Separate HDD for samples?

I have a barracuda 1.5TB 7200rpm 3gb/s 32mb buffer internal hard drive, and recently purchased Komplete (about 100GB samples).. and was wondering whether to take the opportunity to add a second HDD solely for samples?..
 
It would take some housekeeping to move over current audio & samples but nothing like the effort if i attempt to do this post installation of Komplete ... and given I have seen commentary on the board to such effect  would like some input/opinion..
 
thx..

Spot on Joel.

Hey Konradh,
Are you talking about EWQL Hollywood strings?

I have all my EWQL stuff and other samples on 2 x 1TB western Digital Caviar Black 6G (SATA III) drives @ 7200 rpm and they all work fine.


What specifically about performance are you experiencing? Not all spinning drives are created equal. I found going to SATA III drives made a significant difference in disc streaming.

I now have a 250 GIG SSD for OS and programs but with the amount of storage I need SSDs are still not large enough that I could get enough drives in the PC case

Thanks all for the input.. i ordered a second drive last night and will install the Komplete samples on that..  I will need to stick to 2 hdd for the present... i typically run 20 or less audio tracks and so far have had plenty of performance in hand...

if at some point i went to for a third drive for audio.. organisationally what exactly goes on that?..
a) sonar projects..or just the audio for the projects?
b) where do groove clips and loops reside? beatscape content?.. etc


thx again

disc 1. OS, Programs, Plugins and the like including their presets etc.
disc 2. Samples
disc 3. projects (use the Per Project Audio folders setting within SONAR) that will save your SONAR project file eg. yoursong.cwp and audio as follows

Lets say Disc 3 = F:\ Cakewalk Projects\Mysong 1\mysong 1.cwp

F:\ Cakewalk Projects\Mysong 1\Audio\ Mysong 1 audio track 1.wav
F:\ Cakewalk Projects\Mysong 1\Audio\ Mysong 1 audio track 2.wav
F:\ Cakewalk Projects\Mysong 1\Audio\ Mysong 1 audio track 3.wav  and so on


remember you can use space on any or all of the discs for storing infrequently accessed data and backups of finished projects. What this arrangement does is to maximize disc access so that a program can read sample data and project audio with seperate drive heads simultaneously. Something that can't be done when all the data is on one drive.

I would have thought that disc 3 would have been another biggie, seeing as it's storing your X1 projects along with the associated audio files?

Hey, mudgel.  Yes, EWQL (EastWest) Hollywood Strings Diamond Edition (the larger library).

I get a lot of string notes dropping out, but Task Manager shows CPU at 20% or under, and memory use as 4.5 (or less)  out of 12 GBs.  By dropping out, I mean it sounds like a synth that is running out of voices (polyphony problems).  I looked at max voices in Play and I don't remember but it was set on something huge and I increased it—I think it was 512 and I went to 1,028.  Whatever it was was absolutely enough.  I have no problems with Fab Four using Play, but of course I do very simple things with it.
 
The load time for Hollywood is also ridiclulous, which seems to point to the drive, but I could live with the load time if the product would play correctly once it was up.

EastWest forum people say it is the drive.  Sweetwater thinks that could be it.  I do not know the specs on my HDD, but my PC is a Sweetwater Creation Station, 8-core CPU, 12GBs RAM.  At the time I bought the PC (one year ago), it was the most powerful music PC Sweetwater offered.  I run Sonar in 64-bit on Win 7.

In the projects that have problems, I have four instances/tracks of Hollywood: 1st Violins, 2nd Violins, Violas, Celli.  Each instance has no more than 2-3 samples loaded (each articulation in an instance is on a separate MIDI channel).  Example: 1st Violins may have Keyswitch on MIDI Channel 1, and one of the long legatos on Ch 2.  The projects do not have a lot of other VIs: one example has the four isntances of Hollywood, SI Electric Piano, SI Bass, RealGuitar2, and Session Drummer 3. 
 
I should be able to load 5 instances (including basses) with 4-5 articulations per instance.

What I have to do is arrange the strings in a separate project—and I even hear some notes dropping out there—then bounce and import the wavs into the target project.  This is a ridiculous situation for such a powerful PC.   if you can log onto to the EWQL forum, you will see my thread under the Support topic.

One crazy idea I have.  When I first got my PC we had to run some things as 32-bit using bit bridge because the 64-bit versions were not quite ready (e.g., RealGuitar).  I already had EWQL Fab Four at the time.  Later I added Hollywood.  The synth rack says Play is x64, but I wonder if something is screwed up there and Play was installed to use the bit bridge.  I can't even express the thought clearly--just a vague idea.  I have had a lot of system problems with this install.

50Gb for your projects drive?

Last time I looked, my projects drive was about 278Gb used on a 1Tb disc.


Just sayin'.......................

Since I have both Vienna and Hollywood, I understand each has its advantages.  I will say that Vienna is about 20 times easier on your system resources, and its matrix system makes it way easier to have the samples you need on board without a lot of hassle.

Hollywood is very lush.  Vienna is pristine and has no ugly artificats.  Hollywood legato sounds a little smoother to me.  Vienna is much easier to use.  Hollywood has a second violin section.  With Vienna you have to use the same violins for 1st and 2nd, but I have never noticed a real difference in a piece.

Of course, you can also get all the instruments in an orchestra from Vienna, plus solo instruments, chamber strings, etc.
 
If your system is marginal, don't even think about Hollywood Diamond Edition.  Go with Vienna.

Last time I looked, my projects drive was about 278Gb used on a 1Tb disc.

Man - that's pretty big. That's a *lot* of projects
 
 

3 SSD drives. One each for OS, Projects, and Samples.

That is ideal - but the "SAMPLES" disk might be a little expensive. I just treated myself to SSD for the OS and the audio drive - and boy does it make a difference

Bristol_Jonesey

Man - that's pretty big. That's a *lot* of projects

It's 5 years worth - some aren't worthy of being called "projects" but I'm certainly not going to delete them, just in case.......

I'd back them up to DVDs or an external disk. No need to clutter your 'audio' disk with 5 years worth of stuff...

that's actually a good point about not havng to have a TB drive for projects.

I guess having worked in a commercial environment when literally dozens of projects that could be active at any one time and maybe each as big as 10 gig (often with duplicated and redundant audio that can't be deleted until the project is compete and ready to archive) then a really big drive just seems the convenient way to go.

In a project studio though I could see the practical value in a smaller projects drive (and going to SSD) and making use of a larger drive for more frequent archiving of projects.

With big sample librabries like EWQL, Vienna and KONTAKT using SSD's is of course the best way to go if you can fit it onto one. I'm still getting good performance out of SATA III 7200RPM HDD but once we get SSD's that are 500GIG and bigger at affordable proces then perhaps I'll make the move. But as I'm no longer commercial (read retired) I don't have that pressure or money for that matter.