Imac Firewire Question Options

[Emprise]

Hi, I want to get a new computer for recording.
I am looking at getting an iMac, a power Mac would be nice, but they're a bit too expensive.
I am thinking of getting Logic as recording software and a Focusrite Saffire LE Firewire audio interface.

I heard that iMac has 2 firewire ports but uses only 1 bus, and that this could be a problem when using multiple firewire attachments. Does anyone know how much of a problem this is?

Is using an iMac recommended for recording and production? Would anyone recommend against it?

Thanks.

[coco17uk]

Hi, I use an Imac, and although I dont do a great deal of audio recording, I don´t think there is a problem with the firewire question as most, if not all firewire devices have 2 ports for ¨daisy chaining¨ which seems to work fine. It does have 2 firewire ports one 400 and one 800. I don´t own anything that uses the 800 yet, but I run a M audio firewire audio,midi inter face chained to an external hard drive, which contains the bulk of my sounds and I haven´t had any problems. Hope this helps.

[mortalengines]

You are correct, I believe......This is not a real problem in most instances. I have an external FW drive on my FW 800 input and my FW interface on my 400 input. They seem to work fine. Where the real problem lay is with certain hardware like Focusrites Liquid Mix which will not work unless it is the only hardware plugged into your hub. The workaround is using a FW adapter in your PCIMA cardbus slot which runs for like, only 20 dollars US if you find you absolutely need something like the Liquid Mix.


www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

[jimdubpram]

I would certainly go with the Saffire LE. Great pre-amps and comes with some good software plugins.
Never had a problem with it (yet).

[stevejm]

Hi, I want to get a new computer for recording.
I am looking at getting an iMac, a power Mac would be nice, but they're a bit too expensive.
I am thinking of getting Logic as recording software and a Focusrite Saffire LE Firewire audio interface.

I heard that iMac has 2 firewire ports but uses only 1 bus, and that this could be a problem when using multiple firewire attachments. Does anyone know how much of a problem this is?

Is using an iMac recommended for recording and production? Would anyone recommend against it?

Thanks.

Hi

For what it is worth I've had a problem using both firewire ports simultaneously and read of others - but by no means everyone - having a similar problem. In my case I was running Logic on the iMac and using a Tascam FW1804 interface out of the FW400 port and a Western Digital external hard drive from the FW800 port. In this configuration I kept losing the connection - particularly with the external drive. If I daisy-chain the external drive off the Tascam interface (i.e. running at the slower, but still adequate FW400 transfer rate) it seems much more stable. Hard to say what the weak link is here but the single bus certainly isn't ideal. Still a bit annoyed that I can't reliably use the FW800 transfer rate from the external hard drive!

Other than that the iMac seems to be working pretty well for music production although it's not particularly expandable or upgradeable if you think you might need more "grunt" in future. MIne doesn't have a cardbus slot, for instance (mentioned in another post as a workaround)(do any of them?). Still good value, though.

Enjoy

[Emprise]

Thanks for the replies all.

I don't think the firewire will be a problem, since there are always workarounds for the hard drive. Is there anything else besides interfaces and hard drives that people use with their firewire?

Glad to hear the Saffire LE is recommended. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for other interfaces around that price range? My friend has a Native Instruments one, but there is only 1 mic input. I would like at least 2.

I was also wondering: If I max out the RAM on my iMac(4 gigs?), how many audio tracks could I have playing simultaneously in Logic (assuming there are no post-production effects added). If anyone knows or could give me an estimate that would be great.

[makaala]

Hi, I'm a Logic 8 user but my comment has to do with my La Cie 800fw drive. I have been struggling with a new Canon HV20 video camera. I have tried to digitize on my G5 dual 2.0 PPC to no avail using Final Cut Pro. I thought it was my software, the lack of memory (2 Gigs) but have discovered by accident, that it was the fw800 drive. Silly me, I assumed it was everything but the fastest drive I have. I hooked up my 80 gig fw 400 and digitized without a problem.
I ran drive genius 2 tests on the fw 800 and there were no issues... so.. does anyone else have similar stories? It would be nice to find out if this is a common problem. I wasted about a week looking through forums for a solution to my digitizing problem and never suspected the culprit was the drive.
regards

[deaconblue]

I have run into the same type of issue on a MacBook Pro with both the FW400 and FW800 buses connected simultaneously. But not on my G5 DP2.0Ghz. On the G5 I have multiple FW400 devices connected AND a single 100GB FW800 HDD as well with no problem. But, all my FW400 devices are getting their power from some other source (MOTU 828 mkI is self powered, the others are on a FW Powered Hub). It sounds as if the power is not sufficient to use both bus loads at the same time.

hope that helps.

peace.