Audio File Storage — Hard Drive Minimum Requirements

With Pro Tools LE for Mac OS 9

IDE/ATA:

Digi 001, and Audiomedia III/ToolBox Systems

• Full 32 track, 24 bit, 48 KHz performance from just one dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive is supported.

Digi 002 Systems

• Full 32 track, 24 bit, 48 KHz performance from just one dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive is supported.
• Full 32 track, 24 bit, 96 KHz performance from two dedicated IDE/ATA audio drives is supported.

IDE/ATA support is limited to PowerMac G3 or later models, which include a built-in ATA bus. Pre-G3 models that only shipped with SCSI have not been tested with add-on ATA/IDE controller cards.

SCSI: Using a dedicated SCSI drive and SCSI HBA (Host Bus Adapter) card will, in general, provide the same performance as an IDE/ATA drive, with the exception that IDE/ATA drives may take a couple seconds longer than SCSI drives to start recording 24-32 tracks.

FireWire Hard Drives

The DigiDrive FireWire 80 has been qualified with all Pro Tools LE systems for the following @ 500ms edit density:

• Qualified for up to 32 tracks of 24-bit/48 kHz audio with 1 DigiDrive® FireWire drive

The DigiDrive FireWire 80 has been qualified with Digi 002 systems for the following @ 500ms edit density:

• Qualified for up to 32 tracks of 24-bit/48 kHz audio with 1 DigiDrive® FireWire drive
• Qualified for up to 24 tracks of 24-bit/96 kHz audio with 1 DigiDrive® FireWire drive
• Qualified for up to 32 tracks of 24-bit/96 kHz audio with 2 DigiDrive® FireWire drives

For more information and specific requirements for FireWire drives, see FireWire Drive Requirements

For more information on using FireWire drives with the Digi 002, see the Pro Tools LE 5.3.2 Read Me and the Getting Started with 002 guide. (included with Digi 002 systems, or download the 2.3 MB Acrobat PDF)

Requirements for both IDE/ATA or SCSI drives:

• Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms
• For 24-32 tracks, drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
• Boot drives may be used for audio tracks, however performance/track count may vary
• Mac OS file system: HFS or HFS+. SCSI drives should be initialized with ATTO ExpressPro-Tools v2.3.2 or higher, IDE/ATA drives should be initialized with Apple's Drive Setup.
• Note: Mac OS 9.2 requires ATTO ExpressPro-Tools v2.7 or higher, available from www.attotech.com/software or Digidesign/Support/Downloads/Utilities
• ATTO ExpressPro-Tools settings: Synch Transfer Rate set to 20 (10) and PCI Burst Rate set to 32 bytes
• If using non-ATTO ExpressPro-Tools initialized drives, click here for options
• For supported SCSI HBA cards check the compatibility document of your specific computer model.

Hard drive families from the following manufacturers are recommended:

* First generation DigiDrives are not supported in LVD mode

Notes

• Pro Tools has a single audio file size limit of 2048 MB. This equates to about 4.5 hours at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz.
• High Speed Drives require manufacturer-approved enclosure to ensure correct heat dissipation, required for sustained drive reliability.

Storage Guidelines

Approximate Storage Consumption (Megabytes per Minute per Track)

Approximate Track Counts — SCSI, IDE/ATA or FireWire Drives:

As with all Pro Tools systems, drive performance depends on a number of factors, including track count, edit density, and the use of crossfades or processing. For sessions with high edit density, we recommend the following configurations. Testing has been conducted using Digidesign's DigiDrives. Performance with other drives may vary.