live remote recording with SAWStudio lite

[pop-a-five]

Thanks for everyone helping with the recording situation I have in my previous thread (http://www.sawstudiouser.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1118).

Technically, I have some questions on how to set things up. Unless folks have a better option, I'm likely ordering an Edirol FA-101 to connect to my laptop via firewire (got no card slots) and purchasing an external firewire drive because the laptop drive won't be big enough or fast enough (4200 rpm). Please advise.

Am I thinking properly that I can use the interface into the laptop, record live in SAWStudio lite and save in realtime to the external firewire drive? I could be recording up to 7 tracks live, but at this point I think it will be more likely 3 or 4. What would my max simultaneous track record be?

The laptop is a P4 1.7 with 512 of ram with firewire and USB 2.0. Is this enough computer to do what I want to do?

If I'm on the right track, what drive and interface would you recommend? If I'm not, please correct my thinking.

Thanks

[Bob L]

I would imagine all should be fine... but of course you should test the rig first before depending on it for the actual session.

Turn off background apps like virus checkers... keep Windows clean... and all should be ok.

Make sure you are getting full usb 2.0 speed for the soundcard and/or external drive.

Bob L

[pop-a-five]

The interface I'm looking at is firewire. Any issues there?

[Bob L]

Only the standard possible firewire issues with Windows in general... make sure you test everything out and settle on your stable buffer sizes.

SP 2 on XP is also a no-no where firewire is concerned... although there are fixes mentioned on the RME site.

Bob L

[DennisC]

I would wonder about using one single Firewire (probably the 400Mbps version) for both the interface input and the "output" to the external drive. Perhaps use the Firewire for input and the USB 2.0 for the external drive.

Anyone have thoughts on this point?

Dennis

[Bob L]

Experimenting with the rig would be the only way to really nail down the best scenario, I think.

Bob L

[SoundSuite]

If using a FW interface, OR an external FW drive, I wouldn't be to hesitant to say you'd be ok.

Using both a FW interface and a FW external drive MAY eat up the bandwidth available in the FWhub, depending on your track count, bit-depth and resolution of course.
The only way to tell for sure is to try...on paper you are good at least :)

Like Bob said, if you are running XP w/SP2, make sure you read the fixes for it and FW, or you will not have a chance.

USB 2.0, though faster on paper (460Mb/s), is not as fast as FW(400Mb/s) in real life.
Also, USB 2.0 external drives, by comparison to FW external drives are alot more CPU intensive.
So, USB2.0 will be slower and more CPU intense than FW.

*I compared USB2.0 to FW400, which is the most populus in circulation*
*There are FW800 devices available*