Macbook Pro firewire connections

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I think I already know the answer to this question, but I just wanted to make sure. My desktop recently decided to crap out on me, so I'm thinking of switching to my laptop (MBP) for recording. If I'm using a firewire interface and a firewire 800 hard drive to record onto, is that going to cause some clicking? I'm assuming that the firewire ports on the MBP are part of the same unit, especially since the interface seems to restart every time I plug in/power up the hard drive (when the interface is already plugged in), whether it's in the 800 port or daisy-chained through the interface. I just want to make sure I'm going to have a lasting setup before I commit to the laptop. Should I be getting an express card to run one of them in through? And if so, can someone recommend me a good one that doesn't cost a whole lot? FYI, I'm running it in boot camp windows so I can use Reaper.
 
thebigcheese said:
I think I already know the answer to this question, but I just wanted to make sure. My desktop recently decided to crap out on me, so I'm thinking of switching to my laptop (MBP) for recording. If I'm using a firewire interface and a firewire 800 hard drive to record onto, is that going to cause some clicking?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be a problem, at least in Mac OS X. No idea in Windows. If I were you, I'd give some of the Mac software a go. At least try GarageBand and see if that does what you need. Try the Mac version of Reaper (pre-beta, I know...). Try the Windows version of Reaper in Wine. And so on.
 
Well, the interface doesn't reboot in os x when I connect the hard drive, anyway... I wish they'd come out with the full mac version soon...

so, PS, I think that means it's working better in OS X than it did in Windows. Which is fine, since I'm going to be getting rid of the desktop. But Reaper's my main DAW right now, so that's a little annoying.
 
thebigcheese said:
Well, the interface doesn't reboot in os x when I connect the hard drive, anyway... I wish they'd come out with the full mac version soon...

so, PS, I think that means it's working better in OS X than it did in Windows. Which is fine, since I'm going to be getting rid of the desktop. But Reaper's my main DAW right now, so that's a little annoying.
Click to expand...

Try the Windows version in Wine. It'll either work or it won't.
 
Well, after trying the mac version, I've noticed that there's still a little weirdness. I haven't zoomed all the way in on the tracks to make sure, but I think it's just the actual tracks. It only shows up on my drum tracks, whereas my guitar track doesn't have any strange noises. I guess the only question I have then is why does the interface reboot when I plug in the hard drive when I'm in Windows? That just seems odd...
 
I went back in to Windows to check it out and discovered that the crackles and what not can only be heard on certain tracks and always at the same point on those tracks, so I'm feeling like the issue is something else (probably happened in recording).

And it also seems that if I connect and disconnect the drive in a certain way, then the interface doesn't reboot. Go figure. Whatever, as long as it works.
 
I checked that out before I posted :p I got mine January 07ish. I'm pretty sure it's the Ti chipset, based on the graphics card I've got.

Why would it be glitching while recording? I disabled the wireless card, though I forgot about bluetooth until later. I also have the firewire net adapter disabled.
 
I've heard that its a bad idea to use a firewire 400 interface going to a firewire 800 drive. The different speeds can cause jitter (clicks and pops). At least thats what I've heard.
 
Dax Productions said:
I've heard that its a bad idea to use a firewire 400 interface going to a firewire 800 drive. The different speeds can cause jitter (clicks and pops). At least thats what I've heard.
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I'm not. Each one is going into a separate port on the computer.
 
lomky said:
hmmm, what year is your Macbook? There is a mega thread over at GS: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php?t=166225&referrerid=14015
My Audiofire seems fine, but Echo has also said that their cards are completely compatable with the Agere chipset.
Click to expand...

That's remarkably overblown. There are several different problems that people are getting confused with each other and lumping into one bucket.

  • The first Agere issue affects exactly one vendor (RME) and results in the device not showing up at all.
  • DICE-based devices (FireStudio/FireStudio Project/TC Konnekt) may experience a second, unrelated problem with the Agere chipset. These devices are also unreliable on a lot of other non-Agere hardware, though, which strongly suggests that the devices themselves are actually at fault.
  • Other devices are not compatible with Leopard or were using beta Leopard drivers at the time (M-Audio).
  • Still others (Apogee) haven't properly updated their drivers to use IODMACommand on Intel, and thus the kernel panics if you have too much RAM. This problem would affect anyone with 4GB of RAM or more in any Intel-based Mac all the way back to the first Mac Pro.

These are all different and completely unrelated problems. Unfortunately, the people posting haven't figured this out.


Dax Productions said:
I've heard that its a bad idea to use a firewire 400 interface going to a firewire 800 drive. The different speeds can cause jitter (clicks and pops). At least thats what I've heard.
Click to expand...

You heard wrong. That's complete BS. Running a FW400 connection to a FW800 drive will be slower than running a FW800 connection. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
Well... just for the record, it's a Focusrite Saffire Pro 10. So it's not RME and it's not DICE. I am running Leopard, but that wouldn't matter when I'm running Reaper in XP, as far as I'm aware.
 
Did a quick recording today with Reaper in XP. No problems anymore... It might have just been that I needed to disable the bluetooth. Sweet deal.
 
with OSX Leopard, you can run XP with bootcamp or parallels , etc. etc. (plenty of options). So it shouldn't be a problem even if you don't like the Mac software...
 
shackrock said:
with OSX Leopard, you can run XP with bootcamp or parallels , etc. etc. (plenty of options). So it shouldn't be a problem even if you don't like the Mac software...
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Right. I kinda like having to run it in boot camp anyway because then I know there's no other processes or anything interfering. It makes it like having a separate, recording-specific computer.
 
thebigcheese said:
Did a quick recording today with Reaper in XP. No problems anymore... It might have just been that I needed to disable the bluetooth. Sweet deal.
Click to expand...

The wireless drivers under Windows do end up doing way too much work in an interrupt context (I forget the Windows term for this), so that wouldn't be at all surprising. One nice thing about Mac OS X is that the driver architecture doesn't lend itself to that sort of poor driver design... and in some cases, goes out of its way to make that really hard. :)

If you haven't tried Wine, it's really worth a shot. Being able to run the app in Mac OS X without running Windows might be a really big win.
 
Well, interestingly, I don't get any of the clicks in Windows, but I do in OS X, at least with the test version of Reaper. So I feel like something is getting in the way, but unlike Windows, I have no idea what. So I think I'll stick with full-on Windows until the OS X version comes out for real.

I tried setting up Wine, but it was a really big pain and just froze up. I seem to be the only person who ever has these sorts of problems with Macs, so it's probably just me. Honestly, Macs have given me more trouble than Windows ever did.
 
thebigcheese said:
Well, interestingly, I don't get any of the clicks in Windows, but I do in OS X, at least with the test version of Reaper. So I feel like something is getting in the way, but unlike Windows, I have no idea what.
Click to expand...

What version of Mac OS X are you running?
 
dgatwood said:
What version of Mac OS X are you running?
Click to expand...
leopard. I had problems with tiger too, though. Sometimes it will just keep crashing until I restart it like ten times. It hasn't done that lately, but it seems to be running slower and giving me the beach ball more frequently. As a long time Windows user, I don't really know what to do about these sorts of things. Routine maintenance sorts of things.
 
thebigcheese said:
leopard. I had problems with tiger too, though. Sometimes it will just keep crashing until I restart it like ten times. It hasn't done that lately, but it seems to be running slower and giving me the beach ball more frequently. As a long time Windows user, I don't really know what to do about these sorts of things. Routine maintenance sorts of things.
Click to expand...

The beach ball usually just means you don't have enough RAM. I would recommend 2 GB as a minimum configuration for audio apps in Leopard. Particularly on an audio machine, as cheap as RAM is, my advice is to pack your laptop with the most RAM it will hold (IIRC, 3 or 4 GB, depending on which MBP model).

Does the machine crash (greyed out screen with "You must restart your computer" written in a dozen languages)? If so, odds are one of three things is true: A. a corrupt OS installation, B. some really broken third-party driver, or C. bad RAM. Well, I suppose it could be D. an improperly installed heat sink causing the CPU to overheat. Either way, that's very unusual, and a sign of something pretty significantly wrong. If it has gone away, though, maybe it was just a bug in a previous version of Mac OS X. Hard to say without seeing the panic log.

If you just mean the app crashed (The application has unexpectedly quit. Would you like to report this to Apple?), then it's probably a bug in Reaper.

As for the clicks, I wouldn't base your Mac OS X experience on a test version of Reaper. Try something that actually is stable and supported, e.g. Garage Band. (It should have come with your machine.) If that still gives you clicks and pops with your BeBoB-based hardware in 10.5.2, let me know and I'll file a bug for you. I assume this is using the stock Apple driver for the device and not some custom driver from the manufacturer, right?
 
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