So assume I have a G3 Mac, Digital Performer and the MOTU 2408 Hard Disk recording system. What would you suggest for the primary recording medium? What system do I use for backing up?

-- Angelo Natalie (buonhead@aol.com), May 04, 1998

Answers

You really have a 2408? What do you think? I haven't heard much about it but it looks great.

If you really want the maximum tracks possible, you'll want to get the biggest and fastest Ultra/Wide SCSI drive you can afford. You'll want at least 7,200 RPMs, access time of less than 9ms and transfer rates of 40MB/sec or better in my opinion. For back-up a 2GB JAZ drive would be okay or you could even use CD-RW if you don't mind having one song per CD. Tape is also okay but I've heard it's somewhat unreliable at times.

Just my thoughts...

-- Lance Gibbon (lgibbon@lkwash.wednet.edu), May 04, 1998.

Lance's advice was pretty much on the money.... I would look at the largest possible capacity HD you can afford (and they've become so affordale anyway) I would NOT, however, rely solely on Jaz as your backup/archive medium. Veterans to this BBS will recall last year when I lost a client's ENTIRE ALBUM of tracks stored to JAZ. I have since started logging backups not only to JAZ but to CDR as well.

Just a thought...

Donny

-- Donny (Donny269@aol.com), May 05, 1998.

Donny's probably right. I have not personally used JAZ to back-up audio (although I know of some who have), I have just been using CD-R and that seems to have been a good bet. By the way make sure you look for a drive with specs as good as, but preferrably better than those I suggested. There are 10,000 RPM drives and those with seek times around 7ms that would be much better in the long run.

-- Lance Gibbon (lgibbon@lkwash.wednet.edu), May 05, 1998.

I would check on every detail before you buy anything.

As far as hard drives go, I have heard that 10,000 rpm cheetahs are troublesome with Digital Performer, (although I don't know why). I don't think the 2408 is shipping yet, and Motu just announced the release of D.P.2.4 which supports the 2408.

If you buy a G3 you will also need a SCSI accelerator because the G3 has an internalIDE drive and the external SCSI is only 5MB/sec. which is too slow for a high track count. Still appears to be a good bang for the buck setup, can't wait to check one out.

Robert.

-- Robert Frank (RndmAxess@aol.com), May 05, 1998.

I have a Nubus Mac (7100/80) that I just bought an Audiomedia II card for. I have Opcode Studio Vision Pro. All I wanna do is fix vocals, edit some 2-mixes, etc. Nothing fancy. All that's left is picking up the external drive. I saw a 1 gig Jaz drive today for $269. Great price. Is this a good drive to use? I've heard that removable drives are unreliable for HD recording. Any opinions?

-- Tim Akers (timboakers@aol.com), June 13, 1998.

Tim,

You will hear varying answers on Jaz drives from different people. Some would say they would never trust audio to a Jaz, and then I've talked to some who have been using them for post production in ProTools for 2 years without a problem. You won't find a consensus at all. The most reliable to date is a fixed hard drive, and even those aren't entirely trustworthy at times. I would suggest putting your money into whichever you feel comfortable with. But whichever you buy, make sure you have a way to backup your data. On any digital format, it can be here one minute and completely gone the next.

Lynn Fuston

-- Lynn Fuston (go3daudio@mindspring.com), June 13, 1998.