jimbobbley
Joined: 13/01/05
Posts: 199
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Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
#964190 - 15/01/12 05:29 PM
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Hi all
My band had its largest gig to date last night at a 'proper'
venue with an enormous PA. The bass was, frankly, fearsome.
I play various bits
and bobs through my laptop (including VSTs, Guitar Rig etc) and a fair few backing bits
too.
During one song, with a fairly powerful pulsing bassline, there were a
couple of jitters and the project skipped a few beats. I use Reaper and the transport bar
flashed red.
I wondered, seeing as this hasn't happened before, and the bass
was vibrating EVERYTHING to the point of insanity, could it be upsetting my hard drive? I
have a Macbook Pro which I don't imagine isolates the hard drive too much from the case
(there's not much in there to separate it with!).
Should I look at placing
something underneath the laptop? Some kind of foam, as you do with turntables at venues
with big PAs? Is it even possible that this happened?
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jimbobbley
Joined: 13/01/05
Posts: 199
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964194 - 15/01/12 06:08 PM
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just read this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/601274?start=0&tstart=0seems SNS may be responsible? Does anyone have any recommendations for
shock mounted hard drives? Turning SNS off would seem not really to solve the long-term
problem as the bass is still going to be doing bad things to the HD..
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chris...
active member
Joined: 12/03/03
Posts: 4151
Loc: Glasgow
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964196 - 15/01/12 06:27 PM
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I honestly don't know if bass upsets hard drives or not.
If the assumption is
"yes", then one option might be SSD.
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Jorge
member
Joined: 13/12/03
Posts: 324
Loc: New York, NY
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964200 - 15/01/12 06:40 PM
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I agree with you that disabling the sudden motion sensor (SMS), that functions to protect
the HD from acceleration damage precisely in situations that will trigger it, seems
illogical. If the surface the laptop is on is vibrating noticeably to touch, try putting
the laptop on a thin pillow or other soft padding to decouple it from the vibrating
surface. For big, slow vibrations like excessive subwoofer sound, and a light object like
your laptop, a very soft highly compliant foam or pad would work best, not firm like a
MoPad or usual shockmount. It doesn't need to be thick, maybe a half inch. Not sure if a
mousepad is too firm, try it. Aim for the laptop to compress the pad down about 1/3 to 1/2
of its thickness just by its weight. If that doesn't work the actual air pressure
variation from the sound is likely vibrating the HD directly, so the SSD seems the next
best (much more expensive) solution.
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Dave Gate
active member
Joined: 02/02/04
Posts: 1353
Loc: M6/M61/M60/M62/M65
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964201 - 15/01/12 06:41 PM
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If you can't afford to go down the SSD route then you could try the method that many
people use for isolating Technics 1210s and the like. Get two squash balls and cut them
in half, so that you end up with four hemispheres. Place the laptop on these so that
there's one under each corner. For even better results put the whole lot on a concrete
paving slab.
--------------------
Gear List: reverse only.
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rob__mac
Joined: 15/01/12
Posts: 1
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964202 - 15/01/12 06:44 PM
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I just signed up to the forum so I could post the squash ball tip and I was beaten to
it! It works a treat 
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Dave Gate
active member
Joined: 02/02/04
Posts: 1353
Loc: M6/M61/M60/M62/M65
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: rob__mac]
#964209 - 15/01/12 07:34 PM
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Quote rob__mac:
I just signed up
to the forum so I could post the squash ball tip and I was beaten to it!
It
works a treat
I've used it
many times at festivals and at gigs with temporary stages. The only thing better than
that is a solid concrete stage like my old venue had . . .
--------------------
Gear List: reverse only.
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ManFromGlass
Joined: 24/07/11
Posts: 20
Loc: In the woods in Canada
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: Dave Gate]
#964228 - 15/01/12 08:59 PM
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If you are from a colder clime then hockey pucks (dense) or the practice hockey pucks
(that remove fewer teeth!) and are like a dense foam may do the trick. I use them to
decouple the gennie's from the mixing desk - works a treat! 
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Jorge
member
Joined: 13/12/03
Posts: 324
Loc: New York, NY
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964278 - 16/01/12 06:16 AM
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Too firm or hard a pad like a hockey puck will pass most of the vibration to the light
laptop sitting on it. You need a soft compliant pad to properly decouple the laptop from a
vibrating surface it is resting on. I have no idea how soft a half squash ball is, but if
that solution works well for a turntable, which does not weigh that much more than a
laptop, it might work.
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jimbobbley
Joined: 13/01/05
Posts: 199
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964289 - 16/01/12 08:49 AM
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Wow, thanks folks. I never cease to be amazed by the knowledge and helpfulness of people
on this forum!
I think I'll try the squash balls first, purely for budgetary
reasons! We may have had a big show but it was still only a modest sum in the bank, which
pays for, ooh, all of 3.8 rehearsals. Big time!
John
Edited by jimbobbley (16/01/12 08:49 AM)
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MattL
member
Joined: 12/05/03
Posts: 84
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964292 - 16/01/12 09:10 AM
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Just a word of caution about sitting laptops on compliant foam pads... make sure that you
are not blocking any ports required for cooling... Its another reason why using four
support, one at each corner of the laptop, makes a whole lot of sense. It has
only happened to me once, many years ago, but it was an expensive and annoying... 
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chris...
active member
Joined: 12/03/03
Posts: 4151
Loc: Glasgow
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#964400 - 16/01/12 04:01 PM
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I've also heard of people putting laptops on an inflatable cushion type thing.
For what it's worth, I don't think the current MacBook Pro line has any ventilation
holes underneath that could be blocked.
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seablade
Joined: 21/11/04
Posts: 3768
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: chris...]
#964409 - 16/01/12 04:26 PM
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Quote chris...:
I've also heard
of people putting laptops on an inflatable cushion type thing.
For what it's
worth, I don't think the current MacBook Pro line has any ventilation holes underneath
that could be blocked.
No
but the case acts as a heatsink(Thus why people complain about the bottoms getting hot)
and helps radiate heat out. Having the majority of the bottom open to air can be good, so
supporting four corners can be very good, but having it against something that acts as an
insulator will likely make a difference.
Seablade
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jimbobbley
Joined: 13/01/05
Posts: 199
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#970294 - 15/02/12 04:02 PM
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Hi all
Thanks for all the suggestions. My band was lucky enough to play a
second gig this year at Koko last week with its unfeasibly loud bass emanations. I turned
off the 'SMS' option and everything worked like a dream. Exact same set (well, almost) and
no hitches this time.
Much appreciated, thanks for the expert advice! I've also
got 2 halved squash balls in my utility drawer now in case of emergency, ha!
John
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Nathan
Joined: 13/09/04
Posts: 1872
Loc: lincolnshire government experi...
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: jimbobbley]
#970697 - 17/02/12 07:20 PM
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I've wrecked HDDs in shockmounted multitrack recorders in extreme circumstances (on stage,
in a corner) I find it best to minimise risk by getting the things off stage if I can with
very heavy sub. If you can feel it in your teeth it's probably too much for a HDD >
-------------------- planet nine
lincoln, uk.
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chris...
active member
Joined: 12/03/03
Posts: 4151
Loc: Glasgow
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Re: Bass at large venues vs hard drive skipping?!
[Re: Nathan]
#970839 - 18/02/12 07:28 PM
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Quote Nathan:
I've wrecked HDDs
in shockmounted multitrack recorders in extreme circumstances (on stage, in a corner)
Ah, so you've got proven that bass
CAN kill hard drives, right ?
(I was never quite sure).
If so,
that's very useful.
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