running an ableton/logic/audio production on an external ssd via usb3 or thunderbolt versus local

[oveidamusic]

I am experiencing driver errors in Ableton even in naked/early projects at times, when things need to be recalled. hmmm..
I am running a late 2012 mac mini with fusion drive (which is slowing me down). would I have faster write and read speeds in the project i'm working in if i just started using a USB3 SSD as my music production drive and read/write off that?

 

[ekwipt]

It's best practise for any computer running DAWs to have the samples and projects on a seperate drive, grab a Thunderbolt SSD drive and copy the whole Ableton folder on to that

 

[oveidamusic]

It's best practise for any computer running DAWs to have the samples and projects on a seperate drive, grab a Thunderbolt SSD drive and copy the whole Ableton folder on to that

Thanks for replying, Yeah i currently have a Thunderbolt OWC Hub so i have an extra HDMI and many more USB ports for all the hardware i have connected to my studio. all thunderbolts are taken up by the hub and apollo twin audio interface, and i have a firewire and usb3 external 1 and 2 TB harddrive for all samples and kontakt libraries but if i plugged in a seperate usb3 SSD external, your saying i should directly run my ableton projects in real time as i am creating and working in them?

 

[Boyd01]

I have a 2012 2.6ghz quad mini server with 16gb RAM and original internal Apple 256gb SSD. However I boot into Sierra from an external 1TB USB 3.0 Samsung T3 SSD. This machine also has two 5TB USB 3.0 hard drives for media storage and a BlackMagic UltraStudio thunderbolt video interface for my Sony studio monitor.

I mostly work with 1080p30 in FCP, with no proxies. My work with Logic is mostly 8 tracks of live audio recordings and a handful of plug-ins. I usually record with a Zoom F8 recorder and just transfer the audio files to the Mini via the SD card, however it can also be used as an 8 channel USB audio interface.

This all works very well for me. You don't say which Mini you have though, the i7 quads are 2x to 3x faster than the base 2012 dual i5 Mini's. Sorry, have never used Abelton. If you've just started getting errors however, I wonder if the hard drive is starting to fail? OTOH, it sounds like you have more peripherals than I do.

I gave my base model 2012 Mini to the kids a few years ago, and it was also setup to boot from an external SSD, however they started getting lots of errors and crashes from the internal hard drive (that I had configured to do time machine backups of the SSD). Finally just gave up on that machine.

Anyway, here's what I get from the Samsung T3. From what I've read here in the past, this is about as fast as you can get from an external USB SSD on the 2012 Mini.

And this is my original Apple internal SSD. Definitely faster, but the only differene I really notice is that the external drive takes about 30 seconds to boot and the internal is about 15 seconds.

 

[ekwipt]

Thanks for replying, Yeah i currently have a Thunderbolt OWC Hub so i have an extra HDMI and many more USB ports for all the hardware i have connected to my studio. all thunderbolts are taken up by the hub and apollo twin audio interface, and i have a firewire and usb3 external 1 and 2 TB harddrive for all samples and kontakt libraries but if i plugged in a seperate usb3 SSD external, your saying i should directly run my ableton projects in real time as i am creating and working in them?

It won't make too much of a difference, I thought you were loading absolutely everything off of the Fusion drive. I would swap out the drive for a pure SSD, update to High Sierra 10.14.6 ()but don't go past that (if it's solely for Ableton). There's actually a 5-10% performance hit from what I've read for Mojave and Catalina is just a no go for most people running DAWs at this point (this will change over the next few months).

Personally I Always setup my computers with the Operating System and Apps on one SSD and then move everything else possible on to an external

 

[Ploki]

It won't make too much of a difference, I thought you were loading absolutely everything off of the Fusion drive. I would swap out the drive for a pure SSD, update to High Sierra 10.14.6 ()but don't go past that (if it's solely for Ableton). There's actually a 5-10% performance hit from what I've read for Mojave and Catalina is just a no go for most people running DAWs at this point (this will change over the next few months).

Personally I Always setup my computers with the Operating System and Apps on one SSD and then move everything else possible on to an external

I mean, i've been running mojave since last december and it's been fine.

 

[ekwipt]

I mean, i've been running mojave since last december and it's been fine.

I'm sure it will be fine, I'm thinking of upgrading to Mojave as well, some of the programs I use need it to run, just saying there is a performance hit from what I've read

 

[Ploki]

I'm sure it will be fine, I'm thinking of upgrading to Mojave as well, some of the programs I use need it to run, just saying there is a performance hit from what I've read

none that i've noticed, even on the 2012 quad rMBP. and my pretty picky