External drive question

[cjackson11]

Hello. I have been recording a bit on my mac but I understand the way I have it set up isn't the most friendly on my computer's resources. Up until now I have just recorded onto an internal drive. If I'm not mistaken an external drive would be more efficient??? Here is where I am unsure, do I just use the external drive to record onto (all of my project files are on there)? Should my DAW stay installed and running on the internal drive? If I record directly to the external drive what speed of drive should I get? Are there any latency issues to be concerned with?

Thanks!

Using Reaper, Focusrite Scarlett

 

[TimOBrien]

Yes you just save the project file and its tracks onto the external drive.
If you already haven't set it up in Reaper's preferences, you want to make it so the audio tracks are in a subfolder of the project folder.
Organize your stuff, don't just record everything into the Reaper app folder.

Latency comes from your soundcard and its drivers, not from drives.

You want to get a 7200rpm drive. Firewire or Thunderbolt is better, a usb2 drive will bog down after a few dozen simultaneous tracks.
Firewire drives can be daisy-chained (I have my Projects and Samples drive on the same chain with no problems.)

Best setup for any daw is:
OS, apps (yes including Reaper) and plugins on boot drive
Sample libraries (if used) on separate drive
Audio projects and tracks on another separate drive.

 

[jimmys69]

Just a note; I run 60+track projects with a USB2.0 7200rpm external drive. No bog yet.

Though, if I run a USB interface and external drive on the same USB controller, things get nasty with just a few tracks. If you have a USB3 and USB2 ports, separate the interface from the drive by using separate ports.