|
Avid Pro Audio CommunityHow to Join & Post • Community Terms of Use • Help Us Help YouKnowledge Base Search • Community Search • Learn & Support |
#1
|
||||
|
||||
Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Hey guys,
Lately, I've been having issues with 2020.5... apparently CPU related. I've checked the usual suspects; it's not plugins. I've trashed prefs. I've done clean re-installs. All recommended optimizations are in place together with lesser known Windows optimizations that I've used for years. I have yet to ascertain if this is only 2020.5 related, because I'd noticed earlier that 2020.3 seemed to use CPU more efficiently than my previous versions. However, track presets together with fader tracks have become very important in my current workflow, so I'd rather not have to go back to 2020.3. That said, I'm investigating other areas that could enhance performance. As a long-time PT user I'm familiar with the idea of spreading audio onto multiple drives for better performance. I've never actually had to do this though because the SSD's I use seem to provide all the needed speed for high performance. My question is this: Will multiple SSD's provide even better performance on large sessions? My head tells me no, but I do not know for certain. Would our DUC gurus please provide more insight? BTW, does assignment of tracks to different drives work for playback of previously recorded audio or is it only meant for recording? I messed with it for a while without any success.
__________________
MSI Pro Z790 Edge | i913900k @ 5.7GHz | 64GB DDR5 5600| 8TB NVMe | 3TB SATA SSD |10TB WD Black | Audient iD14 | PT 2022.12| Win 11 Pro | Tons of VIs and plugins |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
It would probably depend on the speed of your SSD's. A NVMe drive, probably not going to hit the limits of its throughput.
I like to keep my projects off my OS drive, in case I need to do a fresh install - I don't have to worry about copying back and forth. Personally, here's how I'm doing it: C: - OS/Pro Tools on NVMe drive D: - Pro Tools sessions on SATA SSD drive E: - Samples, backups and other data on 2TB HDD EDIT - and an external 2TB eSATA HDD for proper backup.. Joel
__________________
Jam Space: HP Elite 6300 / Core i5 3770 / 24GB RAM / Win 11 Pro Pro Tools HD / Focusrite 18i20 + M-Audio ProFire 2626 Home: Asus B450 Pro4 / Ryzen 5 2600 / 32GB RAM / Win 11 Pro Pro Tools HD / Focusrite 18i20 + M-Audio ProFire 2626 Rig: Eleven Rack / ART SLA1 / Two 2x10 Passive Monitors / FCB1010 w/ EurekaPROM |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Quote:
__________________
MSI Pro Z790 Edge | i913900k @ 5.7GHz | 64GB DDR5 5600| 8TB NVMe | 3TB SATA SSD |10TB WD Black | Audient iD14 | PT 2022.12| Win 11 Pro | Tons of VIs and plugins |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Quote:
__________________
MSI Pro Z790 Edge | i913900k @ 5.7GHz | 64GB DDR5 5600| 8TB NVMe | 3TB SATA SSD |10TB WD Black | Audient iD14 | PT 2022.12| Win 11 Pro | Tons of VIs and plugins |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
I'm quite happy with the Ryzen - no issues with Pro Tools. I'm not much of a VI user, pretty much all acoustic intstruments. Usually 20-30 tracks with minimal plugins for recording (amp sims, reverb etc.), 4-5 plugins per track during mixing.
I'm not an AMD fanboy or anything, but I do appreciate some decisions that AMD has made since even before Ryzen. It's impressive how many CPU genereations can run in the AM4 socket. Joel
__________________
Jam Space: HP Elite 6300 / Core i5 3770 / 24GB RAM / Win 11 Pro Pro Tools HD / Focusrite 18i20 + M-Audio ProFire 2626 Home: Asus B450 Pro4 / Ryzen 5 2600 / 32GB RAM / Win 11 Pro Pro Tools HD / Focusrite 18i20 + M-Audio ProFire 2626 Rig: Eleven Rack / ART SLA1 / Two 2x10 Passive Monitors / FCB1010 w/ EurekaPROM |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Use the system usage meter in Pro Tools and look at the disk meter. If it's maxing out, then another hard drive will help, but if it's low then you're fine.
|
#7
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
I've been fine with a single PCIe SSD since 2013, but am not doing heavy sample based VI's. Anyway, when your transfer rates are in the gigabyte range you don't usually need to worry about it.
__________________
Janne What we do in life, echoes in eternity. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Quote:
FWIW even a slow SSD with a 600 MB/sec transfer speed sound have a enough bandwidth to do 500 tracks or more @ 96K/24 Bit |
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Maybe so. The problem with spinners is and has always been latency, which is greatly reduced with SSD without moving parts. Throughput is not so much of an issue. There are however other variables within every system, so I would first do a dummy stress test (record X tracks of silent audio for Y minutes using Z sampling rate) to determine if it is suitable in itself for what you want to do with it.
__________________
Janne What we do in life, echoes in eternity. |
#10
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Are Multiple Audio Drives Still Necessary with SSDs?
Thanks for the input, guys. It looks like the problem isn't from the disk. Has anyone noticed CPU issues with 2020.5?
__________________
MSI Pro Z790 Edge | i913900k @ 5.7GHz | 64GB DDR5 5600| 8TB NVMe | 3TB SATA SSD |10TB WD Black | Audient iD14 | PT 2022.12| Win 11 Pro | Tons of VIs and plugins |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Splitting a session's audio files over multiple drives | WildHoney | Pro Tools TDM Systems (Mac) | 6 | 05-10-2011 03:19 PM |
Audio files on multiple drives | Steve White | Post - Surround - Video | 2 | 03-03-2011 01:22 PM |
Configuring multiple audio hard drives | Carl Fuehrer | 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) | 2 | 01-01-2005 02:44 PM |
How do you get audio to go to multiple drives? | Bobby Peru | Pro Tools TDM Systems (Mac) | 0 | 06-21-2004 03:12 PM |
audio across multiple firewire drives? | Jim Borchardt | Pro Tools TDM Systems (Mac) | 1 | 01-04-2003 10:10 AM |