VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

Attempting to record high resolution audio to an internal boot drive is not the best idea, because the operating system's ongoing need to read and write data will always take precedence at the expense of any audio recording (the drive's spindle speed is also an issue). I learned the hard way almost ten years ago, and have since been recording on external Firewire drives.

But, for on-the-road use (where schlepping around an external drive isn't very convenient), has anyone tried recording to a USB Flash drive?

What was the result: Yay... or Nay?

Thanks!
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Mike
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Deirdre · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:09 pm Post subject:

AFAIK that is completely contingent on your recording software.

I know Pro Tools will only record onto certain kinds of "approved" drives, and I don't think a SS drive is one of them.

(of course, I'm not using the latest version so I could be totally wrong)

There are nice small FW drives that work real well that are a little bigger than an iPhone.
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Yonie · CM Joined: 31 Aug 2011 Posts: 906

I think it would depend on how well USB writes data. I've always seen it as being a wee bit too slow for direct, ongoing storage.

Bish · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 4:06 pm Post subject:

Short answer... Modern USB 2 flash drives will read at about 30MBs and write at about 15MBs ... so they should work just fine.

Long answer... Smile

I'm not sure that there is a problem here to solve. I agree with the principle that data drives and operating system drives are (in an ideal world) separate, but if the operating system accessing the drive is screwing up your recordings, then you may have problems far bigger than "robbed bandwidth".

My math may be for crap, but here's a shot at it...

High quality audio. Lets say 96Kbps and 24 bit mono. This should give you a required data transfer rate of around 2.3Mbps or approx 300KBps. This figure is actually a pretty low number if we start talking about the world of data transfer rates in consumer computers. The common bus speeds are quantum levels above this... the lowest (external FW400) is 50MBs, and fastest (internal SATA2) is running at (approx) 300MBs ... and on to SATA 3, Thunderbolt etc.

The real restricting factor (as you say) is not the bus/interface, but the device itself. I looked at some sample HDD transfer speeds (from Tom's Hardware), and modern internal drives (not Raptors or other 10krpm devices) reported between 64 and 85MBs average write transfer rates. Even if we half that to 30MBs, it's still massively more than HQ audio demands.

Sorry to go on at length, but I was also working through this for my own education. I honestly think that if you can't record on your main drive due to OS activity... then you have other problems that need to be solved. In any case, even if the throughput is being compromised, the internal data buffering should cope with that.

Think of it this way... HQ audio is 300KBs ... I'm pulling ten times that data rate off my internet connection straight to an internal disk (5,400rpm, 500MB, POS)

There's no math in VO... I've probably lost a decimal place somewhere Angry

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ccpetersen · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 4:22 pm Post subject:

I've noticed issues with recording using a netbook, which I had to do a couple of times due to circumstances. The netbook uses the same drive for C and D, and disk activity during program usage sometimes (for some reason I haven't really researched) causes what I can only describe as a 'stuttering' in the recording. So, I tried using an external hard drive plugged into the USB as the "record to" device. It worked okay, but was a pain in the kiester to get the program to accept. So, I just try to avoid recording with the netbook unless there some reason to have to do so -- such as a field recording situation where I'm recording an interview with someone.

I've never tried recording to a thumb drive.
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melissa eX · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:50 am Post subject:

When I use my laptop I record to an SD card.

ccpetersen · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:55 am Post subject:

Sheesh Melissa, I never thought of that. I so rarely use that drive on my netbook... I'll have to try that.
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:23 am Post subject:

Thanks, everyone.

It just dawned on me that my client's proprietary software may not even give me the option of recording to a device other than the internal default drive.

But I really appreciate the feedback!
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

heyguido · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:23 am Post subject:

Have you maxed out the ram on your machine? Ram is your friend, and these days, is exceptionally cheap.
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agettig · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:05 pm Post subject: