Capturing To External Hdd - Fast Enough? Options

[fiddler100]

Hi Folks

I still haven't quite made it into the Mac World but have nearly settled on the following setup:

- Intel iMac 20"
- 2GB RAM
- Vantec NexStar2 Firewire enclosure + 300GB HDD
- PreSonus Firebox audio interface w/ 2x XLR inputs
- Edirol MA-15D monitors

I intended to use the external firewire HDD as my primary audio capture disk as this would leave the iMac HDD free for OS/application read/writes. Since I've never used an external Firewire HDD before, I'm unsure if it will be fast enough to capture my audio. I'm pretty sure it will be but I thought it best to check. I've only ever used PCs in the past and have always used the HDDs installed in the machine rather than external disks.

In fact, now I come to think of it, the iMac HDD is SATA. The NexStar2 HDD enclosure I was looking at uses PATA HDDs. Do you think I'd be better capturing directly to the internal HDD in the iMac or using the external for capture?

Your comments on this (and my proposed setup) would be really appreciated.

Cheers,
Fiddler.

This post has been edited by fiddler100: Sun 19 Feb 2006, 06:46

[Wilko]

Hello. I'm a recent newbie to the mac recording world as well. Switched over from PC to Mac for one simple reason. They just work. :)

However, to answer your question, I'm using a Presonus Firepod, and I have managed to capture audio to an external Acom Data USB 2.0 drive no problem using logic express. The reason I am capturing to an external hard-drive, is because my mac mini's internal hard drive is even slower (it can still record fine for a couple inputs), and was running out of space.

You shouldn't have any problems recording to an external hard drive, let alone a firewire one.

As for comments on te set up, the presonus firebox pre-amps are absoloutely stunning for the price. My recordings are crystal clear, very crisp, very precise... as well as obviously very digital. If you want to warm things up, I'd suggest getting "Art MP" pre-amp for $50 or so, then throwing in a $15 groove-tube to make it sound like it costs a lot more. :) At the store, the sales rep was telling me about a "blind test" they did with a voice-over going through 4 different pre-amps of various prices, and then getting random people to listen to them and tell them which sounded best. Apparently everyone that came in selected the voice-over that went through the firebox pre-amp as their first or second pick, which is actually saying a lot considering one of the pre's it was being put up against was a $700 single XLR input. And he wasn't telling me this to make me buy it, because they don't work on commision, as well as I had already bought it, heheh.

I envy your mighty 2 gb of ram i Mac. Shouldn't have any problems with CPU power, unless you plan to start chaining fireboxes together (not supported yet?) and get tonnes of inputs running at once. :D

Just remember, the Cubase LE software that will come with your firebox, if you are planning to use it, will NOT install on Tiger. There is a long discussion on the Cubase forums, where a guy by the name of "Jungalero" remedies the situation with a simple installer. I'll give you a link if you need one!

Good luck! :)

This post has been edited by Wilko: Sun 19 Feb 2006, 06:50