recordings 32 tracks on a powerbook live-it works

taggart · Post by **taggart** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:45 pm

Did anyone see Mitch Gallagher's MOTU track test at Sweetwater.com? Results, just as impressive.

http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/motu/

This article is what tipped the scales for me about buying a Power Book.

barnee · Post by **barnee** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:52 pm

Well... I'm planning to do that with :

PowerBook G4 1,5Ghz 1,5Go RAM
Internal Hard Drive (supposed to be a 5400)

+
2 Motu Traveler units
using Firewire

I think this should be OK to record 16 tracks for 90 minutes at 48Khz/24bits.
I will do some tests "at home" in the coming days...

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:18 pm

There are omissions in that report. (likely by accident)

If you try a multitrack recording of blank audio tracks you cannot see errors as they are suppressed in the noise. You have to have constant level. If a sinewave is used in the IO's inputs, errors can be seen which I don't believe he did. At least he didn't mention it, unless I missed it.

As well, selecting more than one FW digital device within DP's machine setup will immediately create monitor clicks resulting from core and input conflicts as a result of bug in DP which had been reported and acknowledged in a report I and others have made to MOTU. Possibly he used Agg Dev which would cure that error but he didn't make that clear either as he wrote it.

The monitor error clicks do not effect the recorded signals fortunately, just monitoring in input but I'm a bit surprised that it was not mentioned in the article making me wonder how that could have not been missed. It's very obvious.

He also mentioned a 100GB drive in the Mac PB, was that original 5400 or a 7200? The machine comes stock with an 80GB drive 5400 speed.

I bought just like you did after reading this article and love my PB 1.67 but have a bit different results. All still pretty good though.

I have found HD limitations when playback of 22 48K 24bit tracks are attempted at once. It's a task. That said if the drive was updated to 7200 it would likely work great. I notice some on this forum have done the update and report amazing results so there are hopes to see the articles results in our future.

Thanks for mentioning the report. Hope this is usable info for you.

G

echostudios · Post by **echostudios** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:25 am

My Powerbook... 867G4, 768 MB RAM, OWC 120GB FW Drive... I have been able to do 10 Tracks at 96khz 24bit with an Onyx... never tried more...

jay

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:32 pm

Hey, since we're on the subject of powerbooks, I have a really dumb question.

On a desktop mac, when using DP, you can use the numerical keypad to go directly where you want in a song. Say, you want to go to Bar 45, Beat 1, Tick 240. You hit ". 45 . 1 . 240" and "enter" and you're there. But the powerbook has no separate numerical keypad and I can't figure out how to do this simple thing on the powerbook.

spirit · Post by **spirit** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:31 pm

Points:
Many factors that can change can affect drive performance, ranging from fragmentation to even possibly heat.
The longer one records without interuption the more risk a "recording aborted because of..." might occur. If there are points where interupting recording for say 20 seconds would be acceptable the risk of some recording being lost could be lessened by stopping and then hitting record again ( between songs if you don't need the patter).
24 bit recording sometimes puts more like a doubling of strain on the system rather than just a 50% increase- at least in DP3.1.
High buffer sizes increase potential track count and time before record abort.
For maximum track count/time before record abort minimize anything other than DP using system resources.
It has happened before that 24 track recording has required tracks split to 2 drives with the interface on the built in firwire and drives on a PC cardslot firwire adaptor.

David- try assigning the function in the commands window to something like a function key or the like.

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:37 am

Here is my immediate issue:

PB 1.5 Ghz, OSX.4.5, 768MB RAM.

I am able to play back 13 (so far) tracks of audio off of both FW (7200RPM) and internal (5400RPAM) drives. 24bit / 44.1kHz. I have the buffers set to 1024 and work piority set to "medium". I repaired permissions last night and this morning (after software installation).

I am getting the "Error - Audio overload of Buffers" thing and spiking of the CPU in the performance bar at least one every playback attempt on both FW and internal drives. My CPU is only around 5%-10% before spiking no matter which drive I use, so I know that this machine is capable of flawless playback and recording.

If someone tells me that this is a RAM ONLY issue I'll be OK with that; I am planning on moving up to 1.5gigs of RAM soon.

If anyone any advice I am all ears.

Thanks!

Jeff

pcm · Post by **pcm** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:44 pm

I am the original poster of this thread.

It was asked if I was using a 5400 or 7200 rpm drive. It was 5400. The drive is a 100 gig Seagate ST9100823A. It is/was the drive that was available from Apple as a built-to-order option from the Apple store. It had no trouble whatsoever doing 32 tracks of 44.1 16-bit for 60 to 90 minutes at a clip, all night long, two nights in a row. Based on that performance, as well as the desire to not clog up the firewire bus with an external drive, I have no intention of ever using an external 7200 rpm drive again for live venue recording. I consider that to be more risky than having a fast internal drive that is not on the firewire bus, which is presumably where my audio interface would be.

barnee · Post by **barnee** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:18 pm

I agree with your post. I'd rather record on the internal drive than an external one.

For a recent recording I used:

PowerBook G4 1,5Ghz 15" 1,5Go Ram
+
Motu Traveler (x2)

16 analog tracks recorded at 48Khz/24bits for 90 minutes.

No trouble.
Just to let you know...

I will try to do 24 tracks/48Khz/90 minutes very soon with an extra device such as an ADA8000.

(I'm still impressed about the ability of this PowerBook)

rockitcity · Post by **rockitcity** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:17 am

David Polich wrote:...On a desktop mac, when using DP, you can use the numerical keypad to go directly where you want in a song. Say, you want to go to Bar 45, Beat 1, Tick 240. You hit ". 45 . 1 . 240" and "enter" and you're there. But the powerbook has no separate numerical keypad and I can't figure out how to do this simple thing on the powerbook.

Powerbooks have a "Function Lock" key that enables you to use a section of the keys as a numeric keypad. Check your owner's manual for details.

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:57 pm

THANKS, rockitcity. That is helpful beyond measure.

MLENNON11 · Post by **MLENNON11** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:00 pm

gearboy wrote:Here is my immediate issue:

PB 1.5 Ghz, OSX.4.5, 768MB RAM.

I am able to play back 13 (so far) tracks of audio off of both FW (7200RPM) and internal (5400RPAM) drives. 24bit / 44.1kHz. I have the buffers set to 1024 and work piority set to "medium". I repaired permissions last night and this morning (after software installation).

I am getting the "Error - Audio overload of Buffers" thing and spiking of the CPU in the performance bar at least one every playback attempt on both FW and internal drives. My CPU is only around 5%-10% before spiking no matter which drive I use, so I know that this machine is capable of flawless playback and recording.

If someone tells me that this is a RAM ONLY issue I'll be OK with that; I am planning on moving up to 1.5gigs of RAM soon.

If anyone any advice I am all ears.

Thanks!

Jeff

I'm having the same problem. I'm using a 1.25 ghz powerbook with 1 gig of RAM and trying to record 14 tracks. I successfully recorded for 1.5 hours but cannot playback without "Buffer overload".
Any suggestions?
thanks,
Michael

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:25 pm

I'm having the same problem. I'm using a 1.25 ghz powerbook with 1 gig of RAM and trying to record 14 tracks. I successfully recorded for 1.5 hours but cannot playback without "Buffer overload".
Any suggestions?
thanks,
Michael

Michael,

I spent last night searching Unicornation for Magic Dave tips and set my PB up the same way that he has his set. I also disabled "pre-fill buffers" and set host multiplier to "2", Work Priority "Medium". Might be another step that I am forgetting. 512 buffer.

If you can't get it to work let me know and I'll post my settings.

Playback is great at 16 tracks internal (5400) and FW (7200). I've been doing tape transfer work all night for a 30 song project that I'm involved in and most songs are 13-16 tracks. I'm only able to get 2 at a time out of my friends' Akai recorder, but everything is working flawlessly in DP for record and playback now. CPU is at maybe 8% with jumps to 12-15% every now and again. Zero spikes.

Also, I have my system set up as 828mkii ---> Glyph Net FW Drive ---> PB. Flawless.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to record 16 tracks at a time to the internal drive and then the FW drive to see where my limit lies. I'll never have a need to record more than 12 simultaneous. If 16 can be pulled off then I am really in business.

I just have to say that DP on a powerbook is a dream come true for me. I'm so used to being in the studio with DP. Now DP can bring the studio anywhere! Sweet!.

Jeff

MLENNON11 · Post by **MLENNON11** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:07 am

Jeff,
I'm a DP4.61 user as well. I have an 828, an MBox and now a Mackie 1640 w/firewire card. I have a live gig tonight that I want to record 14 tracks through the Mackie. I just purchased a brand new "empty" 160GB Lacie extreme triple interface external HD.
If you could share your settings, I would appreciate it.
By the way, my "audio monitor" window shows very little movement during playback but my "clip" light on the right side of the bar is on even though I'm barely registering on bar graph itself.
After Mackie's suggestion, I tried to "repair disc permissions" and got an error. Could this be causing my problem?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Michael

pcm · Post by **pcm** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:17 pm

MLENNON11 wrote:Jeff,
I'm a DP4.61 user as well. I have an 828, an MBox and now a Mackie 1640 w/firewire card. I have a live gig tonight that I want to record 14 tracks through the Mackie. I just purchased a brand new "empty" 160GB Lacie extreme triple interface external HD.
If you could share your settings, I would appreciate it.
By the way, my "audio monitor" window shows very little movement during playback but my "clip" light on the right side of the bar is on even though I'm barely registering on bar graph itself.
After Mackie's suggestion, I tried to "repair disc permissions" and got an error. Could this be causing my problem?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Michael

With the ONYX, make sure you set your Work Priority to LOW,or it ain't gonna work.

I was able to chain two of them together and record 32 tracks of 16-bit 44.1, no problem.

MOTUnation.com

recordings 32 tracks on a powerbook live-it works

96Khz...

Buffer overload