Hi there. I currently have a 128GB SSD C: Drive for OS and programs, and two spinning drives - one for samples and VIs and the other for audio.

If I were to swap one of the spinning drives for an SSD, would I benefit more by upgrading the Samples drive or Audio drive, and why?

zoffmeister
Hi there. I currently have a 128GB SSD C: Drive for OS and programs, and two spinning drives - one for samples and VIs and the other for audio.

If I were to swap one of the spinning drives for an SSD, would I benefit more by upgrading the Samples drive or Audio drive, and why?

Well, the quick answer is that a spinning drive should provide more than enough throughput for digital audio tracks.
 
I also have my samples on a spinning drive, and every time I open a project with any sampler instruments inserted, I must wait. for. them. to. load.  Was thinking that this would be resolved with a SSD.
 
I recently posted benchmarks comparing my HDD to my SSD here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/ssd-question-m3524557.aspx#3524648

So are you saying there is no real benefit on the audio drive and the only benefit on the Samples drive is load time?

zoffmeister
So are you saying there is no real benefit on the audio drive and the only benefit on the Samples drive is load time?

That pretty much sums it up.  Unless you are editing HD video, you probably won't see any real-time improvement on content drives by switching to SSD. 
 
But the improvements on the overall responsiveness of the system by switching the Windows and program files, as well as all of my plugin folders to SSD, is off the charts
 
And just so you don't feel like you might need more speed on your audio drive, if you crunch the numbers for the audio throughput requirement for 80 mono tracks at 24-bit/96kHz, that should require about 25MB/s.  Most modern SATA 7200rpm HDD's should provide at least 100MB/s+ for read/write ... http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/calculating-hard-disk-space-required-for-digital-audio-recording/

I sometimes practice putting the song on loop and recording over and over. Frankly IO is an issue after several hours of this.

gswitz
I sometimes practice putting the song on loop and recording over and over. Frankly IO is an issue after several hours of this.

So how many tracks are you reading/writing concurrently when you do that?  What kind of I/O is your drive capable of?

Stacks and stacks. I do it week after week.

When I start getting dropouts, I delete them all. I like measuring my practice time with them. :-P

If you are curious how many your system can support, set loop recording on over like four measures and then play for hours. You'll get plenty of tracks. You might be able to just leave it running until you get a dropout.

gswitz
If you are curious how many your system can support, set loop recording on over like four measures and then play for hours. You'll get plenty of tracks. You might be able to just leave it running until you get a dropout.

Not a problem for me. I usually work in MIDI, but if I do record audio, it goes straight to my SSD

Here's a test on tracks playback (not samples) comparing HDD and SSD - maybe SSD will be benificial if you have lots of track count ?
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-i36098P-m3439971.aspx