Mac Mini Server vs. iMac 3.4GHz i7

I'm in the process of working out what my next studio rig will be. Money (as is always the case) is very much an issue. I read through some threads dealing with the Mac Mini Server which have definitely piqued my interest. Looking at the current gen iMacs, I see I can get a BTO iMac with a 3.4GHz i7.

 

Obviously the 3.4GHz i7 is considerably more powerful than the 2.0 GHz i7 that's in the MMS. My question is how much higher performance will I actually see if I go with the BTO iMac over the MMS? The savings of the MMS are very attractive but I'll be moving from a Mid 2007 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo iMac. I realize I'll be gaining a good deal of performance moving to the i7 (and DDR3 - will bump to 8 Gigs) but how much would I actually gain going from the higher clock speed Core 2 Duo to the i7; and how much more would I gain just biting the bullet and spending the extra $$$ going to the iMac?

 

My needs aren't super grand - I basically do guitar & bass tracks running Amplitube 3, Piano Roll drums using Steven Slate drums. I do plan to get a Midi Keyboard to use with Logic's built in Synths. I'm running Logic Pro 9, BTW. Occasionally I'm asked to mix some projects which usually consist of audio files with no Virtual Instruments.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!!!!

I have both.... and I have to say the3.4Ghz iMac is of course, a great deal more powerful than a single 2011 MMS. However, compared to my 2009 3.06Ghz iMac... the MMS is certainly several degrees more powerful... so given you are coming from a 2.4Ghz iMac, you will notice quite a difference...

 

Here's the thing though... (..and this probably doesn't apply to you given you work need but for the record...) the new iMac is not as powerful as two 2011 MMS's used together with VE Pro... so if you intend to do a lot more involved work in Logic and if you have a spare monitor you might be better off going for the dual MMS route rather than the all in one iMac route.

 

Either way, you will be happy... but if you want to save a fair few bucks, then I'd say, based on your stated needs, you would be very happy with at least one MMS based system with the ability to upgrade to a two MMS system later if needed and still spend less money.

 

Don't forget you get 2x 7200rpm 500GB HDs built in to a MMS.. so that's a pretty big bonus too.. especially using the second internal drive for easy and quick storage of audio samples.. and.. it is much more portable, if that's a need too.. Just take a HDMI cable with you and you can hook it up anywhere... to almost any TV built in the last 4 years...

 

One last thing.. if you decide on an iMac then I think you will find the best deal for one here..

 

http://www.expercom.com/product_detail.html?p=751337

 

Note it includes the upgraded Graphic memory and 3 years of Applecare included..

and you can upgrade it to 16GB via Amazon for about $80 (4x4GB mem sticks)

 

Mine came from there and it arrived fast and was a super deal... Just call them rather than trying to order through the web... You get faster and better service!

Edited December 18, 2011 by n6smith

Hey Nigel - Man, thank you for such a detailed response my friend - lots of great information there! I hadn't thought about the possibility of two MMS's with VE so that'll definitely be the route I go. My thinking is go with one MMS now (well, soon anyhow) and next Summer when the new MMS is announced (fingers crossed for a big upgrade), grab one of those, make IT my main machine & use the other MMS via VE.

 

A couple questions regarding VE is you don't mind - using two MMS's with VE, will Logic 'see' all the cores from BOTH machines (4 cores for each machine + 4 virtual cores for each machine for a total of 16 'cores') or will it only 'see' the 4+4 from the main MMS?

 

Also, as I'm understanding it, the two machines will be connected via GB Ethernet - doing this, will it also make the two drives in my secondary machine available as storage and, if so, how will the transfer speed to/from those drives compare to, say, a couple of external FW800 drives? I currently run Logic and plugs from my internal drive, drum samples from one external drive and save project and audio files to a separate external drive.... I'm asking because if the speed is comparable, that would free me up from using a couple of the externals I use now - opening up my FW port for something else....

 

I apologize for being so full of questions, I just like to have all my information before I pull any triggers. Unfortunately I don't make a whole lotta money &, even though this is relatively dirt cheap for what I wanna do, it's still a lot of $$$ for me.

Hey..

 

I think you are maybe misunderstanding how VE Pro works... given your questions.. so I'll try and give you a brief overview...

 

You have a Master computer and one or more slave computers...

 

The Master computer runs your DAW of choice, in my case, Logic. Inside Logic you open the VE Pro AU plugin just like you would use a virtual Instrument or FX Plugin. The Plugin then communicates with the Server that runs on your slave computers...

 

The slave computer(s) run VE Pro Server (32 or 64 bit). These slave computers can be either Macs or Windows PCs. On your slave computer you install your AU or VST plugins if it is a Mac or VSTs if it is a PC. You open the VE Pro Server and add a AU/VST channel and select your AU/VST plugin just as you would if you were doing so in Logic. You give a name to the server and select you presets etc for the plugin. You can set up 16 different plugins per instance of the VE Pro Server (Actually you can select more.. but for now let's keep it simple) Each plugin is then given a different Midi Channel in the server.

 

As an aside... and just to show the power of this system.. You can run several instances of the VE Pro Server on one computer if you have the memory and horsepower to handle all the plugins... so in theory if you ran 2 instances of VE Pro Server on your Host MMS you could then run up to 32 different plugins on one MMS providing 32 different tracks of sounds on your Master Computer running Logic.

 

So, back to the plot... On the Master computer in Logic, you open the AU plugin and select the server from the list of server names that appear. You then select the midi channel via Logic's track Inspector corresponding to the Plugin Midi channel you gave one of your plugins on your Slave's VE Pro server.

 

Bingo!! Now you play, record or whatever, in Logic just as if the plugin was actually being run inside of Logic instead of remotely being run on the server. No latency and it works without issue.

 

You can also run VI or FX plugins on the Master computer inside Logic as normal.. so you add more tracks using combinations of Plugins hosted on your Master computer along with whatever plugins you host on the slave computer(s)

 

It is kind of like using Logic's Node but incredibly supercharged and it gives you the capability of running plugins on PCs as well as Macs

 

So, as you can now see, you get the benefits of all cores (and all the memory etc) on all computers be they the Master computer or any of the slaves....

 

I'll let you digest that lot for now and if you have any other questions.. just ask..

Edited November 26, 2011 by n6smith

Here's a very simple, for clarity sakes... setup I have used with just two MMS.. one set up as the Master running Logic and one set up as the Slave running VE Pro Server

 

MMS Slave Using VE Pro Server(VEP)

 

VEP Channel 1 = Kontakt 5 - Electri6ity Sample set running Les Paul Guitar + FX AU plugin running Guitar Rig 5

 

VEP Channel 2 = Omnisphere - Preset Slow Strings

 

VEP Channel 3 = Sylenth Synth - Preset Bass Synth 1

 

VEP Channel 4 = Kontakt 5 - Snare Sample + FX AU Plugin Compressor + FX AU Plugin Reverb

 

VEP Channel 5 = Omnisphere - Preset Stab Synths

 

Passing these over to the Master MMS , This is what I use in Logic

 

Logic Track 1 - Slave = VEP Channel 1 (Kontakt)

Logic Track 2 - Slave = VEP Channel 2 (Omnisphere)

Logic Track 3 - Slave = VEP Channel 3 (Sylenth)

Logic Track 4 - Slave = VEP Channel 4 (Kontakt)

Logic Track 5 - Master = Kontakt 5 - L.A.S.S. Strings - Ensemble strings

Logic Track 6 - Master = Apple Loop - Bass Drum Pattern + FX Plugin Compressor

Logic Track 7 - Master = Apple Loop - High Hat Pattern

Logic Track 8 - Master = EXS - Steinway Piano Preset

Logic Track 9 - Slave = VEP Channel 5 (Omnisphere)

 

Total number of tracks = 9

 

5 tracks running from my MMS slave via VEP and 4 tracks running internally in Logic on my MMS Master.. all in sync and without any latency...

 

HTH....

Once again, thank you for all the great info! I'm gonna totally change directions here for this next question....

 

I've been using an M-Audio MobilePre USB i/o for a few years. It's not that great a unit and the drivers aren't all that stable - have caused quite a few Kernel Panics over the years. Loads of them actually. So I'd like to go with something else. I've been looking at what appear to be some decent units from Focusrite - remember, money is an object here. The problem is the most attractive that I'm seeing are all Firewire. The MMS that we've been discussing have no FW400 and only one FW800 port. Do I really want to daisy chain a couple of external drives AND my i/o? Or do I just need to go with a USB input device? If it's the latter, do you have any suggestions? I have looked at the Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 unit which seems ok but don't know if just a right and left output will be enough. It will for the time being but in the future I may want to connect a secondary set of speakers.....

 

Remember also, my Thunderbolt port will be occupied by a second display.

 

Just trying to get all this sorted out.

 

Thank you again for all your valuable input, I really appreciate it!

My Ultralite is also a FW400 device so I simply put the Ultralite at the end of the chain... My FW800 drives first and then the Ultralite at the end and that works great.. The FW800 drives work at 800 and the Ultralite at 400 without issue.

 

If I understand correctly, so long as your 400 device is at the end of the chain then this is how it is meant to work. Put the 400 device in the middle or at the beginning of the chain and all your 800 devices run at 400...

 

Personally, I'd not go with a USB device if I could help it... Some of my clients have had all kinds of weird issues with USB audio devices.. I'd rather stick with FW400 as, for me, my Ultralite has proven to be very stable and reliable and works without issue. Other devices might be different... but I cannot comment on them as i have always stuck to using Motu devices since day one. with the exception of a Alesis IO 26 which someone gave me and i used once, had a nightmare with their drivers and threw back into it's box....

 

The only experience I have had with Focusrite, is with the Saffire Pro 24 which a client of mine went out and bought... and he had issues with clicks and pops which he never fully resolved. He returned it back to the store after a month of trying to fix the issue via Focusrite's tech staff..

 

Others speak highly of Focusrite's gear so it may just have been an issue with that particular unit... or something odd with his Mac Pro.. but given Focusrite tech support couldn't help him resolve the issue.. it makes me a little wary.... especially when after all that... he bought a Motu 8pre and didn't have any issues at all..

 

Maybe others will have different experiences/opinions to share?

 

One last thing.. You can connect a display AND a Thunderbolt expansion unit for additional FW800 and TB ports... to the single Thunderbolt port... It has plenty of bandwidth to handle that sort of load...

 

HTH...

Once again, thank you Nigel!

 

Regarding the Thunderbolt expansion, are there any such devices even out there yet, that will break out the Thunderbolt into display port/FW800? I only ask because I haven't seen any yet... In the future I would like to totally thunderbolt-ize my setup as the potential bandwidth is a windfall!

Just glanced at the Ultralite - meets my needs perfectly. A little more than I want to spend but I'm liking everything being a separate channel, as well as the 8 outputs.

 

Speaking of outputs - I also plan to incorporate a sub. Currently, and for the past few years, my monitoring setup has consisted of a Pioneer Home A/V receiver connected to 2 first generation Alesis Monitor Ones. My sub is connected to the receiver's subwoofer output. I'm looking at some KRK monitors to replace the Alesis as things keep going wrong with internal components on the Alesis speakers. I'm used to the sound but it's time to upgrade. My question here is how would I go about connecting the sub? The speakers I'm looking at have no sub output (wouldn't expect 'em to) so I'm not sure where to connect the sub....

 

Thanks for your patience at my ignorance.....

There isn't a Thunderbolt expansion out yet (if you don't count the one on the back of Apple's latest Display) but there are a couple on the way including possibly an interesting one by Belkin in the near future...... Just google 'Thunderbolt hub' for more info..

 

As for the subwoofer.. The Ultralite can be set up to output 5:1 or even 7:1 via it's outputs.. so you could set up one of the outputs (in a 2:1 configuration) purely for the subwoofer and then mix like that in Logic...

 

However, if you are going to get a pair of KRKs, given their range.. then I wouldn't bother with the Sub at all and just monitor and mix in stereo via the KRKs only adding the sub and 2 other speakers if you want to do a 5:1 mix

Not concerned with 5.1 at all, however, I like to track guitars and bass while hearing (well, feeling) a LOT of ultra low end. Not sure how to connect the sub or route a separate sub bus in Logic. I know, this is elementary stuff I should know, LOL, but I haven't been faced with it so.....

Hi Nigel,

 

Just about to jump in and get a couple of these MMS's like you recommend. I plan to do the same thing as you with VE Pro with this set up so I can record to an external HD:

 

MMS (Master) -> MMS (Slave) via Ethernet

MMS (Master) -> Soundcard via Firewire 400 (fw800 to 400 cable)

MMS (Slave) -> Ext hard drive via Firewire 800 for recording and additional samples / AU plugins (managed via the Master MMS of course)

 

Does that sound like a reasonable rig for film scoring with a KVM switch to see the slave MMS? Also, would a pair of these displays work for this set up?

 

http://bit.ly/sKV65y

 

If not, which ones would be best? I don't have the cash for an Apple display at this point...

 

Thanks

 

C

Hi Cato,

 

Yes, that's pretty much one of the configurations I use with VEP...

 

As far as the monitors go.. I'd think they would work just fine.. I actually use the smaller 24" version of the same monitor (because I got them dirt cheap) so stepping up to the 27" would be a bonus for me at least...

 

What KVM are you planning to use?

 

Btw.. Really enjoyed listening to some of your work.. especially 'Sparkly Light' which, for whatever reason... really caught my ear... but then, frankly... I enjoyed every piece... Nice job!

 

Thank you for sharing your work with us... Much appreciated!

Hi Nigel,

 

Thanks for your comments on my music much appreciated. If you liked Sparkly Light, you might also like a cue I wrote for the film Exteriors (under showreel I think), same type of subtle textured stuff - I recommend listening with headphones though as it is very subtle in its movements.

 

Great to hear you think those displays will work. Going to start with just one and use an old monitor I have as a second display as I'd like to see the difference between it and an Apple display (I expect the clarity will differ quite a bit, but hey). Re: KVM switch, I haven't looked into that yet, need to do some research, but do you have one you recommend?

 

I think the way you've got your rig set up sounds fantastic - particularly as the option to network in a PC with something like Gigastudio is there as well. Very much looking forward to testing the water with this!

 

Btw - with the example you gave above, would Kontakt have multiple midi channels within that one instance of Kontakt 5 in VEPro? *EDIT* just re-read your posts and it seems like you can only use one midi channel within a VEPro channel of Kontakt, but can add multiple midi channels of Kontakt if you add an instance as normal within Logic on your Master MMS right?

 

Speak soon, thanks for all your contributions to this forum, you've helped me loads and I'm sure many others as well.

 

Cato

Hi Cato,

 

Thanks for the suggestion for further listening.. I'll check it out over the weekend but so far I am thoroughly enjoying everything you have done... Nice work my friend!

 

As far as a KVM is concerned, I bought a IOGEAR GCS1794 KVM for $130 during a sale on Amazon... It's a little 'over the top' as it provides for 4 HDMI inputs and normally retails at $200+ but given it was on sale at the time I bought it anyhow and have been very pleased with the results. Can't comment personally on any others as this is the only HDMI KVM I have ever used. Of course, you can also look into DVI based KVM's too as the MMS comes with a HDMI to DVI adaptor so that should work fine as well and will probably be somewhat cheaper...

 

Kontakt - With the new VE Pro V5... you can run multiple midi channels of Kontakt within one instance of VE Pro.. You can also run multiple copies of Kontakt with either single OR Multiple midi channels in just one instance of VE Pro... This is a new feature and ability of VE Pro and AU plugins... Hope that makes sense?

 

You can, of course, do any of the above and also run a single (or multiple copies of ) Kontakt as normal within your Logic Project on your Master computer... using single or multiple midi channels again...

 

The new VE Pro 5... is quite the beast!!

 

Cheers...

Nigel, fantastic, VEPro v5 looks incredible! And thanks again for your compliments - I'm digitally blushing, so to speak.

 

Cheers for the KVM recommendation as well, I'll definitely look into that as it sounds like an ace solution.

 

Speak soon,

 

Cato

One last question Nigel - do you need a second sound card for the additional MMS's? Also, could I slave the MMS I usually use as 'Master' to another computer like a Mac Pro?

 

Cheers,

 

C

Hey Cato,

 

No, you don't need a second audio interface as all audio/midi is sent/handled via your Master computer.. So, in my setup I simply have one Motu Ultralite connected to my Master computer.

 

As far as slaving the MMS? Absolutely. I am currently working on a project where i have slaved both my MMS's to my new iMac... You can switch and swap whatever computers you have... in and out of your VE Pro Setup.

 

Four things to bear in mind however...

 

1) Each slave computer must have an eLicensor USB key attached to it.. with one of the three VE Pro key codes that Vienna provide when you buy VE Pro.. installed on each one. You do not need one for the Master computer unless you are only using one computer running as both slave and Master. Once you have installed one of the codes onto a USB Key you can use that key with any one of your computers that you are using as a slave. One key - One Slave. Two Keys - Two Slaves and so on... The cheapest USB keys are the Steinberg ones. I got mine for roughly $20 each online..

 

2) Your Master computer must have an Audio/Midi interface connected to it... Your slaves do not.

 

3) All computers (Master and slaves) must be connected together via Ethernet... (Through a router is the normal way of doing this..) and not via WiFi.

 

4) Your Master computer will need to have a DAW such as Logic, installed on it. Your Slave computers do not need a DAW installed. Just whatever plugins you wish to use via VE Pro.

 

As an aside and because I have been asked by a couple of people here recently.. I am putting together a new thread outlining how I set my system up.. a sort of Logic and VE Pro Basic 101 lesson.... I am hoping Ill get it finished and posted up by the end of this weekend but no promises...

 

Cheers..

Fantastic, thanks Nigel - I forgot I'd need an ethernet switch or router for linking up the MMSs. Probably makes sense to place as many iLock instruments on one MMS as possible and eLicensor instruments on the other (I only have VSL SE) on the other. I might even be able to fit all of them on one MMS, we'll see.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling!

 

Cheers,

 

Cato

Hi guys, fascinating conversation. I recently took a class here at Berklee (film scoring) called "advanced synth apps" and it basically turned out to be a course in creating various networked setups using VEP.

 

While VEP is CLEARLY the most elegant and professional solution... those with a taste for devious computer hacker-dom might be interested in a FREE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION.

 

So how does VEP work?

 

1. You have a master computer, running your DAW.

2. You send MIDI data over LAN (through the VEP plugin) to the slave.

3. VEP Server is running on the slave, which is just like a virtual "rack" where you can load up all your instruments. VEP Server sees the MIDI data, and sends AUDIO back over the LAN, to your DAW.

 

The advantage here is obviously performance. It's also amazing if you are doing film scoring and working on multiple cues; finish one cue, quit logic and open your next cue, only to find your 16GB of instruments still loaded and you don't have to wait! If you are running this from a low power MMS, you can just leave it running all the time!

 

SO HERE IS THE CHEAP WAY.

 

1. You need a master computer with a DAW still (obviously.

2. Mac actually has had NATIVE networked midi forever. This is called the IAC Driver. On your mac, open up Audio/MIDI Setup, and enable this IAC Driver. This will be what you connect to on your other machine.

 

http://i.imgur.com/4BoI9.png

 

3. I dont know if you've noticed, but Mainstage is now $29 on the Mac App Store. Mainstage can substitute for VEP basically. Its a virtual "rack" you can load your instruments in on the slave machine. Open up Mainstage on the slave and load your instruments. You need to set each channels input to be from one of the 16 midi channels on the IAC bus. (you can make as many busses as you need with 16 channels each)

 

4. Now that we can trigger the instruments with midi from the master machine, we need to get the audio BACK into our DAW. This will be accomplished with an opensource VST/AU plugin called Wormhole. So in Mainstage on the slave, create different outputs for whatever track/instrument you want, and load Wormhole AS AN INSERT on that. Back in your host DAW, load another instance of Wormhole on the audio track YOU WANT TO PRINT AUDIO TO. You will be able to monitor real-time with zero latency.

 

http://i.imgur.com/kU378.jpg

 

Save your Mainstage session as a TEMPLATE with everything setup, and also save your host DAW session as a template, and BAM you are done! If own Logic you already own Mainstage so this was done for zero dollars. And it is 100% reliable. It took me about an hour to setup, and I'm honestly kind of slow. Hope this was interesting!

MMS Trigger Pulled. Should be here in 2-3 days...

 

Thanks for all your input Nigel - your info has been instrumental in my decision

Congrats noisenet!

 

I'm sure you will enjoy the hell out of it!!

 

Hey Nigel, question for you....

 

Would it be better to use the second internal drive for my recorded audio stuff and store samples, VI's, etc on an external FW800 drive or the other way around? Currently I'm using one drive (1TB partitioned to two of 500G) for both..... Used to use two separate drives but one bit the dust so I consolidated...

When I use my MMS as a primary DAW computer...

 

I'm using the 2nd internal drive for my most commonly used Kontakt libraries such as LASS, Electri6ity and so on.. along with my Vienna Instruments and other sample sets... such as EWQL for example..

 

My external FW800 drive(s) I use for Apple Loops and other Audio file storage/playback...along with other less used Samples and so on...

 

The main drive is partitioned into 2 partitions.. The first partition is used for the OS X and Logic plus Plugins etc... and.. the second is boot camped with Win 7

 

This particular setup then also works well as a primary slave for VE Pro along with my Master iMac along with other Macs as secondary slaves.. with the boot camped partition of my MMS's Primary drive providing me with slave access via VE Pro to Windows VSTs and other such plugins that are Windows only..

 

Btw.. an external 1TB drive used for sample/data/audio storage... partitioned into two 500GB drives.. will work less efficiently than if it were left as one large 1TB drive... basically two partitions but still only one set of heads so the way data from different partitions of the same drive is accomplished results in poorer performance in most circumstances (if not all!)

 

So, unless there is a good reason why you partitioned your Ext drive.. it would be better to move all the data off the drive and then re-partition it back to one partition and then move all your data back to that one partition..

 

Just to clarify however, The way I partitioned my primary internal drive.. is done as such as I would only be using data from one of the partitions at any given moment in time (I'll either be using one partition for OS X or the other one for Windows) so the partitioning in that case, has basically no downside in terms of performance..

 

Hope this makes sense?

Thanks Nigel!

 

The only thing I'm running on Kontact is Steven Slate Drums. For now all the synths, other VI's, ets, are those included with Logic. Down the road I will probably be getting some additional sample libraries, VI's, etc.

 

Knowing this, would you recommend using the second internal drive as storage for my projects or samples/Slate Drums, etc.....?

Got the MMS in on Thursday, got it hooked up and most software installed. New (2nd) monitor and Memory arrived Friday - one of the #*%$*#^$ Memory Sticks is bad so I'm waiting for Amazon to send replacement before I can go up to 8 Gigs.

 

For some reason I thought it a good idea to get started on installing Logic last night after I got home from the gig - around 12:30a.m. LOL! What a bonehead - 5:15a.m. and I was sitting here with my eyes crossing wondering WTF I'd been thinking, haha. Now waiting for updates to finish downloading/installing so I can fire it up and see how it do on the new machine.

 

@Nigel - any setup things I need to know? I think I recall you saying something regarding setting Logic to see 8 cores instead of automatically detecting the cores - any other tips?

Sorry Noisenet... I missed your earlier post due to the move of the board and dumb issues i was having with DNS....

 

Yes, I would store your samples on the 2nd drive... It's both fast and internal so you get the best of both worlds in terms of performance and my logic for this (PNI) is that 500GB is a huge amount of space for just projects whereas sample libraries tend to take up a fair amount of room so using it for samples gives you plenty of expansion room in the future... and especially with Kontakt.. the faster drive does speed up the load times considerably... However, if you usually save out your projects with everything included and you save a lot of projects over short periods of time then it might be better to go the other way around. It's all dependent on what suits you and your work methods best.. For me, in the case of the MMS it's internal = samples but other's opinions may be different...

 

As far as setups go... No.. nothing really with the exception of don't be tempted to run the Server.App that converts the MMS's standard version of Lion into Lion Server... It's a bit of a nightmare to undo and it does cause a few odd issues with Lion later on down the road that i had to fix... Just leave it be and you will be running the standard version of Lion like everyone else..

 

I didn't change my Logic's # of Cores default preference in the end but left as Automatic and it works perfectly fine for me and 9.1.6

 

Sorry to hear you got a bad memory stick.. I got a bad one too.. in the latest batch of Crucial memory for one of my iMacs... 1 stick out of 4x4GB sticks was all messed up so back it goes.. The good thing is, for me at least.. I've always found Amazon to be really quick on sending out replacements.. so hopefully you will get your pretty pronto too.. though the 'Holiday' weekend won't help I'm sure...

 

Finally.. Enjoy the new 'box'...

Oh.. the other reason I keep my most used samples sets on the other internal drive is for portability...

 

Example: I took one of my MMSs to a friend's home earlier this week.. to record a bit of his guitar work on a track of mine. All I needed was the MMS, wireless Keyboard and mouse and my FW powered Ultralite.. Used one power cord and then a HDMI cable to plug into his TV and got the track done in an hour or so... Got home and transferred the saved project back to my external drive... and i was done.

 

An external HD (or two..) would be extra baggage... (and extra wall warts) so doing it with the MMS was a piece of cake.. and it all fits into one of the heavily lined and padded cases I got free with one of my Glyph drives!

Nigel, I have my MMS. I love it. Very good call

 

Just trying to figure out the best way to attach two firewire devices to it without daisy-chaining now... Might need to get this Nitro FW800 hub: http://bit.ly/webuHv

 

Apple gear is expensive - I just saw a fly pop out of my wallet.

mrnabo,

 

Great.. Glad to hear you are enjoying your MMS.

 

One thing about buying a hub.. As the Hub itself will still end up moving data through the MMS's single FW800 port you will gain no real benefit... with the exception of if you wish to unplug one of your FW800 devices you don't have to then unplug and plug in any other dives you wish to leave attached. If you are going to use a permanent setup then a hub won't really be worth the money as you will end up with the same transfer speeds as if you daisy chained them....

 

The real advantage of a hub would be if it were a T-Bolt connected hub....then you would have a huge amount of bandwidth to utilize between the hub and the computer... and could easily attach 10 or more FW800 devices without any possible bottleneck issues.

 

Having said all this, I daisy chain 4 x FW800 drives with a FW400 Audio Interface attached at the end.. running into my one FW800 port on the back of my MMS (or iMac) and I have never noticed any issues with bandwidth or bottlenecks... so i would try doing the same with your two devices and see what you get in return... remembering that if one of them is a FW400 device then make sure that is the one at the very end of the daisy chain... so your FW800 device(s) isn't forced to run at FW400 speeds....