# General advice sought for using VSTis/ sample libraries via external SSD



## philh27 (Oct 14, 2020)

Hi,

i've been using Reaper for 2 or 3 years now, but other than drums have been recording audio from real instruments and hardware synths. I'm getting more into the idea of using virtual instruments and sample libraries and have recently acquired Pianoteq and I am having a play with Spitfire's BBC Discovery Orchestra.

i'm sure I'll have far more questions in the weeks and months to come, but for now a couple of hopefully quite simple questions.

To date, I have the Reaper DAW and all plug ins, drum samples etc loading directly from my Windows laptop's internal SSD, using an external SSD for storing and loading projects, rendered files, stems etc. It seems to work fine for me.

However, the internal drive is now almost full, though there is plenty of space availableon my external drive. Is there any reason/ potential performance issues by storing/ accessing all my VSTis, pLug ins, samples etc on the external SSD. Will I experience a significant downturn in loading times etc! Any other potential issues?

and finally for now, it seems that many sample libraries use Kontakt Player. Again, would the best location for that be directly on my laptop, or is external storage ok?

Thanks!


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## Mark Kouznetsov (Oct 15, 2020)

I use my internal SSD only for system/kontakt/vst plugins. All my samples are on external ssd's. God knows what can happen to your system, do you REALLY want to re-download all your samples (which are the largest things you work with) ever again? The majority use it like that. In terms of speed you will notice no difference, as long as your usb is 3.0+. Also, don't risk too much with internal memory by running low on it too often.


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## philh27 (Oct 15, 2020)

Mark_Kouznetsov said:


> I use my internal SSD only for system/kontakt/vst plugins. All my samples are on external ssd's. God knows what can happen to your system, do you REALLY want to re-download all your samples (which are the largest things you work with) ever again? The majority use it like that. In terms of speed you will notice no difference, as long as your usb is 3.0+. Also, don't risk too much with internal memory by running low on it too often.



Thanks, that's helpful. A quick follow up based on your reply, if I may?

RAM. Currently I only have 8GB, which I know will not be enough for running projects utilising a lot of vst plug ins and samples, though I haven't had any issues yet.

What can actually happen when you run out of capacity? Samples refuse to load, slow performance or anything worse?

Thanks again.


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## Mark Kouznetsov (Oct 15, 2020)

philh27 said:


> Thanks, that's helpful. A quick follow up based on your reply, if I may?
> 
> RAM. Currently I only have 8GB, which I know will not be enough for running projects utilising a lot of vst plug ins and samples, though I haven't had any issues yet.
> 
> ...


Yeah, pretty much that. Samples won't load, your PC may freeze, graphics drivers can stop working (black screen). Just freeze the tracks (bounce to audio). That way you will still have your midi tracks, but those will be muted/not use memory. If you have to make corrections - unfreeze, correct, bounce to audio again and so on. Buffer size can be increased if you're working with VI, you don't need zero latency as with recording audio and monitoring (trying to hear your own voice/instruments through your audio interface in real time), so depending on your system, go for 256, 512 or even more, it doesn't really matter if it works. Very high buffer size can result in slight delays when playing your midi keyboard, just take as step back if it bothers you (doesn't affect anything if you're straight programming into MIDI roll). Higher buffer size = more effects and instruments can be loaded into RAM/ less CPU stress for your PC. 

Also, increase your instrument preload buffer in Kontakt, that helps a lot on less powerful machines. 






Also, to speed thing up (loading times), make sure to do a batch re-save in Kontakt (click floppy disk--> Batch re-save --> Chose a folder with a specific sample library --> wait until finished. What it does is it writes down all the paths to all of the samples in that library, so your PC won't search for each and every one of them every time you load an instrument into Kontakt. It will load instantly (you will only have to wait to load samples into RAM, which is much faster). Use that function on per-library basis, one by one, don't re-save all of them at once.


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## Mark Kouznetsov (Oct 15, 2020)

Last but not least, use "update sample pool" or "purge all samples" to save RAM. The best option is to load instrument articulations separately (longs, shorts, etc). But not all of the libraries allow that.
There are workarounds, in that case.
For example: the main patch in this particular library is 1.26GB (one microphone position, main articulations: longs, shorts, tremolos and so on).







But let's say, out of 3.5 octaves of Violin's range, you only use 2 octaves and only long articulations?






By clicking "update sample pool", Kontakt will keep only the samples you used, nothing else. So, if you only play 3 notes, or use 3 high-hats on your drum, it will be just that. 
As you can see, now that instrument takes only 163MB of RAM.
Also, you can click the RAM logo under each articulation to unload them from your RAM. Other libraries provide similar options with different UI (might be a dot or a circle-like icon, but it does the same job).

And so on, and so on. You can produce massive tracks on a low-end PC by knowing this (and many other) tricks.

Then, if you bounce it to audio, it will become a tiny fraction of 163MB, with no real impact on your CPU (it will only use power to play the audio file, which is nothing compared to playing samples).


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## philh27 (Oct 15, 2020)

This is all really good information, Mark and a terrific resource for reference as I get more into this aspect of recording. Thank you so much.


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