The drive has a rotation speed of 7200 RPM. The version I got, the Triple Interface, features USB, Firewire, and eSATA connectivity. I use Firewire for its speed and to keep my USB hub less tangled.

While multiple capacities are available, I opted for the 1TB version, and partitioned it so 250GB would be used for Time Machine backups and the rest would be free, open storage.

It is ” hot-swappable” and, more or less, plug-and-play. Though you will have to format it for whatever particular system you’re using.

The software the hard drive comes with will probably be useless to you. In fact, the useless Western Digital software icon still clutters up my menu bar, seemingly completely unable to be uninstalled.

Even still, the Western Digital My Book Home Edition External Hard Drive (1TB, Triple Interface) works wonderfully, certainly helps to ease my mind, and didn’t put the dent in my wallet that other comparable drives could have.

It features a built-in microphone for acoustic guitar, along with the obligatory input jack for electric instruments. The large LCD screen displays a precise, not-too-jittery needle for accurate sharp and flat adjustments, aided by three LEDs above the screen. The left red LED means you’re too flat, the right says you’re too sharp, and the green one in the middle says you’re right on the money.

Tuning can be changed to different Hz variations for musical non-conformants and the unit has a detection range of C1, freakishly low, to C8, crazily high. Those are scientific terms, I think.

The Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner is a solid investment and depending on where you get it from, prices range from the low teens to almost 20.

Installation:

Installing the Fast Track Pro is easy. Basically, you run the included driver disk and go through the installation steps. Then, hook up the Fast Track to a free USB port and you’re ready to go. There are a few snags that you may run into, most of which are easily remedied by going to the M-Audio website and downloading the most current drivers for your particular operating system. If you’re having trouble, you may also want to consider using the Fast Track as your only sound card. This works best if you disable your internal sound card. I’m using Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Quality: For a mass-produced, near-consumer-level electronics device housed in a plastic case, I have very few complaints. The built-in preamps are a bit weak and may or may not be suitable for certain types of recording. Also, there seems to be a fair amount of background noise present while monitoring. This noise does not appear on my recordings so it could be my monitors or cables but I have no way to test this right now so I’ll leave it open. There is a bit of latency when using the included Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 demo. However, when I use Adobe Audition, there is no latency.

Two things I would recommend to anyone intending to use the Fast Track Pro for hefty home recordings are 1) A Preamp & 2) A Headphone Amplifier. These two items will ensure that you get the input and monitoring levels you desire and are relatively inexpensive. I may post links to such products at a later time.

All in all, I feel this little box is going to serve my needs as an amateur musician who likes to record a wide range of styles and arrangements.

Sound Clips:

For the following sound clips, I ran my electric guitar straight into the Fast Track. The first is completely dry with no effects, eq, compression, etc. The second is another version of that same recording with some effects from the Waves GTR guitar suite, which I highly recommend.

m-audio-fast-track-pro-example-1
m-audio-fast-track-pro-example-2

Modern tablets also interpret how hard you’re pressing and which side of the pen you’re using. This is incredibly useful in digital painting and illustration work.

I got my Wacom Graphire4 pen tablet about two years ago and I still use it almost every day. This is my second Wacom; my first my mom got me when I was in junior high. It used a serial port and I’m sure would work perfectly today if I still had a computer with that connection.

Mine is the blue version with a 6″ by 8″ surface area. The model also comes in white and with a 4″ by 5″ area.

I use it mainly for Photoshop work and Flash animations. In fact, I’ve gotten so used to it, I can barely work with either of those programs without it.

It connects to the computer with an attached USB cable. Higher models from Wacom interact wirelessly with bluetooth.

The pen it comes with includes the normal plastic nub tip, plastic eraser on the other side, and two buttons about where you put your thumb. They are programmable and work well set as double-click and left-click.

The Graphire4 tablet features a scroll wheel and two programmable buttons. Higher models feature more buttons and more scrollers. The buttons work well for going backwards and forwards in Firefox, moving between frames in Flash, and undoing and redoing actions.

Besides the ubiquitous pen, the Graphire4 also comes with a mouse. The mouse uses the same tablet functionality as the pen, so operation can be a little awkward. When you’re working with your mouse at an angle that’s not parallel with the tablet, a straight horizontal line to you is interpreted by the tablet as a diagonal line. It takes some getting used to, but ultimately isn’t as good as a normal mouse.

The pen works well, without any noticeable lag, even with multiple heavy programs running. There’s 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, which is enough for you to not notice any lack of smoothness. Painting in Photoshop with varying pressures produces the exact flow it would in real life.

The screen on the Graphire4 is also removable, so you can lift it up and put stuff underneath it. Mine has stickers.

It works well on PC and Mac with the included drivers. It’s also bundled with some light software, useful if you haven’t the latest creative suite.

Some specs from the Wacom site:

Tablet size: 278(W) x 263.8(D) x 18(H) mm
Active Area: 150.8 x 208.8mm (6″X8″-A5 size)
Resolution: 2032 lpi (0.0125 mm)
Reading Accuracy: ±0.5 mm
Pressure Sensitivity: 512 levels
Report Rate: 100 pps
Weight: 860g
Cable Length: 150cm
Interface: USB

Final thoughts? Very, very good. I bought mine back in the day for 200 something, and it looks like its price hasn’t changed much, even though Wacom’s come out with new models since. I guess there’s a high resale value, so that’s good. I don’t think there’s much else I could want from it.

http://www.wacom.com/graphire/6×8.cfm