Set-Up Assistance for Newbie

[meclaw]

Hi --

Long-time lurker, first-time poster humbly seeks your assistance.

I am a newbie to computer audio (though not to audio generally).

I am currently running a 15" Intel MacBook Pro into an Apogee Duet D-A Converter and out to a pair of Ultrasone HFI-2200 headphones. Software is iTunes supplemented with AstoundSound. Everything -- the operating system and the music library -- is on a single 128GB SSD. As you might well imagine, the SSD is filling up rapidly and the time has come to put the music library onto a separate drive. So my questions are:

(1) How, exactly, to I store the music library on the second drive? Does the second drive require its own system, including iTunes, in order to hold and organize the music files? If not, what does go on the second drive and how does iTunes on the first drive organize, access and play the music?

(2) Do I need a second SSD to store the music files on (an expensive proposition given the price of the larger capacity SSDs) or can I use a standard HD for the purpose (and if I do, will I still derive the benefits of having an SSD for my main system drive)?

Many, many thanks for your kind assistance.

meclaw

 

[Audio_ELF]

You can add an external drive via USB or daisy chained FireWire with your Apogee Duet. The most common setup is to have SSD for your internal (system) drive and you install OSX, iTunes, etc on there; then have an external "spinning" drive for the music. Within iTunes you just tell it to store it's music on the external drive.

 

One thought - has anyone in their comparisons tried ALAC on the SSD vs AIFF on an external or NAS drive?

 

Eloise

 

[meclaw]

Many thanks, friend.

meclaw

 

[tmfidelis]

Dear meclaw:

 

I too have a 15" Mac Book Pro with a 64 GB SLC SSD and use it mostly for computer audio research.

 

This said, perhaps one may elect to implement a more practical solution that will serve dual roles. It may be a sonic compromise to play music files using external devices when compared to the sound from the internal SSD.

 

However, the fact is you will out grow the existing storage device. You may wish to focus on a NAS drive that will also serve as a method to protect your music from storage failures.

 

There are several practical methods, among them:

 

ESATA.

USB NAS.

NAS via Ethernet connection.

 

I hope this thought helps and good luck.

 

Best regards,

 

Tim Marutani

Emeryville, CA

 

[meclaw]

Many thanks, friend.

I have decided, based upon the advice received here and some additional reading done on my own, that the best solution, for the time being (i.e. until I fill up another 750GB of hard disk space!) will be to add a second, on-board drive to my MacBook, substituting it for the existing optical drive; the latter can be put into a box and used as an external drive when needed.

Again, many thanks to both respondents for their kind assistance.

Later. ()

meclaw