Old Dog/New Tricks: Using HD4000 for Your Pro Audio/DAW Builds
I don't know of any MIDI interfaces that use FW800 - most every dedicated MIDI interface these days (to my knowledge) is always USB. BUT, many audio interfaces also have built-in MIDI capabilities. For example, MOTU's 828 mk3 hybrid FW/USB interface also includes MIDI In & Out:
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Then again, I can only think of 1 audio interface currently on the market that has a FW800 port on it (the
new UAD Apollo), but it doesn't have built-in MIDI in/out ports on the back. Of course
almost all of the latest gen MOTU interfaces are now "hybrid" and offer both USB and Firewire ports. Note that even though MOTU uses what apperas to be a 1394B FW port ("type B") connection, it operates at 1394A speeds.
So I guess what I'm getting at is: I'd need to know more about your friend's hardware components and his configuration. Is he is using a FW audio interface with on-board MIDI in/out ports that he's using to trigger some sort of piano sound module or synth? My educated guess would be that he would not have any issues with MIDI performance, based on the little experience I had with a FW interface that I used to have which also had on-board MIDI in & out.
As to the settings in Logic, the buffer settings are more important when you're recording a live audio source. They don't really affect MIDI timing. Typical rule of thumb is: lower buffer settings (128, 64) if you want near-zero latency while monitoring the audio through Logic. Then higher buffer settings for better performance during playback as your project grows in track size. This is why the workflow for many audio professionals is to try & do all your tracking early on in the project (and with a lower buffer setting), then set your buffer higher once you start into the "mix" phase of the project.
As for the core settings, in an earlier version of Logic (9.1.0 or one of the lower point-releases), there was a "bug" with the multi-threading support when you used the "Automatic" option. The work-around was to set it for the max number of threads your processor supports vs. the Automatic setting. I believe that bug has long been fixed. It certainly won't hurt anything if you set it to max # of threads vs. Automatic. If you're doing any sort of audio work in Logic, it really should be the only thing running for max performance. So "turning off threads" in Logic so they can be used for other background tasks is typically not recommended.
And last, yes - if you study the build components list & my descriptions, you'll note that my studio computer actually has 4 drives: 1) SSD for OS X and applications only, 2) RAID-class drive or AV-rated drive (designed for heavier read/write workloads) for my "Work" files - Logic project files including all the recorded audio files, 3) RAID-class drive to store all my VST/sample libraries + all the Apple Loops from Logic, and 4) standard SATA drive that I use for backups/Time Machine.
It's pretty common practice (as well as recommended by DAW manufacturers) to
not record audio to your boot/start-up drive - for many reasons which I won't go into here.
Hope this helps!
--B