Hi all,

Ok, we are all aware by now that its best to use the C: Drive for Audio programs only and that your Sonar audio files/Samples etc should be kept on a separate drive completely which I've always had.

Though there are a couple of other things I''d love to hear your thoughts on:

Where best to place your Softsynth Library files.  Some can be huge these days and with partitions, I would like to have these on a dedicated partition on my new drive.
Also my SAMPLES.  I do use some big wave samples and have always had these also on there own partition.  So knowing that the 1st partition of each drive will give the best performance and the further out the files are on the drive the more access time may be needed.  Maybe not an issue but just trying to setup in the best way when deciding whether or not to use so may partitions and what you feel is the best practice here.

My SATA HDDs setup as it stands:

DRIVE1
Parition1 C: O.S and all Music apps/Programs (Nothing else)
Parition2 D: Softsynth Libraries (Kontakts, Rompler data files etc)


DRIVE2
Parition1 E: SONAR Audio data (various per project folders)
Parition2 F: Samples (waves for use within Softsampler)


Much thanks for your thoughts...

Three drives minimum, no partitions on any.
C: OS, Sonar, all synths (no content, just the dlls any "program" files) and VST.
D: All the project files (which of course contain the audio files)
E: All sample files for the synths on the "C" drive.
Fourth drive (optional);
F: I call this "Studio"; data, finished mixes, Sonar's waveform picture files.
I like to keep the pic files on a separate drive as these are being "drawn" while
Sonar is "working".
If you have "streaming" synths, I would keep them on a separate drive from the "static" libraries.

Tom
 

Do you think Partitioning other drives can have a "substantial" impact on audio performance?

> Considering that my essential (Disk1) C: PROGRAMS and (Disk2) D: SONAR AUDIO is in place?.



My Casing only has room for 2 DRIVES

Do not use partitions.
In a physical HDD all the R/W heads (however many) are physically linked so it can only read/write to a single partition at any one time.

Do not link multiple HDDs in striped sets.
All the R/W heads across all linked HDDs become virtually linked and act as one, thus you loose the ability to read from more than on file at once.


Best option,  use as many cheap, large HDDs as you can fit in your machine and spread your files across them all.

moffdnb


Do you think Partitioning other drives can have a "substantial" impact on audio performance?

> Considering that my essential (Disk1) C: PROGRAMS and (Disk2) D: SONAR AUDIO is in place?.



My Casing only has room for 2 DRIVES

You MIGHT be able to stream any sample libraries via a fast external USB drive

Fast is the key word here - 7,200RPM is recommended, and don't get any sort of "Green" drive

Does it make any difference if I assign a different drive letter to my SONAR audio Drive?

i.e. Do I need to give it a D: assignment rather then E: (which it is now) considering it is still the 1st partition on its own HDD (for access speed)

Mine is the "A" drive.
IIRC XP would not let an HDD be the "A" drive.
Win 7 doesn't care.

T

With an ssd and a traditional hd in the pc.. Id say you are better off taking full advantage of the ssd speed advantage and having all work in progress on the ssd including audio. For me.. OS, X2, vstis, drivers, fx, current audio, slimmed down sample library and current projects = one unpartitioned 248gb ssd drive named C:. Old audio data and archived projects, big/complete sample library and back up of ssd drive = one sata3 2tb 7200rpm hd named e:. I never got the thing with partitions apart from just acting like an additional folder on a hard disk. Just complicating things really. Its the same physical drive and the risks seem to cancel out the benefits one to one. Cant recommend ssds enough.

The bigger the better, and no partitioning. As many as you want to use. 

SSD for audio?
I thought constant write/rewrite was an issue for an SSD?
Great for your sample libraries, fast load etc.
Am I way off here?

T