Firewire Hard Drives With Pro Tools
Digidesign has performed preliminary tests using Firewire drives with Pro Tools. Although Firewire drives are not yet officially supported by Digidesign, Digi has enough confidence in the performance ability of the latest Firewire bridge technology, the Oxford 911 chipset, to inform Pro Tools customers that Firewire drives are an option when used with the guidelines listed below. Because Digidesign is not able to officially support Firewire drives at this time, it is recommended that you review the compatibility documents provided by the Firewire Drive manufacturer to make sure the drive meets the guidelines listed below.
Technical Requirements
CPU
Apple G4 450 MHz or higher
System Software
Mac OS 9.1 or higher
Firewire Enabler (version 2.7 or higher)
Firewire Support (version 2.7 or higher)
FireWire Enabler and FireWire Support are Mac OS Extensions included with OS 9.1, or run the Software Update Control Panel to update to the latest version of these extensions in OS 9.1 or higher. These extensions must be enabled in your System Folder/Extensions folder.
Firewire Drives
Oxford 911 Firewire bridge chipset *
7200 RPM drive
100 MHz ATA bus
Digidesign Products
Pro Tools®|24
Pro Tools®|24 MIX
Pro Tools®|24 MIXplus
Pro Tools®|24 MIX3
Digi 001
Digi ToolBox XP & Audiomedia III
Pro Tools 5.1 and Pro Tools LE 5.1 or higher
Pro Tools FREE
Performance Expectations
Maximum of 32 tracks during playback and recording with two drives, with 16 tracks allocated per drive when using the models tested.
A single Firewire drive adhering to these standards may be an option to playback and record up to 24 tracks.
Track count and performance will vary depending on available CPU cycles and edit density.
Drives Used for Preliminary Testing
Glyph XProject – www.glyphtech.com
EZ Quest Cobra+ – www.ezq.com
Other Firewire drives should have similar results given the previously stated requirements.
* To date only Firewire drives using the Oxford 911 Firewire bridge chipset meet these performance specifications. Check with the drive manufacturer to verify that the drive you buy has the “Oxford 911” chipset.
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