I just picked up a new MacBookPro, and I’m looking for an external harddrive (USB 2.0) that would be well suited for live performance. I’ll want to play audio and video files off the drive, and record to it as well.

Does anyone have any recommendations or wisdom to share in this area? I know I need a 7200 rpm drive, but other than that I’m not sure. Size isn’t as important, but I’d prefer a minimum of 100 GB.

Thanks,
Dan

Carlo

—– Original Message —–
From: “Dan”
To:
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 7:55 AM
Subject: [maxmsp] [slighty OT] best USB 2.0 Harddrive for live performance?

>
> My apologies if this has come up before… I searched the archives and
> didn’t find anything that seemed particularly relevant.
>
> I just picked up a new MacBookPro, and I’m looking for an external
> harddrive (USB 2.0) that would be well suited for live performance. I’ll
> want to play audio and video files off the drive, and record to it as
> well.
>
> Does anyone have any recommendations or wisdom to share in this area? I
> know I need a 7200 rpm drive, but other than that I’m not sure. Size
> isn’t as important, but I’d prefer a minimum of 100 GB.
>
> Thanks,
> Dan

Any ideas?

Thanks
/dan

Quote: carlo-laurenzi wrote on Wed, 15 August 2007 04:50
—————————————————-
> I would recommend you not to choose an USB Hard disk for Live performance.
> Get a Firewire HD instead: it’s more reliable. Put the HD after your FW
> soundcard (in the firewire chain).
> Good FW HDs are G-Tech or Lacie Quadra ..
> bye
>
> Carlo

not really , but i feel in mac World USB have a bad reputation,
maybe because usb 2 came late

from what i know usb 2 is slightly faster than FW (which usb1 is not at all)

on many mac forums there is this “slightly anti-usb” attitude

can’t tell more

best

kasper
–
Kasper T. Toeplitz
noise, composition, bass, computer

http://www.sleazeArt.com

http://www.myspace.com/sleazeart

It’s not really a bias. It’s an opinion firmly based on measurements. Firewire 400 is faster than USB 2, and by a fair amount.

A Google search will show many benchmarks that show that Firewire is faster:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=firewire+vs.+usb&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I have a few multi-interface drives (FW400 & USB2), and the speed difference is quite perceivable between the two interfaces.

I’m not bashing USB here, I use it for many things: graphics tablets, controllers, etc. Hard drive and audio interfaces are not good candidates for USB. They will work, but the performance is not nearly as good.

-C

–
Chris Muir | “There are many futures and only one status quo.
cbm@well.com | This is why conservatives mostly agree,
http://www.xfade.com | and radicals always argue.” – Brian Eno

On 15/8/07 19:27, “Dan” wrote:

>
> Any particular reason to avoid a USB hard drive? I was under the impression
> that USB2.0 was actually pretty fast (although I’m not much of an expert in
> that area). My MacBook has a single firewire port, and I’m using a Firewire
> interface (MAudio FireWire 410). I was under the impression that
> daisy-chaining a harddrive would actually result in reduced performance…?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
> /dan
>
> Quote: carlo-laurenzi wrote on Wed, 15 August 2007 04:50
> —————————————————-
>> I would recommend you not to choose an USB Hard disk for Live performance.
>> Get a Firewire HD instead: it’s more reliable. Put the HD after your FW
>> soundcard (in the firewire chain).
>> Good FW HDs are G-Tech or Lacie Quadra ..
>> bye
>>
>> Carlo
>

J.

My big question on the Firewire harddrive is – should I be concerned about having my harddrive and audio interface daisy-chained into a single Firewire port? Will this cause any latency or instability issues?

Thanks again
/dan

J.

The only issue I know of is that FW400 can bring FW800 drives down to FW400 speeds if daisy chained.

I think that a reasonable number of daisy chained devices are fine, although short cords should be used. I regularly have 3-4 devices daisy chained. On my desktop machine I have a FW Hub, which makes re-configuring somewhat easier, but is totally optional.

-C

–
Chris Muir | “There are many futures and only one status quo.
cbm@well.com | This is why conservatives mostly agree,
http://www.xfade.com | and radicals always argue.” – Brian Eno

David

On 15 Aug 2007, at 22:34, Chris Muir wrote:

> At 2:18 PM -0600 8/15/07, Dan wrote:
>> My big question on the Firewire harddrive is – should I be
>> concerned about having my harddrive and audio interface daisy-
>> chained into a single Firewire port? Will this cause any latency
>> or instability issues?
>
> The only issue I know of is that FW400 can bring FW800 drives down
> to FW400 speeds if daisy chained.
>
> I think that a reasonable number of daisy chained devices are fine,
> although short cords should be used. I regularly have 3-4 devices
> daisy chained. On my desktop machine I have a FW Hub, which makes
> re-configuring somewhat easier, but is totally optional.
>
> -C
>
> —
> Chris Muir | “There are many futures and only one status
> quo.
> cbm@well.com | This is why conservatives mostly agree,
> http://www.xfade.com | and radicals always argue.” – Brian Eno

Digidesign recommends that their 002 interface be on the end of a
chain, even though it has a loop-through FW port on it. Go figure. I
regularly run a Digi 002 off a FW hub without problems.

ean

On Aug 15, 2007, at 4:18 PM, Dan wrote:

>
> Thanks guys for all your input… I think you’ve sufficiently
> convinced me to reconsider
>
> My big question on the Firewire harddrive is – should I be
> concerned about having my harddrive and audio interface daisy-
> chained into a single Firewire port? Will this cause any latency
> or instability issues?
>
> Thanks again
> /dan

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/dan

I use a FW800 cardbus card to get an additional FW800 port on my ageing titanium powerbook, and run an RME Fireface on the internal FW400 port. It’s been really really really solid.