If you've been producing/composing music for a number of years, then you've probably gone through a few hard drives like I have. They stack up in the corner, different colored and shaped ones from Best Buy or Staples, clunky gray "professional looking" boxes that turn out to not be sturdy enough to travel with. It's inevitable that we outgrow drives, that our sample libraries get bigger, and our computers find new ways to be conveniently incompatible.
I wanted to share this with you all, because for the past year I have been using an external hard drive that works great.
Just to be clear, this is my professional opinion. I don't know everything about every technical spec and benchmark, and I haven't compared brands in a controlled manner. I've just used a lot of drives, and I've also seen the way that other producers & composers use drives.
The first thing I'll say in general is that Glyph drives are your best bet for music making.
•They're as fast as internal drives 7200 RPM, (although not all Glyphs are that fast).
•They're designed to work with Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar, Sony Vegas, etc. Of course Reason, Ableton Live, Sibelius and Finale are less intensive so Glyph should work with them as well.
This is the drive I use: Glyph PortaGig 800
http://www.glyphtech.com/products/portagig/features.php#/images/products/portagig-gallery-picks.jpg
• I keep all my sample libraries in here,
• my entire iTunes library
• as well as my project folders,
• all my Sibelius notation files and GuitarPro notation files.
When I'm creating music I tend to keep Logic projects and Reason projects in a secondary hard drive in my desktop computer (not the system drive), but then if I'm going on a trip, I will drag the projects that I know I'm going to need, from my computer to the Glyph.
I use my Glyph everywhere, at the coffee shop, on a plane. I have worked on Sibelius and Reason projects while riding on a plane with my laptop connected to the Glyph.
Of course the catch to you getting a drive like mine is that, it's last year's model, so A) it's not as readily available in stores, and B) it may not be enough storage for you. The PortaGig 800 has up to 500GB
so
Here are the next generation. Comparable in portability and speed, but with more storage.
Glyph PortaGig 50http://www.glyphtech.com/products/portagig50/specifications.php
Up to 1 terabyte
Glyph PortaGig 62http://www.glyphtech.com/products/portagig62/specifications.php
Latest release: up to 2 terabytes
These all use Firewire 800 and USB, so they're compatible with Mac and PC.
;;;
