External Hard Drives, Do I really need Glyph? Options

[rickenbacker]

I don't get p*$$ed off with replies either (unless it gets nasty): this is a forum, after all, and a forum means debate; debate means a difference of opinion and that's what we're here for. As Synthetic says, it's all good.

BUT...

I still don't think the Glyph is such bad value - for rock-solid performance and the peace of mind of their warranty, it's a fair price. For someone like me on a laptop, their Companion drive looks ideal for dedicating to my music, which is why I plan to buy one when I get the cash together - unless you've got any other suggestions?

[Presto]

Aha! I use an Mbox too. I didn't realise they'd made a nice quiet portable drive for us to stick in our little shoulderbag with all the rest.

Found the glyph page: http://www.glyphtech.com/FRAMESET-AUDIO-pr...s-companion.htm

However, I live in France and I can't find it on the French web. Not on the UK web either. Hum! I mustn't be searching right.

Still, on the Gyph site they give a tel n° in the UK for European enquiries.

It looks great for roaming Mbox users - ah! I've just found the price for the 80Gb on zzounds.com: 500$ - hum

[damann]

hi rickenbacker,
just trying to be polite. i've been bashed too much to simply state my opinion!
i appreciate the after sales service that glyph apparently provide, always good to hear.
the price however, sounds unjustifiable, this drive costs almost as much as the mbox itself.
i use an 80gb "icewarrior" or "icecube" as it's called (from box clever), on my powerbook setup. it cost less than 200 quid, contains a seagate barracuda, the defacto pro standard hard drive, has no fan, looks incredible (it's pictured in my avatar), AND the build quality is exemplary. i recommend you check it out at www.macandmore.com.
the main issue for me with firewire drives is the fact that new drives are being released soon that double the throughput speed! as i've said, it's only an ide drive being addressed by a firewire to ide bus. the bus is the real issue! peace, good luck, later...

[Presto]

I've been thinking. I'm a bit slow but here's my reasoning.

With the 80Gb disk, according to zzounds, you can record 280 minutes of 24-track, 24-bit audio at 48kHz. This means you can record 56 hours with the 2-track Mbox, or 14 hours with an 8-track Motu 828 - all in one go.

(The 80Gb M Project Plus from Glyph has a 4-port FW hub, so if you have three 828s, you can do 24-track recording. But then, you're not worried about Glyph prices, are you?)

Now, let's say you've got 10 Gb free on the internal drive. With that, you can go out without your external drive and record 7 hours of 2-track, or nearly 2 hours of 8-track. You can then come back and put it on your external and go out and start again.

My conclusion is that for recording with an Mbox or 828, your external drive needs to be neither portable nor silent, as you don't need to use it for live recording.

I therefore opt for a not as portable, noisier, not matching, but much cheaper, other-than-Glyph drive.

Is there a flaw?

[beezkneez]

i don't know whether the glyph is better but as far as firewire drives go I have a La Cie 80 gig and it's pretty reliable (I even dropped it pretty hard by mistake). The Que is much slimmer and more portable though. My friend had one and I was pretty jealous.

[rickenbacker]

Hey Damann,

Thanks for the tip. I've seen the "Icewarrior" advertised in the pages of MacUser before and they have caught my eye. Maybe that could be the answer.

You say you use one - how's the noise? And the reliability? Do you track a mix of audio and midi or more one than the other? And you don't have to build an enclosure for this drive? I'll check it out on the web anyway. Like your avatar, btw.

Also, you mention the new Firewire drives which will double the throughput speed: have you got any more info on that? Are they coming soon? Basically, should I stop this cash burning a hole in my pocket and hang on for a month or two, or are we talking next year?

And I can't argue with that fact that buying a Glyph doubles the cost of your Mbox setup! I know they use a special composite metal with a kind of neoprene insulating/acoustic dampening material sandwiched between it to keep the drive ultra-quiet and cool in performance (the fan hardly ever comes on) and there's only one other company in the world using this special metal, blah blah blah

[damann]

hi rickenbacker,
the noise is, as with the glyph, almost never audible, and when the fan (if there is one) IS on, only superman would be bothered by it!
the build and design are pretty faultless, i did however, specify that i wanted a barracuda inside (an extra 10 quid) !
i've used it on some heavy sessions, transferring large protools sessions to it and working with these in logic on a tibook 800 using the icebox as my audio drive with no problems at all.
from what i've read, the new firewire bus is due VERY soon, hold onto that cash!

[lepetitmartien]

We had already a thread on this…

If you really want to pay to mostly have a HD matched to your DAW hardware and with express replacement, it's ok for me.

Personnally I prefer spend my money in some other serious gear, and eventually go buy a new HD if need arises…

The fine tuning you can make it yourself in HDT, but a good little raid made at home is at reach of everybody.

[rickenbacker]

Thanks, Damann - I'll wait for the new Firewire bus to come along.

I also e-mailed the Ice Warrior people last night to ask about the tech spec (and they replied within minutes - this was after 8pm!). It looks good - Oxford chipset, 7,200 rpm drive etc. Er, sounds just like a certain other drive we've been talking about!

[truthfind]

Just a note to all about an experience that I have had with a particular manufacturer. I have a Que M3 firewire drive that completely failed on me and sent it in with a Que firewire CDRW burner that also never worked from day one. I consider myself more than a power user, but not to the point of abusing any of my equipment by any means. That said, I returned said drives and went on a month long business trip and fully (and rightfully ) expected to see my drives waiting for me when I got back. But alas, they had not been returned and I had to spend two weeks trying to get them to return my drives that they said they would take care of. I was hung up on, ignored, put on hold and argued with at every turn and messages completely ignored from the customer service rep on up to the VP. They had the drives sitting in shipping waiting for approval to get shipped back out, but they were sitting on them for some unknown reason, which pretyy much means they didn't have their stuff together- at all. I finally got ahold of the shipping manager and politely aprised him of my situation and asked him to send the drives out ASAP. I had them in two days.

To have two drives from the same company fail is scary. To have received such horrible customer service is reprehensible. To have a new drive that still doesn't work as well as it could says that I should warn all to stay away from Que drives, even for simple backup. That was all I was using it for and it just stunk.