ive got 3 hard drives in my pc… the usual thing of, one for the software (cubase, plugins etc) and one for the audio samples, instead of them all on one hard drive and getting audio skips and cracks cos the drive head is jumping around etc…
ive also got a 3rd hard drive that ive half of my samples on… so ive got my samples split over 2 HDs… but this is a pain when im using kontakt or another sampler and im having to keep navigating back to the other sample folders on the other HD… you think itll be ok if i just put alllll my samples on the 2nd hard drive and leave the 3rd as spare? think ill get skips and cracks?
Not sure what system you are using (Mac or Windows), but even when the drive head skips that much you should not have that much of a problem with the audio.
There could however be an issue if your system needs to access the drive while swapping (it’s best to have your swap file on a different HD then your OS and obviously, your samples as well). Swapping by itself is not a real bad thing, but if it can be avoided, especially while playing your tracks, it’s a good thing. In Ableton for instance, you have the option to put your samples in “RAM” (as the options specifies). Not sure if that avoids swapping completely, but I sure would investigate it.
If you are convinced it’s your hard drive and “skipping”, try to defrag the drives. At least you are sure that each sample is stored continuously on your drive.
Also, Kontakt has the option to “learn” which samples are used (same as Battery IMHO). I cant help you in the specifics because I haven’t used Kontakt for a long time. But there is an option where you reset all sample flags. Then you play your track and Kontakt maintains a flag for each sample that was used. After that you “purge” the samples that are not used. Next time you play your track only the used sample files are loaded, all others are not touched.
Just give us more information here on the board. I’m sure there are plenty of people around that know about hardware, windows/mac and your system in detail. Loads of geeks and nerds…I’m sure
I didnt know that about kontakt and others learning the sample positions. Thsnks
Im on windows. Whats that swapping thing? Not heard of it before. Im not having audio issues at the min but just the pain in the butt with searching for my samples over 2 different hard drives.