File Management 101 - For Music Production

[@deeperblueofficial]

I broke rule number one. Been home recording for a fews and grew to the point where I opened a commercial home studio. And I just had to cancel on my first client! I tried over and over and over to download his project when I realized my computer had run out of space. Somehow I completely missed this entire topic all these years. I didn't even know what an SSD was. So I got a few now and am looking for best practices for relocating files, which is how I found your channel.

[@CommittedMusicians]

I’ve been looking for a video like this for 2 months. Thanks for making it. You definitely earned my subscription brother. THANKS AGAIN!

[@Dazticmizo]

Ken talking about lockdowns before it was cool 2:58 ... Cheers for this Ken, appreciate the knowledge and experience!

[@ObiWanJacobi117]

Ah man, that’s so professional! Thank you so much

[@christopherbrissini5722]

I believe Ken to be the most honest, enthusiastic and inspiring man I have ever watched on this ere KZbin thingy. The respect I have for his experience and talent is beyond words. Thoroughly top chap. IF, I had been fortunate enough to have had a tutor like Ken Marshall when at college, my life Would have been very different. Thank you Ken. One day, when the world is back to normal, I am going to buy you a beer.

[@Loudpvck999]

Had straight up PTSD when you were talking about that feeling lol. should have gotten into this "Organization" business 5 years ago.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

My file organisation has been terrible over the 16 years doing this and often difficult to find stuff but despite that everyone of My projects is saved because I always made 3 copys from the start in 3 external hardrives and flash drives. When ever I am organising anything where deleting files might happen I just do a search on the drive for all project files and then copy that to the two other drives. While organising I am only renaming and moving files to and from foulders and any files that I dont want go in a file called bin. Once I am finished I can check the size of the organised foulders vs the original and it will be the exact same size, then I copy all of it to the other two drives. Then I can check the bit founders one by one before deleting.

[@wolvesrunhere115]

This video actually caught me off guard at first because file management has always been a problem for me. Being scatterbrained I’ve often lost work somewhere down the binary pipes. So I put some serious thought into it, picked up a couple external hard drives, and I’m in the process of making a concise and organized backup thanks to you Ken! Taking the extra time to properly label and catalogue files makes such a huge difference when you’re searching for something you may have done 10 years ago!

[@hiwattmarshall]

So happy to hear you're getting organized in the backup department WRH! I can't tell you how many random tracks I've lost and found over the years :-\ Your point about searching 10 years from now is spot on...keep it organized ;-) Another practice I've been up to lately is physically labelling my archival external drives so I can quickly make visual reference to the contents (without having to connect and spin up). Thanks for sharing Wolves Run Here...have an awesome day my friend!

[@vivelajuventuz]

really good voice. u should be on movies.

[@TheAmazingSnarf]

thanks again, Ken. what a great fundamental for library building and maintenance. Some time back, I asked myself "why the heck am I recording onto (and storing) all of this music that i'm working so hard on... onto my laptop's hard drive? one speck of dust, and ...well, "...that Feeling". I now have multiple backup destination drives for that stuff, and I keep it the heck off of my OS drive. it's good to know that my sample library is secured.

[@aniher4949]

I lost an entire project folder this past year. And I thought I had things backed up... so live and learn the very painful way. But this is very useful info. I went looking for other's opinions on it and pretty much have confirmation for how I'm doing things now. And it's sad that there isn't a lot of videos like this. Separating your output onto secondary drives should be a beginner's notice on every DAW, but it's not. Those in video production know this well however. If you only have one extra hard drive then you can use the method I am. I have ONE drive that hosts my operating system - ONE drive for my recordings/samples/resources - and a CLOUD storage that will automatically backup my second drive. My sample folder is everything AFTER they are extracted and organized into categories (a long process but satisfying one), and then I have a VST/Plugin resource folder. Basically anything that takes time to organize that is media, INPUT or OUTPUT, goes on my second drive with a cloud backup. You can keep all your archived files on the same as your operating system, as long as they aren't maxing out your disk, because they aren't being used. Anyway, thanks for the video Ken - Great information!

[@mikintil]

Ken I love your videos man,they have helped me so much!

[@gpayne9448]

I love you man you made it so simple I’ve been stressing about these hard drives for weeks and now I’m all good 😂🙏🏼

[@wolvesrunhere115]

Oooh this is something I REALLY need to work on. That “feeling” is the worst. Another great video with some essential tips. Thanks Ken!

[@hiwattmarshall]

Haha, that FEELING!!! I've experienced this far more than I should admit WRH. TIP: Avoid late-night file management LOL! Best time to delete files?!?...with fresh coffee in the morning ;-)) Cheers!

[@anantwashere]

THANK YOU. VERY INFORMATIVE.

[@RussiBeats]

Great advice. Re-evaluating my file management now.

[@ZipSnipe]

Dude , you are the man, love your awesome advice !!!!! Best on KZbin period !!!!

[@RiZeLegiT]

I've literally recorded every session ever directly on my computer drive, I feel so called out lol but I've never ever had an issue with a lost session or files plus I have splice which auto backs up my project files and I even slap em on 2TB HDD I have every once in a while for extra precaution

[@Avedis-G]

Thanks so much for this! I’m so glad somebody decided to make a video about it. I’m just now upgrading my system and want to start off right. I’m a musician not an IT tech dammit!

[@danielefaziomusic1079]

You helped me to figure out that maybe..the best solution is the one that make you feel okey with your self.. and backup by manual maybe it's the worst in terms of "you have to actually think about it" but seems to be the most reliable system...ever...i mean... ever!

[@BlueSaturnn]

Thank you for this! Feels great to have a proper system! What kinda SSD would you reccomend?

[@hiwattmarshall]

Hi Simon! Thanks for engaging here my friend, I really appreciate it 🙏🤟🏻. If you’re on a Mac, I suggest anything from OWC. If you’re on PC, I recommend finding a similar specialty company like MacSales (OWC). In my own experience, you pay a little more than you might at say Amazon, but the product is more suited to us audio professionals, and worth EVERY penny! In the case of OWC, they’re not only choosing the best ssd drive, they’re also choosing the best interface, chassis, etc. I’ve gotta knock on wood every time, but I’ve NEVER had an OWC drive fail! 😳🙏. That’s a pretty bold statement considering I’ve been exclusively sourcing my pro audio drives from them for over 20 years! Cheers to you Simon, I hope you see my next session…it’s SO fun 😊 Stay safe… -hw

[@cnotebeats8061]

you're speaking from experience and I feel your pain,😭 thanks for the help brother good topic!!!

[@KeithMarvK]

Great tips. Definitely going to share. Do you also suggest saving plugins, instruments and their extensions separate from the system drive?

[@SlightlyNasty]

And it doesn't even have to be an active mistake on your part that results in The Feeling. I lost two RAID sets before realising that the initialisation software on the LaCie drives we were using literally worked by finding the first RAID pair it could see on the system and assuming that was the LaCie unit! That was a fun discovery to make.

[@ughhhjohnmiles]

Thank you, my friend. Subscribing!

[@JE.DeLobo]

This was a great informative find, thanks! I’m finally doing the big purchases to finish up my new -is it ever really finished? 🤔- set up.. might I recommend a video explaining how you set up your system to “really get rocking” as you put it, before you closed the lid? Daws and system hardware on internal system drive and plugins on separate external drive, separate from session files, etc...? Thanks again.

[@BrysonPrice]

When you say “don’t record projects to the disk that your OS is on”; what if your main HD is a SSD NVMe? Would it still matter at that point? Thanks for the video : )

[@isolaking]

What about the cloud?

[@MisterDivineAdVenture]

You know how any mm editor has a track viewer? Some of them also have a library that will show the waveform of the file and you can do simple cut edits on them there? I would love to find something way more on the file explorer end that has a "view waveform" for audio - and hopefully can do review and cut cut functions. This is for security audio that has loooooong silences - something critical - and so on. It is to annotate a log for these files. Maybe I just have to drag them into a multi-track? Just spending an hour looking and thought I'd drop by and ask. 😁🙂 Signed, not clueless.

[@KaizuoSilva]

These tips are perfect for storing my 3d projects and videos. I figured i needed to back up everything on an external drive so i started but after a while i realised ive got whats the equivelent of a minecraft chest monster on my built in hdd.

[@boostuse]

Hi, I'm looking at a Seagate 5TB external 3.0 drive,I Was wondering if you should put your plugins on that type of external drive . Thanks

[@micindir4213]

Not messing with os drive is really good advice! I usually upload stuff to cloud ( gdrive ) . Not every day, more like every month. Sometimes I'll have a copy on separate disk ( archive disk ) . And as a last resort, which actually saved me couple of times, I record to tape - 4 track tascam. The sound is degraded compared to digital original, but the storage is actually physical, and I love the texture. Closest thing is actually printing tracks. For example after switching to 64 bits i've lost some compability with some old synthedit plugins - very dirty delay and very filthy pitchshifter (even 90 whammy is tame compared to that thing ). CDs and DVDs gone out of fashion, but actually might be cheap way to archive stuff. I also have an archive of old 60ish GB hdds for separate projects - one project = one drive .

[@channelite]

I feel like the Hackintosh is the best music computer. Once you have it working and tweaked, disable updates and you’ll never have to mess with it again, because if you do install an update, you’ll break your system. I really like your videos.

[@theoasis444]

THANK YOU! for this valuable information

[@libbyssubs6938]

So I bought a Mac Mini m1 with 16 gb of ram but only 256 internal ssd. I was just planing to get an external ssd with 2 tb. Do you think I’ll be fine? Or will I run into problems?

[@Renaxelo]

tutorial start 5:00

[@bechti44]

What you propose as a "Backup" in minute 7:12, is what a IT technician calls a raid 0 hard disk array. Just managed Manually. Make sure to have a backup in a physically distant location, NOT Connected to any system. I do that once every frew monts and give the Harddrive to my Parents. You computer might be infected and destroy both copies or you might have a firehazard or what not.

[@hiwattmarshall]

Julian, thanks for sharing my friend ;-) You made me laugh out loud at your last...my parents have my ENTIRE library too lmao! Great advice and insight here, I appreciate it BIG TIME 😊🙏 Be safe, and have a great week! -hw

[@bechti44]

@@hiwattmarshall well, thank YOU for cheering me up, that is some really honorable action :) I'd actually have two further questions: 1. Why is it that you wear an antistatic wristband (at least the proper one with cable) and 2. How do you manage your audio files? I am getting into field recording and search for a proper solution to have an audio library where I can tag and Filter by specific properties. What I mean is a solution where I can import my audiofiles (simillar to adobe lightroom for pictures if you know that) and specify for example the location, the weather, the time on set, categorize it and so on. This might be worth a Video though. Im in the process of building my own application now as I could not find something suitable for my needs.

[@Warren3carpentry]

Thanks for the advice!

[@zaragrace]

What spinning hard drives do you use ?

[@hiwattmarshall]

Hi Zara! I shop at OWC, and my choice for spinning is always 7200rpm, with a USB3 interface. In my own experience, the new USB C isn’t necessary for audio production, the throughput of 7200 USB 3 is easily sufficient, so save your cabbage (unless your in need of video capabilities…then I strongly recommend USB C! Thanks for engaging here Zara, I really appreciate it! Stay safe, and have a great weekend! -hw

[@davidlynch4338]

Great video! Pease excuse my ignorance, but if my DAW is living on my main SSD, how do I avoid recording tracks onto that SSD. I am running Ableton 10 on a Macbook pro with a 500gb Samsung evo SSD as my main drive and a 1tb Samsung evo SSD as my backup drive (it lives in a caddy where my old cd drive was). I do "collect all and save" after each session and back it up onto my second drive, but in the mean time I am working on my main SSD where my OS is. Am I doing anything wrong? Cheers for the help!

[@KyleClements]

This is one of those things I wish I cared about years ago. Can't tell you how many wasted hours have gone into digging up half of an old project from one archive, another quarter of it from another archive, and never finding that last portion.

[@distortomanipulo]

Truth rings.

[@stuffnuns]

Bono, when beginning recording The Unforgettable Fire, His lyrics for ALL the songs on the album were handwritten in a notebook, which, on his way to the first day at the studio, he left behind in a taxi. Bono had to write new lyrics for the entire album. Worked out okay, tho.

[@jsebastian9547]

So obvious, but necessary to address. I nearly lost an entire album I was about 80 percent done with a few years back when my pc blue screened itself to death... luckily I had a one of those small USB harddrives I was using for backups... The worst thing was reinstalling my daw and all my plugins.

[@techknowbabble]

I am a filmmaker new to Music creation, however i have been using mac and building PCs for years and i can provide more clarity on external drives. The fact is that the WD hard drive you were holding up, inside of it is the same type of 2.5" drive OWC sells on their site. The main mistake people make with their external drives is moving it while it is running. NEVER EVER EVER MOVE A MECHANICAL HARD DRIVE WHILE IT IS RUNNING and CONNECTED TO A COMPUTER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!! SSD you can move around all day with no issue. Second look into a RAID 1 drive for Automatic Backups. With RAID 1 you have 2 hard drives and one drive automatically copies to the second drive. If one drive dies you have an entire second drive with all your files safely on board. I have a WD 16TB My Book Duo with 2x 8TB hard drives inside. What ever i save to the drive gets copied to both drives automatically and if one dies then i still have all my files. All i need to do is put in another drive to replace the one that dies and im back to being protected again. If you have a desktop with hard drive bays that you can put hard drives inside of like a 2019 Mac Pro or a Desktop PC or a Laptop with multiple drives, you can setup up RAID 1 (or other types of RAID) inside of it as well or just buy an external one from WD or Lacie or G-Drive. I also have an entire server build which consists of 4 drives in a sort of RAID 5 of which one drive can die and all my data is still protected, all i need to do is replace the dead drive and all my files get rebuilt. I can make a video explaining RAID on my channel if you want to know more, but just never move a mechanical drive while it is running.

[@graysonwilson-cacciapalle7989]

Oooh boy, looks like I need to save up for another hard drive lol

[@IcyIce1]

Deleted so much shit by accident in the past lmao

[@tomroehl5126]

I'm actually surprised that you are backing up to standalone external drives.... how come you're not using a RAID array? Even with a RAID array you still probably want multiple backups but I would think you would want something that would protect against a single disk drive failing

[@chrisfroman8018]

I notice all your backups are stored in the same room and on the same computer (even though you unmount them). You have part of the solution but its not complete. What if there is a power surge and blows all your equipment along with your drives? What is there is a fire in your studio? What if you accidentally replicate bad corrupted data to your drives and believe they are good but are bad when you restore? You should be making a complete backup of your backup at least weekly and moving that data off site to a separate physical location or putting it up "in the cloud". Ideally you want a least a weekly, monthly and yearly complete copy. Take it from me a career information security/data professional ;).

[@terrymiller111]

5.47K subs, 338 thumbs up, and 2 people who are 404.

[@richardbarr7173]

why would you not just time machine lmao

[@JayfkProductions876]

This doesn't apply to multi drive systems therefore Bullshit..