storage of songs

Can songs be done on a external drive while using the program on the c drive.
     I read that it is good to store material on an external and bring it to sonar and work on it and send it back. Also, how can you change the percentage from all cpu to disk or at least share the work?
 
Thanks,
   John

musicjohnnie


Can songs be done on a external drive while using the program on the c drive.
     I read that it is good to store material on an external and bring it to sonar and work on it and send it back. Also, how can you change the percentage from all cpu to disk or at least share the work?
 
Thanks,
   John

There are a number of good threads on this subject, but in general ...
 
A more ideal setup is to have your OS on Drive C:,  your Data (songs, etc) on a 2nd drive, and samples on a 3rd drive.
 
The 2nd and 3rd drives can be internal or external - but if they are external, it's best to use eSATA for its speed, as opposed to external USB drives which tend not to be fast enough and can cause other headaches.
 
There are some good external eSATA drives around at very good prices; but if you have the space, using an interal 2nd/3rd drive works fine too.
 
Then you could use the external drive(s) for backups and it wouldn't matter if they are USB then. 
  
  Ah I see CJ beat me to it :)
 

musicjohnnie


So basically the ext drive should be used for backup or as Billy said to store samples. I'm just trying to get more out of my poor old P4 unit. What about the cpu and disk meters? The disk meter never moves, just the cpu.  I have had a bit of usage problems on some songs depending on the effects used[especially guitar rig]. I've had to learn how to compensate for not enough cpu.
    By the way what would be [in your opinion] the next "cheaper"a computer to move up to with out spending a small fortune?

My personal approach is the one I said in my first reply ... ie., C: = OS and apps, internal D: = Audio/Data, Interal E:=Samples then I have 2 external drives ... one is eSATA for more samples (I have a ton) and the last is a USB for backups.  Both externals are 1 Terrabyte, my internals are 500Gigs (but I will probably upgrade them to 1 TB as well).
 
This gives me total flexibility.
 
As CJ points out - you should at least use a separate drive for your audio data (projects) and point Sonar to it via the Global Options - Folders.  And, of course, use "Per Project Folders" setting as well.
 
As for computer ... Minimum would be (in my opinion) a Quad Core system if you're serious about your music setup.  Dual Core is "ok", but QUad Core is much better.
 
Then there are the newer I5's, I7's of course.    Regardless, get as much RAM as you can afford (but not more than 4G if you're staying in 32bit OS).
 
 

The disk meter never moves, just the cpu. 

and what the problem with that?
The disk percentage has to do with many things, like the settings for your I/O playback/recording buffers

On the metering, I'm ok with just seeing the cpu meter run ........I was just hoping to be able to use ALOT of effects with some of my projects. I guess I'll just have to upgrade someday. I have the work around for the moment.

musicjohnnie


Thanks for all the info!!!!!!
 On the computer. I have been looking into the quada cores but I'm having trouble finding computers that have 2 PCI expansion slots. I have to M-Audio cards that are PCI and I have had great luck with them working in sync. So, I have to keep looking for the 2 PCI slots on the computers. All of the i processors that I've seen don't even come with PCI slots anymore.

You will need to purchase a USB to PCI adapter. USB 3 even best.
I suggest working with a local computer store. A good tech will give you the best option or at least a refund or exchange as you experiment a good match.

Highly recommend using 2 drives... the ability for a drive to "scan" or "seek" from on part of the drive to another for different bits of information has improved by so much, but having one drive to scan for the OS information and another to scan for the .wav file data is a no brainer... you have 2 doing the same job that 1 was doing... this makes it easier to get and store information.

When the dual core processors came out the leading digital audio industry peeps loved it because one processor could run Pro Tools and the other operate OS and other functions.. this greatly improved digital audio work flow.

Here is the difference between running an external drive through Firewire 800(the fastest we have gotten to so far) and eSATA.

Firewire 800 can attain a maximum data transfer speed of 800 MB/sec which is two times faster than USB 2.0, as a Firewire vs USB comparison would reveal. However, the fact that eSATA ports have a direct channel connection with the hard drive bus and lose no time in data translation through interface, provides a maximum of 3.2 Gigabits/sec (400 Megabytes/sec) of transfer speed. So if you ask me what's faster - eSATA or Firewire 800, it is eSATA unarguably. If you make a usage comparison of eSATA vs Firewire 800 for Macbook Pro which supports both, eSATA is the better option for high bandwidth data transmission.

Hope this straight forward eSATA vs Firewire 800 comparison helps you in deciding which one to opt for. In terms of speed, eSATA is currently unbeatable and Firewire and USB 2.0 lag far behind. I would personally suggest you to go for eSATA external hard drives if you are likely to make high bandwidth demanding data transfers. Otherwise, Firewire 800 is good enough for most everyday data transfers.

Yes, but I think external hard drive should be used for laptops but If you have a desktop, Then its better to have an internal sata drive such as C,D,E,F or .. drive in your pc. But when you have formate your pc then your data of the songs are removed in internal drive. So, That time you can use external drive.