hooking up more than on firewire device

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hooking up more than on firewire device

i have just bought a 15" macbook pro which has only one firewire800 port how can i hook up a firewire audio interface like a m audio 2626 and a firewire external hard drive to work with my DAW which is pro tools 8

mac book pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 7, 2010 4:46 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rod Hagen

Level 7

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Feb 7, 2010 5:01 PM in response to slangmusic

Most FW drives (and some other FW devices) have a couple of ports, slangmusic, which means that you can simply "daisychain" them. (plug one device into the computer, the second device into the second port on the first device, etc.

If you are still a port or two short doing things this way you will need to buy a firewire hub, or repeater. see, for example, HERE If any of your devices are FW 400 you may as well buy a FW400 hub, rather than a dearer FW800 one, as the speed will probably effectively be reduced to this rate anyway. You would then either need a FW800 to FW400 cable or adaptor to connect it to the MBP of course.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 2

Feb 8, 2010 2:44 AM in response to slangmusic

Whenever one of the devices is an audio interface you are always better off using a hub as opposed to daisy-chaining.

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Answer 3

Mar 6, 2010 5:09 PM in response to DaddyPaycheck

I'm trying to do the same thing as Slangmusic and just curious about why it's better to use a port when using an audio interface?

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Answer 4

Mar 7, 2010 4:22 AM in response to Kenneth Linsley

Your chain is as strong as your weakest link, although in this case anything on the chain can cause problems. When FW devices get funky they sometimes try and pull juice from the bus in order to stay running.

A hub eliminates the weak link possibility and supplies current on the bus should a device get a little whacky.

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