mac hard drive?? i dont know what you mean when you say an oxford firewire chip ???

Even if the laptop hardrive is 7,200 rpm, you'll still be recording to the OS hard drive which works most of the time (I've MacBook Pro with 7,200 rpm drive), but I'd still go to the external drive (the one in the link) for any decent session I was doing.

The are a number of firewaire chipset manufacturers. Some manufacturers are less equal than others and DigiDesign only officially supports the Oxford made chips. The drive in the link I posted has the Oxford chip.

A V A

yes of course i wasnt gong to use the system ahrd drive i was going to buy a external firwire drive

decp

AVA, sorry it does not look good for that model of Powerbook. Here is a link to this topic on the DigiDesign support site http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?p=1449005

It basically says no expesscard or pcmcia or firewire interface..

A V A

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=206749&cat=250


this is the new macbook pro im getting soon !!!

i think what you have just poointed out is my old mac and that it wount work yes???

the mac im going to get looks more like what i need ??

A V A

could some one please verufy if this machine is good for pro tools to run fine !!!!

Iomega Man

Hi AVA,

Heres a link to the firewire drive specs,
Hope this helps..any questions,just fire away,

IM

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1678&p_created=&p_cats=185&p_cv=1.185&p_pv=3.224&p_prods=228%2C260%2C224

A V A

cheers dude just wasked to come on here to talk about it because on boards your only restricted to talk about some things cheers

Iomega Man

Thats no problem at all AVA

Iomega Man

Hi AVA,

Just wondering if you are interested in this drive?

IM