Transfer speed needed for Native Library use ?

Elie.M · 2025-04-01T11:43:18+00:00

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Hello,

Some of you may have the same issue of a large amount of Native library files that fulls main hard drive. As a solution I've found this Transcend JetDrive Lite 330 to plug into my Macbook Pro's SD card slot for my +330Go Native library.

It announces a 90Mb/sec speed. I wonder if it is enough for fluent and not lagging, crashing, cracking work.

Thank you.

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Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44046/transfer-speed-needed-for-native-library-use

The speed is good enough.

However, most lagging, crashing and crackling issues are more likely to be related to memory, CPU or Audio card rather to a disc.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44046/transfer-speed-needed-for-native-library-use

Is it really just 90 MB/s?

You would have been much better off buying something like a Samsung T7 external - with tons of spaces and 1,050MB/s transfer speed.

I see this drive a lot in my travels.

atoenne

Use a 4TB T7 Shield (one chip generation ahead of the slightly cheaper T7 with a better caching) and that is plenty of speed.

Also most instruments load the library files in memory, so the slowdown is with changing instruments in Kontakt for instance. Larger instruments may take a few seconds.

atoenne

Your ears 😂

If the fan in your Macbook starts howling, its summertime

BIF

If you're using a DAW, the settings will be saved as-is when you save the project file. Those settings will be in the project file, so wherever those go; that's the hard drive that will have your DAW and project settings. And they will be recalled when you load the project at a later time.

If you're using standalone (Kontakt, for example), the settings get saved when you save a preset. They don't get saved if you move knobs around and then switch to a different preset. Or if you play some stuff with a specific preset and then shut down before you save a preset. I don't know precisely where presets get stored, and quite frankly, I try not to overthink things. I imagine they end up in some folder created when Kontakt was installed. In some cases, certain settings might get saved into the Registry (if you're using Windows).

In the long run, however, it doesn't matter if settings get put on your internal drive or your external drive…if you want the software and libraries to always work correctly, YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE CONNECTED when making music. That's the rule if you have an external drive where you put music things. Don't be trying to make up your own rules, and you'll be fine.

Personally, I prefer to use all internal drives for music software and libraries, because that's one less thing I have to fuss around with. My only "external drives" are my backup drives. That's my rule, but that's just me.

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Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44046/transfer-speed-needed-for-native-library-use

The speed is good enough.

However, most lagging, crashing and crackling issues are more likely to be related to memory, CPU or Audio card rather to a disc.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44046/transfer-speed-needed-for-native-library-use

Is it really just 90 MB/s?

You would have been much better off buying something like a Samsung T7 external - with tons of spaces and 1,050MB/s transfer speed.

I see this drive a lot in my travels.

atoenne

Use a 4TB T7 Shield (one chip generation ahead of the slightly cheaper T7 with a better caching) and that is plenty of speed.

Also most instruments load the library files in memory, so the slowdown is with changing instruments in Kontakt for instance. Larger instruments may take a few seconds.

Elie.M

@Sunborn, thank you.

@Vocalpoint Yes, but concerned by forget or losing the T7, I was looking for an "inside" the mac solution. Plus, I have quite a lot of hard drives connected for video editing or other stuff most of the time. As I don't have much use of the SD card reader, I see it a quite interesting solution…. if speed is good.

atoenne

90MB/s looks sufficient even with streaming audio. Unless you have a lot of streams in parallel. A full CD has 640MB/hour.

One thing to look out: fast SSD drives generate a lot of excess heat. A LOT! The Samsung T7 line may reach up to 60° (Celsius!) when writing and my T7 is always warm. Much faster NVMe SSD can be used for frying. Do you want that extra heat source inside your Macbook?

Elie.M

@atoenne, Yes, you got a point there. But I'll give it a try while monitoring the heat generated. Is there some kind of (free) software for heat monitoring that you could recommend ?

atoenne

Your ears 😂

If the fan in your Macbook starts howling, its summertime

Elie.M

haha got it.

Elie.M

@Sunborn, another (newbie) question I might have in order to evaluate the use of external drive and its reliability for my Native Library. Where are saved all the settings I make on an instrument or a sound of a Native Instrument ?

Is it in my DAW session file, temp files in the mac's system, or temp files in the Native's Library ?

I wouldn't like to lose every setting of every project in case of external drive melt.

I use Avid Protools and Ableton Live.

Thank you.

BIF

Elie.M

Ok, thanks @BIF for sharing.

BIF

You're welcome! Have a great day!

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