How to Move Sound Effects Folder onto External Hard Drive?

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Level 1

4 points

How to Move Sound Effects Folder onto External Hard Drive?

Hello! I'm currently wanting to move my sound effects library over to an external hard drive as it'll free up space on my Mac for editing. I don't know any of the commands really. I've only just found out how to move over my Motion Templates, which saved me 65GB. My sound library is way larger than that and would love some help. I basically just need the commands for the terminal and the path to put. Much appreciated!

I know that the audio is located here: /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/Final Cut Pro Sound Effects

Posted on Nov 13, 2022 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

jkkuehne

Level 1

7 points

Nov 13, 2022 5:47 PM in response to ActuallyNox

@ActuallyNox,

My personal SFX library is 40GB and I have it on an external RAID SSD Array and is available in FCP.

All you need to do is make an alias of the folder where you keep your SFX and then copy that alias into the Final Cut Pro Sound Effects folder. Just remove the word "alias" from the file name.

Keep in mind that depending on the speed of your drive there will be some delay as FCP builds the catalogue before you can do a search.

The other option is to build your SFX library into Apple Music which you can also store on an external drive. I have a separate Music Library with all of my SFX and Production Music in it. For FCP to access your separate library you will need to use Option+CMD to select the different Music library before launching FCP since it chooses the latest selected library.

Also, as Tom noted above, I also have a single 2TB SSD that I assign all of my cache and render files to. I also keep the FCP backups on this drive.

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Answer 2

Nov 13, 2022 12:06 PM in response to ActuallyNox

If you don’t mind my saying, I think that are probably approaching this from the wrong perspective.

(in my defense, I said “probably”…)

Unless you have downloaded a monster number of sound effects, they should not take a huge amount of space; in most cases, the size of actual video media used in your production would easily dwarf these effects.

Instead of trying to make space in the system drive, consider putting your working media in an external SSD and keeping the permanent stuff like effects and templates in the default places.

If you still want to move effects, it’s not that hard, though. Think about it and let us know.

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Answer 3

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:42 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I previously used optimized media.I recently found out about proxy media, which I plan on importing all my content from now on as proxy. Essentially I had a bundle that was 223GB on my 500GB SSD. So I've been emptying the render files a ton! That's why I'm trying to have space, but I've never edited a full video with proxy before. So that may help with size?

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:50 PM in response to ActuallyNox

The proxies aren’t really small so that is added into the original media. If the system has trouble playing back original then definitely use proxies. Don’t use optimized as they are huge. If you need to use optimized or proxy assign a location/folder on the external drive for your media. That’s where the optimized/proxies will be created. The render files are in the cache bundle.

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Answer 5

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:52 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Alright will do. I believe that the main reason why my system has trouble playing back media generally is because I edit content that has subtitled animations, video effects, and many different title effects.

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Answer 6

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:59 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

When I play the video with optimized selected; the video is generally stuttery due to me adding a title with a animation and 1 or 2 effects with it. When I switch it over to proxy, I'm able to see all the effects and media together; the media is always blurry while editing though. I highly doubt that matters, as when I finish a project I switch it back to optimized.

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Answer 7

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 1:08 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

No. After everything is rendered it plays smoothly. The system I don't believe is the issue. It's more or less just space I believe. Once my main SSD gets filled up, it takes time for it to load mid project. I currently have a M1 Pro Chip on a 2021 model Macbook.

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Answer 8

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:13 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I'd like to know how since I keep background rendering on most of the time. I get where you're coming from too! Currently the size of the sound effects folder is 17GB 🤣

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:29 PM in response to ActuallyNox

If you have your media on an external SSD and assign your cache to the same drive then the original and generated files don’t take up space on the system drive.

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Answer 10

ActuallyNox Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:36 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Will I only need to change the location of the cache for this to work or will I also need to change the Media and Motion Content too?

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:38 PM in response to ActuallyNox

No. You can leave the media where it is if you wish and the Motion Templates as well. Are you using optimized or proxy files in addition to the render files?

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Answer 12

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,867 points

Nov 13, 2022 12:56 PM in response to ActuallyNox

Are you still having playback problems after you render? Proxy files will help to some extend, but if it’s really complex and the system isn’t very powerful then rendering is the only solution.

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