Hi,
I am a long time Cubase user and have always used Windows. I just order a Mac (Mini) for the first time. I have always used three HDs: one for the OS, one for audio storage and projects, and one for samples. My current computer is about 7-8 years old and has an SSD and two 7200 rpm drives.
I would like a similar set up with my new Mac but was wondering if it was possible to have the audio files and samples on one external SSD/ NVME. With the speed and throughput of usb 3.2 or thunderbolt, is this possible? I mostly record live guitar, bass and vocals. I use EZDrummer for the majority of my drums along with Analog Lab and the occasional Kontakt and very occasionally a basic Spitfire orchestra patch.
Since I have been doing this with two 7200 rpm drives, I would think one nvme (maybe a regular ssd?) would work as its way faster than two mechanical drives.
Any help on the topic would be very appreciated.
Cheers,
Dean
An excellent idea. Best practice still dictates separate drives for OS, audio and samples/VSTi’s. All 3 being SSD’s would give very quick access. Backing up all 3 drives is very important: when rotational drives fail they usually fail slowly (a few sectors at a time) but SSD’s can go all at once. I use 8TB 5400 external drives for this.
Are you familiar with this company:
Other World Computing
You may be interested in these products:
OWC ThunderBlade - OWC Digital
OWC Express 4M2 - OWC Digital
-Mark
Thanks for the response Mark.
I am familiar with OWC. I bought an external FW drive back in ‘04 when I was working in a studio in LA. Haha!
In fact, I bought a OWC Mercury Elite Dual Mini with two standard SSDs when I bought the Mac Mini (none have arrived yet). The enclosure is USB 3.2 but I worry each drive won’t have enough bandwidth to work efficiently. Am I wrong? I am looking for enough speed and bandwidth but don’t need any thing crazy fast. Like I said, two 7200 SATA drives have been working just fine up to this point.
Thanks for the enclosure recommendations but those are WAY out of the price range. Love the idea of it but way more than I need. I may end up returning the OWC MEDM and getting one nvme and a thunderbolt enclosure and giving it a go. I also want something small and quiet that I can mount under my deskto get it out of the way and eliminate clutter.
This is what I do… something to keep in mind though…AFAIK there’s a bug where if you save projects on external drives on Mac using the “Reveal in Finder” doesn’t work in a lot of cases if you’re trying to find a sample or open a file in Finder from Cubase. This doesn’t happen if the project is on your local drive though… everything else works though and samples load and play just fine… it’s just opening them in Finder seems to be broken for some reason…
Thank you for the response. So just to be clear, are you using the OWC Mercury Elite Dual mini or you are using a single nvme to hold both the projects and sample. If the latter, is it in a thunderbolt enclosure?