Setting up new system, workflow question

Jera · Post by **Jera** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:50 am

Hey Guys -

Finally upgraded my 2006 Macbook to a MacbookPro i7. Just a question on some work flow things.

I use the system for live MIDI triggering of drums, and video all through DP. Is it best to run the projects and files from an external USB drive, or run everything on the internal HD, or some sort of split? (All projects on main drive, movie files on external HD?) The projects are not massive in size or anything. Each sequence is maybe 5-6 tracks MIDI tracks tops, each with it's own DV movie file. Just trying to get an idea of what others do for workflow.

Thanks!

Chris

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:14 am

I would probably run the video off a separate drive from the other data (audio or MIDI). Not so much for DP but for the drive heads. USB is not a good choice for this, IMO, and a Firewire or Thunderbolt drive would be a much safer choice.

frankf · Post by **frankf** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:43 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:I would probably run the video off a separate drive from the other data (audio or MIDI). Not so much for DP but for the drive heads. USB is not a good choice for this, IMO, and a Firewire or Thunderbolt drive would be a much safer choice.

I've actually been running DP video off an isolated and clean USB drive on my second system, an iMac i7 with a single FW800 port with no problem. This drive has nothing else on it that DP or the system needs to access and the QT movie file is not fragmented or has only a small number of fragments. What MLC says of course: separate FW800, SATA or Thunderbolt would provide much better performance, but you might try USB rather than share video streaming and other recording/playback of audio or VI streaming on a single drive. This is from my own experience, your mileage may vary.
Frank

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