Orb Drive?

[john t baker]

Anyone used this new drive from Castlewood with Fostex gear? Specifically a DMT8 vls? The ads say it was designed for music applications. I emailed Fostex about a hundred years ago, asking about it, but I obviously have them confused with someone who gives a rats ass....hhmmph

[Jim Marquard]

Hi John,

Fostex can take a bit of time to answer a question, but they have generally responded to my questions within a week or less. But to answer your question. Yes, the Orb drive works. I just bought one and yesterday I finally received a cable that worked with the Fostex 25 pin interface--Orb uses a HD 50 pin (not centronix) and you either need a converter or a cable with 50 pin on one end and 25 pin on the other. For all you FD-4 and FD-8 users, make sure the SCSI ID # is set to 1 through 5 You can change the ID with a flip of a switch or a turn of a screw). My Orb was set to 6 which works as a backup drive. 1 through 5 are used for current drives. The Orb drive is fairly quiet. More quiet than most hard drives, but still needs to be put into somekind of enclosure (I have mine in a box) to hide noise from a condensor mic. One disc will give over 6 hours of recording (divided by the number of tracks) in the Master 1 mode. Don't know how many in normal, but I would imagine it would be a sh**load. I am going to be doing some recording now on this little puppy!!

Peace, Jim

[Dom Franco]

What is an orb drive?

Is it IDE compatable?

Will it connect to my Fostex DMT8VL?

Thanks in advance;

Dom Franco

[Jim Marquard]

Ah, Dom Franco (with my best Italian accent--being half Italian and all),

The Orb Drive is a removable media drive. They use a cartridge with a 2.2gb capacity (@2.16gb after formatting). This is about 1-1/2 hours for 4 track, 45 minutes for 8 track. Cartridges run between $25-40. Now that's about 22 100mb Zip discs, 8 or 9 250mb Zip discs. Not bad. And it is as fast as many harddrives. The drives are made in SCSI, IDE and USB interfaces, internal and external and run $179-230, which includes one disc. I have the external SCSI and have been very pleased. Works flawlessly so far. For FD users, it does format in all three modes.

Peace, Jim

[C. Mulvihill]

I know this is an older post, but I wanted to throw my two cents worth in. I just recently purchased an FD-4 and an Orb drive and so far have experiencied no problems with this combination. While I suppose it's too early to put a stamp of approval on this setup, I can say so far it definately works. With 2.2 GB disks costing around $40, it's also a reasonably priced medium as well.

[bbbmusic]

I just got an orb drive and the 25-50 pin adapter and it works great. It's fast, the setup was a no brainer and I think it is the best you can get for the money. I have the internal drive that came with my FD4 but, it's only 344 meg. Too small................
So, the Orb, in my opinion, is the best way to go..........
Bruce

[Jim Marquard]

I see I started the Orb revolution for fostex recorders! Cool! Now, how do I get Castlewood to give me a commission for every Orb bought by a member of this BBS?

Peace, Jim

[This message has been edited by Jim Marquard (edited 04-03-2000).]