Hard Drive set up for project studio.

condra

:cool:
Hi guys.

Ive been doing the tunes thing about 2 years now and always had apps etc all on the same hard drive.

Ive just ordered a new computer (mac mini) and would like to get things as "right" as possible this time round.

What exactly are the reasons one would want a dedicated audio drive?

Is this just for sample content, projects and patches etc, or also where the audio software is?


Hard drive speeds..
I've always read that faster hard drives are better for audio, but is this for recording audio, as opposed to things like a sampler accessing patches?
I dont record any audio as Im primarliy into electro, remixing etc etc.

My mac mini will have 1 firewire (400) port, but my soundcard is firewire. Am I right in thinking I can still daisy chain my soundcard with an external firewire hard drive?
Would a firewire hard drive be greatly preferable to usb2?

Anyone here using a mac mini? If so, how do you have your hardware configured?

If there are any other things you think I should consider or look into, please let me know.

Thanks for any informed advice on this matter.:)

indough

I think the hard drive speed comes into play more when recording audio, as you want to be able to write at a speed closer to the rate of recording. As far as I know USB 2 is slightly faster than firewire 400, but I think the actual rotation speed of the drive is more important in this case.

What software will you be using?

condra

Thanks for the reply. Im using mostly Live, Kontakt, Guru and a few other bits and bobs.

indough

What kind of music are you making genre wise? I recommend Battery + an MPD 24 if you're sampling. A great combination. Using that software you might be alright with your current hard disk, i'd give it a go for a while and see how you get on.

condra

Dude cheers for the reply but I'm happy enough with my software set up.

What I want to find out about is how best to configure a dual hard drive set-up for audio work in general.

indough

And you definitely need a 2nd hard drive?

condra

Most definatly. The mini has only 80gigs.

My samples folder takes up about 50 gigs alone. I really want to know the main benefits of using external hard drives for audio, and how best one would set this up.

Right now I'm thinking of having my apps on the main drive, samples folder on the external drive, favourites (drum hits) folder on the main drive, and storing all projects on the external drive. Also setting up Lives decoding cache to be on the external. Something like that.

indough

Setup sounds ok to me, remember as I said though the seek and write times of the drive will probably be more important than the particular interface used (as in usb vs. firewire), but this might not be too important if you're never going to consider recording audio. Personally I use firewire now but don't really have a preference.

You may also want to consider portability of the drive (is it usb/firewire powered or adapter powered, size, etc.) if you're looking for mobility.

unclebill98

It will always make sense to have a standalone HD for any recording situation. Even if your not recording live audio you'll always get a better performing mini mac with the 2nd hd. You can daisy chain the sound card into the hd. Normally its Minimac then HD then sound card. The faster the HD the better 7200rpms would be standard enough. If your ever recording live audio the amount of tracks mainly depends more so on the HD performace and memory in the minimac than processor speed.

Best to have the samples and any larger files away from the main HD holding the programme, im my opinion.

I would stick woth FireWire400. I've used portable USB and USB2 drives and you can tell the differance when you running a power hungry song.

What sort of memory you got in the minimac? If its not a the max then just max it out, you'll not regret it.

condra

Thanks both of you for the replys, I'm getting my head around how I'll set this up.

I already have a 200gig Maxtor (One Touch II) USB2 drive:
http://www.superwarehouse.com/Maxtor_One_Touch_II_200GB_External_USB_Hard_Drive/E01E200/pf/480108

Unfortunatly, I wont have money for a firewire drive for a while, but when I get the cash together, I'll probably just dupe the maxtor to the new firewire drive.
Regardless the Maxtor is pretty fast and reliable, and runs quietly (not that I have much experience with external hard drives to compare it to anything)
I suspect that will tie me over pretty well for the time being.

Uncle Bill, the spec I ordered is as follows:
1.83ghz c2d
2 gigs ram
80 gig hard drive

That was already way over my budget, and the first things I'll be investing in will be a good big monitor, and perhaps a firewire hard drive.
At some stage I may add more ram, appearantly minis support up to 3gigs of 3rd party ram.
Incidentally, I believe macbooks and minis use the same ram, so I could put an old stick in and boost my macbook, which is handy.

_______

Abletons founder Robert Henke was kind enough to offer me some advice on the issue, here's what he said:

**What exactly are the reasons one would want a dedicated audio drive? **
- portability ( e.g. from one computer to another )
- savety ( can lock away when not using it)
- size ( can be much bigger than e.g. internal laptop HD)
- speed ( if using RAID 5 architectures )

** Second hard drives.. Is this just for sample content, projects and patches etc, or also where the audio software is? **
As you wish. if you place your audio software also on it you have a very self contained system.

Faster hard drives are important for:
- recording audio
- loading / saving large documents
- less dropouts
- loading presets that contain samples

**Am I right in thinking I can still daisy chain my soundcard with an external firewire hard drive?**
In theory yes, practically it sometimes does not work so well. depends highly on soundchard / computer / HD...

here in my place: MacBook <-> Motu Ultralite <-> 800 GB <-> 400 GB
works flawless, but (absurd enough) i need another MIDI interface because internal MIDI of Motu Ultralite sends wrong bites from time to time....


**Would a firewire hard drive be greatly preferable to usb2? **
I have no experience. spec wise usb2 is fine...

Regarding mac minis, I use them for installations. they run fine. no special configurations. just install live and driver for soundcard and go...

unclebill98

well at least you got a great response from the man himself.

I am using 2 old G4 Powerbooks, not nearly as fast now as some of the minimacs specs and the one you have should be plenty to handle all the midi stuff and run smoothly enough with large samples. The extra HD is always needed by most people I work with. Overall it just gives a better system performance.

I'm doing entire 20+ tracks of audio on the old powerbooks and apart from CPU hungry Plug ins, its run fine. Even done some 16track live recording and its not failed.

A good monitor is a must in the new age of programmes like Reason etc. Maybe 2 smaller monitors could be of more use. Less toggling from one screen to the next etc. I've used reason with 2 19inch monitors and Its just great to have them. Anything that makes you programme easier to use will always boost that creativity???

Most external HD can run loud enough not to be in the presence of a live mic. Im using Lacie HD's for the last 5yrs and never a problem with them at all. As long as you look after it with degrag programmes its a great buy.

As for the portability of a HD. A good hard case and thats all you need. Most HD makes have there own cases for travelling around or rack mounting them.

Look at the spec of you minimac I don't think it supports 2 monitors. So a wide screen 20" would be a nice combo. It does not mention anything about 3gbs of ram. So im my experiance with shody 3rd party ram it tends not to work very well and resulted in.....MY POWERBOOK CRASHING....yes apples can crash!!! I've used Kensington Ram and no problems there. Apples ram can tend to be expensive.

It does only have one Firewire connection so daisy chaining it through. what interface you using?

Any samples of what your up to?

condra

Hey.

Yeah, it was cool to get a reply from Robert Henke. He always comes across a complete gent.

Its interesting to hear youre using g4s. I saw a video interview with dance guru Alex Gopher recently, and the centre of his studio was an old g4 powermac. Since seeing that, I have absolutely no quams about using a minimac as a DAW.

Ramwise, 2 gigs will be more than I've ever used, so I suspect Ill be in memory heaven for quite a while anyway

I dont use Reason often by the way, maybe that would change with a bigger monitor setup and more ram.

The mini doesnt support dual screens, although there is a gismo on the market which splits a signal for dual monitor setup with a mini.

A 20" screen sounds nice, but being poor, Ill most likely go for a second-hand 19". Still, after a year with the macbook screen, again, Ill be in heaven, monitor heaven
Later at some point I would consider splashing out on a 20/22/24" though.

Right now Im using a cheap and cheerfull M-Audio Firewire Audiophile, but at some point that will be left for laptop DJ gigs, and Ill get a MBOX or Saphire or whatever.

I do mostly electro/dance. Right now I'm into the harsh choppy Justice style stuff, but I see that wearing off soon.

You asked for samples.
Heres a mashup:
http://www.condraonline.com/files/freakoflove.mp3
and a track of my own:
http://www.condraonline.com/files/thebigsplit.mp3

Thanks again for contributing to the thread. Food for thought.

ogy

quick note on usb vs firewire

USB 2 is technically faster then fw400 in terms of transfer rate but the way data is transferred in fw400 is more efficient than usb so it is generally preferable.

fw800 is the ideal choice but not really standard yet