Logic Pro 9: Disk is too slow - HDD Help

[horiveira]

Hey all,

I recently got the new 15" base MacBook Pro and I am running Logic on it. I've ran into a few issues, but I seem to have worked them out (such as "System Overload" on the DEMO SONG!) One issue, though, has to do with accessing and recording audio. I know it's not advised to record or access audio on the internal hdd, which is why I got an external hard drive. Bad move. I got this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western...322&st=western digital 1tb passport&cp=1&lp=1

It works well as just a storage device, but after doing some research I realized something I should have realized before purchase: it's 5400rpm and USB 2.0 and it's way too slow (or at least that's what I think makes it too slow for my needs).

I decided to keep the hard-drive as a means of back up and record onto my internal for the time being but I need a new drive! I have a few solutions in mind as an alternative to buying a whole new external drive. One of them is buying a 7200rpm 2.5" hdd and putting it in an enclosure that supports firewire (because I've heard it's supposed to be faster than usb 2.0, right?). This would be a less expensive route for me for sure, but I'm also wondering what else I can do to get a fast enough hard-drive for recording purposes seeing as I've made a huge mistake in getting the slower WD :/

Help me out, please.

 

[itskristian]

I haven't heard much about recording on the internal HDD being bad, but I can imagine why.

Definitely invest in a firewire enclosure, it's a LOT faster. Also making sure you don't have other things going on between the computer and the hard drive may help a bit, obviously there's a maximum amount of data that can be transferred back and forth.

 

[seisend]

Well, I haven't made any bad experience with recording on the internal HDD.
On my Mac Pro , everything is storaged and recorded on the internal RAID HDD setup.
On my 2007 MacBook Pro with a WD 500GB, everything is storaged and recorded with the internal HDD,also. 48KHz/24bit recordings with some heavy synths.

Did you try it at least with the internal HDD?

Also check your Sample Rate in the logic audio preference menu. If it is set to 1024/512/256/... , it makes a big difference. The higher the sample rate, the higher is the latency when recording but the performance increases.

 

[mesq]

I had no troubles running an Ableton live set with over 200 audio clips stored on the internal drive. If you are using an external drive even if it is USB 2, 5400 rpm it should be fine.

Check your activity monitor and see if anything else is taking up HDD/CPU power. I recently took back my new i5 because it had a faulty logic board and it couldn't run very small projects. Look at your HD/CPU usage meter in logic and see if it is going crazy without anything loaded up.

 

[mesq]

Also check your Sample Rate in the logic audio preference menu. If it is set to 1024/512/256/... , it makes a big difference. The higher the sample rate, the higher is the latency when recording but the performance increases.

You mean Buffer Size not Sample Rate

 

[seisend]

You mean Buffer Size not Sample Rate

Right, thanks.

Sample rate is the frequency.

 

[ChrisA]

...
I decided to keep the hard-drive as a means of back up and record onto my internal for the time being but I need a new drive! I have a few solutions in mind as an alternative to buying a whole new external drive. One of them is buying a 7200rpm 2.5" hdd and putting it in an enclosure that supports firewire (because I've heard it's supposed to be faster than usb 2.0, right?). This would be a less expensive route for me for sure, but I'm also wondering what else I can do to get a fast enough hard-drive for recording purposes seeing as I've made a huge mistake in getting the slower WD :/

Help me out, please.

You need to learn about disk drives..

First there is more to them than just RPM. THe 7200RPM specs only tells you that the disk can read off an entire track in 1/7200th of a second. But the other side of that is knowing how much data is on a track.

Another important spec is how long it takes the disk drive to move the read/write head to a new track.

Two specs that do matter are "average access time" and "sustained data rate". These account for the above. Next time you buy a disk just look at these two number. RPM is a "marketing number"

That said, if you want a fast drive buy a "full size desktop 1TB Seagate Barracuda that says "7200" in the box and place it inside a Firewire 800 enclosure. These drives sell for only $90 and 1TB is the bmost cost effective size now. While you are there pick up another drive or two for backup (You need at least three backup drives so you can rotate them through an off-site location)

 

[horiveira]

I've tried recording onto the internal hdd and it works great...but it's a pain in the ass to record on the internal and then store that project onto my slow external after i'm done with it (just for the day) cause my internal just isn't big enough to store all the stuff i need it to.

 

[seisend]

I've tried recording onto the internal hdd and it works great...but it's a pain in the ass to record on the internal and then store that project onto my slow external after i'm done with it (just for the day) cause my internal just isn't big enough to store all the stuff i need it to.

I would rather store other files on your external hdd instead of your projects. I'm sure there are some files you can store there. Also make sure you have an external Backup for your work at least !