Buzz from external Hard Drive

[J Rilla]

Per Digidesgin and my peers I record all my tracks into an external hard drive rather than the one on my comp. the problem i have is that when the external drive is on it has an electrical interfernce that is audible thru my recording equipment. Does anyone share this problem and if so is there a solution to it

 

[FistFulloDollaz]

I use a glyph and I've never had that problem

what kind is yours and is it hooked up by usb or firewire

 

[J Rilla]

Seagate hooked up via USB

 

[Formant024]

You use firewire and mac ? check the mac psu, its a common problem.

From this link below:

The bad thing about this is that the chirping also shows at the USB and Firewire ports, causing trouble when you try to use this computer in a recording studio - the thread at Apple Discussions contains quite a few complaints about how the G5 is barely usable for audio production because of this.

http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20031205013210739

Its a reason we stay away from firewire and usb on the mac in the studio, we currently runn motu through their pci card which also uses FW ( audiowire ) but is not runn through the mac firewire/usb bus. Im not sure if the situation is resolved with the Pentium based mac book (pro). I do hope so cuz that apogee ensemble looks hella nice ( Symphony's already pci bussed.

 

[Big Tone]

make sure you computer has usb 2.0 ports

 

[J Rilla]

Yeah the Powerbook has 2.0 ports....Format I was kinda lost when u started talkin about runnin shyt thru pci boards and shyt,but i will try those tips from the link..hopefullly it works for the powerbook also

 

[Formant024]

yeah, I hope so too, I think you might try another psu but I dont know if it will help you. Problem is that with the powerbook you depend on FW or USB ( 2.0 or not is not the issue ). I think the powerbook has pcmcia slots ( the macbook pro doesnt ) but there's no OEM ( RME, EMU ) that makes PCMCIA cards that are mac compatible. The pcmcia would be ideal as its just like pci format (new macs are PCI express) and are far less sensitive to its environment. Therefor there's no solution directly by these standards, well, not a reliable one anyway.

There's perhaps one solution I can think of ( idealy spoken ) in your situation and that is to install boot camp for your macbook and runn win xp on it ( should work very well ), concluding you do have a pcmcia slot you might want to look at an emu1616(m) or a RME cardbus ( which is the HDSP9652 hammerfall in pcmcia format ) with a multi- or digiface, or RPM ( dj DAW ).

Perhaps kinda rediculous to runn xp on your mac but i heard it runns better than most laptops. It also implies you must switch softwareplatforms. I assume you're running PT but I dont think changing to a windows platform isnt much of a big deal when it comes to recording ( Cubase SX is easy pretty straightforward, Logic is also easier than most people pretend and FL has the option to bounce seperate tracks at once which sofar no platform does ).

If you currently use PT then you dont have to exclude it from use since it is an industry standard and an expected format when mixed/mastered professionaly. You can record multitracks under XP and add dynamics/fx through busses or groups ( just dont use inserts ), just for the impression during the recording sessions. When its a done deal and the session has finished you would normaly ease down and step away from it for day or 4/5. So when its time to do the mixing you boot up again in OSx, start up PT and import the sessions *.wav's into a new PT session and tailor your mix. If you neglected inserts during the recording session then you should have the clean recorded takes without any of the additional signal processing so you can do a proper mix with fresh ears.

Just a thought though, I dont have an macbook or PT but this should/could be easily done.

 

[Formant024]

Something that just came to mindf, funny enough since we're still debating our current studio setup, which needs an update (macbased daw). I realised the new Apogee products are "adapted" to this issue in regards of their choice of connectivity. Below is a release note of the "Ensemble" drivers, a firewire audio device.

Ensemble Release Notes

About Beta FireWire Audio 2.0.0b13-e8 for Mac OS X

This is a beta release of the FireWire Audio Driver for Mac OS X intended for Apogee Ensemble support only. It is designed for G5 and Intel based Macintosh systems. This is a pre-release software driver and it is not feature complete. Therefore, some quality issues may exist and your use of this driver is at your own risk.

System requirements

To use the Beta FireWire Audio 2.0.0b13-e8 for Mac OS X, you need:
• An Apogee Ensemble
• A Macintosh computer with a G5 or Intel processor
• Mac OS version 10.4.7
• Apogee Maestro Software Control Application 1.0 or later

Supported configurations and features

The following configurations and features are supported with Beta FireWire Audio 2.0.0b13-e8:
• Single Ensemble setups
• Audio sample rates of 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz and 96kHz
• Logic Pro 7.2.1, iTunes 6.x or QuickTime Player 7.x
• Logic Pro 7.2.1, Core Audio I/O buffer sizes of 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024

The following configurations and features are NOT supported with Beta FireWire Audio 2.0.0b13-e8:
• Any FireWire audio device other than the Apogee Ensemble
• Sleeping the computer and waking the computer from sleep
• Hot-plugging (connecting the Ensemble to the computer while the computer or the Ensemble is powered on)
• Multiple Ensemble setups
• Setups with any FireWire device connected other than the Ensemble including FireWire hard drives, FireWire cameras, and other FireWire audio devices.
• Audio sample rates of 176.4kHz and 196kHz
• Any software application other than those specifically mentioned above.

Installing your software
1. When prompted by this installer, select the Ensemble Software Package to install the driver on your Mac.
2. Turn off, disconnect or mute any speakers or headphones connected to the Apogee Ensemble before restarting, shutting-down or starting your computer or the Apogee Ensemble

If you read it you understand that they still cant deal with the problem, its a matter of the environment and anything that shouldnt be in it, in order for it to work optimal...but not perfect. The Symphony doesnt have this problem since it only works via pci ( logicaly considering the expansion options wont ever operate on a laptop.