MacBook Pro Too Slow?

Gebo · Post by **Gebo** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:25 am

So I use a MBP (2.18, 17", 2 Gigs of RAM), with an Apogee Ensemble. I recently started working on my bands record, and im working in 24/96 for the first time. After recording without issue for about about 3 hours, we took a lunch break. When we got back from the break, it would not record. Im doing 10 tracks (8 in analog, 2 spdif). Logic kept stopping after recording for about 5 seconds and giving me a core audio error, saying my disk was too slow. I putzed around for a while, than went back in and it was working ok. Im assuming that I kinda burned my external out for running for a few hours straight (we just kept the "tape" rolling and did a bunch of takes). Im running my external throught usb 2.0. I understand usb is kinda slow, so I am barrowing a firewire 800 drive from my buddy. I tried it out last night. It was working, but looking at the meters in logic, it looks like the disk i/o is peaking out at times. Im nervous that Im not going to be able to do a full session in 24/96, but this computer should be plenty fast, right? Does it seem like maybe something is wrong? I posted this in another forum, but I figured the more help the better. thanks in advance!

qball · Post by **qball** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:19 pm

Are you SURE that the audio is being recorded to the 2nd HDD? This is a classic symptom of what it's like to try recording to the OS HDD.

Regular Guy · Post by **Regular Guy** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:22 am

Is it generally accepted that internal laptop hard drives are inadequate for recording? Would an upgrade to an internal 7200RPM SATA make a big difference?

AND

Are external USB 2 hard drives similarly inadequate?

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:01 am

There is no way that your MBP is too slow. It's as fast or faster than my Dual 1.8GHz G5, and I get great performance out of my G5.

I have a Powerbook G4 1.5 GHz with 768MB of RAM. I've done 12-15 hr sessions with it running Digital Performer and recording 6 tracks simultaneously while playing back up to 24 tracks. I have a MOTU 828mk2 that I use with it. I record to a Lacie D2 via FW 800 and use a FW PCMCIA card for the 828mk2, which adds another FW bus and separates data flow. I record at 44.1kHz/24bit and 48kHz/24bit, but I know that I could also record at 96K and get decent track counts.

I never have any problems except always having to:

1) reboot PB after opening DP for the first time due to crackling audio. No idea why this happens, but it's consistent. It may be linked to the PCMCIA card. Rebooting once always fixes it.

2) After reboot and re-opening DP, I always have to record, let the processor clip (2-15 secs), then undo. Seems to get the buffers in order. Again, no idea why this happens, but it's consistent.

Now I'm ready for a long session. These are two quirks that have been consistent and after working through them I never have any issues.

Remember to NEVER EVER EVER let your iB/PB/MB/MBP go to sleep during a session. Ever. This can be a source of tons of problems.

The key that I've found is to separate out the FW information between the drive and the interface using the card slot. To me this is key to good performance. The extra speed using FW800 for recording/playback also helps. I've run about 20 sessions this way during the past year and have achieved great results. My G5 is set up in a similar fashion, as the system is on an internal SATA drive, the Audio is recorded/played back from a second internal 500GB SATA drive,a nd the MOTU 828mk2 runs off of the G5's FW400 bus. I stream samples over FW800 on the same bus, but adding a FW PCI card would make things run even smoother.

Since your Mac Book Pro is approximately 5-10 times as powerful as my PB G4 you should be able to use this as a guide: http://emusician.com/gencomput/emusic_t ... index.html.

Please realize that attempting to record to the internal drive on my PB will overload the buffers and result in f'd up audio in DP. I have to use an external drive.

Jeff

Gebo · Post by **Gebo** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:05 pm

Thanks for the help! I borrowed a FW800 from a buddy and didnt have a problem! I guess either my usb 2.0 is messed up, or it was some other sort of error that sorted its self out. Although, randomly throughout the session, during recording and playback, the audio would start to distort and sound like I put a bit reduction filter on it. If I went up to the bit rate selection menu, switched it to 16 than back to 24, it fixed it. It only did it every once in a while. I dont think it was related, but im getting bummed on all these problems man!

Gebo · Post by **Gebo** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:39 pm

Update:

So lately I had noticed that my battery meter was jumping between "charging" and "calulating". My battery has started to bluge and inflate in the past few days. I spoke to a Mac rep, and she explained that since my battery is totally fuct, my computer is switching its settings back or forth constantly (battery and plugged in power). Thats why I was having all these wierd issues, my computer was at its wits end every time I had it plugged in! A new battery is on its way. I was running it without the battery last night and had no issues.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:02 pm

Embryo Electro wrote:Update:

So lately I had noticed that my battery meter was jumping between "charging" and "calulating". My battery has started to bluge and inflate in the past few days. I spoke to a Mac rep, and she explained that since my battery is totally fuct, my computer is switching its settings back or forth constantly (battery and plugged in power). Thats why I was having all these wierd issues, my computer was at its wits end every time I had it plugged in! A new battery is on its way. I was running it without the battery last night and had no issues.

Holy crap that's nuts. Glad that you figured out what the deal is.

I'm still using a PB G4 and a Dual 1.8 G5. I'm alarmed at the amount of people buying MacBook Pros to surf the web and listen to iTunes. Glad that folks actually use them to make music and movies and stuff.

Jeff

Gebo · Post by **Gebo** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:11 pm

Im glad I noticed in time, before I fried the whole thing. The woman at Apple seemed shocked at what was going on with my cpu! When it's working 100%, the thing smokes. Im doin a session right now thats 36 tracks at 24/96, so far no issues. Im pretty psyched. Its a lot of power.

the tiny dancer · Post by **the tiny dancer** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 12:35 pm

I had the exact same issue ("disc to slow-") error with ensemble, macbook pro (2.16, 2g ram), and the only thing that ever cured it was a reboot. Fortunately, it cured it every time. At least until I switched to PT, which basically cured all of my software problems.

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