Hi, folks!

I was curious to know how many mega(giga?)bytes 44 minutes of 48
tracks of 96KHz/24-bit digital audio occupies in ProTools, and what
kind of back up solutions are feasable? I don't know what format it
records in but I'm assuming an uncompressed digital system such as WAV
or AIFF. If someone has ProTools on a G4, for instance, what would be
the cost-effective method of backing up session data?

Thanks.


Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA

I was curious to know how many mega(giga?)bytes 44 minutes of 48
tracks of 96KHz/24-bit digital audio occupies in ProTools, and what
kind of back up solutions are feasable? I don't know what format it
records in but I'm assuming an uncompressed digital system such as WAV
or AIFF. If someone has ProTools on a G4, for instance, what would be
the cost-effective method of backing up session data?

24 tracks of 24/48 is 3.3MB/s, so 48 tracks of 24/96 would be 13.2mb/s, x 60
x 44... a little over 34GB. I'd start by backing it up to a 40GB drive,
take that drive home to burn to 8 or 9 DVD-R's (rather than waste 5 hours in
the studio), and there's your two independent back-ups, one permanent, one
quickly accessible.

The 40GB drive costs about $60, DVD-R's are down to around $200, another $20
on media, looking at about $300 after taxes and/or shipping. A firewire
case for the 40GB drive would be handy too, tack on $50. The nice part is
that once the project is over, everything but the burned DVD's can be used
again or sold off. I've got a 120GB drive and DVD-R in FW cases for that
exact purpose. I originally got them to back up nearly 8 hours of 32 track
24/48 on DA-88's... 100GB almost on the nose. Bitch of a job that was!

24 tracks of 24/48 is 3.3MB/s, so 48 tracks of 24/96 would be 13.2mb/s, x 60
x 44... a little over 34GB.

That's after you've thown away everything that isn't in the current session
window. If you want to save alternate takes you could easily double that.

I like to allocate a pair of 120 gig drives to a project- one as the primary
recording drive and one as the safety. Two 120 gig firewire drives will set
you back about $430- a little less than 3 rolls of 2" tape. With that amount
of storage you can record studio conversations, keep outtakes, and generally
not worry about running out of space. For long term storage, DLT is probably
safer. I've heard HDDs atrophy if they sit idle for long periods.

Joe Egan
EMP
Colchester, VT
www.eganmedia.com