Computer RAM Q

[mojobone]

Mar 26, 2009, 3:37pm, yammer107 wrote:Mar 26, 2009, 3:06pm, mojobone wrote:If you only have drives on the FireWire bus, you may be able to daisy chain them. You can use a USB interface to free up the FireWire port if you don't need to record more than a few live signals at a time.Mojo this ran thru my head - then I thought 'naw' daisy chainin's gotta be a no-no here. So I could possibly firewire one drive thru the other? This would still be be more efficient than USB?I have plenty of USB ports free - but only one Firewire .Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to make a decision and pick something up after work tomorrow. I owe you guys some virtual beers You'll want to think about how you use the drives; streaming eight channels of sampled virtual instruments requires more bandwidth than bouncing to two channels on the audio drive. On the other hand, of you're mixing sixteen audio tracks with a couple of virtual instruments, the audio drive would have priority. So the best situation is to have a firewire drive for each (audio and samples) and use the slower USB for a backup drive. I think it's probably okay to daisy-chain FireWire drives-I haven't done it, so YMMV. I do know that FW interfaces like to be the only device on their bus.

[yammer107]

Hey Mazz .... Staples has a few Western Digitals USB on sale for about $69 .... like you said, just for 'backup' can't go wrong.Thanks Mojo, I confirmed the daisey chaining - you can load 1/2 dozen if you like - evidently Firewire was designed with this in mind. Whoda thunk it? So Im going for a nice sweetwater 'Glyph' brand to stream audio. And daisey my lower line drive thru it . Evidently you need to watch regular store brand drives - not ideal for audio - for instance the drive dose not spin at all times - it may take a break....which I've noticed my Lacie dose. Listen thanks everybody for educating me enough to plow thur this and make the right decision. I'll be happy to update anybody intrested on the daisey chaining.... but lets give it a weeks or so before I comment. Chris

[yammer107]

Well I'm happy to report a stable system again. The "Three drive" system is definately a key factor. More investment but it works - great advice to any newbies still working their way up the food chain here like myself.Steve (slideboarouts) comment about registry cleaning was a major help also - the "DAE" error messeges stopped afterwards... I had forgot Digidesigns website even mentions this for buggy systems. Below is a link to a great free registry cleaner. I've never experienced any ill effects from this quick little program... and I've used it for a couple years now, this was the first time on my recording computer however. http://www.ccleaner.com/update/?v=2.15.815&l=1033I had one little error/crash since... Seems after re starting a few times things are OK now. If not I'll try re-installing some more thngs. ( fresh installation vs copy & paste to another drive ) Thanks again to everyone that responded. And I would highly recomend Glyph drives... this Lamborgini makes my other drive look like a Yugo.... Chris

[t4mh]

Everything should be real cool when Firewire is setup properly! It was designed to replace SCSI parallel and being isochronous communication should cause minimal loading of your CPU(s). The downside is that I'm not real confident that it will be around too much longer...Keith

[slideboardouts]

Apr 7, 2009, 8:42am, t4mh wrote: The downside is that I'm not real confident that it will be around too much longer...KeithI worry about this too. In theory, it should stick around as there are too many professionals that rely on firewire as USB just doesn't cut it. However, Apple's latest move with the MPB and MB is a bit unsettling.-Steve

[t4mh]

Well, Firewire has some things going "for it" like having been adopted as a Audio and Video Standard. I can't think of the name of the org that did this at the moment... The problem is that there are too few who really make use of it for it to last commercially. Realizing that USB can't do the job we have to understand that for a whole world of computer users, USB is sooo easy. I would begin to look for IP addressed and ethernet connected devices as the new Ethernet 2G standard ramps up over time. You can already find instances of it in the wireless world. My newest equipment has all three built in, mLAN Firewire, Ethernet and USB.Keith

[mojobone]

I think PCIe cards for desktops will still be around for power users; perhaps Apple has something up their sleeve for iMacs and laptops.

[yammer107]

Speaking of USB being 'easier' for typical computer folks; I had one hell of a time finding a Firewire 400 to Firewire 8oo cord (adapts from 9 to 6 pin ) this was required to connect my drives, since my lower line drive had limited connectivity. (I didnt even know 800 existed!) There not at Staples, Officemax, Radio Shack, high end Computer stores or online music outletsEnter "The Firewire Store"Everything you could possibly need - at about a third the cost you normally pay for firewire cables. My cord arrived fast, visual inspection put to rest any immediate suspect of quality, and its apparently performing just fine as well.http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-8 ... s.htmChris

[t4mh]

Yeah I can just guess at the things you had to go through...I have old SCSI stuff that blows the doors off USB even today, but then I have USB stuff that works very well! Firewire is so cool! I just have a bad feeling about Firewire going away. It was originally intended as a mass network communication thing which ethernet just took over ( mainly due to distance issues )and so they have found a few uses for it over the years. You have to understand that we are power users and the rest of the world just wants iTunes or something like it. The good and the bad news is that we don't really know where the computing industry is going to go like in the next 5 to 10 years. For sure, as media driven as the world is today it will be faster and that is good, but if it is something that music can be realistically created on is another question entirely. Look at your software you use today. Its pretty killer compared to 5 or 10 years ago. Not only that, they have added so many things to it that its kind of hard to imagine needing the next version upgrade. What will the software companies do with out some sort of step change in hardware? At that point, whenever it comes, everything you've got will be absolutely obsolete. Firewire with it probably... You think you have a hard time finding parts now? Thats the bad news... Now here's the real question. Do we need a hardware step change for iTunes? Not really. But if more and more people do this sort of thing with their Blackberries shouldn't the manufacturers be making Super Blackberries instead of Pcs? You see the whole thing could change on us power users and not for the good...Keith

[mojobone]

The obvious next step is to make everything portable and wireless; the software will run off the 'net and be continuously updated, they call it cloud computing. We won't need massive hard drives and blazing processors, merely an access node and an interface that handles the required number of inputs/outputs. Processing power and software use will likely be metered, like gas at the pump. Another paradigm shift is a step or two away.Who'd a thunk, even three years ago, that I could walk into a venue with a Telecaster under one arm, a Deluxe Reverb in the other, and a four-track in my back pocket, able to access the sounds of an entire orchestra and also able to broadcast the performance worldwide, for the price of broadband access? (and truth be told, I could leave the Deluxe at home )