I have made another HDD test for those of you who wondered [Why don't you connect those FW800 HDD before the FW400 audio interface?], so, here it is.
I now connected things in following order: PC-FW800 1TB HDD-FW800 2TB HDD-FW400 audio interface.
I have read somewhere long time ago that audio interface should be connected first in your FireWire chain so I obeyed this but it is always good to try a different configuration yourself to see if things improves without gaining any problems.
In this new configuration, disk usage reads 32% and for some reason the CPU usage has been dropped to 44%.
It is slightly slower than when those HDD were connected directly to PC's FW socket (26%) but it's definitely better than 53% when those HDD were chained after my FW400 audio interface.

Thanks for looking!

YS Sound Production

Hello everyone!
In this festive season, I have treated myself with a new USB 3 hard disk drive and I would like to write a little report in here.
I've been using 2 of Western Digital FW800/400 HDD (1TB and 2TB) for the past 3 years and I never had any problems with them but the disk has been filled up recently, so I've decided to purchase another HDD and use those 2 WD for backup purpose.
I don't want to go into too much details but you can see the differences in system usage meter below.
The left screenshot is my previous setup which: PC-Audio interface (FW400)-WD drive daisy chained. The disk usage reads 53%.
I changed the configuration slightly for the middle screenshot. WD drive is now connected directly to the PC's FW800. You can see that the disk usage is now reduced to 26%. I guess it's the full use of the bandwidth of FW800 instead of FW400.
The right screenshot is my new LACIE 3TB USB 3 HDD connected directly to one of my PC's USB 3 socket. The disk usage is 24%.
I was expecting a slightly better result compare to the one from FW800... Well, 2% more efficient.
The song is 24bit 48kHz, consists of around 60 Channels (audio tracks) including sub group bus and effect returns etc.
Those screenshots were taken at exactly same point where the song gets busy and most of the audio are playing.

One last thing, both of my WD HDD were 7200 RPM, my new LACIE is 5400 RPM. I have to say, I'm more than happy with 5400 RPM at the moment.

I used to own an Iomega JAZ drive back in 90', and 1GB cartridge used to cost £100 each. I am amazed to see how cheap HDD these days!
 
Thanks for looking!
 
YS Sound Production

Hello!

Just like to introduce you a plug-in that I have discovered recently. It's from Nomad Factory, it's an analogue flavored channel strip called Studio Channel SC-226. Compressor, EQ, limiter, phase switch and a tube saturation in one package.
It sounds very nice and musical. Compressor is very useful in taming the level fluctuation without killing the natural dynamic of the musicians (there are RMS and peak mode), and overall shaping of the sound with those EQs. The limiter could be handy if you are dealing with some unknown audio materials (sound design project etc) to protect your monitors (or your ears!), though, I'm not sure where the threshold is. It could be just below 0.0dBfs.
Phase switch can be very handy as I often use Trim plug-in just to do flipping the phase of the multi-mic-ed instruments.
You can change the order between: Comp-EQ, or EQ-Comp, it's always good to have choices.
And one of the best thing in this plug-in is the tube saturator. I'm trying not to use all the time but I tend to reach that section! I like to use it on acoustic guitars if it's sounding too bright. There are many other occasions this will become handy.
Although I'm really liking this plug-in, there are few things you'll need to get used to. The HPF seems it starts way above those frequencies (20, 30, 40, 60 and 80) so most often I use another plug-in for this.
Also the compressor distorts quite easily with low frequency instruments (kick, bass etc) so again, I would use another plug-in for those things.

Overall, it's a great addition to my plug-in list and I will be using this one here and there for sure!

Thanks for looking!
YS Sound Production