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Old 08-11-2018, 02:18 PM   #1
Rangler
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Default Keeping all apps and plugins on external HD?

I only have a 250GB hard-drive in my MacBook. Any run all their apps and plugins from an external drive?
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Old 08-11-2018, 03:57 PM   #2
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My samples are stored on an external and loaded into a project where they are then saved to internal with the project, this is a very handy compromise so they are not being sampled off the external while the project is playing back.

The plugins are kept on the computer because I have quite a lot and its still only 1 gig of executables (some plugins keep their related samples next to them, so I'm not counting those.

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Old 08-11-2018, 08:19 PM   #3
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What Fergler said....

It's ok to run the app and plugins from usb, reaper will load everything into ram anyway... but you want to avoid streaming any samples, unless your 2nd drive and connection are very fast, like usb3.

Edit: my ssd C drive is only 128gb. It's 100x faster than all my other drives put together, so I have to run everything off of it.
Sadly, it's the sample and loop data that benefits the most from residing on the ssd... thankfully it's only 60gb (relatively small), and my reaper+plugins folder is about 2gb, leaving me about 40-50gb for recording.

I really need a bigger ssd drive
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Old 08-11-2018, 08:55 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeolian View Post
What Fergler said....

It's ok to run the app and plugins from usb, reaper will load everything into ram anyway... but you want to avoid streaming any samples, unless your 2nd drive and connection are very fast, like usb3.

Edit: my ssd C drive is only 128gb. It's 100x faster than all my other drives put together, so I have to run everything off of it.
Sadly, it's the sample and loop data that benefits the most from residing on the ssd... thankfully it's only 60gb (relatively small), and my reaper+plugins folder is about 2gb, leaving me about 40-50gb for recording.

I really need a bigger ssd drive
How about an external SSD USB3?
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Old 08-12-2018, 07:38 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Rangler View Post
How about an external SSD USB3?
The Samsung T5 500G External is down to $130. A real sweet spot, as the 1T size is only down to $280 (and the 250G doesn't give you enough). If your Mac is new enough to have USB3 it's a great thing to have. I run plugins and Reaper app from the internal but have samples/libraries on and record to the Samsung. Works great. My MBP is 2015. Your 2016 should rock it good.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...table_ssd.html
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Old 08-12-2018, 08:21 PM   #6
serr
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Quote:
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I only have a 250GB hard-drive in my MacBook. Any run all their apps and plugins from an external drive?
If you put a SSD in a thunderbolt enclosure you could get the same performance you had with an internal SATA SSD. If you have one of the newer models with the M.2 pci SSD internal, then it would be a performance downgrade but possibly a moot point.

External USB drives would be a downgrade but you'd be able to boot to one and run smaller projects in a pinch. Depending on what you're doing, you might not have any trouble at all.

The bang for the buck with a TB external SSD vs. upgrading the internal SSD to a larger one might not be so good. But if that's not really the question and it's more "Is this possible in a pinch?" then you should be fine. You can always copy that larger project to your internal if you have trouble.

If you organize yourself to use the internal SSD for OS/apps and the free space for your high performance workspace and then use externals for data archive and backup, you'll get the most bang for the buck.
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