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Shinobi
New member
I'm thinking of buying this program, but I was wondering how big one's hard drive has to be to starting working with songs. 100gig drive? Thanks.
Ethan Winer
Acoustics Expert
Shinobi,
> I'm thinking of buying this program, but I was wondering how big one's hard drive has to be to starting working with songs. 100gig drive? <
The Sonar program files are not that large, but audio data you record as Wave files requires 5 MB per running minute per mono track (10 MB / minute for stereo). A 20 GB drive is more than enough to do several CDs worth of music, but these days a 40 GB drive costs hardly any more than a 20, and so makes more sense to buy.
--Ethan
> I'm thinking of buying this program, but I was wondering how big one's hard drive has to be to starting working with songs. 100gig drive? <
The Sonar program files are not that large, but audio data you record as Wave files requires 5 MB per running minute per mono track (10 MB / minute for stereo). A 20 GB drive is more than enough to do several CDs worth of music, but these days a 40 GB drive costs hardly any more than a 20, and so makes more sense to buy.
--Ethan
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tntkemp
New member
You should have two hard drives in your system; One for OS and Apps, one for audio. The first can be any size. I have a 40GB drive, 5400RPM ATA/100. Most of it isn't in use, as the OS and Apps occupy less than 5GB of space so far, but this drive cost me less than $100.
My second drive, the audio drive, is also a 40GB drive. It is a faster drive, as is recommended, at 7200RPM. It is also ATA/100. That is less important, however, as the rotational speed. You should have at least ATA/66 and 7200RPM. Also, typically you install both drives on one controller. If this is to be the case, make absolutely sure that both are at least ATA/66. The controller always defaults to the speed of the lesser drive in this configuration.
That said, I typically record 2-3 hours of my band's practice sessions per week, and can record like this for weeks before filling the drive. This gives me time in between to find points of interest within each practice and extract them...then archive them to the first drive with all of it's free space, or to my server...then clean up the audio drive.
That also said, 100GB is very excessive. By human nature, you are bound to put off cleanup until you have some unGodly amount of audio recorded. That would be a huge undertaking!
My second drive, the audio drive, is also a 40GB drive. It is a faster drive, as is recommended, at 7200RPM. It is also ATA/100. That is less important, however, as the rotational speed. You should have at least ATA/66 and 7200RPM. Also, typically you install both drives on one controller. If this is to be the case, make absolutely sure that both are at least ATA/66. The controller always defaults to the speed of the lesser drive in this configuration.
That said, I typically record 2-3 hours of my band's practice sessions per week, and can record like this for weeks before filling the drive. This gives me time in between to find points of interest within each practice and extract them...then archive them to the first drive with all of it's free space, or to my server...then clean up the audio drive.
That also said, 100GB is very excessive. By human nature, you are bound to put off cleanup until you have some unGodly amount of audio recorded. That would be a huge undertaking!
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Shinobi
New member
Thank You
Thank You both for your input. I do have enough hard drive space,so I'll hold off on buying that 100gig hard drive.
Thanks Again,
"Happy" Shinobi
Thank You both for your input. I do have enough hard drive space,so I'll hold off on buying that 100gig hard drive.
Thanks Again,
"Happy" Shinobi
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tntkemp
New member
Are you running two hard drives now?
Are both hard drives on the primary controller and both at least ATA/66?
I'm not trying to help you spend money, but I am trying to help you have a good performing systems. Don't try to get by with one drive, because you will have random dropouts, and you will be very limited on how many tracks you can record in one song. Also, the audo drive should be at least 7200RPM, for the same reasons. You have a better chance of getting by with an audio drive of 5400RPM than you do with only one hard drive, but to get the most out of your CPU you are running now, 7200 is what Cakewalk recommends.
If both drives are on one controller, or the Audio drive is on the same controller with a CDRom, then it's throughput will be decreased to the equivalent of the slower drive.
Only audio should be written to the 'audio' drive.
Are both hard drives on the primary controller and both at least ATA/66?
I'm not trying to help you spend money, but I am trying to help you have a good performing systems. Don't try to get by with one drive, because you will have random dropouts, and you will be very limited on how many tracks you can record in one song. Also, the audo drive should be at least 7200RPM, for the same reasons. You have a better chance of getting by with an audio drive of 5400RPM than you do with only one hard drive, but to get the most out of your CPU you are running now, 7200 is what Cakewalk recommends.
If both drives are on one controller, or the Audio drive is on the same controller with a CDRom, then it's throughput will be decreased to the equivalent of the slower drive.
Only audio should be written to the 'audio' drive.
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Shinobi
New member
RE:My hard drives and specs...
I have a 5400rpm Western Digital for my primary thats around 1.6 gig, really small i know, my secondary is a 5400rpm Western Digital 10 gig. Plus I have more happy space across my network, but I'll tell ya... Someone gave me, as a early B-day gift Calkwalk Sonar!
I made a song with just two tracks so far and it's working great! I'm just doing some acoutic guitar stuff for now, but I want to get back into all my synth stuff as well. I have a small keyboard controller with a old Kawai K1m module and a really...really old, nice EX-800 module that is the same as a Korg Poly 800, If anyone here remembers that. LOL
) I used to be into the MIDI stuff a lot.
I am awestruck about the clarity of recording on the computer, I mean..I only have a 4-track Tascam Porta-3, there nothing wrong with that I know, but.... Ok I'll stop rambling now. Thanks again for your input, very helpful and kind indeed.
"Happy" Shinobi
I have a 5400rpm Western Digital for my primary thats around 1.6 gig, really small i know, my secondary is a 5400rpm Western Digital 10 gig. Plus I have more happy space across my network, but I'll tell ya... Someone gave me, as a early B-day gift Calkwalk Sonar!
I made a song with just two tracks so far and it's working great! I'm just doing some acoutic guitar stuff for now, but I want to get back into all my synth stuff as well. I have a small keyboard controller with a old Kawai K1m module and a really...really old, nice EX-800 module that is the same as a Korg Poly 800, If anyone here remembers that. LOL
) I used to be into the MIDI stuff a lot.I am awestruck about the clarity of recording on the computer, I mean..I only have a 4-track Tascam Porta-3, there nothing wrong with that I know, but.... Ok I'll stop rambling now. Thanks again for your input, very helpful and kind indeed.
"Happy" Shinobi
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NukeYork
New member
both drives on one controller
TNT- Thanks for the enlightenment regarding hdd controller setups. I'm currently throwing together a new system and had been wondering which way would be best. Now I know. I'm running a pair of 7200 rpm ATA 100 hdd and Yamaha UDMA 33 cd-rw. I had them hooked up with the hdds on each master, but will reconfigure them both to the primary before the next session.
TNT- Thanks for the enlightenment regarding hdd controller setups. I'm currently throwing together a new system and had been wondering which way would be best. Now I know. I'm running a pair of 7200 rpm ATA 100 hdd and Yamaha UDMA 33 cd-rw. I had them hooked up with the hdds on each master, but will reconfigure them both to the primary before the next session.
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tntkemp
New member
Re: RE:My hard drives and specs...
Shinobi said:
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tntkemp
New member
Re: both drives on one controller
No problem, these posts have helped me plenty of times, so I give back when I can! You'll see a huge improvement when you reconfigure....
NukeYork said:
No problem, these posts have helped me plenty of times, so I give back when I can! You'll see a huge improvement when you reconfigure....
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NukeYork
New member
conflicting advise
For what it's worth, I've read another thread where suggestions are made to have each hdd configured as the master on each of the primary and secondary busses. TNT, I'm still going to go with your advise of matching them (running "like devices" on the same bus).
For what it's worth, I've read another thread where suggestions are made to have each hdd configured as the master on each of the primary and secondary busses. TNT, I'm still going to go with your advise of matching them (running "like devices" on the same bus).
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tntkemp
New member
Well, I'm glad that you are going to follow my suggestions. Just to make you more sure, these recommendations actually come from a combination of my computer experience anybody at the cakewalk newsgroups...as well as all of the websites I know of that discuss this subject: Prorec.com, this one..Homerecording.com and others. It only makes sense. It is a fact that the IDE controller can only run at one setting, whether it be DMA/33, UDMA/66 or UDMA/100 (ATA/66, ATA/100). Therefore, if you mix two indifferent drives, it will drop to the highest setting of the drive with the lowest rating. Most CDRom's are DMA/33 at best. Therefore, if you place it with a hard drive that is rated ATA/100, it will only run like with the throughput of a DMA/33 drive....majorly crippling multitrack recording and playback.
You'll find that alot of people either purchase SCSI controllers and SCSI drives for their audio and Video data, or they'll purchase an add-on IDE controller, giving them the ability to run up to 8 drives in their systems, and the ability to isolate drives onto their own controller for the greatest throughput..
Tom Kemp
You'll find that alot of people either purchase SCSI controllers and SCSI drives for their audio and Video data, or they'll purchase an add-on IDE controller, giving them the ability to run up to 8 drives in their systems, and the ability to isolate drives onto their own controller for the greatest throughput..
Tom Kemp