Home studio: Optimising computer-based set up

[noelk27]

Just ordered a Mac Pro (3.5Ghz 6-core), which has a 256Gb SSD, and will ship with OS Mavericks. I'll be using the latest version of Digital Performer (although also mixing in Harrison's MixBus) with my usual choice of virtual instruments/libraries, including MOTU's Mach 5 and BPM, FX Expansion's BFD3, D:Cam Synth Squad and Geist, Arturia's V-Collection and Spark Vintage, and Scuffham's S-Gear. Typically, I install the highest resolution and largest version of any virtual instrument/library. In addition to the Mac Pro I have two 2Tb CalDigit AV Drives [url="http://www.caldigit.com/avdrive/"]http://www.caldigit.com/avdrive/[/url] which are USB 3.0 enabled (although I'm considering upgrading to the AV Pro version). My interfaces of choice are RME's Fireface UC [url="http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_fireface_uc.php"]http://www.rme-audio...fireface_uc.php[/url] (which will require a Firewire/Thunderbolt adaptor - although I'm tempted by the MADIFace XT) and Focusrite's Forte [url="http://uk.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/forte"]http://uk.focusrite....nterfaces/forte[/url] usually tracking using the 24-bit/96KHz option. I'll be abandoning physical faders and transport controls in favour of virtual, using an iPad, and mixing in the box (no outboard processing).

As I'm migrating set ups, left to my own devices, I'd most likely just organise myself the way I've always worked. But, I'd be interested to hear what others might do, by way of set up - where they would install the DAWs, virtual instruments and associated libraries, etc, etc - to optimise performance.

Edited January 7, 2014 by noelk27

[lowdown]

Pretty standard set up for me, I have my DAW(S) and Vst/Vsti's on the system drive (SSD) Quadcore i7/16 gig Ram.
Sample Libraries (in my case Kontakt libs) on one external drive, and also any other Synth (Omnisphere/RMX etc) libs on this drive as well,
Then my Daw/Audio projects along with any video cues on another external drive (I also burn finished projects to dvd discs as well)
Everything at 24-bit/48KHz, it all seems to work for me while running quite a lot of midi/instrument tracks.

Although I am now seriously investigating this for running two puters.
[url="http://www.viennaensemblepro.com/"]http://www.viennaensemblepro.com/[/url]

Edited January 7, 2014 by lowdown

[RockfordStone]

i create several folders within my pc so that my DAW is reading from one drive.

All my VST's and effects are saved to one folder, so that they only have to be read from one place, similar to samples and loops etc.

all my current working projects are saved on my main hard drives with all archived projects on backup drives

try and keep it as streamlined as possible, the less the computer has to think the better it will run... at least thats my logic and im rolling with it

[BigRedX]

Is this a new style MacPro?

[tedmanzie]

It used to be advised to keep your project tracking, samples etc on a separate drive to the system/application drive but I don't know if that still holds in these days of mega computers. I still do it out of habit, but as my HD is much bigger since my last upgrade I now keep nearly all my virtual instrument libraries on the Mac HD.

I'm using a NEET thunderbolt to FW 400 adaptor and it works fine here.

I work at 44.1/24 bit for everything. If I work for broadcast I convert the file to 48 after mixdown. Most of my libraries are 44 so it works better for me.

I see you have Motu BPM - that [i]could[/i] be a really good bit of software but Motu and UVI just don't sort out the bugs, it is [i]so[/i] frustrating. I used it for a project last year out of interest (since upgrading mac and OS to 10.8). It must have crashed about 40 times during the session, it was unbelievable...

How is DP with 64bit/32bit plugins? Latest Logic won't run 32bit plugs anymore but I just found something called '32 Lives' which has solved that it would seem.

[Mornats]

I switched from my Macbook Pro (which actually belongs to work so it's not really mine) to my home gaming PC for my home studio. Incidentally, in terms of stability and compatibility and general suitableness for audio work I would say there's no difference between a Windows 7 PC or a Mac. My home PC has considerably more grunt than the Macbook Pro too, despite needing a bit of an upgrade now. It's an old Core 2 Duo overclocked by 20% to 3.8ghz, 8GB of XMS2 RAM and running three hard drive - which is what I wanted to focus on in this post.

Disk 1: 256GB Cucial M4 SSD. This has Windows 7, Reaper (my DAW of choice), and all my virtual instruments and sample libraries. It also has a select few other programs on, notable Lightroom for my photography.

Disk 2: 1TB Samsung Spoinpoint F1 - one of the fastest 1TB SATA-2 drives around when I bought it. This has my games on but also used to house my documents until a few week ago when I bought:

Disk 3: 1TB Western Digital Blue - not as fast as the Black version but 2/3rds of the price of one and no reports of it being noisy. This is where I house my Reaper project files and where my .wav files are saved once recorded.

The SSD is naturally silent. The other two drives are virtually silent. The case fans (despite being quiet ones) are louder than the drives yet I've never had a problem with the noise being picked up. They all have fan controllers on so for DAW use they power down anyway. (For gaming it sounds like a jumbo taking off when it's at full tilt.)

SSDs are great for reading from but don't really like lots of writing and overwriting. Plus they're expensive for large ones so it makes sense to record to another drive. As I only record one, maybe two tracks at a time through my interface I'm not really hammering write speeds so writing to a mechanical drive isn't slowing anything down. Plus those two drives of mine are fairly nippy anyway. Also reading from one drive and writing to another should in theory be faster than reading and writing from one drive.

I'm using a Native Instruments Guitar Rig Session I/O audio interface but I'm looking to upgrade to either a Focusrite Scarlet 2i4 or the Forte (which has been recommended for the sheer sound quality). 44.1/24 bit recording for me too.

[paul_5]

General rule is to keep software and DAWs on a separate physical drive to your OS/boot disk, and HDs should run at 7200rpm minimum (bad news for laptop users). Defrag often and don't save files to your desktop (for a number of reasons).

Most audio software websites/forums have an 'optimisation' guide in their FAQ sections, so it might be worth for one that's specific to your DAW. This will include stuff like turning off WiFi connectivity and reducing the number of background applications running.

[Mornats]

Just don't defrag an SSD! They don't need it and it can be damaging. Paul_s has a good point about keeping your software and DAW on a separate drive to your operating system although I'd say that if you have an SSD, chuck your software and DAW on there for the sheer speed of them.

I'd also say that getting an SSD to replace your system drive will be the most noticable speed boost you can give your computer. They're also conveniently sized at 2.5" so laptop users can benefit from them too

[noelk27]

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1389123272' post='2330353']Pretty standard set up for me ...[/quote]
As you say, the standard arrangement, and one that's much like my own. Some might say, if it ain't broke ...

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1389262021' post='2331953']Is this a new style MacPro?[/quote]
It is. Instead of setting a monthly spend made the decision to pool my instrument and technology budgets, and spend the bulk at the start of the year. Hoping it's not the wrong move, opting in to the new Power Mac before it becomes proven technology.

[quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1389276080' post='2332214']I see you have Motu BPM - that [i]could[/i] be a really good bit of software but Motu and UVI just don't sort out the bugs, it is [i]so[/i] frustrating. I used it for a project last year out of interest (since upgrading mac and OS to 10.8). It must have crashed about 40 times during the session, it was unbelievable...

How is DP with 64bit/32bit plugins? Latest Logic won't run 32bit plugs anymore but I just found something called '32 Lives' which has solved that it would seem.[/quote]
My reason for buying BPM was to get access to a library of classic drum machine samples, the likes of the TR808 and 909. There weren't as many libraries of classic drum machines at the time, and although I still use BPM I've picked up other versions of these classics, including FX Expansion's 8 Bit Kit, but find Arturia's Spark Vintage very good, although I've been having most fun using Rhythmic Robot's MR11 http://www.rhythmicrobot.com/page0/page10/page5/index.html and RX5 http://www.rhythmicrobot.com/page0/page10/page65/index.html emulations of Yamaha's MR10 and RX5 - two pieces of hardware I own. IF RR get around to emulating Roland's TR626 and R8 then I could complete my drum machine hardware set!

DP8 handles 32-bit plug-ins by switching to a 32-bit mode. Unfortunately that imposes the 4Gb working memory buffer, and DP treats the whole project as if it were 32-bit. That said, the way DP works with plug-ins generally has always felt very efficient. Being able to handle VST and AU plug-ins side by side is also a bit of a bonus.

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1389307306' post='2332792']I switched from my Macbook Pro ... to my home gaming PC for my home studio. Incidentally, in terms of stability and compatibility and general suitableness for audio work I would say there's no difference between a Windows 7 PC or a Mac. ...

SSDs are great for reading from but don't really like lots of writing and overwriting. Plus they're expensive for large ones so it makes sense to record to another drive. As I only record one, maybe two tracks at a time through my interface I'm not really hammering write speeds so writing to a mechanical drive isn't slowing anything down. Plus those two drives of mine are fairly nippy anyway. Also reading from one drive and writing to another should in theory be faster than reading and writing from one drive.[/quote]
My first computer was a used BBC Micro Model A, in the mid 80s. Wasn't until the mid 90s I got my first Mac, a Power Mac 7100AV. Even then the Mac was a revelation - so much more stable than other computers. Since then I've stuck with Mac, as I do think the OS is more stable, and the leanness of coding makes Mac less resource hungry. Take your point at there being much less difference these days.

The SSD is where I'm expecting to appreciate most performance difference, although I'm sure the latest version of Intel processor will also impact on things. That brings me to one of the notions I was thinking over - would making the switch to a completely SSD based setup deliver enough of a performance improvement to validate the investment at this time. I have my doubts, which is why I'm minded to stick with the CalDigit AV Drives I currently have, and not migrate to AV Pro with SSD. It might be, as someone else suggested, that the advent of SSD will make the need for having individual drives for DAW, libraries and projects redundant. We're also at the point where the latest versions of SSD are arriving, which should prove more reliable for writing over their lifespan, as well as delivering faster write speeds.

[Mornats]

I use Windows at home and a Mac at work and the biggest pain is switching between the two. If you're a Mac person, that'll be best for you

In my experience upgrading any hard drive to an SSD is a much more noticeable upgrade than upgrading a processor. Mechanical hard drives aren't in the same league as SSDs by far. I have Reaper open up in 3 seconds from my Crucial M4 SSD.

Looking at the quoted speeds for the CalDigit AV drives they operate at up to 200 mb/s which is a generation behind SATA-3 SSDs (around 500 mb/s read/write on average). Although for the price of a 480 GB SSD you can have a 4TB CalDigit!

I'd say that any SSD, even a CalDigit one, is wasted if you're using a USB3 interface. I'm not convinced that an external USB or Firewire drive will be faster than any internal SSD.

When you get your MacPro you'll notice the improvement the SSD gives straight away so that'll give you some idea of what they can do. Then I guess your experience with your current CalDigit drives on that setup will set you in good light to make a decision on going fully SSD. Personally I'd consider it a good investment but SSDs are still a little pricey these days. That's changing all the time though so every moment spent considering the purchase is saving you money (as it always is with buying computer components...)

[51m0n]

A colleague recently had 3 high quality and very expensive SSDs die on him losing all data in a week. In warranty.

I don't consider that safe to use for audio....

[Mornats]

Granted, they're fairly new and therefore relatively un-tried and tested in the real world. However that sounds like a hard drive controller failure on the motherboard to me if all three went down. Unless it was one after the other. I had an SSD fail but it had an older Sandforce controller in that could die if the PC went to sleep. That's still a catastrophic failure, no one can argue with that. Three drives? That's a kick in the nuts...

In my setup I record onto a normal HDD but load Reaper and all VSTs/instruments/samples from the SSD.

[51m0n]

No, different makes of SSD in three different computers running 3 different OS's

Beggars belief...

[Mornats]

A one in a million chance happens nine times out of ten. (Terry Pratchett.)