Organizing your DAW

[chaosscott]

Hi everyone, so I have a new PC coming tomorrow and I'm wondering if anyone has tips for organizing it. I go back and forth between a number of programs (Reaper, Sonar X1, Ableton Live 8 , Reason 6) and some plugins (Pod Farm, EXDrummer, Revalver). My old PC ended up a mess with the plugins getting installed all over the place and then having to point each DAW to look in a number if different directories for VST's and whatnot.

I will be using a SSD for the OS and then a 7200 HD for the Data.

Does anyone just use a single directory to store their plugins? I'm just looking for ideas on what you do to organize your installs and data.

 

[Mo Facta]

3 Drives: OS. Recording. Media/Samples.

I tend to have one folder for plugins, but that's just because I primarily use Cubase/Nuendo and the VSTPlugins folder is organized under the Steinberg folder automatically.

Cheers

 

[TimOBrien]

Ditto.

Keep all my vsts in C:/VST then point each program to it.
Makes it far easier to back up or keep it sync'ed between pcs on my network.
(Cockos' PathSync free utility is great for both of those...)

As Mo pointed out, 3 drives are optimum, 2 will do but DONT record to the boot drive.
DO keep all your project songs in individual folders on the data drive
I set Reaper's prefs to copy all audio tracks/samples in a project subfolder to always be able to back up the ENTIRE project.

 

[RWhite]

Ditto.

Keep all my vsts in C:/VST then point each program to it.
Makes it far easier to back up or keep it sync'ed between pcs on my network.
(Cockos' PathSync free utility is great for both of those...)

As Mo pointed out, 3 drives are optimum, 2 will do but DONT record to the boot drive.
DO keep all your project songs in individual folders on the data drive
I set Reaper's prefs to copy all audio tracks/samples in a project subfolder to always be able to back up the ENTIRE project.

Ditto Ditto; I use 2 drives, first has operating system + programs; 2nd drive (which should be bigger) has data plus an image backup of drive #1

 

[Chili]

I do the same as Tim with the vst's. C:\VSTPlugins. I also point Vegas to that folder.

I stream all my audio to a 2nd drive. On that drive I have a folder for Cubase Projects. In that folder are all the sub-folders for each tune I'm working on. I name each folder with the name of the song. Cubase creates a couple of folders and I create two more, one for mixdowns and the other for Finalized. I don't usually put my lyrics or charts in these folders although I probably should.

I use templates in Cubase. Best thing ever. It's all setup when I want to start a new project and I don't have to waste time performing the same tasks over and over for each new song. This way I can stay focused on the creative side rather than the technical side.