external hard drive for logic - new laptop!

Hi Paul,

I'll offer some opinions.

1) Sound Library Files

• When you move the sound Library it has all the files that are used by Logic like samples, loops and settings. Have a look in the folder
• <HD>/Library/ Application Support/Garage Band

and

<HD>/Library/ Application Support/Logic

• Projects are stored where you choosesave them. The default is ~/Music/Logic

2) Sound Library

• Once Logic is installed you will need to move the sound library and you do this using the function Logic Pro : Sound Library : Relocate Sound Library. Do not do this by just moving the files.
• As for what is there have a look in Logic Pro : Sound Library : Open Sound Library Manager

3) Drives

• Lots of good drives on the market from reputable brands. Personally I am a fan of LaCie. Screaming fast latest and greatest is not necessary. Example: I use a 8 year old LaCie 2 Big 2 disk RAID with new server grade drives that is Thunderbolt 2 ( with an adapter to my MBP ). I get 218 MB/S R/W and that is really good for RAID with drives rated at 220 MB/S R/W. Works great with large ( ~60 track) projects. Note I tested a new (in expensive) Seagate 8TB Drive with USB 3 and I only get 143-148 MB/s R/W.
• Quality and reliability are critical as well as backup. AVOID cheap SSD drives, they often will have performance issues with large file writes.

4) Hubs

• Once again go for quality form a reputable brand. I have a Belkin. OPINION: I avoid hubs for mission critical data streams. My main external drive for music and video as well as my audio interface (UAD) connect directly to the computer. The hub is for everything else ( monitor, UAD DSP, CD/DVD, Backup, other storage. ).

Hope this helps.

Don

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi Paul,

Pancenter raises some good points and I am of the opinion that the Time Machine drive should be stand alone. It can be a relatively inexpensive drive since performance is not critical. When buying a production drive make sure you can test and return if necessary. TEST any drive you buy to make sure it can perform with sustained file write. I like the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test ( free on the App Store ) because you can test in 5Gb blocks. I have tested cheap SSDs and the Write starts fast (300-400 MB/s) but quickly drops (<50MB/s) as the internal buffer fills up while writing to cheap/slow storage. This is why cheap drives are cheap and people can have IO issues with multitrack recording or large projects.

The spiny 4 TB drives I use are Seagate Ironwolf Pro 7200 RPM in LACie frames. Due to the scale of my storage and the number of active projects SSD would cost too much. DON'T Get me wrong the performance of HIGH QUALITY SSDs is fantastic, the catch is the price of high quality. Cheap SSD and cheap spiny drives will only cause problems. Personally I have found Lacie to be great products that have never failed me and they tend to have great IO performance at the port level. I simply update the hard drive every 3-4 years. My #2 is Seagate (packaged external drive ) for non high performance. In the past I have found WD drives slower and failed more often. They all have been drilled and gone to the recycling grave yard.

My storage strategy is like this:

MBP w 1 TB Internal SSD ( 1900 MB/s W, 2200 MB/s R) with 500 GB free as working space ( more on this )

External disk drives

• Cloud based sync storage for documemts
• LaCie 1 TB USB C for iTunes Library (180 MB/s RW)
• Seagate 8 TB USB 3 8 TB Time Machine 143-148 MB/s R/W

• LaCia 2Big ( TB 2) active Logic and Final Cut projects as well ast the Logic Sound Library ( 2 x 4TB in RAID 1 = 4 TB Storage ) 218 MB/s RW direct to the MBP (Seagate Ironwolf Pro 7200 RPM)
• 2 x Lacie D2 (TB 2 ) 4 TB 221 MB/S R/W USB3 - These are a mirror of the RAID that is rotated out for offsite archive storage. (Seagate Ironwolf Pro 7200 RPM)

I use the RAID for active Logic projects and I have never had an issue with latency or IO errors.

When editing video I use the internal HD for the fastest performance possible with 1900 MB/s W, 2200 MB/s R! Fantastic for renders. All source media is copied to the RAID for redundancy and protection. When the project is finished it is moved to the RAID as its long term home. This keeps the internal HD free for projects.

I hope you find these insights helpful.

Prost!

Don

Paul,

One item I didn't see in Don's post. Unless something has recently changed, Logic always downloads to the internal drive. Wait until all of the loops, samples & settings are installed before moving. Also the library cannot exist on the same drive as a Time Machine backup. Not sure if partitioning the drive would get around that.

So many words for an external hd. Because of the reasons pancenter mentioned, I would avoid relocating the logic library onto an external hd. Don’t over-complicate your workflow. Keep it simple….

I use external HDs for my projects and third party libraries which are able to handle this easily.

Hubs: many audio interfaces don’t like to be connected to a hub. I try to connect the audio cards always directly to the computer. The same with the “main-audio” hd. But you have to try yourself.

I forgot something.

Paul wrote:

” I chose the 1 TB drive since I have been trying to utilize the cloud and external drives for most of my data.”

Avoid working with Logic in the cloud directly, use only local, physical HDs to avoid corrupt project and audio files. You may use the cloud for additional backup.

Hi Paul,

With any external drive the truth will be with a test. Tech Specs are under perfect conditions and have wording like "up to..." in regards to performance. As mentioned test with the app BlackMagic Disk Speed Test (for example). Run the test for 5 - 10 minutes on 5 GB mode and that will tell you how the drive performs with a sustained write. This is by no means an comprehensive test procedure for a drive but it will help to weed out drives that will most likely cause problems.

All the best!

Don