Mbox Performance Issues? Options

[meadows.83]

i have been using my mbox/ibook g4 800 for about five mos. with no problems up until about a week ago, i started getting a message saying cpu usage is holding off usb audio, increase h/w buffer or remove plug-ins. i get this when my h/w buffer is already as high as it can go, and i'm only running like four tracks with no plug-ins at all. how could this be? i'm running osx 10.3/pt le 6.2.2

i'm not using an external hard drive, could this be part of the problem?

thanx

[smokinshaman]

What is the speed of your current hard drive? My understanding is that Pro Tools LE recommends a hard drive speed of 7200+ rpm with a seek time of 10 ms or less. When I purchased the MBox it was strongly recommended that I purchase an external firewire Glyph drive (which are spendy $$) I was using the MBox on my 12" 1ghz powerbook, which has a 4200 rpm hard disk, and was getting a similar error when recording only 2 live tracks. I debated getting an external hard drive but ended up scrapping the MBox in favor of the MOTU 828II. If you end up buying an external firewire hard drive please let me know how it works out for you. Good Luck!

[schoppito]

It´s not possible to do any serious audio work on any laptop without an external firewire 7200 disk. No matter what gear you use to input.

[smokinshaman]

Schoppito,
Please define "serious" audio work. I have a good friend who uses a mac powerbook and an 828 with no external firewire drive, and he has produced 4 albums. Futhermore, he assists other musicians with their projects. I modeled my setup after his based on what I perceived at the time was a rock solid recording situation. His situation is different from mine; however, in that he does mainly step recording. Obviously, step recording is not as processor intensive; however I still think a newer powerbook should be able to handle at least 4 track recording without the aid of an external firewire 7200 disk. From my experience, however, this is not the case! It sounds like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy an external firewire drive. Wish I would have known this before I dropped 2 "G"s on the powerbook!

[schoppito]

Yes Shaman you´re right. Seriousness is relative. Anyway you´re limiting the potential of your computer dramatically when you´re depending on a slow laptop drive to read and write your audio. Besides it´s not recomended to do this on the same drive you run your software.

[papisax]

Dear Forum,

I have a Powerbook G4 800 with a L3 cahce. I have had no problems using it with DP 412 or DP 3.11 and the ATA hardrive (4200 RPM). I have done many songs running 24-32 audio tracks with plug-ins. However, I have not used many software instruments such as NI, or Trilogy. I have been using Reason also with this set up Rewired to DP4.12 with no problem. My audio interface is a MOTU 828 I. I hope this is helpful. Take care.


Papisax

[eskiemo1127]

I have a new powerbook G4 and protools LE and I have come across that message a few times, if you manually delete old tracks, that helps, but I have had that problem few times and have been working w/ ten plus tracks and no other equipment other than thhe mbox and my laptop. I don't know what these people are talking about not being able to do serious audio on a laptop.

[natobasso]

I run Pro Tools LE/Mbox on my iMac G4 800Mhz and after I followed another poster's advice of adding a user account just for audio (no mods at all, only running Pro Tools and Sound Soap) I stopped getting that error message.

[gdoubleyou]

For the BEST performance, an external 7200rpm firewire drive is needed.

If you record to your system disc, you run the risk of corruping your file system if you encounter a disc error during recording. It's no fun I've been there, reinstalling all software apps.