MBP for Audio Recording: Do I need 7200 RPM internalHD if I have a 7200 Ext. Drive?

[night drop]

Hello,

My first post here. After much research I'm planning on purchasing a new MBP in a few days (yes, I'm another convert!). (late 2008 version, 15", 2.53GHz, HD TBD) I plan on using this for recording audio, primarily my drums for loops as well as some things for some musicians I occasionally work with.
I'm probably looking at 8 to 16 tracks at the most, but it may grow beyond that if things get rolling.

While I've searched the forum for answers to my question, I have not been able to find the exact answer to this particular question (actually two of them).

A) I'm planning on purchasing Logic Pro, and running a 7200 RPM external drive that I'll record to. I know that it is best to run an external drive for recording due to various read write process that take place. My question is since I'll be recording to the 7200 RPM drive, is it best to have a 7200 RPM internal drive as well? Or can I get by with the stock 5400 RPM version? I've been to two of the local Apple Stores and they were not able to answer this question with %100 certainty. From what I've read here it is best to try and stick with the standard configurations and the 7200 is a CTO.

B) Following up on that, to achieve optimum speed between the MBP and the drive should I utilize the express slot and get an eSATA card and pair it with an eSATA drive, or is the FW 800 sufficient?

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

 

[WinterMute]

You can record a few tracks onto the internal drive but you really shouldn't, the OS writes to it all the time.

The external 7200 FW800 drive is definitely the way to go, but can I suggest you budget for 2 smaller discs so you can perform full project back-ups?

The eSATA drives are quicker, but I ran 60+ 96/24 tracks from a FW800 drive during the summer with no problems at all, how big are your productions going to get?

 

[night drop]

Hi WinterMute thank you for your reply.

I most definitely plan to use a 7200 RPM external drive (because of the reasons you cite below) but my thinking is that I should be OK with the stock 5400 RPM drive if I'm using the 7200 external to record onto correct? OR are the other things I should be concerned about there?

Also thank you for the answer on the FW 800 connection to the external drive, that is exactly the input I was looking for. I think that should suit my needs just fine. I don't foresee it getting anywhere near 60 tracks. At first it will just be drums which probably won't even use up 8.

To give a little more background on the situation, for the past few years my guitar player buddy and I had been doing some writing and recording at his home studio in his basement (using an older PC and Cakewalk believe it or not! The audio quality results were pretty good since we had some great mics (SM57s an, RE20, D6 and some older Sennheisers, as well as some good old analog outboard gear). We even managed to get some tunes licensed to a music library house.

We kind of got sidetracked by our day jobs, then he got married, had a kid and moved all in the same year. So that was that, the good news is that I inherited the mics and all the gear.

Coupled with that, I was a recent victim of the economic downturn and was told by my employer that my services are no longer needed. I figured I may as well use the time and get my own home studio together and try to pick up where we left off.

At first I'm just going to be laying down some of my own loops, I have a few musician friends who have asked me to put some things down for them. Once I get up to speed on Logic I'll go from there, but in any case I can't see myself using more that 16 tracks.

Thanks again.

You can record a few tracks onto the internal drive but you really shouldn't, the OS writes to it all the time.

The external 7200 FW800 drive is definitely the way to go, but can I suggest you budget for 2 smaller discs so you can perform full project back-ups?

The eSATA drives are quicker, but I ran 60+ 96/24 tracks from a FW800 drive during the summer with no problems at all, how big are your productions going to get?

 

[WinterMute]

You'll be fine then, you can probably run productions off the internal drive if needed.

I'm serious about the back-up too, I'll never leave a live session on a single drive, thats asking for trouble, I back up to multiple drives at the end of the session and often during breaks too.

 

[CalumC]

Quick question to add on here. Are all firewire hard drives capable of being powered by the bus. I want to get a 7200 rpm, but a lot of them say powered by adaptor. I presumed all firewire drives were bus powered.

 

[night drop]

WinterMute, thanks again, I appreciate the feedback, I'm going to go with the 5400.

And yes, I will definitely plan for dual drives I'm looking at some different configurations now.

Best Regards,

Kevin

You'll be fine then, you can probably run productions off the internal drive if needed.

I'm serious about the back-up too, I'll never leave a live session on a single drive, thats asking for trouble, I back up to multiple drives at the end of the session and often during breaks too.

 

[WinterMute]

Quick question to add on here. Are all firewire hard drives capable of being powered by the bus. I want to get a 7200 rpm, but a lot of them say powered by adaptor. I presumed all firewire drives were bus powered.

No, most are self powered, in my experience only the smaller drives that are designd to be fully portable are buss powered.

All the larger capacity drives seem to be self powered.

I'm sure there are some bigger buss powered drives out there.