A question for Digidesign 002 and 003 users...

[mushy]

Start with a CLEAN freshly formatted drive.  Also make sure that under Preferences -> Operation -> Open Ended Record Allocation is set to USE ALL AVAILABLE SPACE.  Otherwise a time limit is set. Tick Tick Tick....  BOOM...

 

[babyhead]

The thing that makes my bowels shake about using a 002 is more in the shoddy ribbon connectors. On numerous occasions I have had to take off the top and push them down to reestablish the connection. Now the little princess lives with only 2 screws in the top. I don't consider LE very stable, in general.

 

[Andy Peters]

-Is it reasonable to record to a firewire drive which sits on the same buss as the Digi 002 (in my case it's a 002)

I have a LONG piece of music to record live this weekend (Mahler's 2nd Symphony -all 5 movements, no intermission) and I need twelve tracks to go into record and reliably STAY in record.

I'm very nervous about recording to the internal drive for this one (which is what I usually do, but for only about an hour or so at a time).

If so, -using a Mac- what is the best format for a new drive.

I plan on testing by recording about 4 hours of 12-16 tracks a few times, before I commit to this 'no-second-chance' approach...

Keith

I recorded a whole bunch of things using my old Core Duo (not even Core 2 Duo) MacBook Pro and its single FireWire 400 connection. I used a MOTU 828 mk 2 and a no-name FW enclosure with a Seagate drive mechanism and I regularly recorded 2+ hour shows without glitches. I used to use Boom Recorder until I installed Snow Leopard, which broke Boom Recorder, so I just tracked into Logic Express 8 which was perfectly fine. I don't recall the order of the FireWire chain and I suspect that it doesn't really matter.

The drive, like all of my OS X disks, is formatted with HFS+ journaled.

I know that ProTools has some relatively interesting requirements -- ProTools LE 7 hated the Lacie Porsche drives (which die, as noted) but my set-up just works.

-a

 

[Sarcastic Sound]

A few notes...

Pro Tools has a 2GB file limit on WAV files (2GB limit per audio file in record).

So at 48k you get 4 hours 6 minutes and 23 seconds before the 2 gig file limit is reached and the rig drops out on it's own, REGARDLESS of how much disk space you have left.

96k will be half that record time... 2 hours 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Same 2 gig file limit deal.

If the rig "drops out" during the recording the files will still be in the audio files folder... they just wont show up in the session as regions. Most of the time you can import the files into the session and everything works... I say most of the time because I know this shouldn't work, but it has worked every time I've tried it (3 times?) and no issues other than the rig dropped out of record and I lost a few moments of the recording during drop out.

If your drives are solid and your preferences are set correctly, you should be fine. Hit record and don't touch the rig until you stop recording. Every system is different and the most stable preference setting will depend on your system... test, test and test again until you are confident in the system. PT is a stable platform when set up correctly.

notes complete 

jz

 

[amorris@home]

re: oxford 911,
Ive been told that all new chip sets are fast enough to handle audio and video, as opposed to having to request the oxford set back in the day. is this true?

 

[Sredna]

The thing that makes my bowels shake about using a 002 is more in the shoddy ribbon connectors. On numerous occasions I have had to take off the top and push them down to reestablish the connection. Now the little princess lives with only 2 screws in the top. I don't consider LE very stable, in general.

Yeah, the dredded "power harness syndrome"! Im shure Keith knows this already but it´s
an important thing for 002 owners to know about. Apperantly the power harness (cables between the PSU and the other PCBs) has connectors with a plating that react(oxide) with the plating of the PCB connectors causing intermittent failures. In my case the Firewire connection to my Macbook dropped out
at random times almost driving me crazy.... You can de and re attach the connectors a couple of times to get rid of the oxide but the final solution would be a new power harness. Digidesign used to send these
out for free years ago, nowadays Im not so shure about that.

 

[Brolik]

I had those power harness problems a few years ago and Digi did indeed send a fresh harness which has completely remedied the problem. But it is a valid question whether they still do this since they're pushing the 003 now.

 

[ubxf]

if it is an option i would add a good internal drive rather than firewire

 

[Rob Flinn]

I always experienced problems running the 002 through a lacie d2 quadra.    If I ran the drive on an esata port & the 002 fwire it was kosher for 16 tracks 2hours long.

 

[mushy]

if it is an option i would add a good internal drive rather than firewire

If you want to get crazy, eSATA is a great way to go as well.

 

[Holger]

Keith, how was your recording?
Did your set up stand the pace?

 

[SSLtech]

Yes... I'm happy to report that everything was just fine!

As for the ribbon harness issues, mine is a very late 002R, which was made after they updated the harness, though I've replaced plenty on other 002's.

I found (a day or two before the recording) that my mac (laptop) generates interrupts as the light level changes, which -when it tries to tun on the keyboard back-illumination- can interrupt recording.

Also, there's a couple of 'stop recording' and 'stop playback' options which I unchecked. Any RTAS errors in playback are -by default- otherwise instructed to interrupt recording and/or playback.

But everything was just peachy. -The conductor heard a little when he was wondering if the pipe-organ needed to be turned town (I gave him some playback, since I had the pipe organ coming in to a separate track, to show him what the available separation/control degree was) and he commented on how much he liked the SOUND of the recording... -I was deputizing for a somewhat more qualified classical engineer, so that was comforting to hear.

One choir member fainted at around 43:00... it was quite a loud "thump" as she hit the deck!!!

I actually REALLY enjoyed the national anthem at the beginning, which began without announcement, with the choir having referred their pitch cue from the tuning 'A' a minute earlier... It started as a VERY quiet harmonized humming, and slowly grew. -A surprisingly touching arrangement.

LONG piece though. That and the anthem was the whole evening's program.

I'm heading off to DIY a 4-pack of 9K preamps for the next time, which I've just found out is about a month from now...

Keith

 

[SSLtech]

..Oh, and I'd liek to say that the John Hardy Mic Pres were VERY nice indeed. I used eight of them, bypassing the inbuilt Digi pres, which are -by comparison- rather noisy, even before you get to the issue of sonic preference. Never used them before, but they were VERY nice.

A Neumann SM2 at sixty feet away from some instruments doesn't produce much signal level AT ALL... The John Hardy's were pretty quiet even in 'high-gain' range. -the microphone's self-noise was in fact more noticeable.

Keith

 

[thecheat]

Hey Keef
Im happy to loan you my cubase rig which will record for many many hours at a time. Ive done 9 consecutively before on an external drive. Laptop and MOTU 896HD, two internal drives... Let me know man.

Chris

Aww i missed it....

 

[SSLtech]

Well, I have a couple more coming up...

So I just invested in a set of Portico mic preamps, an Apogee converter and some other good stuff, to save me from having to borrow a few other bits & pieces like the John Hardy mic preamps.

I actually think that I found out what was causing my occasional crashes... It was the fact that the keyboard illumination was turned on. -Basically the computer has a light sensor which turns the illumination off when the light rises above a set threshold... but it sends out some sort of interrupt which buggers up everything... -Not so good!

I could actually CAUSE the computer to crash by turning the light dimmer up and down! -this explains why the two crashes which I experienced seemed to coincide with me leaving the room.

I think I'm set for the next gig.

Keith

 

[barney]

Also be warned that PT won't render the file until you hit stop.  An engineer I work with learnt that the hard way with his 002 live rig an hour into a two hour gig when a power outage caused the system to hiccup.  No files to show at all when the system restarted!!  He now has a 24 track tascam unit.

 

[mushy]

Also be warned that PT won't render the file until you hit stop.  An engineer I work with learnt that the hard way with his 002 live rig an hour into a two hour gig when a power outage caused the system to hiccup.  No files to show at all when the system restarted!!   He now has a 24 track tascam unit.

Not true. In most cases you can find a partial sound file in your Audio Files folder.

 

[barney]

I stand corrected. I don't have a 002/003 to try it with.  But you learn something new everyday.

 

[SSLtech]

yeah, I've had lockup on several ProTools systems including 002's around here, and all you lose is the last few seconds.

Keith

 

[Matthew Jacobs]

I'm still using a 001... can I join in????  ;D ;D ;D ;D