using external drives w/ Microwave
TREW
2,037 Posts
so my hard drive is nearly full with 30+ gigs of mp3s. so instead of copping a new internal drive, i'm thinking about going the external route. my only concern is how the usb ports will handle the extra load..if Microwave's already using up processor speed in one usb, how well would the external drive function on the 2nd usb port? i'm looking to avoid signal drop outs and all that..anyone here have experience w/ this?holleur.
Comments
but in terms of external hard drives, are there any particular brands that one should avoid?
nah, just rocking USB's and not even USB2's... looks' like a new internal might be the move.
this is probably a newbie tech dude type question, but is there a way to upgrade to firewire? like maybe replacing a network card?
i went bare bones when purchasing this laptop, thought 4 usb's would be enough.
the game has changed.
i wouldnt use usb 1.0 though. reading and writing with that sh*t is mad slow
that's what i figured.. although a few dudes over in the scratch forums gig off of external drives & usb 1.0. i suppose it's worth a test run in the bedroom...
If its one of these, the porsche design ones, be aware, being around ny studios and such, I have been told by at least 6 people of the horror stories associated, and I have had people stop in there tracks and get deadly quiet at the mere mention of porsche drives. No personal experience with the porsche, I've heard mixed stuff about the D3 drives (i like em), but I've never heard anyone say anything positive about the porsche, beyond 'well i havent lost my stuff'...
My internal drive has been acting funny, may have dropped this thing too many times. and if I go that route what is a good stable external.
Also do people with 500 GB hard drives play nothing but WAV files? Someday I want to go that route.
the benifit of these shits is being able to just take your external to a gig and use someone elses laptop or whatever, or if your laptop dies your ain't completely fucked. I remember an interview with Jazzy Jeff and he runs his stuff entirely on external.
Peace
Zeb
cool, and it looks like a good amount of them are triple-interface, which is a very good look. Zeb, would you recommend any model in particular for full-time Microwave use?
any other brand recommendations?
Nah. I use this one:
i also use my iriver.
no problems.
i'd like to get a 500 gig or larger to run lossless wav files. mp3s sound like shit.
Peace
Zeb
i can dig that. and obviously a 7200rpm one is better. are all the Rocstor models good for withstanding the constant transfer of Microwave?
Good bet is go firewire if you can... Hopefully you are using Mac?
Peace
Zeb
Well, i'm not using shit yet, but when i do get Microwave, i'm gonna get one a them new mac book shits. my current laptop (not Microwavable, believe me) is old and doesn't have firewire. i might get a ext. HD soon and start compiling songs. then when the Microwave laptop comes, ill have hella shit. that's why i'm loving the triple interface because i can use USB with my old comp and firewire with the new one.
if the Rocstors are solid i'll definitely consider them strongly.
The triple interface Rocstors (ALL customers call them RockSTAR) are best for sure for that, but use firewire when playing back in microwave.
If you go all out and get the TTM 57 SL it is worth it. The effects and the convienence + the nice Rane mixer if you don't already have one are worth the money. If you are not in a huge rush there will possibly be new MacBooks in June... If you are in US PM or drop an email to [email]zeb@comphaus.com[/email] if you want, I sell all three Mac, Rocstor and Rane, not to hustle or anything
Peace
Zeb
nah, it's cool. get that money, son.
You're not Zeb of Wonderwheel fame are you?
Not the Zeb of Wonderwheel, though I'll have to look for that (MP3?)... Zebulon - like Captain Hero from Drawn Together's home planet
Peace
Zebulon
Didn't catch his earlier, you can just boot of your Mac OS install disc, format the drive with Disk Utility, and then install and boot from it, then load up microwave and tunes. To boot the Mac you want to run it on, hold down option on boot and select or select it from Start-Up Disk System Preference & restart... That would be nice for just taking your drive to a gig with a permanant DJ booth and microwave/Mac set-up... Don't know about performance, I doubt it would be a problem... Also there would be a difference between PPC/Intel Macs, they use different HD formating types too... Intel Mac won't boot a PPC Mac formatted HD...
Dunno about having uncompressed files, I guess for real big, proper systems you would want CD quality sound, but every gig I've played w/ microwave I've never noticed a difference (with good MP3s of course)
Peace
Zeb