MOTU Instruments soundbank files stored on separate drive?

[studiostuff]

Do the MOTU Instruments soundbank files need to be stored on the (Mac) system drive, or is it possible to store them on a remote drive?

[cuttime]

They can be stored on an external drive. I did this in 2019, and I don't remember exactly how I did it. The path directory is in the UVI Workstation plugin under Preferences>Soundbanks.

[studiostuff]

Thanks for your reply! I'll give it a try.

[mikehalloran]

As long as the drive is plugged directly into your Mac, should be ok. I have yet to find a USB hub that doesn't have an issue with drives going to sleep at inopportune moments.

[bayswater]

As long as the drive is plugged directly into your Mac, should be ok. I have yet to find a USB hub that doesn't have an issue with drives going to sleep at inopportune moments.

I have all libraries for all VIs on external drives connected via hubs. The files get there via various processes. Some ask you where you want the sample files at the time of installation. Others give you the option to move them after installation. IIRC, Mach5/Falcon has a Locations option in it's file manager and you can pick things in there and tell the app to put their name in a place that is easy to find later.

I have a powered USB hub for most external drives that works fine and have not had problems with things going to sleep, but learned recently it is proprietary to a local company and they are only sold at a local drug store.

https://www.londondrugs.com/certified-d ... t-switches

[mikehalloran]

I have a powered USB hub for most external drives that works fine and have not had problems with things going to sleep, but learned recently it is proprietary to a local company and they are only sold at a local drug store.

https://www.londondrugs.com/certified-d ... t-switches

Great that it works for you.

I own similar hub under the ANKER brand except that three of the ten ports are powered to 60W. Many hubs were returned to Amazon before I kept this one. Better than the others but it's not immune to the sleep issue. If I plug my interface, BIAB HDD, USB drives or USB keyboard into it, the connection is not reliable and I may have to disconnect and reconnect the plug into the back of my iMP at some point. It's not an issue with iLok, eLicenser. I had this problem with my 2010 iMac and my prior iMP 14 Core. The USB-C hubs I owned were even worse for this.

https://smile.amazon.com/Anker-PowerIQ- ... 199&sr=8-4

[bayswater]

Mike, that Anker looks a lot like my hub. I've had success with other Anker equipment.

I've put all the small things like dangles in a non powered hub connected to one outlet on the powered hub, and that has worked OK -- never had one "unfound".

Although I have 10 ports on the Certified Data hub, things go off the rails if there are more than 8 things plugged in. I suppose that indicates the power supply is being overtaxed. As long as I keep it to 8 which is enough for my usage, including one for a 4 port unpowered hub for dongles, all is good.

[mikehalloran]

I've thrown in the towel on this issue. My external drives sit in an OWC TB2 Drive Dock through a TB2 cable into the Apple TB2–3 adapter plugged into one of my TB3. The Anker, two LG monitors, my Yamaha keyboard and USB interface go into one of the 4 USB3 or 4 TB3/USB-C ports in the back depending. The BIAB drive goes into the ANKER only when I'm updating, otherwise those VIs reside on of the SSDs in my TB dock.

Besides the pair of drives, the Drive Dock has a pair of TB2 ports. On the rare occasion I bring out my 828mkII, it goes through a FW400–800 cable into the Apple FW–TB adapter into the DD. Ok, I knew it should work but was a little surprised when it actually did.

Anyway, SATA III SSDs in a TB2 dock are no faster than over USB3 but it is absolutely rock solid for me.

Back OT, the only VIs I feel I need to keep onboard are those from IK. Sometimes, SampleTank 4 needs to rebuild the index and with the number of VIs I have from them, this is faster if those libraries are on the System drive. Even that, "need" is a bit strong—"convenient" is the better word. Other than that, Kontakt/Komplete, MOTU/UVI and everything else is on one of those SSDs in the Drive Dock.

[bayswater]

I had a less organized approach. I kept plugging things into different ports and hubs, and physically moving things until everything worked consistently. I found physically moving things made a difference. I don't know why this would be, other than the known interference between wifi and USB 3. It appears that bus powered drives like the Samsung 800 series don't like to be near other larger drive that use their own power supplies. The desk is chaos, but it works.