[Dennis Barrington]

@rrosin said:

@Dennis Barrington said:

I see SanDisk has a 256 GB thumb driver for a reasonable price: (bout 50)
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Glide-3-0-256GB/dp/B01JHLJBO8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1512402825&sr=8-2&keywords=256+gb+usb

I don’t think this drive will make you happy… it’s small and it’s slow. If you can live with the slow speed you might chose an external HD drive with 1000 or 2000 GB. Keep in mind you will need additional space in the future for new SDX’s (Progrssive Foundry and Rock Foundry need 60 GB each and more – future SDX will most propably not be smaller).

Regards Reiner  

Ahh, duh, right, I should have known that. I wish I could blame the lapse on drinking but I can’t, haha.

Ok, Also see that the 230 GB are in 5 downloads and that each is about 40 GB and that Library 3 and 4 are basically for Surround Sound, which I don’t care for. Good to know. So that’s apparently 90 GB I don’t need to install. And if I like the tones better, I can unistall SD2 and EX2 Libraries I don’t care for to get space back. A lot of options.

Ok, I’ll bite. I’ve talked myself into it.

[Dennis Barrington]

@rrosin said:
Hello Dennis,

you have several options to solve your problem of an overflowing hard drive:

– the iMac could be updated with a bigger SSD (the MB Pro maybe too… I am not sure)
– you can use an external SSD drive for saving the sound libraries. With USB 3, Thunderbold or USB-C this is slightly slower than an internal SSD, but still much faster than a conventional hard drive (which some people still use with SD3)
– the core library is split in 5 chunks of ~40 GB each. You can save space by using only the first or the first two parts
– there is also an option in SD3 to set 2 paths for a library. You can save the full library on an external drive and a partial installed version on the internal drive. You can then use the full library at home and a smaller version when on the road

Regards Reiner  

Thanks for this reply! I’ve been looking over the newer implementation of MIDI search and see it’s more extensive than EX2 as well. That is a quite useful time saver. I see SanDisk has a 256 GB thumb driver for a reasonable price: (bout 50)
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Glide-3-0-256GB/dp/B01JHLJBO8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1512402825&sr=8-2&keywords=256+gb+usb

I usually have a 4 USB hub that I port around with a stick for Waves licenses & an iLok 2, and 2 ports empty for other uses.. But sticking this on wouldn’t tax the others as they are just polled, not streaming. I should find a 4-way USB 3 compatible hub to maximize the stream and just port that back and forth, keeping memory open for overhead (for backups and some expandability). Hmmm. You’ve got me thinking!

I’m not a fan of dropping another $200 after spending so much on the capabilities of EX2 and SD2 (especially the extra libraries) but I see a lot has gone into this never version that earns the “3”, not just a smeared over SD2 with EX2 capability. Thats a lot of work put into that library. But that seems to be the way things are going, i.e. Orchestra VIs, but seeing how Keyboard VI’s have been doing it for a while, and Drums are the major underpinning of most music made today, I’ve been looking at it the wrong way, used to the “good enough” implementation, and not seeing the “be all you can be” approach where Toontracks is trying to leave the competition in the dust.

I think the fact Toontrack has opened up to 3rd party MIDI has made me a much bigger fan of them as an audio company. You know, good will and all by not being so proprietary they seem greedy and structurally miss the point of being a universal tool. Much credit is desesrved by the company for that. Just like Spectrasonic did by allowing user uploaded sounds for synth manipulation. Very few companies are so bug-less and open-ended.

[Dennis Barrington]

I did the SD2, then EZ2 for it’s ability to search MIDI. The upgrade this past year for searching 3rd party MIDI was, to me, the biggest addition to software drumming in the past 10 years.

That said, I’d LOVE to get SD3, except for 1 major thing: 230 GB is just quite a large thing to carry. My MB Pro has 1TB of SSD, and I have the same setup for my iMac, which is the central computer for the studio, the laptop being just for mixing off-site if I want to play around with ideas. But I’m at about 750 GB and this would put me too close to max.

I could carry an external, but that seems clunky? IDK. Maybe someone can chime in here.

The suggestion to use EZ2 for Song Creation and MIDI searching, then port to SD2 is what I’ve been doing. Sometimes.
Thing is, EZ2 is for making DONE drum sounds. Little need to work on EQ, Compression, etc. SD2 are RAW and you need to work on all that stuff. So sometimes, quick and dirty, I want to stay in EZ2. Sometimes I don’t, and that is where SD3 seems like an nice all-in-one.

As to the Trigger part, if you haven’t recorded your past projects with separate drum tracks, it’s a waste. I’ve already toyed around with Slate’s offering. So that’s not an enticement for me. But it’s a great part of the package for those who are more professional in their multi-drum-track recording.

I think the best part of SD3 are the sounds, of course. But let’s be real, most music done today, especially hearing it over ear-buds or little Bluetooth speakers, the quality is just lost. Or for EDM, it’s really not necessary to carry 230GB libraries of drum sounds.

One day I’ll get this, but for now, working with the other two programs works just fine to make a quasi-SD3. I do think SD2 should have had an update with the EZ2 MIDI search and song creator, personally. But no complaining. Great products. They don’t crash, they work seamlessly with DAWs, there are a lot of things to commend them for.

Comment on using SD3 with external drives. Like can I use a thumb drive or small SSD with the 230 GB on it? Thanks!

[Author]

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