Pro Tools LE Audio File Storage Requirements for Mac OS X

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 such as plug-ins.

IDE/ATA & SATA Drives

Mbox & Mbox 2 Systems:

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

Digi 002 & Digi 002 Rack Systems:

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

Digi 001 & Audiomedia III/ToolBox Systems:

• Full 32 track, 24 bit, 48 KHz performance from just one dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive is supported. (SATA drives not tested with Digi 001 or Audiomedia III)

SCSI Hard Drives

Digi 002, Digi 002 Rack, Mbox 2, Mbox, Digi 001, and Audiomedia III/ToolBox Systems

• 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.

Note: SCSI devices are not supported with Pro Tools LE 6.0.2 for Digi 002 and 002 Rack. Pro Tools LE 6.1 or higher is required to use SCSI devices on 002 systems.

SCSI Accelerator Cards

• See Qualified SCSI HBA Cards — Pro Tools Systems for Mac OS X

Optional Digidesign & Avid Storage

SCSI

• Avid MediaDrive rS300/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDrive rS146/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDrive rS73/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDrive rS36/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDock Shuttle iS146/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDock Shuttle iS73/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDock Shuttle iS36/320 LVD
• Avid MediaDock Dual
• Avid MediaDock Dual+
• DigiDrive MediaDock
• DigiDrive SCSI Drives
• SCSI-128 Kit
  • Includes ATTO ExpressPCI-UL3D
  • Qualified for up to 48 mono or 48 stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz (48 tracks in PTLE requires DV Toolkit 2 or Music Production Toolkit option)
  • Power Mac G4 & G5 PCI Models Only
    (Not compatible with Power Mac G5 PCI Express models)

Not compatible with Power Mac G5 or tested with Pro Tools 6.9 and higher:

• SCSI-64 Kit/ATTO ExpressPCI-DC

Power Mac G5 PCI Express Models

The following PCIe storage host adapter card is now qualified with the Power Mac G5 PCI Express models:

• ExpressPCI UL5D - Dual-channel Ultra320 PCI Express SCSI Host Adapter
• Qualified for up to 48 mono or 48 stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz (48 tracks in PTLE requires DV Toolkit 2 or Music Production Toolkit option)

FireWire 400 Hard Drives

The Avid MediaDrive rS80, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party 7200 RPM FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset have been qualified with all Pro Tools LE systems for the following @ 2000ms edit density:

• Qualified for up to 32 tracks of 24-bit/48 kHz audio with 1 Avid MediaDrive rS80 or DigiDrive FireWire 80 drive
• Up to 8 FireWire 400 drives supported when used without any FireWire 800 drives
• FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined

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

Granite Digital Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" Support Notice

• Granite FireWire 400 ATA6 (larger than 120gigs) are now compatible with Tiger
• You will need to download the software fix from Granite Digital
• More information & Download from Granite Digital website

Avid MediaDrive rS80 Firmware Update

• Initio Firmware Update for Avid rs80 and rs250

FireWire 800 Hard Drives

FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 interface have been qualified for record and playback with the following systems on Mac OS 10.4:

• Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools 6.9.2 or higher for Mac OS 10.4)
• Digi 002, Digi 002 Rack, and Mbox Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools 6.9.2 or higher for Mac OS 10.4)
• Mbox 2 Systems on Mac OS 10.4
• Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" only for all systems (not tested on Mac OS 10.3 and earlier or Windows XP)
• Please Note: Hard drives using the Oxford 912 interface have USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800 ports on them. Only the use of the FW800 port is supported on these drives with Pro Tools.
• Up to 4 FireWire 800 daisy-chained drives supported when used without other FireWire drives
• FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined

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

FireWire Drives and Power Mac G4 "FW800" Models with Digi 002 & Digi 002 Rack

The following problem exists with the Digi 002 & Digi 002 Rack and the 2003 Power Mac G4 "Mirrored Drive Doors" models with FireWire 800 ports:

• Recording with the Digi 002 or Digi 002 Rack to a FireWire drive connected to any of the 3 built-in FireWire ports on these computers can result in -6085 errors.
• On these computers, Digidesign recommends using a dedicated internal ATA/IDE drive for recording. If using FireWire drives, a FireWire PCI adapter card must be used.
• This problem only occurs on the 2003 Power Mac G4 FW800 models, and only with Digi 002 & Digi 002 Rack. All other supported computers can use FireWire drives connected to the built-in FireWire ports.

DV Tookit 2 & Music Production Toolkit Options — Maximum Track Count Information

The purchase of either of these options expand a Pro Tools LE system from 32 total voiceable tracks to up to 48 mono or 48 stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz (interface permitting). In order to reliably achieve maximum track count, Digidesign recommends the following on Mac OS X:

• Digidesign-Qualified Power Mac G5 Dual Processor 2GHz or higher, including Power Mac G5 Quad
  • Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz (first generation model M9032) may not achieve maximum track count
• 1.5 GB total system RAM or more
• 2 or more hard drives dedicated for audio record and playback:
  • 2 internal SATA drives
  • 2 external SCSI drives & qualified SCSI HBA
  • 2 or more external FireWire drives

Hard Drive Requirements

for IDE/ATA, SATA, FireWire or SCSI drives

• Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms
• Boot drives may be used for audio tracks, however performance/track count may vary
• Recording to boot drive not recommended or supported
• For 24-32 tracks, drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
• Mac OS file system: Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+ format)
• Mac OS Standard (HFS) formatted drives can be used for transfer, but are not recommended for recording or playback
• Windows NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives supported on Mac OS X for transfer only
• Pro Tools does not support RAID technology. Please do not activate this feature on any Pro Tools recording drives.
• Supported formatting utility for IDE/ATA, SATA, FireWire, or SCSI drives: Apple Disk Utility, included with Mac OS X

Formatting Instructions

1. Open from the following location: Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility, or in the Apple Menu when booted from the OS X installation CD.
2. From the list of drives on the left, select the actual drive (the one on top, with the GB and drive manufacturer listed) rather than the user defined name of the drive below it.
3. Choose either the Erase or Partition tab
4. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
5. If you plan on using your drive on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, check the box next to "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers".

Note: partitioning is not an option using the Erase command. To increase performance and improve seek time Digidesign recommends that you allocate a portion of your hard drive for recording. In Pro Tools, Choose Setups/Preferences and click Operation. Under the Open Ended Record Allocation option, select Limit To and enter a number of minutes to be allocated.

Macintosh Journaled File System Now Recommended for Pro Tools

Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 incorporates a journaled file system, which will automatically log any file modifications. If your computer crashes badly enough to require a restart (or a restart from a power failure), the OS will then use the journal to aid in fixing any disk problems caused by the crash.

Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 ships with journaling on by default. Digidesign now recommends that customers format their media drives with journaling turned on. When using Apple"s Disk Utility program to format drives, Digidesign recommends choosing "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format, instead of "Mac OS Extended."

To enable journaling on an existing drive in Mac OS X 10.3:

1. Run the Apple Disk Utility, located in Application/Utilities.
2. Select the disk or volume in the left column of the Disk Utility windows.
3. Click "Enable Journaling" in the toolbar, or choose "Enable Journaling" or Command+J from the File menu

If you want to turn journaling off for any reason, select the volume and choose "Disable Journaling" or Command +J in the File menu of Disk Utility. Note that disabling journaling will slow recovery if your system has to be rebooted to recover from a kernel panic or power failure.

Note: Mac OS 10.4 includes two new formatting options:

• Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
• Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)

Digidesign has not tested these new formatting options with Pro Tools, and therefore these are not recommended. Please choose the following option for drive formatting:

• Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

ATTO Utilities

ATTO ExpressPCI Configuration Tool

You must install this if you are using a Digidesign SCSI64, Digidesign SCSI|128, ATTO EPCI-DC or ATTO EPCI-UL3D SCSI Host Bus Adapter card with a Mac OS X system.

The cards listed above control the flow of SCSI data to and from your computer, and they must have the proper firmware and be set correctly for maximum performance. If you are using one of these cards, you will need the ExpressPCI Configuration Tool. The ATTO ExpressPCI Configuration Tool can be downloaded from the ATTO website:

• http://www.attotech.com/software/osxconfigtool.html

The Configuration Tool will allow you to update your firmware and set up your SCSI host bus adapter correctly. For important information on how to update your firmware for Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" Pro Tools compatibility, please see the ATTO Utilities Read Me:

• http://www.attotech.com/software/epciconf261readme.htm

Supported SCSI Cards and Settings

• See Qualified SCSI Host Bus Adapter Cards

. The required settings for Pro Tools LE are as follows:

• PCI Burst Rate: 32

Recommended Hard Drives

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 or IDE/ATA Drives with Pro Tools LE:

Approximate Track Counts — FireWire Drives with Pro Tools LE:

Testing has been conducted using Digidesign's DigiDrives (SCSI) & DigiDrive FireWire 80. Performance with other drives may vary.

When using QuickTime movies with Pro Tools systems, for reliable performance of 16 or more audio tracks, audio drives should be connected to a compatible SCSI HBA card, with video drives connected to a separate SCSI bus (preferred) or IDE/ATA bus or FireWire Drive.