# Black Magic Dock



## rvb (Jun 9, 2017)

So I am considering buying the black magic dock with a samsung ssd in it. Quite expensive! I am wondering if there are any alternatives and if I can actually boot my mac pro trash can on the ssd or not? 

Thanks!


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## charlieclouser (Jun 10, 2017)

Yes you *can* boot from a Samsung SSD in the BlackMagic MultiDock, and I've done this - but why would you want to? The internal drive on the Mac Pro cylinder is twice as fast. Much more common to boot from the cylinder's internal drive and use SSDs in the dock for sample and project storage.

I suppose that a true speed freak could boot from the MultiDock and use the cylinder's fast internal drive for sample storage... but this is a little strange. Not good to have no OS on the internal drive in case of weirdness or emergency.

The only time I've booted from the Dock is when building and testing updates - I clone the internal drive to an SSD in the Dock, then update *that* drive to the new OS / Logic version, then when I'm sure it will work I do it all over again on the internal drive.


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## rvb (Jun 10, 2017)

Awesome! Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I was just curious if it was possible, actually for the same reasons you use the boot on the multidock as well! Anyway I'll probably pull the trigger on the multidock quite soon!


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## synthpunk (Jun 11, 2017)

I highly recommend the Blackmagic dock. I have 2 and they had worked flawlessly. Most Alternatives out there seem to have a fan.

Perhaps you could reduce your budget by looking at Crucial drives or these Microns (there OEM'ed by Crucial, I have two).
https://www.smithbuy.com/micron-1tb-2-5-sata-solid-state-drive-mtfddak1t0mbf-1an1zabyy.html?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41860667&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9MFWXLOESUTi6QNLA0qESQnoRnPPdBgxIqy-dc3DviVU78m-Pg0G308ia0kHhOZ38BVvsno2-7PbhC_Vo3aM-JevxntA&_hsmi=41860667


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## Astronaut FX (Jun 11, 2017)

Another fan of the Blackmagic dock. Mine has worked like a tank, and gave me just the right bump in speed to solve any issues I had been having with non-SSD drives.

When I first got it, I had it connected to its own thunderbolt port on my iMac, and was using a USB audio interface (Scarlett 18i20). About six weeks ago, in order to increase my I/O capacity, I added a MOTU 16A (with some trepidation). I was a bit leery because this meant I would need to daisy chain the Blackmagic dock between the iMac and the 16A. But I've not noticed any reduction in speed or other problems.

It is pricy, but it's one of those things that just seems to work. And in my mind, the more things in your system that meet that criteria, the more time you have to spend making music. If you're a pro, this adds to your productivity; if you're a hobbyist, it allows you to maximize what little time you have for music. Either way, a worthy investment.


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## JaikumarS (Jul 3, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> Yes you *can* boot from a Samsung SSD in the BlackMagic MultiDock, and I've done this - but why would you want to? The internal drive on the Mac Pro cylinder is twice as fast. Much more common to boot from the cylinder's internal drive and use SSDs in the dock for sample and project storage.
> 
> I suppose that a true speed freak could boot from the MultiDock and use the cylinder's fast internal drive for sample storage... but this is a little strange. Not good to have no OS on the internal drive in case of weirdness or emergency.
> 
> The only time I've booted from the Dock is when building and testing updates - I clone the internal drive to an SSD in the Dock, then update *that* drive to the new OS / Logic version, then when I'm sure it will work I do it all over again on the internal drive.



Hello Charlie,

Would you recommend using the [Kontakt libraries (Spitfire, Heavyocity, Orchestral Tools, Cinesamples) and the sound content for Amplesound, Omnisphere - STEAM, Stylus RMX -SAGE] in Samsung 850 Evo SATA III 2TB x 4 via Blackmagic Thunderbolt 2 ?
Thanks.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 4, 2017)

JaikumarS said:


> Hello Charlie,
> 
> Would you recommend using the [Kontakt libraries (Spitfire, Heavyocity, Orchestral Tools, Cinesamples) and the sound content for Amplesound, Omnisphere - STEAM, Stylus RMX -SAGE] in Samsung 850 Evo SATA III 2TB x 4 via Blackmagic Thunderbolt 2 ?
> Thanks.



I store ALL sample data on the Samsung EVO drives in the BlackMagic dock - Kontakt, EXS24, BFD3, Spitfire Phobos, EW Play, and raw audio for use in Ableton - *except* for the Spectrasonics STEAM folder, which I left on the internal boot drive on the Mac Pro cylinder simply because that drive is about twice as fast as the EVOs and I want to flip through Omnisphere patches as quickly as possible. It is certainly possible and just fine to store STEAM folder on the Dock, but I wanted it to be as fast as possible. My boot drive is 1tb and has about 300gb free.

At the moment I have my drives in the docks laid out like this:

- Kontakt Drive A = 4tb Samsung 850 EVO = protected (by serial number) Kontakt Player libraries = 700gb free.

- Kontakt Drive B = 4tb Samsung 850 EVO = unprotected (requires full version) Kontakt libraries = 1200gb free.

- Sample Drive = 2tb Samsung 850 PRO = EXS24 libraries and un-mapped WAV files for use in Ableton = 400gb free.

- ROMpler Drive = 2tb Samsung 850 PRO = EW Play, BFD3, Addictive Drums, Spitfire Phobos libraries = 300gb free.

Then I have another dock with four drive bays for project drives, which I can swap as needed.


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## JaikumarS (Jul 4, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> I store ALL sample data on the Samsung EVO drives in the BlackMagic dock - Kontakt, EXS24, BFD3, Spitfire Phobos, EW Play, and raw audio for use in Ableton - *except* for the Spectrasonics STEAM folder, which I left on the internal boot drive on the Mac Pro cylinder simply because that drive is about twice as fast as the EVOs and I want to flip through Omnisphere patches as quickly as possible. It is certainly possible and just fine to store STEAM folder on the Dock, but I wanted it to be as fast as possible. My boot drive is 1tb and has about 300gb free.
> 
> At the moment I have my drives in the docks laid out like this:
> 
> ...



Thanks Charlie.


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## SterlingArcher (Jul 4, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> I store ALL sample data on the Samsung EVO drives in the BlackMagic dock - Kontakt, EXS24, BFD3, Spitfire Phobos, EW Play, and raw audio for use in Ableton - *except* for the Spectrasonics STEAM folder, which I left on the internal boot drive on the Mac Pro cylinder simply because that drive is about twice as fast as the EVOs and I want to flip through Omnisphere patches as quickly as possible. It is certainly possible and just fine to store STEAM folder on the Dock, but I wanted it to be as fast as possible. My boot drive is 1tb and has about 300gb free.
> 
> At the moment I have my drives in the docks laid out like this:
> 
> ...



How many major WTF or minor drive failures have you had over the years Charlie?.


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## SillyMidOn (Jul 5, 2017)

SterlingArcher said:


> How many major WTF or minor drive failures have you had over the years Charlie?.


I personally have had 0 (using a very similar setup to Charlie). 

I've had 2 logic boards fry on me in Mac Pros in 6 years, but that is of course totally unrelated, but a definite wtf moment .


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## rvb (Jul 5, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> I store ALL sample data on the Samsung EVO drives in the BlackMagic dock - Kontakt, EXS24, BFD3, Spitfire Phobos, EW Play, and raw audio for use in Ableton - *except* for the Spectrasonics STEAM folder, which I left on the internal boot drive on the Mac Pro cylinder simply because that drive is about twice as fast as the EVOs and I want to flip through Omnisphere patches as quickly as possible. It is certainly possible and just fine to store STEAM folder on the Dock, but I wanted it to be as fast as possible. My boot drive is 1tb and has about 300gb free.
> 
> At the moment I have my drives in the docks laid out like this:
> 
> ...



Sounds like a great set up! Hopefully will get there one day!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 5, 2017)

SterlingArcher said:


> How many major WTF or minor drive failures have you had over the years Charlie?.



In the decades of SCSI, Zip / Jaz / Syquest / Apex 650mb optical / Sony 128mb opticals etc. I had a few WTF moments, but never really lost any data due to having backups.

In the post-SCSI era, I've still never lost any data, and here is the sum total of WTF moments:

- I had a 1tb Samsung 850 Evo SSD in the MultiDock have its icon disappear from the desktop, but it was still working fine, still showed up in the sidebar of Finder windows, and still showed up in Load/Save dialogs and Disc Utility. Weird. I copied the data over to another 1tb SSD and reformatted the drive and put it back in service. No further problems.

That's it. SATA and Thunderbolt have been good to me. I don't use RAID, don't use TRIM Enabler, and just format the SSDs using Disc Utility on default settings.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jul 5, 2017)

Charlie, do you format them 64k sectors?


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## charlieclouser (Jul 5, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Charlie, do you format them 64k sectors?



I dunno. I just use Apple's Disc Utility on the default settings. 

Back in the SCSI days (25-30 years ago) I used some third-party "drive formatting utilities" that claimed to give the user more control and better performance than using Apple's own formatting utility, but I had a few instances of drives not being recognized on other computers, needing drivers, etc. Back in the days before the internet and USB stick, if you used some of these fancy programs, you had to find the floppy disc containing the drive utility / drivers that came with the hard drive, if you can imagine such a thing! So the first time I brought a hard drive to another studio and it wouldn't mount unless I had the original floppy, I vowed never again to stray from Apple's stock formatting utilities and the default settings. Hasn't steered me wrong since.


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## jonnybutter (Jul 5, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> Back in the days before the internet and USB stick, if you used some of these fancy programs, you had to find the floppy disc containing the drive utility / drivers that came with the hard drive, if you can imagine such a thing!



Isn't it bizarre they way things used to be? I remember all of that, but it seems like a distant, grubby dream. And yes, the Apple disc utility is perfectly fine for formatting discs. And it will be perfectly fine for their new file format, too


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jul 5, 2017)

Thanks Charlie. That's exactly how I format as well, on both Windows and Mac (default format settings). I hear a lot of chatter about formatting with 64K sectors for sample streaming, but never really understood the real benefit.


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## scoringdreams (Jul 6, 2017)

If you are looking at future-proofing (TB3) and can compromise without being able to rack-mount your dock, do check out the Akitio Thunder3 Quad Mini as well...


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## N.Caffrey (Jul 6, 2017)

scoringdreams said:


> If you are looking at future-proofing (TB3) and can compromise without being able to rack-mount your dock, do check out the Akitio Thunder3 Quad Mini as well...


interesting. why should someone get this one instead of the black magic? for TB3?


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## scoringdreams (Jul 6, 2017)

N.Caffrey said:


> interesting. why should someone get this one instead of the black magic? for TB3?



For me, it was the price factor and also my reluctance to buy an adapter...

Well, compared to the fanless multidock, this one has a fan, but there's an on/off fan control switch for situations that require silent running. And if I were to get a 2U drawer, it can probably fit 3 of these with ease...that's, imo, more suited for my use as I don't record much but require more slots for my samples.


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## synthpunk (Jul 6, 2017)

If it ain't broke don't fix it


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## charlieclouser (Jul 6, 2017)

N.Caffrey said:


> interesting. why should someone get this one instead of the black magic? for TB3?



That little Akitio thing looks like an interesting alternative to the OWC ThunderBay-Mini since it has a switch to disable the fan as well as a DisplayPort pass through - so it's sort of like a mini version of a TB dock that can peel off a second display connector right on the back. For a laptop rig it might be pretty slick.


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