Community Thread VIII

[kobeaki]

Well Apple was kinda forced to phase out Firewire due to the following reasons:

Not many devices continue to utilize firewire because of the cost of the chipsets that would go inside of the devices.

Apple has joined the USB 3.0 consortium and is contributing to testing and development

USB 3.0 will draw less power than traditional USB, Firewire 800 and 400

USB 3.0 will carry data transfer rates of 480 MBPS which is 80 MBPS faster than traditional Firewire while drawing 1/2 the power

right, but i am speaking from a audio standpoint, and while the theoretical max for usb2 and the coming usb3 are impressive, the way the usb "controller" works, and has access to the processor is still inferior to firewire, as it never really has to ask, or wait in line to go upstream or down...

and when doing audio or video, for example, we need that i/o NOW, not when the mouse, or the keyboard are done with their tasks...

and i understand it, just not the way apple, the parent of ieee 1394, has snipered it...

[Erik Eleven]

There must be something new and better around the corner. I would never track realtime audio via FW, let alone USB vX. I base that on nothing but the size of the connection and what it claims to be able to do. As long as there's PCI cards, I won't complain.

[Slava]

Audio engineers, wouldn't you guys be using special processors to work on Real time audio?

Just wanted to ask that because I was working on coding a TI processor for generating audio effects at my univ. last semester.

[kobeaki]

There must be something new and better around the corner. I would never track realtime audio via FW, let alone USB vX. I base that on nothing but the size of the connection and what it claims to be able to do. As long as there's PCI cards, I won't complain.

wow, youd be surprised, if one had to, firewire is a much more attractive solution, because of the above reasons, mostly, though the concern for me is mixing from clients drives, and or final cut/audio for picture stuff, of course most would be equipped with a raid system or the aforementioned s.a.t.a. drives...

as fletcher says, your mileage may vary....

[kobeaki]

Audio engineers, wouldn't you guys be using special processors to work on Real time audio?

Just wanted to ask that because I was working on coding a TI processor for generating audio effects at my univ. last semester.

well, generally their are two major ways that audio is processed, the main way is a tdm architecture , which stands for time-division multiplicant, which is how special dedicated processor chips, apply and communicate with a HOST cpu system,

the other way, is called native, which uses the host computers processor to record, process etc, the audio...

in either case, a host cpu is used,usually a mac, and it coordinates everything, handles the gui, whereas in the native systems the host is doing all of the above, which up until(in my opinion) the intel core duos, wasnt really up to the task...

the above describes the industry standard version, tdm and native, respectively for Pro Tools...

their are other systems that are closed, such as radar, which uses its own purpose built cpu's and software, but for the most part is fairly stock computer parts.

in audio, the real specialized devices are the convertors, or how to take acoustic sounds and convert them properly into 0's and 1's...

[hermes]

whew....just finished my 4 page paper

that went over 8 and a half pages, who knew philosophy was so wordy

[kobeaki]

whew....just finished my 4 page paper

that went over 8 and a half pages, who knew philosophy was so wordy

i suspect pericles, homer, aristotle, rand, to name a few...although my firewire posts mat qualify too.

[Slava]

Audio engineers, wouldn't you guys be using special processors to work on Real time audio?

Just wanted to ask that because I was working on coding a TI processor for generating audio effects at my univ. last semester.

well, generally their are two major ways that audio is processed, the main way is a tdm architecture , which stands for time-division multiplicant, which is how special dedicated processor chips, apply and communicate with a HOST cpu system,

the other way, is called native, which uses the host computers processor to record, process etc, the audio...

in either case, a host cpu is used,usually a mac, and it coordinates everything, handles the gui, whereas in the native systems the host is doing all of the above, which up until(in my opinion) the intel core duos, wasnt really up to the task...

the above describes the industry standard version, tdm and native, respectively for Pro Tools...

their are other systems that are closed, such as radar, which uses its own purpose built cpu's and software, but for the most part is fairly stock computer parts.

in audio, the real specialized devices are the convertors, or how to take acoustic sounds and convert them properly into 0's and 1's...

Interesting from what you say about the native systems though. Can MACs be capable of performing as native systems in real time applications? i know the specialized chips have several features like more efficient buffers etc to make audio processing easier.

[Sofa King]

Got a bit busy with work again. Company relocated to new location right across the street from Angel Stadium. I literally get to see Angel Stadium every day now. And if I go to the far end of the office, there's the Honda Center.

[DoctaJ]

SK, that is sweet.

[Erik Eleven]

Sup SK? Congrats!

I recently did a gig at that Music Hall next to the Angels arena, right across the street from that Starbuck's on the corner.

[Verbal]

I don't know which Mac I should pick up this month and/or next month.

Any suggestions?

[Danny Darko]

Alright guys-

I've been thinking I'll need some suggestions for what to make blaha wear after he loses our sig bet. He's an O'Neal junkie so I was thinking maybe a jerminjury sig, but that might be too nice.

Any suggestions?

kno-I'll end up needing a guy like you to properly express this, of course. We have a long way to go still, but I feel like I'm in good shape.

[TonyMontana]

I just paid a freakin 380.00 fine for a 120.00 fix it ticket.
Highway patrols are a bunch of DBags.

TO BE CONTINUED........

[kobeaki]

Audio engineers, wouldn't you guys be using special processors to work on Real time audio?

Just wanted to ask that because I was working on coding a TI processor for generating audio effects at my univ. last semester.

well, generally their are two major ways that audio is processed, the main way is a tdm architecture , which stands for time-division multiplicant, which is how special dedicated processor chips, apply and communicate with a HOST cpu system,

the other way, is called native, which uses the host computers processor to record, process etc, the audio...

in either case, a host cpu is used,usually a mac, and it coordinates everything, handles the gui, whereas in the native systems the host is doing all of the above, which up until(in my opinion) the intel core duos, wasnt really up to the task...

the above describes the industry standard version, tdm and native, respectively for Pro Tools...

their are other systems that are closed, such as radar, which uses its own purpose built cpu's and software, but for the most part is fairly stock computer parts.

in audio, the real specialized devices are the convertors, or how to take acoustic sounds and convert them properly into 0's and 1's...

Interesting from what you say about the native systems though. Can MACs be capable of performing as native systems in real time applications? i know the specialized chips have several features like more efficient buffers etc to make audio processing easier.

well, macs and pc's can both be great Native systems, the real talent is writing the software that makes it all work seamlessly and flawlessly...

the only major drawback to running natively, besides the host cpu doing all the work, is that woithout dedicated processing cards, a thing called latency can crop up, and what that means is, say, you've got all yr guitars, drums and bass recorded already and you are now recording the vocals, because of the all electronics( the computer, etc) the vocal can be delayed, by a certain amount of samples, or milliseconds, so that the singer hears their voice late, and the vocal track gets recorded out of time with the rest of the tracks, now that is very easy to correct for after the fact, but for a singer or musician while singing, it can and will ruin a performance...

most native systems can correct for this , mostly, but that is the major drawback...

now a dedicated system will cost 10K +, while a native system can be as little as $200 + whatever computer you run with it...so you see why, even though the drawback of latency is severe,why people may choose to go with it anyway...

also, and this ties back to the lack of the missing firewire port on the new macbooks, is that most of the time, people will use laptops and native systems much more to mix, or arrange or edit, and not so much RECORD...which in that case latency is not an issue at all...

[Slava]

Thanks man! Never knew native systems could do so much on their own with real time audio. We try do so much with the processors like optimizing the buffers, use frame processing, enhance memory access techniques, coding it efficiently etc that I really could not appreciate the fact that a normal machine can handle real time audio so easily.

I do a bit if multimedia freelancing every now and then and could actually use it to make things much more easier for me.

[kobeaki]

no problem man, ive mixed and recorded entire discs on my trusty old apple power mac g3 400, albeit slowly and very thought out ahead of time...

if you ever have a question hit me up, or erik too, although i think erics training is more to the post/ live side of the campus, where mine is more to the laboratory...

[milesfides]

I have the macbook air. Had it for a few months now. I like it for its portability, which is key running around nyc and taking public transportation. I remember when I had the white macbook earlier this year. That sucker was pretty heavy after awhile.

Macbook air's built quality is very good. It may look flimsy, but it's built more solidly than the white macbook, which had begun to squeak at some of plastic seams.

The biggest drawback is the lack of a dvd/cd-rom, but for me professionally, that's a non-issue, and when I do want to watch movies or otherwise install some programs, I have the external superdrive.

Macbook air is really for people who need portability over computing power. I won't lie, even some webpages tax this little bugger. I haven't even tried playing games. But for the average professionals, I can't think of a better alternative to the macbook air.

I'm not sure how successful it was or not. To be honest, I don't see many people with it at all, which makes my e-penis feel larger.

Once I get into the filmmaking side of things, I'm sure I'll need one of desktop beasts. Money money money.

[hermes]

sigh, had to work tonight and it was going fine until Dave came in....

so Dave wants a small coffee, and its like 10pm so i have the pots empty and all cleaned out (and a cup placed over the handle to dispense the coffee to signify the emptiness) anyway ususally i go over and make a pot for him

but couple of my friends were there and completely forgot about it, so he went over and made his own (just push a button, grounds are all ready and everything) which is fine, by me

but for reasons only known to him, he thinks its a good idea to make all four pots (when there is only one going through the night) and then he proceeds to meander around the store (normal) while waiting for it to brew

and i didn't even notice (remember i forgot) until someone else says "hey your coffee is overflowing) and i look over and see three coffee pots just pouring out coffee into full catch-trays and onto the counter and the floor and everywhere

turns out while Dave decided to make all four pots he forgot to take the cups off the spigots of three of them leading to the huge mess, and since i forgot about Dave, i had no idea who it was until he admitted it, and he was nice about it, mopped up and cleaned the counters up while i cleaned out the trays and mopped up some more

so thats my high( well low) light of the night

[milesfides]

^Hang in there man. You work on thanksgiving? That's rough. Is your family saving you a plate?