External Drive for Virtual Instruments?

[Larz]

Hello,

I have a couple of virtual instruments that use large sample libraries (Spectrasonics Omnisphere, EastWest Goliath) that I have installed on my iMac's internal drive. I have a couple more VIs in the mail (EastWest Stormdrum 2, EastWest Symphonic Orchestra, EastWest Symphonic Choir) and I was wondering should I install them to an external drive instead.

If I should install the VIs to an external drive, can they be installed to the same external drive that is used for audio?

Furthermore, do the ProTools FW drive requirements (http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...4&itemid=23114) apply also for drives that are used for installing VIs?

Here is my ProTools setup:

iMac w/ Intel Core 2 Duo
OS X 10.5.8
PT 7.4.2 cs4
MBox2 Pro
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface'

Thanks,

-Lasse-

[Obsidian Dragon]

Most people keep these on a separate drive from their Audio drive (why add any more competition for the throughput for the streaming audio). For smaller libraries the internal system drive will work but as the libraries grow or you use more of them, it probably will be best to put them on another drive (a third drive). It sounds like a pretty straight forward answer but it is what works best.

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by Larz

I was wondering should I install them to an external drive instead.

yes, absolutely.

Originally Posted by Larz

can they be installed to the same external drive that is used for audio?

They can, but it isn't ideal. The more samples you have playing off the drive, the less audio tracks you can have playing off the drive and vice versa.

You have to remember, the hard drive can only output a finite amount of data every second (Usually around 40MB/sec depending on a number of factors). That data output is split between whatever you have coming off the drive. Once you start getting close to hitting that max number, you'll start getting "drive to slow" errors regardless whether it's all samples that are playing back or all audio tracks or a combination of the two.


You might eventually find that you need two or three drives just for your sample libraries because Things like EWQLSO Platinum, symphonic Choirs, Omnisphere, etc all use hundreds and hundreds of samples simultaneously. Some TV and film composers I know have their plugin libraries spread across as many as 4 drives to keep up with all the sounds they are playing back at one time.

One thing you might want to look into is a RAID 0 or RAID 10 hard drive array. This will give you ample amounts of storage along with blazingly fast output/transfer speeds. It will make a big difference, even using one of the FW800 RAID enclosures. Try to go for a 4 hard drive enclosure. RAID 0 would be the fastest, but if any one drive dies you have to reinstall all your sound libraries from their DVD installers. RAID 10 gives you redundancy (any one drive can die and you don't lose any data), is faster than a single drive by itself, but you lose space (4 drives combined show up as half the total size of all four drives combined). Just know that going in.

For what it's worth, I use RAID 10 drives. Even though you lose half your available space, it's nice knowing that WHEN one of the drives dies (which they will!!!) I don't have to sit there for 3 days installing all the sounds again.

For your external "audio" drive where your projects get saved, you can either use a single drive, or use a second RAID. If RAID, I strongly suggest using a RAID 10 so you don't lose any of your projects/work.

[nst7]

I've run 3 separate drives plus a 003 Rack daisy chained from an FW800 on an Imac with no problems.

[Larz]

Thanks for replies guys. It is pretty clear now that I have to get another drive for the VIs.

The problem is that the MBox2 Pro is notoriously picky when it comes to daisy-chaining external drives. It only works with FW400 drives, but with the current setup there is no way to daisy-chain another FW400 drive as the quad-interface OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro has only one FW400 port.

I have a FW400+USB version of the same drive (w/ Oxford 934) in the mail which has two FW400 ports. I planning to connect the new drive as follows: iMac -> FW800toFW400 cable -> MBox2 Pro -> FW400 drive -> FW400 drive (quad-interface). Let's see if it works. If you have better suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks again.

-Lasse-

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by Larz

Thanks for replies guys. It is pretty clear now that I have to get another drive for the VIs.

The problem is that the MBox2 Pro is notoriously picky when it comes to daisy-chaining external drives. It only works with FW400 drives, but with the current setup there is no way to daisy-chain another FW400 drive as the quad-interface OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro has only one FW400 port.

I have a FW400+USB version of the same drive (w/ Oxford 934) in the mail which has two FW400 ports. I planning to connect the new drive as follows: iMac -> FW800toFW400 cable -> MBox2 Pro -> FW400 drive -> FW400 drive (quad-interface). Let's see if it works. If you have better suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks again.

-Lasse-

Not sure about the OWC enclosure, but MOST enclosures that have FW400 and FW800 ports, the ports are connected. You can go into one drive FW400, and come out of that drive FW800 into another drive. Once you go 400, you don't need to stay with FW400 cable. I did this exact setup at one composer's house that I work out of.

So, you can go FW800to400 cable->MBox2PRo->FW800 OWC DRive ->FW800 drive without any problems. Just know, that everything will be running at FW400 speeds... but that's no problem. Everything will still work, FW800 is backward compatible with FW400 so you are all good.

[Larz]

Originally Posted by O.G. Killa

Not sure about the OWC enclosure, but MOST enclosures that have FW400 and FW800 ports, the ports are connected. You can go into one drive FW400, and come out of that drive FW800 into another drive. Once you go 400, you don't need to stay with FW400 cable. I did this exact setup at one composer's house that I work out of.

So, you can go FW800to400 cable->MBox2PRo->FW800 OWC DRive ->FW800 drive without any problems. Just know, that everything will be running at FW400 speeds... but that's no problem. Everything will still work, FW800 is backward compatible with FW400 so you are all good.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

Much appreciated.

-Lasse-

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by O.G. Killa

So, you can go FW800to400 cable->MBox2PRo->FW800 OWC DRive ->FW800 drive without any problems. Just know, that everything will be running at FW400 speeds... but that's no problem. Everything will still work, FW800 is backward compatible with FW400 so you are all good.

oops just noticed a typo... should be

FW800to400 cable->MBox2PRo->FW400 OWC DRive ->FW800 drive without any problems.

hopefully you understood that I meant that anyway.

[oreo1]

I've almost got the advice given freely here. but let me ask it one more time as it relates to my situation, just to be perfectly clear. I'm kind of slow.

Right now I have PT 8 installed on my boot drive. i keep all my PT data on a separate internal drive named MEDIA. My virtual instruments are allocated the same way, with (for example) Reaktor and Kontakt installed on my boot drive, but all its instruments and samples living on the MEDIA drive.

AND...when I add certain big Reaktor instruments, (like the limelite drums or the Flatblaster effects) I ALWAYS haveto contend with the PT message to increase buffer size. Sometimes it goes away, but even so, if I try to add yet another instrument (say Guitar Rig) the system often goes on overload until I bounce the audio track with the instrument on it, to a new track and then delete the original track.

Are you guys saying that those buffer messages will disappear (or at least be more contained) if I load these instruments and their samples onto an 3rd drive? Or are you saying that it will help a little, but maybe not enough to let me load 2 or 3 Virtual Instruments at the same time. I would love to be able to do that.

[idleave]

i have also been wondering if its right to install the instraments AND their sounds to the same 3rd drive or store the instraments to the boot drive and just the sounds to the 3rd drive.

thanks..