Best Memory Efficient Way To Run Logic Projects

[RoyFan]

Hi Everyone.

     I'm at the dreaded HD almost full stage.   Would love to hear some tips about what you did in that stage..and share my approach to see if you agree or have a better solution.

I would think best thing is to move most the projects to an external drive. (which they are as back up anyway).  Then format Mac HD and things for the actual's Mac's performance ?

But going forward , how do you guys efficiently run your projects?  Do any of you run the projects straight off the external drive so that way you don't have to worry about the Mac HD in the future?

Or you use other techniques?  I want to avoid having to do this in the future so trying to plan ahead.

 

 

[FLH3]

I'm not sure I've to correct way to work but my main goal is avoiding to reach the HD-full-stage. My max is 50%

In my opinion an internal disk is only for the system and the other utilities you can't put outside (plugins, various application support things, etc etc...).

Regarding storage all my projects and sound libraries are on external HDs or SSDs, either for my mobile/holidays laptop and for my studio desktop.

I usualy run my projects straight from the external disk(s).

And all of this is backed up on other disks with Smartbackup, Time Machine doing all the internal disk/system stuff.

Just moving all of this outside your internal disk and delete the old files will free some space, no need to "format Mac HD" which seems, for me, risky.

[RoyFan]

Hey thanks a lot !  Appreciate it.     When running projects from your external, I'm assuming you use a device with your computer in case of an electric outage?   a battery / generator of sorts to keep the computer and drive powered.  I had an outage once when working with an external and a lot of stuff was corrupted.

If you do use one, is there a specific one you recommend?

 

[FLH3]

Actualy no.

I know I should for my desktop unit but even in my 3d world coundtryside the AC outages are quite rare and can be predictable somehow (storms or planned technical work on the electric network)

It already happened some times obviously but all my drives and machines were OK after.

I rely on the automatic saving feature of Logic and on the recent electrical system in my house/studio, it trips swiftly & efficiently in case of overloading

I noticed that the modern HDs and SSDs seem more reliable and resilient than 25 or 30 years ago.

But on the bottom line you're right, I should have an inverter (at least one). As this is not the sexyest object for a composer it's rarely on the top of the pile.

 

[Dynamic_Notes]

Id strongly recommend an UPS especially if you're rural and where I am, the power supply can be dodgy at the best of times. Electrical storms, prolonged brownouts, power dips and surges, transients and other nasty anomolies are not computer friendly. If you get one, get a quality product such as APC. Cheap no name brands have been known to cause fires. Do your homework on this. Its well worth it. UPs' will only allow you a given amount of time to gracefully shut down. This can be via software installed or you do it manually. I do it manually and mine gives me about 20 mins. Its a good reason for me to power my computer off when Im not nearby or asleep.

If you can afford it internal SSDs give great performance along with those good things like trim and garbage collection, but Apple still charges a premium and for many of us, including myself, Externals are the only alternative. They also do great, but if you have resource hungry plugins it's best to get an SSD not a HD. If you do use a HD make sure its 7200RPM at least.  Id recommend going for 1 or better still  2 TB SSD models. SSDs markedly slow down if they get too full. I aim to make sure mine never have less than 30% free space. Also make sure you format it APFS. Many people have issues if they dont format them properly.

Just something else to consider - the less write cycles you do to SSDs the better, especially externals, as its unclear how trim and garbage collection operate on these or even if they do at all, which reportedly substantially increases their life. Though Im using one of my T5s for projects the other two are for libraries and other data where the data doesn't change that much.

Personally I still think theres a place for HDs in some situations like data at rest and backups and even maybe projects.

Another thing worth mentioning is TM local backups. I don't know exactly how this works but they can supposedly take up a lot of space on the internal drive and IIRC the only way to get rid of them is to stop TM. People over at NI were having real issues trying to install libraries and running out of space even when they said they had a lot of free space on their internal drives. If you're running 3rd party libraries even if they are placed on an external drive they will need temporary space on the internal drive in the install process. - at least thats how it is at NI... hence its a good idea to keep a lot of space free on internal drive.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Dynamic_Notes
Typo

[FLH3]

My main libraries are on SSDs obviously, my HDs are dedicated to storage and backups, and backup of backups.

[MikeRobinson]

I personally think that "SSD technology has won the race."

A basic UPS is a good thing because it provides you with reliable stable power.  Every now and then, even the most dependable electric-power utility can throw a switch which causes a "blip." A simple UPS will instantly absorb that "blip" and serve as a surge protector as well. It's cheap insurance.

[FLH3]

You all convinced me about UPS, I was already almost, actualy, so the project is gaining some position toward the top in the pile "many no sexy things to buy with the remaining money" 😄