frankja Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 hope someone out there can provide some help. I have a new iMac and want to run Logic studio on it. I am considering the Apogee Duet, which requires firewire. The newer iMacs have only 1 firewire port, and it is a 9-pin (firewire 800) port. I understand it is best to record to an external hard drive, 7200 rpm. If I use the firewire port (with an Apple conversion cable that converts my 800 port to a 400 port, I only have the option to use a USB hard drive to store my recorded output. Or I could get a firewire hub. Questions 1. any experience with firewire hubs? do they diminish the quality of thesignal? Question 2. would I be better off going with a USB hard drive instead of using a firewire hub. Questionn 3 would I be better off not getting the Apogee Duet and going with a USB interface and saving the firewire port for my external hard drive. Thanks in advance Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
00420 Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 You don't need a hub with firewire. You just daisy chain the devices. The Apogee Duet will have to go last in the chain though because it doesn't have a second firewire port. For example, in my setup I have two hard drives, an M-Audio FireWire Solo, and an Apogee Duet all connected to the one firewire port of my iMac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Sandvik Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 That's indeed the power of FireWire compared with USB where you can't build star-networks, rather use hubs to distribute to USB devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacenty Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 If your Mac has Firewire 800 port only, you can get an external drive like Lacie, which has various interfaces. You plug in your Mac to Lacie via Firewire 800 and then Duet to Lacie via Firewire 400. Your 'signal' will not be diminished in terms of quality but daisy chaining devices like this means they will be all sharing that same 800 or 400 bus for transfers. It should be ok for Audio work, haven't tested it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shivermetimbers Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 (Pssssst ... your new iMac HD is already a 7400rpm) Why give up a port? There are pros and cons. Use an external USB drive for storing your projects, they will add up rather quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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