Works great (until your UFX RAM dies but that's another story... )

A compact option that fits within a rack lid would be most welcome as the bulky SanDisk Extreme Pro is rather precarious!

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

I just tested the latest SanDisk USB 3 ones called 'Cruzer Ultra Fit'. They would have been the perfect ones for the front panel of the UFX. Unfortunately I had to send them back - unusable, with write delays of up to 1.8 seconds.

Hi Mathias.

I've been working my way through the various topics about ideal USB drives for the DUrec function. I'm gearing up for a mobile gig at the end of next week. Can you recommend one (or any) that you've found to be rock solid. Info on write speeds, etc is easy to find. But its hard to tell looking at a drive's specs, whether or not it have the partition issues some people have experienced. Many thanks for your help!

C.

There is a thread (sticky I think) about this.  After some recommendations from RME and others I got a USB thumb drive last spring, although I can't recall the brand and model right now.  It was the first anyone tried that worked *very* well at even high sample rates and lots of tracks. Find that thread and you will find the details. I would get a thumb drive for two reasons: 1) very portable ad 2) standard external hard drives can stutter when subjected to vibrations, including sometime low bass notes, kick drums etc.  Flash memory, with no moving parts, is a better way to go in my opinion.

I haven't used any more than one to compare, but for more than 2 years now i'm using a simple and cheap bus powered USB 3 'Intenso Memory Blade'. It's 2,5`` with 320 GB. I don't now the speed but i strongly guess it's only 5400 rpm. I never had a single error with 20 tracks at 96kHz.
Of course with cheap harddrives you never now when it will break, but on the other hand i have had really bad experience (on another system) with the professional and quite expensive Glyph Harddrives. I was probably just unlucky.

I have 2 partitions on the Intenso, one FAT32 for the UFX and another one for Mac, no problem.

I'd recommend not buying the biggest (GB) harddrive available, as over the years i had the impression that for audio recordings (with higher track counts) in general moderate sizes work more reliable. That may be complete bullshit though, but it's my personal experience.

I'd just buy one and test it properly, if it works for some hours with different settings on different days i don't see why it shouldn't stay like that when it comes to an important recording.

I've been working my way through the various topics about ideal USB drives for the DUrec function. I'm gearing up for a mobile gig at the end of next week. Can you recommend one (or any) that you've found to be rock solid. Info on write speeds, etc is easy to find. But its hard to tell looking at a drive's specs, whether or not it have the partition issues some people have experienced. Many thanks for your help!

C.

Thanks so much for your replies. Awesome info about the sample rate stuff, and the line level ins. Yes, I wouldn't be going straight out of the FOH console for this. I'd have my own split in front of the console. My thinking right now is: isolated split> 3 8ch pres> 2 into adat> 1 into the analog ins. I'd use my rosetta 200 to clock everything and provide 2 more ins, along with the 4 pres on the unit. Pretty sexy...

@ e ...  the next big (big!) update for the UFX.

Hmmm!  Hardware or firmware?

But the UFX Line In should handle the level.

The specs show:

"Input level for 0 dBFS @ Lo Gain: +19 dBu"

I have a Mackie HDR 24/96 (similar to HD24), it clips at +22 so it and the UFX are in the same ballpark.

I carry some XLR -10 or -20dB pads for really hot channels.

Truthfully, if the FOH direct outs are much hotter than +10dB I'd say the channels are gonna clip the mix bus once he starts mixing more than a couple channels...

The few times i have tried to use the UFX with direct outs i have found i end up in a bad situation, you cant go telling a FOH engineer to change his gain because your recording is clipping and because the way the signal clips is the horrible digital clipping you can be left in a virtually useless situation..

Last gig i had 4 channels at soundcheck that were consistently clipping and one was lead vocal, just about the worst channel you could ask to be clipping.. I was lucky there were some free AUX sends on the console that i used and lowered the gain.. Even after remedying that at soundcheck, there were still 1 or 2 other channels that clipped during the gig when things got louder..   it can be problematic and it's dissapointing UFX isnt more robust in those situations.