i just got an external hard drive with USB 2.0 (480Mbps is better than firewire's 400, right?) and saved all of my project folders to it. i then opened DP 4.6 and opened a project in the hard drive. it took 5 mins to load and when i played back the tracks the song started immediatly falling apart! previously i had just saved on my computer (iMac G5) and it opened immediatly and would less frequently (but still) fall apart. My CPU and playback spike and i have no idea what to do.
i want to know if it made any difference getting a USB 2.0 instead of firewire. also, did i do right by putting the whole project folders on the drive?
HELP!!! i need this to work!!!
i thought external hard drives were supposed to help!!!
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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. for Mac OSX
Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. for Mac OSX
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zara_drummer
- Posts: 139
- Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2006 1:53 am
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Having your project on a drive seperate from your OS is a good thing to do.
There are some people that will argue both ways on the USB vs. Firewire.
I personally use firewire. I had similar issues that you had only on a windows laptop wich is my primary machine right now...AND my laptop doesnt have firewire...so I got a Firewire card and things moved alot better.
I have trouble with ASIO bogging down my machine however and Im not sure why since i have plenty of resources (1gig of ram) with a P4-M 2.4ghz procesor. I use sonar and have similar issues with dropouts and long load times..
There are some people that will argue both ways on the USB vs. Firewire.
I personally use firewire. I had similar issues that you had only on a windows laptop wich is my primary machine right now...AND my laptop doesnt have firewire...so I got a Firewire card and things moved alot better.
I have trouble with ASIO bogging down my machine however and Im not sure why since i have plenty of resources (1gig of ram) with a P4-M 2.4ghz procesor. I use sonar and have similar issues with dropouts and long load times..
60% Of the time...it works EVERYTIME!!
http://www.zara-music.com
http://www.soundclick.com/zara
http://www.soundclick.com/mattradlauer
http://www.zara-music.com
http://www.soundclick.com/zara
http://www.soundclick.com/mattradlauer
This is a long and technical post, but please bear with me, cause I believe it might be directly relevant to your problem as well as problems people have with USB in general, and a little understanding of what's going on might be useful.
USB 2.0 doesn't imply 480 Mbps, contrary to common belief.
USB 2.0 is a marketing term to make it easier to sell the old products after the new and much faster 480 Mbps EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) came out.
There's USB 2.0 Standard Speed, which is 1.5 Mbps, or a marketing name for USB 1.0.
There's USB 2.0 Full Speed, which is 12 Mbps, or a marketing name for USB 1.1
There's USB 2.0 High Speed, which is 480 Mbps (well, 432 Mbps available bandwidth after overhead).
The "USB 2.0" logo only means that a company has paid the fee to the USB committee, and can thus legally slap a "USB 2.0" sticker on a five year old USB 1.x product.
If the external drive wasn't marked with High Speed but just USB 2.0, chances are it's just Full Speed, or USB 1.1.
Also, only if ALL devices hooked up to an USB controller are USB 2.0 High Speed will you get high speed, and even then, the bandwidth is shared between all the devices on that controller.
Your G5 should have both EHCI (480 Mbps) and OHCI (12 Mbps) controllers. One or more of the controllers are already going to be used by keyboard, mouse or internal devices, which will limit the speed for the rest of the devices on those controllers.
You might want to try replugging the hard drive and keyboard to different ports to see whether you get high speed. Try different combinations, including the front port. And don't plug it in to the ports in the keyboard or the monitor (if you have the fancy monitor with USB ports), cause these are always limited to 12 Mbps. Also, if you don't use the modem (does the G5 have a modem?), bluetooth or airport, disable them, cause on the PowerMacs, I think these are USB devices.
If no amount of replugging your external USB devices seems to help, you might have to try using an USB PCI card to ensure there's a controller available just for the HD -- just make sure it's marked "High Speed".
USB 2.0 doesn't imply 480 Mbps, contrary to common belief.
USB 2.0 is a marketing term to make it easier to sell the old products after the new and much faster 480 Mbps EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) came out.
There's USB 2.0 Standard Speed, which is 1.5 Mbps, or a marketing name for USB 1.0.
There's USB 2.0 Full Speed, which is 12 Mbps, or a marketing name for USB 1.1
There's USB 2.0 High Speed, which is 480 Mbps (well, 432 Mbps available bandwidth after overhead).
The "USB 2.0" logo only means that a company has paid the fee to the USB committee, and can thus legally slap a "USB 2.0" sticker on a five year old USB 1.x product.
If the external drive wasn't marked with High Speed but just USB 2.0, chances are it's just Full Speed, or USB 1.1.
Also, only if ALL devices hooked up to an USB controller are USB 2.0 High Speed will you get high speed, and even then, the bandwidth is shared between all the devices on that controller.
Your G5 should have both EHCI (480 Mbps) and OHCI (12 Mbps) controllers. One or more of the controllers are already going to be used by keyboard, mouse or internal devices, which will limit the speed for the rest of the devices on those controllers.
You might want to try replugging the hard drive and keyboard to different ports to see whether you get high speed. Try different combinations, including the front port. And don't plug it in to the ports in the keyboard or the monitor (if you have the fancy monitor with USB ports), cause these are always limited to 12 Mbps. Also, if you don't use the modem (does the G5 have a modem?), bluetooth or airport, disable them, cause on the PowerMacs, I think these are USB devices.
If no amount of replugging your external USB devices seems to help, you might have to try using an USB PCI card to ensure there's a controller available just for the HD -- just make sure it's marked "High Speed".