Moved my Garritan CFX samples to another SSD

theodorn

The subject of moving the samples to a separate SSD has been discussed numerous times, but I just did for the first time. Wasn't sure how to go about it, but did a quick internet search about the topic.

Of course the PianoWorld thread was among the first hits, this one. So what I myself say in that thread what was my plan, was finally implemented, took a long time.

I was surpriset than noone mentioned these instructions from Garritan's help center. Pretty straightforward, and exactly how I did it, just copied over the samples, and changed the registry key that points to the location of the samples.

Though I remembered to make a backup copy of my registry file. If anyone who is reading this thread is about to move his or her Garritan CFX samples, remember to do that. Now I won't be held responsible for wrecking someone's OS. 😃

Have tested the CFX, after deleting it from the C-drive, and it seems to work fine. So glad to have 251GB of 475GB free space, instead of only 130GB before. 😃 Only worries were if it would affect latency, but I don't think it will, or it won't be noticeable.

CyberGene

I did this a week ago following the same Garritan instructions. No issues at all.

HZPiano

Hello,

Well done!

Now that moving a library is mentioned, does anyone know how to do a similar move with a NI/Kontakt instrument?

During the installation of Noire I did last week (as my first and likely last NI instrument), no questions were asked about preferences, location etc., and the library got installed in a \public\documents folder. Which for the life of me I don't see why that is a proper location.

Thanks for any 'proper system/file management' input!

Cheers and happy organizing,

theodorn

I have most of my Kontakt libs on the non system disks, and if I recall correctly you just have to point to their locations in the Kontakt player, or full, if you have that.

Frédéric L

theodorn I have most of my Kontakt libs on the non system disks, and if I recall correctly you just have to point to their locations in the Kontakt player, or full, if you have that.

I have just reinstalled Kontakt and its libraries. There are two cases : library from NI : I had to download them again, third-party library : I had to point the directory where we can find the library. But perhaps an old version of Kontakt (before Native Access) has some other ways to register libraries.

theodorn

Fortunately, the NI VSTis are usually quite small, otherwise downloading again could be a problem for those with slow internet.

MacMacMac

My Kontakt instruments (and all my virtual instruments) are on the main drive, an SSD. Is there any benefit to moving them to a separate SSD?

Frédéric L

I have asked Kontakt to put its samples on a second SSD to avoid the main SSD to be full (which would prevent many applications to install themself). It is the only reason which make me chose the second SSD. However, VSL samples are on the main SSD which is faster. VSL samples are also easy to move.

theodorn

My system drive is only 500GB, so I'm pressed for space but in case of bigger system drives 1TB+, that's another matter. Think I read somewhere the benefit of having the sample libraries on a non-system drive, is that the system drive is continuously being accessed byt the OS, and other software or utilities.

Obvisously, external (or internal SSDs) which are only used as storage, don't have that problem, I assume the system leaves them alone for the most part. If this reading and writing by the OS to the system drive, actually affects the latency that much, I don't have enough experience to be able to judge if it really does.

HZPiano

theodorn Think I read somewhere the benefit of having the sample libraries on a non-system drive, is that the system drive is continuously being accessed byt the OS, and other software or utilities.

Hello,

Yes, that is so. For the same reason, I have my image processing (multi-Gb image files) on a separate SSD from the OS and applications.

However, this phenomenon is in particular the case with spinning harddisks, because with every access the magnetic head (arm) must be moved and aligned to a different track. With the OS and one or more applications each accessing a particular area, and samples needing reads from another area (in reality: multiple areas), all those arm movements take up a disproportionally large amount of (seek) time.

With SSDs, all of this doesn't apply, because the content blocks can be randomly accessed. Spreading over multiple SSDs still has speed advantages, but of a (much) smaller magnitude.

Thanks for responding,

Cheers and happy data accessing,

theodorn

Yes, of course if the system SSD if faster (like NvME SSD) and the other SSD(s) only SATA, then the accessing of the OS most likely won't wipe out that speed advantage.

CyberGene

My MacBook Air M1 only has a 256GB internal drive which is the reason why I moved Garritan CFX and Modern U to an external SSD drive. Works perfectly.

QuasiUnaFantasia

CyberGene Is it attached via USB (in which case, which version)?

CyberGene

QuasiUnaFantasia, yes, it's attached to the Mac via USB-C cable, USB 3.1. Using the BlackMagic app to measure the read speed with my SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB, I get around 700 MB/s which is pretty good.

One can get better speed (double that and even more) using Thunderbolt and external drive enclosures with some specific drives, etc. However I needed a very compact drive that is rugged and portable and that SanDisk is perfect. For streaming sample-based instruments, 700 MB/s is an overkill, they need much less than that 🙂 I used to have glitch-free piano playing even with mechanical hard-disks that had less than 100 MB/s read speed.

theodorn

I'm sure a Samsung T7 would do well for VSTis. It's fast and being USB externally connected, it will still be pretty fast. Might get one some day.

DPPianoPhil

This is the external SSD drive I use (in 2TB size): it's ridiculously tiny and fast at 1000 MB/s, connected via USB-C. There are even much faster Thunderbolt drives, for more than twice the speed and nearly twice the money. All of these and those in this class would be more than adequate for VSTis, I reckon.

I don't do VSTis yet, and use this is a generic data (music, photos, video, etc…) drive to not fill up my main system and application drive, and also to make taking the data with me (or to another computer) easier.

CyberGene

DPPianoPhil When I was researching external SSD drives most people were recommending OWC, however I couldn't find those sold in Europe...

DPPianoPhil

CyberGene Right, OWC is a good Mac-centric shop in the US. They have developed their own enclosures for drives, whether spinning disks or SSDs, which are very well regarded, but the underlying technology is not unique to them: it’s SATA or Nvme.M2 more recently. But, if you have access to them, their enclosures are cool-looking and reliable.