Looking to upgrade my podcasting equipment just a little bit. I have been using a Macbook Pro, 2010 refresh and Lion, with the on board mic and a second Samson Meteor Mic. Which is kind of a pain in the butt because I have to make an aggregate sound device each time for Garage band to recognize both mics. lately I have also been getting an Error saying the "Disk is too slow" and it stops my recording. At first I never noticed it and missed large chunks of audio which ruined two entire podcasts and now I watch it like a Hawk. Lately It has just become unusable with the audio sounding terrible after recording. Needless to say this has become a major issue. I have tried a partition and a external HDD but still the "Disk too Slow" issue continues, I have also heard Rory from the ScreenedCast complain about this as well. I am far from an expert at this and mot sure what to look for. I will also probably be purchasing another Meteor mic, both of which are USB.
I don't do anything major and just with a few friends for our friends.
Quick Laundry List
1. What can I use to help manage multiple Mic's without having to do an aggregate device each time?
2. "disk too slow" has anyone else had this and how were you able to stop it?
@Rallier: Nice I am reading through it now. How would I use a mixer if all of my Mics are USB? I guess I would have to find some standard mics and the mixer to USB.
@Vash108: Disk too slow is common in music recording it means your CPU cant keep up or your hard drive is too slow try shutting down all applications and make sure Time Machine is off as that interferes some times, I find it best if everyone's in person too record and to use a Hardware mixer and an external device to do the recording while using the computer solely to edit, if I have to Skype someone in I have them record there own audio and email it too me to edit in for best quality,
As Will, I've generally noticed apps with I/O issues (dumping GBs of video data to disc being the easiest case of 'you need the write speeds') is time to make sure the disc is holding a large block of free space and is defragmented (if your OS has a manual level of defragmentation available).
You want a nice large block of empty space for it to dump data to in a continuous write as once a drive gets quite full then you'll often be fighting against primitive write algorithms that are constantly seeking to new empty sectors as it peppers the file all over the drive. A nice fast (7200rpm, black edition or whatever your brand of choice calls their fast drives) high capacity drive or even an SSD for the data sizes an audio stream is dealing with (SSD = no HDD noise pollution for the mics) would be a plan.
@will: Normally i would agree with you but my mac book has over half its disk free, that's why I'm so confused
I guess I will have to check and see what is going on with the usage as well. Usually the only things I have open are GB recording and a PDF and sometimes pages for notes. Is that a bit much or should i just only dedicate it for recording?
@Vash108: What sample rate and bit depth are you recording at? I'm far more familiar with desktop recording than laptop, but if you're only doing two mono inputs (it's extremely unlikely that your mic is actually stereo) at 44.1/16 your hdd should be quick enough for that.
@Rallier: Nice I am reading through it now. How would I use a mixer if all of my Mics are USB? I guess I would have to find some standard mics and the mixer to USB.
I'm not sure how your specific mic works, but a friend of mine has a USB mic and it has an audio output built-in with the option to simply power your mic via USB while sending the actual audio elsewhere.
1) How many mics are you looking at using at once? For usb mics I use an old M1 USB mixer from Numark (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/numark-m1usb-dj-mixer-with-usb/637023004000000?src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=874290206#used). It works fine but something can be a little bit of a challenge due to the box being old.
2) Is you HDD a 5400RPM drive or a 7200rpm drive? To find out click on the apple in the top left and choose 'About this Mac" then click "More Info". Select Serial-ATA and look for Rotational Rate. I have found that Lion and Garage band don't really like 5400rpm drive for some reason. If you have a 7200rpm drive then go into App Monitor under Utilities and see what is running when you go to record. It might be getting slowed down by a background process that you are not aware of. Also, make sure that everything on your machine is up to date with the latest patches.
Looking to upgrade my podcasting equipment just a little bit. I have been using a Macbook Pro, 2010 refresh and Lion, with the on board mic and a second Samson Meteor Mic. Which is kind of a pain in the butt because I have to make an aggregate sound device each time for Garage band to recognize both mics. lately I have also been getting an Error saying the "Disk is too slow" and it stops my recording. At first I never noticed it and missed large chunks of audio which ruined two entire podcasts and now I watch it like a Hawk. Lately It has just become unusable with the audio sounding terrible after recording. Needless to say this has become a major issue. I have tried a partition and a external HDD but still the "Disk too Slow" issue continues, I have also heard Rory from the ScreenedCast complain about this as well. I am far from an expert at this and mot sure what to look for. I will also probably be purchasing another Meteor mic, both of which are USB.
I don't do anything major and just with a few friends for our friends.
Quick Laundry List
1. What can I use to help manage multiple Mic's without having to do an aggregate device each time?
2. "disk too slow" has anyone else had this and how were you able to stop it?
Thanks!
I have no personal experience with garageband but perhaps you should give Audacity a go and see if you get the same problem.
This does not directly answer your question but i've been gradually writing a podcast set up guide, it's not done yet but perhaps you'll find it somewhat usefull http://www.tested.com/profile/rallier/podcasting-from-concept-to-post-production-work-thread/37-785/
@Rallier: Nice I am reading through it now. How would I use a mixer if all of my Mics are USB? I guess I would have to find some standard mics and the mixer to USB.
@Vash108: No idea, i'm afraid. My actual experience with mixers and "local" recording is 0.
@Vash108: Disk too slow is common in music recording it means your CPU cant keep up or your hard drive is too slow try shutting down all applications and make sure Time Machine is off as that interferes some times, I find it best if everyone's in person too record and to use a Hardware mixer and an external device to do the recording while using the computer solely to edit, if I have to Skype someone in I have them record there own audio and email it too me to edit in for best quality,
Typically, disk is too slow means that you need to clean off your hard drive, at least in my experience.
As Will, I've generally noticed apps with I/O issues (dumping GBs of video data to disc being the easiest case of 'you need the write speeds') is time to make sure the disc is holding a large block of free space and is defragmented (if your OS has a manual level of defragmentation available).
You want a nice large block of empty space for it to dump data to in a continuous write as once a drive gets quite full then you'll often be fighting against primitive write algorithms that are constantly seeking to new empty sectors as it peppers the file all over the drive. A nice fast (7200rpm, black edition or whatever your brand of choice calls their fast drives) high capacity drive or even an SSD for the data sizes an audio stream is dealing with (SSD = no HDD noise pollution for the mics) would be a plan.
@will: Normally i would agree with you but my mac book has over half its disk free, that's why I'm so confused
I guess I will have to check and see what is going on with the usage as well. Usually the only things I have open are GB recording and a PDF and sometimes pages for notes. Is that a bit much or should i just only dedicate it for recording?
@Vash108: What sample rate and bit depth are you recording at? I'm far more familiar with desktop recording than laptop, but if you're only doing two mono inputs (it's extremely unlikely that your mic is actually stereo) at 44.1/16 your hdd should be quick enough for that.
I'm not sure how your specific mic works, but a friend of mine has a USB mic and it has an audio output built-in with the option to simply power your mic via USB while sending the actual audio elsewhere.
1) How many mics are you looking at using at once? For usb mics I use an old M1 USB mixer from Numark (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/numark-m1usb-dj-mixer-with-usb/637023004000000?src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=874290206#used). It works fine but something can be a little bit of a challenge due to the box being old.
2) Is you HDD a 5400RPM drive or a 7200rpm drive? To find out click on the apple in the top left and choose 'About this Mac" then click "More Info". Select Serial-ATA and look for Rotational Rate. I have found that Lion and Garage band don't really like 5400rpm drive for some reason. If you have a 7200rpm drive then go into App Monitor under Utilities and see what is running when you go to record. It might be getting slowed down by a background process that you are not aware of. Also, make sure that everything on your machine is up to date with the latest patches.
@Baltimore:
1: I wanted to look at using 2 or 3 mics. I have a few people around a table.
2: yeah it is a 5400 sadly. I guess I could replace it, I am pretty sure has a video on here about replacing the HDD for a MacBook.