Author Topic: Optimizing Mac OS9 MDD for recording multiple audio inputs.  (Read 5374 times)

Offline Architecture

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Optimizing Mac OS9 MDD for recording multiple audio inputs.
« on: November 23, 2022, 06:51:22 PM »
All,

I have decided to use Mac OS9 as my main DAW setup for my studio. For the longest time I have mainly worked with 2 channel at a time recording and got by great. I am planning to run at least 34 channels in and 34 channels out using a RME Digiface and Multiface. A Mackie 32-8 will be feeding the G4 a variety of inputs from my setup as needed.

I have 2 OWC 120GB SSDs on the ATA/100 bus, one for OS9 booting and the other for recording. I recently acquired a Seritek 1SE2 and external enclosure running a 480GB Inland SSD. Running Norton System Info, my overall disk performance was less than the SSDs on the ATA bus. On the PCI bus I am running 2x RME HDSP PCI cards, Seritek 1SE2, Adaptec 2906 for Sampler management.

Logic 5/6 seem to use a lot of Disk I/O on a few channels while I can run up to 32 mono channel projects on Cubase VST with 20% disk usage. Any tips on getting Logic 5/6 to match the performance of VST? I like VST but projects made on it don’t transfer over as well to newer versions in my experience.
PowerMac G4 MDD (1.25 Dual). 2GB Ram, GeForce Ti 4600 Mac. 3x RME Digiface paired to 2x Ferrofish A32s. Seritek 1SE2 external SATA setup.

PowerMac G4 2002 Quicksilver and Powerbook G3 for SCSI applications.

Offline IIO

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Re: Optimizing Mac OS9 MDD for recording multiple audio inputs.
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2022, 07:19:40 PM »
do you have different track buffer sizes in cubase and logic? there is a difference, but it should not be >5:1.

what stresses disks the most is reading and writing at the same time (plus reading might be reading a lot of small files), otherwise recording 32 tracks is not a problem at all, and RME or motu are working systems for that kind of thing.
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Offline Architecture

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Re: Optimizing Mac OS9 MDD for recording multiple audio inputs.
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2022, 07:33:39 PM »
I was running with 256kb buffer per track and 3ms latency on VST/32. Having to move up the latency on Logic 6 but not sure how to achieve the same buffering I had in Cubase.
PowerMac G4 MDD (1.25 Dual). 2GB Ram, GeForce Ti 4600 Mac. 3x RME Digiface paired to 2x Ferrofish A32s. Seritek 1SE2 external SATA setup.

PowerMac G4 2002 Quicksilver and Powerbook G3 for SCSI applications.