SOUND ON SOUND

[DigitalMusicProduction]

Hi

I will be looking to back up projects and install a sample library on a seperate drive to run in Logic, therefore could anyone recommend an industry standard external SSD, preferably 500Gb or 1Tb

MacBook Pro,

Thanks.

[Luke W]

If it's just for backups rather than running sessions from you might be better off with HDD over SSD, they're still quite a bit cheaper at the moment. I'm using Lacie D2 drives for backup at the moment and even large sessions pull across in a couple of minutes.

The other thing to consider is that HDD are more prone to mechanical damage but unless they're being dragged around everywhere it's usually not too much of an issue. It's also very sensible to have a couple of backup drives and keep one in a different building, or if that's not practical then a subscription to a cloud based backup service will do the trick as well.

Some of the usual suspects are WD, Lacie, Samsung etc, I've always been very lucky with drives and never had any random failures but it's not impossible even with reputable brands, so nothing really beats having a few copies of everything.

[Luke W]

Apologies, I've just re-read your post and noticed the bit about installing a sample library.

In that case, I'd advise something like the Samsung T5/T7 for samples, and then keeping your backups on a seperate drive(s) for all of the above reasons.

[DigitalMusicProduction]

Thanks for that input,

It would definatly need to be an external SSD, as the main intention would be to run a sample library in Logic, alongside backing up projects.

[Luke W]

That makes sense. You may well find that it's still more cost effective to use seperate drives for each though. For example, depending on how much space you need for libraries the cost difference between a 512GB and 1TB SSD may well leave you with enough change to get a couple of TB in HDDs for your backups, while leaving you with a nice fast drive for samples.

I find it helps from an organisation point of view as well, but that's just me.

[DigitalMusicProduction]

I see the Samsung T5 external SSD comes with USB 3.1, the MacBook Pro I'm using has USB 2.1. Therefore am I right in saying the T5 will still operate in a USB 2.1port, only it won't have the speed of 3.1, ?

[blakedirksen]

My set up is similar to the ones suggested and works well. I use a 500GB G Drive for samples only. Moving my samples from the local drive to the G drive didn't go well and I had to delete my entire sample library, move it in logic (Logic Pro > Sound Library > Relocate Sound Library), and then re download all of them.

I have a big HDD drive for old projects and put the projects I really care about on a cloud service as well.

On a final note, I have started not keeping my old project files unless there is some sentimental reason. When I am done with a mix/master I delete the project. It helps me move on to the next song and not dwell on a project for the next 6 months. I get a lot more done this way and there is zero percent chance anyone will care about a remix of my amateur songs anyway.

Best of luck and DM me if you run into issues moving your sample library.

[Luke W]

I see the Samsung T5 external SSD comes with USB 3.1, the MacBook Pro I'm using has USB 2.1. Therefore am I right in saying the T5 will still operate in a USB 2.1port, only it won't have the speed of 3.1, ?

Yes that's correct, USB3.1 is backwards compatible.

[DigitalMusicProduction]

Thanks everyone for your support.