Where to record audio files to

[PhilipKapadia]

Hi all,

So I have a new custom PC build setup. The system will be used ONLY for 8 c channel live recording. I have a separate station for audio mixing/editing.

I'm wondering which location I can record to (session folder).

I have an internal SSD that is my C drive, That is a very quick Samsung SSD. Can I save my session folder to the same drive as my windows drive? Theoretically, that should be no problem... The SSD should have more than enough bandwidth to record 8 channels of audio to simultaneously.

Do I really need to invest in an external drive to record to? What would be best, an SSD or a fast spinning drive?

Thanks in advance!

[Darryl Ramm]

Record anywhere you want.

Why would you want a slow old spinning HDD for anything except backup/archive... they are great for archiving.

If recording to your internal SSD works for you (space etc.) then go for it. That will be more reliable than any external drive with risk of connection errors and finger problems. There was *never* a requirement to record to an *external* drive, in the ancient days of slow HDD there was a requirement to record to a separate dedicated HDD, which could have been internal or external.

Hopefully you have a modern M.2 NVMe internal SSD, just because they are stinking fast, and not much more $$$ than a slower SATA SSD.

Now how many external/removable SSDs or HDD do you have to back up sessions to... ?

[albee1952]

For me, there are 2 questions that matter on this:
#1-How big is your SSD?
#2-Are you using a laptop or a desktop?

Re #1-if your C: drive is 500GB or smaller, you may find yourself moving sessions off to conserve working space(and you should always leave 10-15% open anyway).
Re #2-if its a desktop, install another SSD and record to that. My reason being that you can do backups of your system drive and audio drive separately(to external drives), and so you can copy important sessions so they exist on both internal drives(in addition to saving copies on an external drive). If your stuff doesn't exist in at least 3 places, then its not backed up! If you're thinking, "surely my new drive(s) won't fail for years", you could be wrong. That means, back up anything that you don't want to lose! Sorry to sound like a broken record on this, but I've had drives fail at 2 weeks, 1 year, and even 6 weeks with a Samsung SSD, so I take no chances now.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Record anywhere you want...

+1. Use the Pro Tools disk cache feature.

[PhilipKapadia]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Record anywhere you want.

Why would you want a slow old spinning HDD for anything except backup/archive... they are great for archiving.

If recording to your internal SSD works for you (space etc.) then go for it. That will be more reliable than any external drive with risk of connection errors and finger problems. There was *never* a requirement to record to an *external* drive, in the ancient days of slow HDD there was a requirement to record to a separate dedicated HDD, which could have been internal or external.

Hopefully you have a modern M.2 NVMe internal SSD, just because they are stinking fast, and not much more $$$ than a slower SATA SSD.

Now how many external/removable SSDs or HDD do you have to back up sessions to... ?

Thank you!

No, I think SSDs are the best way to go.

I ask because as some on here might remember I'm more familiar with video systems e.g. Avid's Media Composer, and one thing we do NOT do is save video files on the C drive as there isn't enough bandwith to go round with video. I wanted to understand if there were similar limitations/traps on the audio side, but it seems fine.

[PhilipKapadia]

Originally Posted by albee1952

For me, there are 2 questions that matter on this:
#1-How big is your SSD?
#2-Are you using a laptop or a desktop?

Re #1-if your C: drive is 500GB or smaller, you may find yourself moving sessions off to conserve working space(and you should always leave 10-15% open anyway).
Re #2-if its a desktop, install another SSD and record to that. My reason being that you can do backups of your system drive and audio drive separately(to external drives), and so you can copy important sessions so they exist on both internal drives(in addition to saving copies on an external drive). If your stuff doesn't exist in at least 3 places, then its not backed up! If you're thinking, "surely my new drive(s) won't fail for years", you could be wrong. That means, back up anything that you don't want to lose! Sorry to sound like a broken record on this, but I've had drives fail at 2 weeks, 1 year, and even 6 weeks with a Samsung SSD, so I take no chances now.

I'm running a custom built Pro Tools Studio desktop. It has a SATA SSD.

As I mentioned I have a separate system for mixing which is networked together, so I will be moving files across to that system after every session. So I only really need a temp location during recording

[PhilipKapadia]

And might I also ask, where does Pro Tools store files that are recording by default? Is it in the Pro Tools project folder? Session Data Folder?

How can I choose where to save the recording files in Pro Tools?

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by PhilipKapadia

And might I also ask, where does Pro Tools store files that are recording by default? Is it in the Pro Tools project folder? Session Data Folder?

How can I choose where to save the recording files in Pro Tools?

Humm ? not sure why in custom build you wound not have as Darrel mentioned and internal PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD But that is another discussion.

So Me I would just record to your main system SSD drive (unless it is too small like 256 GB ) which you still have not listed how big it is ?

Also note unless you are using the cloud there should not be a "Project Folder"

There will be a Session Folder which is where all the files should be and if I remember correctly the default location is documents on Mac (don't know about Windows ) BUT Yes you can assign its storage location. Me I have PT set up to launch showing the Dashboard and at the bottom you can assign the storage location

Me and for you (given what you are doing transferring every time) I would just assign the Desktop as the location
You can also assign where to Bounce mix to in that dialog box

[smurfyou]

If you're used to video workflows, one difference is that PT is very focused on monolithic projects. There is no central Capture or Render location. It wants everything in each specific session's folder. (You can link to external media of course)

So unless you specify otherwise the recorded files will be in your session folder.

[junkgear]

The default session location is on the dashboard:

Click the Location button to specify the default location for saving sessions.

There is also an option you can enable, right above the location button, so that PT will prompt you for a location whenever creating a session.