Logic Pro 8 Writing to ext HD

[ButchGTR]

I've been a bad, bad boy! I've had Logic for a few months and I haven't optimized my rig for the best performance. I'd love to drop in another gig of ram upgrade my HD to a 320g 7200 in the MM but I'm a bit antsy of screwing up and having NOTHING (but my coughPC!!) and....Until I can afford a Mac Pro I've decide to not go with anymore stop gaps (that's what the MM was) when I can invest in something I can use that's very useable.

on that note...... the MM is okay...butbeside the ram and CPU limitations I'm postive my HD is dragging down the performance. I had the HD cleared out to have about 20g free. I'm down to below ten now and I need to clear it out again or find another method such as using my external drive.

herein lies my question(s).

I understand Logic needs to be on the boot drive (the internal)

1.Can I write to and read projects to/from an external HD?
2.Since the 250g HD is USB2 and FW can I use it USB?
3.If I have to use the FW port the Mini only has one (400).The Inspire ( I wish it was.......Duet coming soon!!) is FW so there goes that port but can I daisy chain them?( I haven't tried yet)
4.What's the optimum order?
5.I have a small library( a few gigs) of samples for Kontakt.Should it go on the ex HD also?
6.Can my plugs(Komplete) be on the ex HD?
7.Can my apple loops be on the ex HD?
8. What's the meaning of life?????

Thanks for any help....especially #8


Butch

 

[Gio]

Writing to external HD

Hi Butch,

1.Can I write to and read projects to/from an external HD?
Yes you can
2.Since the 250g HD is USB2 and FW can I use it USB?
Yes
3.If I have to use the FW port the Mini only has one (400).The Inspire ( I wish it was.......Duet coming soon!!) is FW so there goes that port but can I daisy chain them?( I haven't tried yet)
Is the inspire a hard drive? if it is, then yes you can chain them.
4.What's the optimum order?
Computer-> Audio Interface-> Drives. (this works for me, not sure if its THE way to do it)
5.I have a small library( a few gigs) of samples for Kontakt.Should it go on the ex HD also?
I have my Kontakt stuff on an external (Kontakt 3 sometimes crashes trying to read from my external, dunno whats wrong)
6.Can my plugs(Komplete) be on the ex HD?
No, those need to be on the internal (I believe)
7.Can my apple loops be on the ex HD?
Yes, all mine are...
8. What's the meaning of life?????
Whatever you want it to be, its all in your mind....

Ciao
Gio

 

[Pete Thomas]

1.Can I write to and read projects to/from an external HD?

In addition to the great answers, I would suggest you take a look at the PC notes in the latest Sound on Sound, it discusses this very thing, and there seem to be some reasons why this might not necessarily be a good thing.

 

[ButchGTR]

Thanks Gio..I'm experimenting now....I get a bit cautious ....sometimes something as simple has modifying hookups is a chore just wanted a confirmation or two (or objection) and someone to push me there hehehe...

Pete thanx...got a direct link to the post in question?..... it's pretty crowded over there

BP

 

[Pete Thomas]

Thanks Gio..I'm experimenting now....I get a bit cautious ....sometimes something as simple has modifying hookups is a chore just wanted a confirmation or two (or objection) and someone to push me there hehehe...

Pete thanx...got a direct link to the post in question?..... it's pretty crowded over there

Crowded over where?

I was talking about April Sound on Sound, page 146.

 

[ButchGTR]

Thanks Gio..I'm experimenting now....I get a bit cautious ....sometimes something as simple has modifying hookups is a chore just wanted a confirmation or two (or objection) and someone to push me there hehehe...

Pete thanx...got a direct link to the post in question?..... it's pretty crowded over there

Crowded over where?

I was talking about April Sound on Sound, page 146.

Pete,
SoS online......

I don't subscribe to SoS ..could you give me the rundown on the article or point to the article if it is online.Thanks.

BP

 

[Pete Thomas]

I don't subscribe to SoS ..could you give me the rundown on the article or point to the article if it is online.Thanks.

It's not a featured article, just the regular PC Notes, if it's online you'll find it from the main page.

I didn't pay much attention as I don't use a PC these days,but looked like an informed article re: PCs, drives, Logic projects and audioflies.

 

[Sascha Franck]

In addition to the great answers, I would suggest you take a look at the PC notes in the latest Sound on Sound, it discusses this very thing, and there seem to be some reasons why this might not necessarily be a good thing.

Hm, couldn't find that article (note: I'm not a SOS subscriber).
I'd really be interested about their findings because I'm running projects from external drives since years, using both PCs and Macs. Apart from some obvious things (such as USB drives being slower than internal IDE/SATA ones), I never experienced the slightest problems.
Especially for smaller/slower machines and in case you don't need to be mobile a lot, adding an external drive can be a massive benefit. Keeping your projects on an external drive is even the best idea (if you can have your drive always connected, which should be the case with a Mac Mini), simply because sample libraries require fast seek and access times, just the thing that internal drives usually are good for, while audio tracks require constant throughput - and considering that Logic 8 is adressing the prebuffering for audio tracks on itself (that's new in L8), any external drive should be just fine for projects. Heck, I can play back between 100-120 stereo tracks in 24bit/44.1kHz from a buspowered 2.5" USB drive.
I really don't know why SOS might think storing projects on external drives would be a bad idea when it actually is the best idea for anybody not being able to add internal drives.

- Sascha

 

[Pete Thomas]

Wel, as I said I didn't pay much attention, I was just skimming through. Maybe they were saying not installing the app rather than the project on an external drive.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Wel, as I said I didn't pay much attention, I was just skimming through. Maybe they were saying not installing the app rather than the project on an external drive.

Yeah, that might be a can of worms. I often installed applications on something else but my C: partition under Windows (there's some benefits in doing so, won't go into the details), but you better know what you're doing.
Under OSX, there seem to be plenty of reasons in not doing so, just to mention the automatic software updates, which won't work for any of Apple's own applications anymore, once you place them elsewhere but in the default location. In the end, even if that might give you more space on your system drive, I wouldn't bother with it anymore, especially not in these days of fairly large drives being available for cheap. I even stopped bothering on my Windows machine(s), which clearly benefit the most from such tactics. I'd rather just buy a larger system drive.

Anything else however can be placed wherever on your drives. Sometimes it requires a bit of tweaking (setting up aliases or symbolic links, re-indexing Apple Loops, waiting for the EXS to find reordered samples on first load, pointing Kontakt/Battery to different default folders, things like that), but it's defenitely doable. And quite worth the effort, too, at least in many cases.

- Sascha