Digi 002 with Powerbook performance?

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:41 pm

What kind of performance could I expect while using the following

Digi 002 rack chained to a glyph firewire drive chained to a powerbook G4

Powerbook is 1.5Ghz with 1.25Gb of RAM

I only have one firewire port due it being a 12" model but the digidesign website says that shouldn't put a huge burden on my system as long as i place the hard drive between the 002 and the powerbook.

I plan on recording several drum tracks simultaneously (through a digimax via adat) and will be mixing around 20 tracks I would assume

Can anyone offer any insight, or is anyone running a similar setup?

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:28 pm

I read in the manual that you ARE NOT supposed to daisy chain the 002 , to a firewire drive, you will have buffer issues. you may want to look into an external hub, check digi site,

as far as performance is concerned I am running a dual g4 with 512 , and it works pretty good, sometimes I have buffer issues, but I can run a crap load of plugs, and have no problem recording 16 ins at once

-gil

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:45 pm

This is what is stated under the Software/Compatibility section of the digidesign website

"When using FireWire storage with Digi 002, connect the Digi 002 and the drives to separate FireWire ports if possible

If only one port is available, connect the drives to the CPU using a 1 meter firewire cable, then connect the Digi 002 to the drives"

what are you referring to with the external hub? The 12" model does not have a pci card slot otherwise I would have gotten a seperate firewire problem to overcome this issue.

Perhaps the buffer issues were part of an earlier version of pro tools?

Good to know about tracking and plug-ins though. While I am not running a dual processor system, hopefully it shouldn't be a terrible step down from where you're at (especially since I'm using twice the ram).

Thanks, and if you might be able to shed some more light on the firwire issue now that i've deomstrated where my reference came from that would be great too!

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:51 pm

what I was thinking if there was any way to get an external firewire hub, that spits one input into 4 for example (like a usb hub) then atleast you wouldnt be daisy chaining the firewire.

But I had read the exact same thing on there site about not doing it unless absoulty nessecary.

As far as I can tell its not recomended but if you do what they say it should work, (with the one foot cable Idea)

I think the best way to find out is to try it and see what happens, and just have another HD to backup the tracks.

in reality the 002 isnt working that hard when tracking its when your mixing you might enounter buffer problems. If you increase the buffer size that should help when mixing, (which is what I generally do it allows me to run more plugs, just takes longer for playback to start)

also , Make sure that you do not have norton utilities installed, it doesnt play nice with PT drives , I uninstalled it and everything has worked fine,

just so you know I got PT 6.1 and os x 10.2.8 and the g4 dual (with 512) and the Digi 002 factory,

Once in awhile i get the buffer issues with the HD , only on play back not on recording.

I have had no problem running the digirack plugins and 32 channels back.

but alas if I had a G5 I would be happy.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:09 am

can you explain how you increase the buffer size? I'm sure I will find this out when I get it, but that is about a week or so away. What exactly is the buffer and how does it relate between the 002 and computer?

would I be able to just go with a usb 2.0 drive? I know they are not as good as firewire but would I be better off with one as I have two available usb 2.0 ports? I read on here that they're still adequate for recording, even though not ideal.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:27 am

Hey Dude

The buffer, is the amount of incoming data, basically what happens is as data is coming in, and extra gets thrown in the buffer, as room is made it flows in. The lower the buffer setting, the less latency, the higher the buffer setting the more cpu power you can use for other tasks, thats basically it, I am sure somebody will have a better explanation.

Under the setups menu, playback engine , is where you can set the CPU usage and buffer settings.

As far as I know USB 2.0 isnt that bad, I ussually use firewire, I just bought a combo drive, and have been porting it home and the studio with usb 2.0 and FW works sexy. I havent had the ability to record with it. My guess is the only issue will be possibly when recording a lot of tracks with usb 2, but maybe not. I depends on what you need it for.

gil

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:47 pm

KennyC wrote:

What kind of performance could I expect while using the following

Digi 002 rack chained to a glyph firewire drive chained to a powerbook G4

Hi,

I have been running an 002 and Powerbook G4 for a year and a half now. Works pretty good if you juggle the buffer size and CPU usage settings according to what job you are doing. Record 8 tracks simultaneously, absolutely no problem, mixing will run a reasonable selection of plug-ins. Like any ProTools LE rig you have to figure out what it will do and what it won't and then work within those parameters.

One thing though, I wouldn't advise trying to work at 96k until you are comfortable juggling the buffer and CPU settings, and even then be prepared for some cranky behaviour from the program.

Also, yes, get a firewire hub so that both 002 and drive are connected directly to the laptop.

---- bigweather ----

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 4:26 pm

KENNY DON'T BE A TOOL Shocked

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:37 pm

haha
i'm trying to not be one, rob.

i went to the apple store and played around on logic for awhile. i did feel fairly comfortable with it (although they only had logic express for demo). the interface seemed slightly reminiscent of garage band's which i did like, as garage band is super easy to use.

the only thing i wonder about though is that logic seems to be designed more for midi programming and sequencing than it is for full audio tracking and production. Maybe this was a fault of using the express version as opposed to logic pro (there weren't a lot of plugins available for me to examine). Hopefully I can find a way to try the full blown version or at least get some testimonials.

anyone here using logic pro with or without that great looking apogee ensemble?

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