In the above test, I was recording and playing back from one drive that was dedicated to audio ie. What about using the software RAID features we just discussed? The first thing to remember is that audio software, in general, tends not to benefit from RAID technology in the same way as, say, video. While HD video files are significantly larger than audio files, it's actually this fact that makes them more suitable for or, indeed require RAID storage, because a RAID system is really good at providing a large amount of sustained bandwidth.
The more files you play back simultaneously, the more a hard drive is forced to search for the data, and it doesn't matter how many drives you have connected to a storage system, because the seek time for a system with multiple drives will be no better than it would be for a single drive.
How to Set the Block Size of Software RAID
And the problem with drive seek times is that they haven't fallen nearly so quickly as storage capacity and bandwidth have increased. With audio you tend to have a large number of small files, whereas video usually entails a small number of large files; so, for the most part, RAID systems are not necessarily a good way to increase performance when it comes to audio. Over the last year, we've been reviewing Apple's new Intel Macs as they've been released, and guaging their performance by running the usual array of tests with Logic Pro.
While we didn't look at the Macbook in great depth, compared to the Macbook Pro, I did get the chance recently to run the Logic tests on a Macbook with a 1. The Macbook in question was capable of running 90 Platinumverb s with percent Logic Pro usage and 90 percent User usage, although at this point the user interface did become a little sluggish. The number of Space Designer instances was 30, with percent Logic usage and 90 percent User.
With the instruments, it was possible to play back 84 Sculpture voices across 11 instances with percent Logic usage and, again, 90 percent User. Using EXS24 , first with original sample storage and no filter, the maximum polyphony was voices, with percent Logic usage and 92 percent user.
Adding a new hard drive to RAID1 software RAID fails - Super User
Enabling the filter brought this figure down to voices, with percent Logic usage and 80 percent User, while disabling the filter and enabling bit storage yielded an impressive voices with percent Logic usage and 87 percent User. Finally, enabling the filter again took the number of voices possible with bit storage down to with percent Logic usage and 88 percent User. If you compare these results with other Mac systems take a look at the graphs in this month's Mac Pro review, starting on page , you'll see the Macbook isn't too far behind its big brother, the Macbook Pro, in many of the tests.
The integrated graphics of the Macbook don't hinder performance quite so much as you might expect, compared to the Macbook Pro with its dedicated graphics hardware, but could be the reason the user interface becomes particularly sluggish when the system is running flat out. On the whole, the Macbook is a pretty good portable system if you're on a budget though it's worth installing the full 2GB of RAM , and while you can't order the system with a rpm drive, it is at least possible to purchase this later and swap it with the supplied internal drive yourself.
With two drives, I could record 11 tracks while playing back 96, and the maximum number of tracks I could play back was With three drives it was possible to record six tracks with tracks playing back or record 12 tracks with playing , and the maximum number of playback tracks possible was While you do see a benefit in performance using a RAIDed volume, you'll notice that the increase is small. You'd get better performance using the drives independently than together in a RAID configuration.
I only tried up to three drives, because it's best to keep the system drive separate to the audio RAID, just in case of a drive failure. As a comparison, I did a test in Pro Tools to see how many tracks I could record and play back simultaneously.
Subscribe to RSS
With each track in a Session assigned to a different discrete input and output, I could record mono tracks on one drive simultaneously and play back As a footnote to these tests, I just want to make a couple of final observations: firstly, you'll notice that Logic was able to record and play back far more 'channels' of audio than Pro Tools from a single drive: Logic 's tracks were stereo, whereas Pro Tools ' tracks were mono.
Because of this, though, Logic was able to work with interleaved files, which Pro Tools can't do, and with an interleaved file Logic can continue to read the second channel without having to seek to a different location on the hard drive to find the next file. This situation helps to illustrate just how important drive seek times really are. Secondly, these tests show theoretical maximums because the recording playback files on each track were contiguous regions without edits or crossfades.
Any data written to a RAID 1 set is immediately copied to all members of the set; the same is true when you erase a file. As soon as you erase a file, that file is removed from all members of the RAID 1 set.
- square root on mac grapher.
- mac pro uk student discount.
- g skill mac mini 2012.
As a result, RAID 1 does not allow you to recover older versions of data, such as the version of a file you edited last week. Using a RAID 1 mirror as part of your backup strategy ensures maximum uptime and reliability. You can use RAID 1 for your startup drive, a data drive, or your backup drive. While these instructions should work for both past and future versions of OS X, some of the steps, nomenclature, or images shown in this article may be different. The hard drives you use as members of the RAID 1 mirror set must first be erased.
When you zero out data, you force the hard drive to check for bad data blocks during the erasure process and to mark any bad blocks as not to be used. This decreases the likelihood of losing data due to a failing block on the hard drive. It also significantly increases the amount of time it takes to erase the drives from a few minutes to an hour or more per drive.
Microsoft Windows
Here's how:. The total capacity of the RAID 1 mirror set you create is equal to the smallest member of the set, minus some overhead for the RAID boot files and data structure. As a result, you can use them as startup volumes, data volumes, or backup volumes. Drives added after a RAID array is created are known as hot spares. At that point, the RAID array automatically uses a hot spare as a replacement for the failed hard drive and automatically starts a rebuilding process to convert the hot spare to an active member of the array.
- OS X RAID: Any Good For Audio??
- SoftRAID - Get Maximum Speed and Data Protection - OWC Digital?
- Your Answer;
- cinepaint mac os x download.
- blank space alt code mac!
- farm mania mac free download;
- Destroying a RAID array.
When you add a hot spare, the hard drive must be equal to or larger than the smallest member of the RAID 1 mirror set. When this occurs, the rebuilding process begins, assuming you selected the automatic rebuild option during the RAID 1 mirror set creation process. During the rebuilding process, the out-of-sync disk has data restored to it from the remaining members of the set. The rebuilding process takes time. While you can continue to use your Mac normally during the rebuild, you should not sleep or shut down the Mac during the process.
Your Answer
Rebuilding can occur for reasons beyond a hard drive failure. Some common events that trigger a rebuild are an OS X crash, a power failure, or improperly turning off your Mac.
Share Pin Email. Tom Nelson has written hundreds of articles, tutorials, and reviews for Other World Computing and About. He is the president of Coyote Moon, Inc. OS X Disk Utility , which is included with OS X. Two or more hard drives. The process of creating RAID 1 mirrored sets erases all the data on the hard drives. Using hard drives that are the same make and model is recommended, but this is not a requirement. One or more drive enclosures. Mac Pro users may have internal drive bays available. Everyone else needs one or more external drive enclosures.
- 30-Day Free Trial!;
- mac mini als dlna server?
- Macworld Categories.
- how to open camera on mac?
- wireless adaptor for mac pro!