Question about managing Kontakt instruments on Mac Studio

125
125 Member Posts: 3 Member
edited October 22 in Tech Talks

Hi!

I'm transitioning from Windows to a Mac Studio soon.
Currently, my C drive is running out of space, mainly due to large Kontakt instruments like ProjectSAM's Symphobia (70.3GB), Spitfire Ambient Guitars (46.9GB), and Kontakt Factory Library 2 (37.4GB).

In Native Access, my 'Application Location' is set to my C/Program files/Native Instruments directory. Could this be contributing to my local drive space being taken up? Every other option is directed to my external drives.

Is there a more storage-efficient way to manage these instruments for optimal performance on a Mac Studio, considering their storage upgrade pricing is pretty steep?

Best,

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Comments

  • mykejb
    mykejb Moderator Posts: 1,747 mod

    The usual recommendation if you're limited on space is put the content on a fast external drive. That moves pretty much all the space hogging stuff. Compared to the libraries the applications take up very little space. Downloads can also be set to an external drive. Don't forget to set the paths in Native Access first as changing them afterwards doesn't move the content.

  • PoorFellow
    PoorFellow Moderator Posts: 4,815 mod
    edited May 20
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/31064/question-about-managing-kontakt-instruments-on-mac-studio

    What you want is to keep all applications (e.g. Kontakt 7 , Reaktor 6) and all plugins (VST , AU , AAX ) on system drive. The only things to put elsewhere is athat which takes up most space and that is Download location and Content location. Those two you set to e.g. an external hard drive (many people here prefer a NVME SSD drive in an external box , there are discussions about that)

    All your large Kontakt instruments like ProjectSAM's Symphobia (70.3GB), Spitfire Ambient Guitars (46.9GB), and Kontakt Factory Library 2 (37.4GB) they are all in category Content and those you never , not even on a PC, put on system drive C: , you put Content on a secondary internal drive (D: , E: whatever) or in case of Macs on an external drive.

  • Lionzinio
    Lionzinio Member Posts: 128 Advisor
    edited May 20

    Hey there

    I had exactly the same concerns when moving to my Mac Studio. Because Apple's charges for internal storage are usurious.I have 2 TB and so far I've barely managed to fill 500Gb.

    Effectively managing your NI libraries is not an issue and the move has been relatively painless. Although depending on how many bits of NI stuff you have the downloads can take a while. (Changing the download location isn't a priority unless you really have no space as it's a transitory space for NI downloads).

    I have all my NI libraries stored on an external 4TB USB C drive

    So the only NI things I have on my actual Mac Studio are the applications themselves and some presets.

    It's very easy to set up with Native Access as below, where SK Libs is my USB C drive.

    Screenshot 2024-05-20 at 13.53.59.png

    Hope that helps

    And enjoy your new Mac

  • 125
    125 Member Posts: 3 Member

    Hey all,

    Apologies for the ultra-late response!
    Thanks so much for all the info, it was very helpful!

  • victorp.sg
    victorp.sg Member Posts: 145 Advisor

    When you have bought your Mac, read this NI Support article on…

    https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/214134545-Notes-on-Hard-Drive-Formats-on-Mac-Computers

    Remember to reformat your external SSD as GUID-APFS format—of course this will erase all previous data on your SSD.

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