DAW HDD Setup

[monroe]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

I've been seeking out and reading comments on this but there is one
question I can't find an answer to. Given the setup of a system/apps
HDD, another separate data/recording HDD . . . . where would be the
ideal place to put sample data that is drawn on prior to or during the
recording process (some smaller samples . . . . some streamed from
disk)?
--

Monroe

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Monroe <amonroe@telusplanet.net> wrote in
news:hbnhi05q69pjlk4gfpe9tfisn2fj26tqs0@4ax.com:

> I've been seeking out and reading comments on this but there is one
> question I can't find an answer to. Given the setup of a system/apps
> HDD, another separate data/recording HDD . . . . where would be the
> ideal place to put sample data that is drawn on prior to or during the
> recording process (some smaller samples . . . . some streamed from
> disk)?
> --
>
> Monroe
>

On the system drive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <hbnhi05q69pjlk4gfpe9tfisn2fj26tqs0@4ax.com> amonroe@telusplanet.net writes:

> Given the setup of a system/apps
> HDD, another separate data/recording HDD . . . . where would be the
> ideal place to put sample data that is drawn on prior to or during the
> recording process (some smaller samples . . . . some streamed from
> disk)?

Seeing as how they're going to be played along with the recorded
tracks it seems like a good idea to put them on the drive that's
optimized for that kind of service and won't get interrupted with
silly OS stuff.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

 

[monroe]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

If the samples are put on the data/recording drive, and the system
will need to access both the audio file and (potentially) the sample
files for both recording and playback, would this create a problem?
There is more than just the principal question from myself in this;
I'm not exactly sure what happens with streaming sample files during
recording and playback . . . . particularly with respect to HDD
access. Any info or comments would be appreciated.

On 22 Aug 2004 21:07:02 -0400, mrivers@d-and-d.com (Mike Rivers)
wrote:

>
>In article <hbnhi05q69pjlk4gfpe9tfisn2fj26tqs0@4ax.com> amonroe@telusplanet.net writes:
>
>> Given the setup of a system/apps
>> HDD, another separate data/recording HDD . . . . where would be the
>> ideal place to put sample data that is drawn on prior to or during the
>> recording process (some smaller samples . . . . some streamed from
>> disk)?
>
>Seeing as how they're going to be played along with the recorded
>tracks it seems like a good idea to put them on the drive that's
>optimized for that kind of service and won't get interrupted with
>silly OS stuff.

--

Monroe

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <90iii0pvnlnr8djtu0pk2te38o2u0ddms3@4ax.com> amonroe@telusplanet.net writes:

> If the samples are put on the data/recording drive, and the system
> will need to access both the audio file and (potentially) the sample
> files for both recording and playback, would this create a problem?

What do you thing that recorded audio is? It's samples. There should
be no difference between playing one or the other. If they're
"samples" in the sense that they're really only loaded once (into
memory) and then played from there, then it doesn't matter where
they're stored. But you said some were "streaming" and that means that
they're too large to go into memory and have to be played back off the
disk. In that case, they're just like audio that's recorded by another
program.

However, recognize that the above is just intuition on my part, and
often as not, when dealing with computer, intuition is either just
plain wrong, or what's best for one system may not be best for
another system. There are more differences between systems than
you can shake a mouse at. Best thing is to do what your gut tells
you to do, shake it down really good before you have a critical
project, and just do whatever works best (or at least adequately)
for your system.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Monroe wrote:
> If the samples are put on the data/recording drive, and the system
> will need to access both the audio file and (potentially) the sample
> files for both recording and playback, would this create a problem?
> There is more than just the principal question from myself in this;
> I'm not exactly sure what happens with streaming sample files during
> recording and playback . . . . particularly with respect to HDD
> access. Any info or comments would be appreciated.

If the size of the samples are fairly small I imagine they'll be cached
in the operating system's file cache, so the hard drive may not need to
do much seeking. I don't imagine it'd be much of a problem no-matter
where you put them on modern HDD's.

The program your using my even load the samples completely into memory,
and if they are big samples, that memory may get swapped out to the
system swap file, so then it becomes a case of where the swap file is...

The best thing to do is try it and see how much disk activity you get.

Personally I've never had any trouble doing multitrack playback (e.g. 16
previously sampled tracks) while recording a stereo track on the same
disk (using Cubase SX); which is obviously a very usual thing to do on a
DAW.

Of course, YMMV.

--
Mark Simonetti.
Freelance Software Engineer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 18:34:48 GMT, Monroe <amonroe@telusplanet.net>
wrote:

>I've been seeking out and reading comments on this but there is one
>question I can't find an answer to. Given the setup of a system/apps
>HDD, another separate data/recording HDD . . . . where would be the
>ideal place to put sample data that is drawn on prior to or during the
>recording process (some smaller samples . . . . some streamed from
>disk)?


You're drawing data from disk to play multiple audio tracks. You're
drawing data from disk to play your samples. It would seem logical to
spread the load.

Any demands made by the operating system once your music programs are
loaded and running will be minimal, if any at all. What would need
re-arranging half-way through a recording session?

The real key to a trouble-free system of this type is to install ample
RAM. Stick 2GB in and even the large sample sets from Gigasampler
etc. can load to memory. It's the instant and random access required
of these which cause problems rather than the audio tracks. Windows
and your DAW application are very good at pre-caching audio track
data, less good at guessing which sampled note you are about to play
;-)

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect