New Macbook Pro

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You are correct, we don't have kids - but the neighbor's 3 year old autistic kid likes to kick around my place and loves to stick his little fingers in the VCR slot, and push every button and key he can find. Of course, my studio is a treasure trove for him but he's not destructive so I pretty much let him have his way - supervised, of course.

I let him "play" my Yamaha grand. He doesn't bang, he imitates my actions with his fingers and I suspect he will use music as a form of communication. Brilliant kid and a memory like you wouldn't believe (not surprising) and as sweet as can be. His parents are wonderful people as well.

My wife teaches 4th grade and is trained in special ed. to some degree. I also "taught" (if you can call it that) for many years so we've unofficially adopted him for a few minutes at a time.

[mikehalloran]

>I let him "play" my Yamaha grand. He doesn't bang, he imitates my actions with his fingers and I suspect he will use music as a form of communication.<

Good for you.

My wife almost didn't let my 10 year old sister live after she banged around on our Bösendorfer right after we had it delivered. Otherwise, we have lucked out in that regard. Our children were reasonably good.

Cats, however, cannot be taught to respect your gear. I don't bar supervised children from our studios but the cats are not allowed.

[rhythm_kitchen]

What about that optical to eSATA conversion OWC was doing with the iMACs?

This is what I'd consider first as you could then run a port multiplier eSATA 2.5" or 3.5" quad enclosure off this 1 SATA buss. Mercury Elite AL-Pro, Granite Digital, or other with independent mode and raid on/off.

Thunderbolt free for additional monitors.

Firewire switch (can power one buss powered 1394 a or b device) 800 - 800/400 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%2 ... s/FHB8284/

I second the comment to buy an older Pioneer (ATAPI -R) or Sony DL (SATA +R) 5.25" optical drive that actually 'burns' and shove it in an external case. Apple's firmware has traditionally supported both these units in the past. My .02

[mikehalloran]

What about that optical to eSATA conversion OWC was doing with the iMACs?

This is what I'd consider first as you could then run a port multiplier eSATA 2.5" or 3.5" quad enclosure off this 1 SATA buss. Mercury Elite AL-Pro, Granite Digital, or other with independent mode and raid on/off.

Thunderbolt free for additional monitors.

Firewire switch (can power one buss powered 1394 a or b device) 800 - 800/400 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%2 ... s/FHB8284/

I second the comment to buy an older Pioneer (ATAPI -R) or Sony DL (SATA +R) 5.25" optical drive that actually 'burns' and shove it in an external case. Apple's firmware has traditionally supported both these units in the past. My .02

I have that eSATA mod in my 2010 iMac. I sacrificed the second drive port, not the optical.

The inexpensive eSATA dual docks only mount one drive when connected through the eSATA port. Both drives mount only when connected through USB. I have not tried the OWC or Glyph RAID solutions.

No reason to go with the older Sony or Pioneer optical units. They all work. I am using the inexpensive Samsung optical drives that I get from Micro Center for $22 and put in a generic usb case. There is no advantage to buying a usb/firewire case for optical unless you are still maintaining PPCs like I am and no advantage at all to use eSATA.

[rhythm_kitchen]

...thought independent was the same as JBOD.

Sorry about that. I'm using a Sonnet Express 34 'Dual' eSATA card (port multiplier) and Silicon Images driver (from Sonnet).

The Mercury Elite Al-Pro dual I use is actually cheaper as it was sold w/ no chipset or enclosed drives... that will mount only one drive per eSATA connection. I could swear OWC had 'span' mode listed at one time. Oh well. Not there now. Span may work too. A bit tricky.

Check these links:

http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5sarpm-e.php (port multiplier)
http://www.addonics.com/products/st.php (5x 5.25" drive bay)

Specs on an eSATA port multiplier.
http://www.sata-io.org/technology/port_multipliers.asp

I rarely use my interface, so that leaves Firewire at full bandwidth (800). FWIW

[mikehalloran]

Only OWC's Mercury Pro Qx2 4-Bay ($599 up) supports NRAID(Span). Glyph has 2 bay Span housings from $349. Neither support JBOD, however.

For those unfamiliar, let's say you have three drives, either three 2T or one each 2T, 1T and 3T drives in one enclosure. Unlike the various flavors of RAID, they do not have to be matched.

NRAID (Not RAID) aka Span is where multiple drives appear as one large volume. You will see a single 6T volume on your desk top. Some makers call it JBOD-Span.

JBOD means Just a Bunch Of Drives (or Disks) aka JBOD-Individual Disk Mode. You would see the three individual volumes on your desk top. This is not possible with the OWC eSATA mod since it is a single port. For JBOD, you need an eSATA port multiplier.

Here is something interesting: If you have Thunderbolt, you can hook up multiple eSATA HDs to your Mac using one or more of these: http://store.apple.com/us/product/H8875 ... MTY1NDA0Nw
Not cheap at $195 each but, while we are waiting for low cost TB hard drives etc., it is a solution.

I just found this external eSATA port multiplier. At $89.95, it might be calling my name:
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5esapm-e.php

[rhythm_kitchen]

These acronyms are beyond nuts. MAID (Multiple Array of Idle Disks?)
This is what replaced SPAN http://www.greyhole.net/

Thing I like most about eSATA are the connectors. Firewire 400 is a tad flaky. Also Sonnet makes two Express Cards (one that's SATA III w/ R, the other SATA II). I chose the non-raid version thinking less is more. So far it is extremely stable with DP 7.24 (OS-X 10.6..

Not sure how the Addionics Array would work (5 bays) but since it's hardware based seems reasonable to assume. Maybe the 2pop Crew would know? It's certainly priced right.

For years I had to use a 16 bar punch with headphones. Truck downstairs, wail, go back up, hit the space bar. Now there's the iPHONE app from Motu. All those years I wanted my DAW on top of the Hammond or Rhodes and this was it. Glad I did. But I'm mostly using it to program. No way I could even do this anymore without an alternative to a workstation.

Even if your neck and wrists are not bugging you now, prepare. I had a good ergonomic setup in '89 and still the odds are against us.

Now I worry about tripping over cables. Even with velcro adhesive strips and clamps. I'd consider a MINI over a MBP for this reason. However...

I was mulling this over last night: 2 internal drives for new MBP? Say your sample drive is a Firewire drive. Print your sample tracks. EJECT. Nothing then but magnetic dc jack, Bluetooth trackball, headphones.

Oh the only drawback is connecting an axiom 25 and iLOK/Sandisk Cruzer. For me this means a powered miniHub. Unless I find a BT 'Thumball' to replace my Trackman.

[mikehalloran]

You can get a 24" backlit LCD for under $150. You will appreciate the extra real estate.

I have not read anywhere that FW is too slow for samples. Cable connections are robust enough and, if disturbed, it's hot swappable. Those who would run DP entirely on an external FW drive are limiting themselves, however.

eSATA is much faster, of course, but I don't trust it in the field - breath too hard on the cable and you need to re-boot. In the studio, I have no issue with it. I use a dab of silicone glue on the cable end where it goes into my Mac - increased the reliability exponentially.

Since I don't have TB on mine, I am going to try that external port multiplier. I can't tell if it is shipping yet but the company is 15 miles from my house so, when it's ready, I am.

I am not going to swap out the 1T internal drive till my 3 years of Apple Care is up 14 months from now. I'd like to run from a 2T drive and this should let me do that while keeping samples and iTunes on my internal and having a "green" drive for Time Machine. I already have the drives so, if $90 plus some sales tax lets me do what I want, I am in.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have not read anywhere that FW is too slow for samples. Cable connections are robust enough and, if disturbed, it's hot swappable.

At your own peril!

GO HERE

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Or for the more robust and eminently knowledgable geek to embrace or debunk...

From Texas instruments:

http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slea072a/slea072a.pdf

[rhythm_kitchen]

Alas. Not enough real estate for more real estate.

Texas Instruments blurb on Firewire 400 6 pin? I had read something earlier about powering down. So you must plug straight in and not angle it?

I don't have anything that is buss powered. Too bad power can't be turned off. I wonder if the Traveler Mark III has been damaged?

Something wrong with OWC's Pro Monsoon firewire 400 cable, 6 to 6 pin. They are too small and wiggle in MBP slot. Actually it seems as if all of their stainless wrapped 400 6 pins are similar. My early cables from ComputerWare still fit snugly. This in the age of Web3D.

So far my eSATA dual is rock solid. I'm booting off the internal drive. Actually I can sleep laptop and power down the eSATA enclosure (cause of fan noise). If I forget to power up first before waking, just a warning message and the drives dismount. No errors or need to run DW. Knock on wood. But this is with Sound Manager not DigiCoreAudio.

Isn't it advisable to reboot often to free up Ram?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think there are some shareware programs that will do that as well. You'll have to google that.

[rhythm_kitchen]

You mean to empty trash that won't empty?

BTW the plan to bypass rack mounted hardware was not well thought out.

Kind of rains on your inspiration parade. The '08 DAC could be improved. Wonder if LION has a similar problem with cache?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

No, I mean to clear RAM from quit programs and make it available again. Something like this...

Not sure what's out there or reliable. I find it more efficient to just buy a crapload of more RAM.

[rhythm_kitchen]

That's the program. Funny I was unable to turn off sync logging which was running threads. Maybe that's a firewall for Bluetooth? I force quit dock to shut down widgets and then force quit MDS (spotlight). It shouldn't be on as all the disks are dragged into privacy window.

Official untethered. Built in doesn't sound good unless I go back to consumer headphones. I do have room for another monitor, but more like 15" not 24 but thanks for the head's up. This tilt top solution is pretty cool. I was able to move my eSATA bay to the 'I' frame supporting the casters and that leaves room for a Trackman, Keyboard, mHub, laptop and 2nd monitor. Now we have to worry about shorting the MOBO w/ Firewire.
There's always a catch.