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Making Music Without An ExpressCard

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 | Author: OWC Rick

Can’t always get what you want…

In an earlier post, we discussed the removal of the ExpressCard/34 slot from the 15″ MacBook Pro and the implications of that loss:http://blog.macsales.com/1391-apple-giveth-apple-taketh-away

As music production becomes more commonplace outside of the studio walls, musicians have become more and more dependent on the power and portability of the notebook.  It’s this need for a high performance machine that has made the MacBook Pro a staple for creative professionals.  Up until recently, increased features have been packed into these machines.  However, it seems that some of the features we’ve all come to know and love have been taken away from the most recent additions of the MBP product line -namely the second FireWire bus and expansion capabilities of the ExpressCard slot.  So, before we start crying “the sky is falling,” we need to answer three very important questions:

  1. What have we lost?
  2. What do we need?
  3. What do we have?

We’ve lost expandability, we need sufficient bandwidth for our work flow, and we DO in fact have just that.

…but if you try sometimes…

All we have to do is re-assess our storage and interface requirements.  When recording music, you have to remember that audio data is substantially smaller than video.  Therefore, the bandwidth provided by FireWire 400 or USB 2.0 speeds is more than sufficient for most.  So what’s the bottom line?  You have two practical configurations for your new 15″ MacBook Pro:

  1. USB 2.0 Audio Interface and FW 800 (or 400) External HD
  2. FireWire 400 Audio Interface and FireWire 400 External HD (daisy chained)

…you get what you need.

In looking at the two configurations above, there is a method to the madness.  Option #1 gives you more bandwidth for your external hard drive, which can be useful for projects utilizing MIDI & virtual instrument libraries that require more resources for disk streaming.  Being a musician myself, I completely understand the hesitation involved when “USB” is mentioned.  In the past, USB has always been considered “the slow interface.” It’s because of this that I will mention that the new MBP’s have been bench-marked having much higher “real world” throughput than earlier models.  Therefore, you will see little to no performance loss when using a USB audio interface as opposed to FireWire.  So, you can think of Option #1 as your “MIDI Workstation” scenario.

Option #2 allows you to still keep a useful FW400 speed for your external HD, while using a FW400 audio interface (note: when daisy chaining a FW400 device with a FW800 device, both devices will be functioning at a FW400 speed). Currently, most audio interfaces that utilize a FireWire connection are FW400 so you’re not losing any performance on that end.  The benefit of these interfaces are that they are typically built to  handle more simultaneous audio input for multi-tracking than their USB counterparts.  You can think of Option #2 as your “portable live audio recording scenario.”

This takes care of our USB and FireWire issues, but what about the loss of other potential ExpressCard expansions?  Some companies have developed ExpressCard upgrades for audio professionals that use their laptops in a production setting.  Are these upgrades and expansions worthless now?  Absolutely not!  However, if you need to utilize these professional additions you’ll need to purchase the new 17″ MacBook Pro which still provides the user with an ExpressCard slot.  For those of you that don’t want to lug a monstrous 17″ notebook around, your only other alternative is to purchase an earlier version of the MacBook Pro which are still incredibly viable machines for audio/music professionals.

Mr. Jobs and the gang threw us quite a curve ball with this recent feature loss, but have no fear!  OWC is here to light the way through these murky waters of change to help you audio professionals get the most out of your hardware.  You can still make music without an ExpressCard!

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Category: Misc., Random Thoughts & Topics
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Apple Giveth, Apple Taketh Away…

Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Last week, my esteemed co-blogger, OWC Michael, posted his findings on the new MacBook Pros. While I agree with him that they’re pretty nice machines, I do take exception to the assertion that removal of the ExpressCard/34 slot from the 15” MacBook Pro isn’t that much of a loss.

The main thing we lose is versatility. That expandability was what many people (myself included) saw as the main delimiter between the “consumer” and the “pro” lines – not the materials or the size. The Mac Pro has expansion options via PCI Express cards, and the MacBook Pros had the ExpressCard/34 slot. The iMac, the Mac mini, and the MacBook don’t have these options.

With the notebook replacing the desktop machine as many users’ primary computer, this expandability is a key option to many Power Users. The simplest example is for those who use an ExpressCard for wireless connectivity. Most of the major cell phone companies I checked offer an option to connect to their wireless data networks via an ExpressCard, yet none offered one in an SD format. This is a major snag for those who do a lot of traveling and can’t rely on an available WiFi hotspot for communication.

Then, there is also the versatility in storage. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of people who use their notebooks as a desktop replacement. With this use often comes the need (or at least desire) for faster data connection. While FireWire 800 is a nice, fast option, sometimes you need something a little faster – like eSATA. There are a number of eSATA ExpressCards available for fast connection, several of which also support multiple drives.

If FireWire 800 is fast enough enough for you (and, admittedly, for many it is), there’s still only one port on the MacBook Pro. What happens if you have more than one FireWire device you’d like to use at one time? Sure, you can daisy-chain the devices together, but if there’s a single FW400 device in that chain, it reduces all the devices on that chain to FireWire 400 speeds. A simple FireWire ExpressCard allows you to connect multiple FireWire devices without any worry over loss of speed.

Technically, if you have one of the new MacBook Pros and need an ExpressCard/34 slot, you can use a USB to ExpressCard adapter. However, the down side to this is that, rather than the 2.5Gb/s maximum transfer rate of a native ExpressCard/34 interface, you’re limited USB 2.0’s theoretical maximum of 480Mb/s – and we all know that USB speeds usually test considerably slower than that in OS X.

So what about that SD card slot we got in exchange? It’s “okay,” if all your devices use SD cards. However, what about users with cameras or other devices that use Compact Flash (like my Canon EOS Rebel Ti), Sony’s “Memory Stick”, or any of a myriad of other cards? They still need an external USB adapter, making that SD card slot all but useless until you shell out more cash for a new camera/phone/gadget.

I can hear a lot of you saying, “If the ExpressCard/34 slot is so important, then why not just go with the 17” MacBook Pro?”

The answer to this is twofold – price and portability. The 17” MacBook Pro is about $200 more expensive than its 15” counterpart. While that’s not too much more (less than 8%), the “portability” factor also comes into play.

While the extra screen real estate is nice, it comes at the expense of portability. It becomes a tight fit in many laptop bags (often not fitting at all) and on an airplane (especially if you’re flying “coach”), you’ll be lucky if you can open the screen all the way. This is much less the case with the 15” model. Trading that convenience for a ExpressCard/34 slot is counterproductive to the whole point behind having a “pro” notebook in the first place – portability with expandability.

In conclusion, while I’m rather excited about many of the features of the new MacBook Pros, the loss of the ExpressCard/34 slot has me looking in the “Refurb” section of the Apple Store until this oversight is corrected.

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics
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FireWire 400 in a FireWire 800 World

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

One of the celebrated features on the new MacBook Pros is the return of FireWire 800 to the 13” model. Since the transition to Intel processors, FireWire has taken a less prominent role, with most current Macs eschewing FireWire 400 completely, and having one or two FireWire 800 ports. On the original 13″ Unibody MacBook, it was eliminated completely, so its return to the MacBook Pro 13” is quite significant.

FireWire has long been an Apple mainstay for plug-and-play storage, so there are quite a few FireWire peripherals out there. Unfortunately, while almost all Macs have one or two FireWire 800 ports, many peripherals (especially older ones) are FireWire 400 devices which, though compatible with FireWire 800, have considerably different ports.

So, in order to connect your old FireWire 400 devices, you’re going to need an adapter of some sort.

The adapter cable

This is probably the simplest solution. On one end, you have a FireWire 400 connector. The other end has a FireWire 800 connector. Each end goes into its appropriate port, and your FireWire device shows on the desktop.

Pros: Fairly simple implementation, widely available.

Cons: can only hook up a FW400 port to a FW800 port. Straight 800-800 or 400-400 connections require another cable.

The plug adapter

This adapter plugs on the end of a FireWire 400 cable converting one end to a FW800 connector. When hooking up a straight FW400 connection, the plug is removable.

Pros: Easily portable. Allows you to use the same cable for both FW400 enabled computers and FW800-only machines.

Cons: Small adapter can be easily lost.

Drive with a built-in hub

Any drive with both FW400 and FW800 ports can be used as an adapter. Just plug the FW400 device into the other device’s  FW400 port and it will be recognized, through FireWire’s backwards-compatibility and daisy-chaining capabilities. If you’re really going for connectivity, there are drives (such as the NewerTechnology miniStack) with built-in FireWire and USB hubs which are designed for exactly this purpose.

Pros: Storage plus a hub, always a good combination. Great for desktops.

Cons: not very portable…

Expansion Card

If your computer doesn’t have the ports you need, why not just add them? Expansion cards are available for all Mac towers, right up to the latest Mac Pro. Previous MacBook Pros (with the ExpressCard/34 slot) also have options to add FireWire 400 capability.

Pros: Your FW800 devices don’t have to slow down to FW400 speeds when FW400 devices are connected.

Cons: Not available for all computers.

Even though Apple has removed FW400 ports from all their machines except for the plastic MacBooks, FireWire is still a fast, easy, and stable method for connecting your high-volume data transfer devices. With OWC, you can be sure you can continue using the FW400 devices you’ve come to rely on.

Not sure what you need for your particular setup? Give our friendly, knowledgeable sales staff a call at 1-800-275-4576 and they’ll get you set up with just the solution you need.

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Category: Tech Tips
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