Will Apogee Duet conflict with Firewire external hard drive?

[ChrisByrd]

I've just ordered an Apogee Duet, but wondered if will conflict with the Western Digital hard drive I've got connected to the second Firewire port on my 2008 iMac (with its single Firewire bus). I once had an M-Audio Solo which constantly lost its connection when the WD drive was active, but I've heard that some audio interfaces and external HDs can coexist happily.

 

I've got the option to attach the WD drive to a USB port, but would prefer to keep it on the FW port if possible.

 

Can anyone comment please?

 

Chris

[Eriksimon]

Should work. Mac <> FW WD <> Duet is how you should daisychain them to maintain the greater FW speed of the WD disk; if you do the Duet first and then the FW disk, the disk transfer speed will be halved, as the Duet is FW 400 and the disk (probably) FW 800.

[Scott Jackson]

Should work. Mac <> FW WD <> Duet is how you should daisychain them to maintain the greater FW speed of the WD disk;

 

You can daisy chain the Duet only one way, the Duet has only one FW port.

 

if you do the Duet first and then the FW disk, the disk transfer speed will be halved, as the Duet is FW 400 and the disk (probably) FW 800.

 

Yes, this is correct (if you could put the Duet first in chain) but FW400 is fast enough in many if not most situations.

 

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=65250

[El Mustache]

I was lead to believe that inserting a FW 400 device anywhere in the chain will slow the whole operation down to FW 400 speed but i would be happy if that turned out to be false. to the OP I have used this same setup with my Firebox interface and not had issues so it should be fine witht he duet.

[Scott Jackson]

I was lead to believe that inserting a FW 400 device anywhere in the chain will slow the whole operation down to FW 400 speed but i would be happy if that turned out to be false. to the OP I have used this same setup with my Firebox interface and not had issues so it should be fine witht he duet.

 

No. This is not true.

 

Check out this thread. Pay particular attention to Jorditos posts.

 

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=64522&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=firewire&start=0

[Eriksimon]

Should work. Mac <> FW WD <> Duet is how you should daisychain them to maintain the greater FW speed of the WD disk;

 

You can daisy chain the Duet only one way, the Duet has only one FW port.

 

Ah, my bad, didn't know that, so you cannot even make the "wrong" chain then.

[Scott Jackson]

Ah, my bad, didn't know that, so you cannot even make the "wrong" chain then.

 

If by "wrong" you mean placing the slower device (interface) in front of a faster device (FW800 HD) then yes, your are correct. However, in some instances it's better to put the interface first, indeed slowing down a FW800 HD to FW400 but this usually does not pose a problem.

[El Mustache]

Scott,

 

Thanks for the info, that is good to know.

[Scott Jackson]

Scott,

 

Thanks for the info, that is good to know.

 

You're welcome!

[ChrisByrd]

Thanks for all the feedback - it looks like I'll be able to get everything connected without problems. Must say I'm really looking forward to getting the Duet

[amorris]

So Chris, were you able to get it going? because Ive heard that the Duet needs to be on the bus by itself. Id like to hear how it works for you. (you know somethings work for some systems and not for others )

[hamdog]

So Chris, were you able to get it going? because Ive heard that the Duet needs to be on the bus by itself. Id like to hear how it works for you. (you know somethings work for some systems and not for others )

 

i've been using a duet with a lacie 250 firewire drive for a couple of years now. never had a problem with this daisychaining setup. before that i had a presonus (firepod i think it was) and that was nothing but trouble.