External HD startup causing dropout

[paulpoitier]

Hi all,

I regularly use several VSTs with libraries which I have stored on an external hard drive.

My issue is that whenever I haven't triggered an instrument from such a plugin for some time, the HD starts whirring (going from a rest state to starting up, I guess) and during this period the samples which playing regularly drop out.

I am using Ableton 11 on an M1 Macbook Pro, and I have already turned of the "put hard disks to sleep when possible" option in system settings.

Any help much appreciated,

P

[Strums'n'Drums]

I had a similar issue, so I changed the external HDD for an external SSD (with M2 Mac mini)
No problems at all since then. I store all the content files on the SSD (e.g. Native Instruments content, Spitfire Audio content and all my sample files as well as all the Ableton packs).

[paulpoitier]

I had a similar issue, so I changed the external HDD for an external SSD (with M2 Mac mini)
No problems at all since then. I store all the content files on the SSD (e.g. Native Instruments content, Spitfire Audio content and all my sample files as well as all the Ableton packs).

Okay, thank you, that's great - I had to google what an SSD even is but that makes a lot of sense. Seems like HDDs will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future

[fishmonkey]

in the meantime you can use something like the Drive Alive feature in Amphetamine to keep the external drive spinning:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amphetami ... 4704?mt=12