The Best Way to Backup Your Music Studio Data

In this video we look at the best way to backup your music studio data. I'll be using, the Synology DS920+
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[@pierrecarter3090]

I am retired from over 20 years of software development, and back to music. I totally agree with you Mike about good backups is important, and I thank you for your excellent video about this subject. I wish I had such clear information like that 20 years ago!!!

[@TitusOates]

I think that one of the main strengths of your videos is how well you balance music and technology. Good stuff.

[@orderd29]

This is such a perfect video and just what I (and many others) needed. I work from a bedroom setup myself for personal projects but my band are building a proper studio which we aim to use to record our album and also hire out to others. The thought of putting in so much hard work and then losing everything is my worst nightmare and it's content like this that guides you through the options thoroughly in your own unique, friendly way. Bless you Sir!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you, you are very kind. Glad its useful!

[@braezee]

The other day I was thinking about how sad it would be if I lost all my stuff. I really do appreciate this video because it's made me realize how easy I could loose it and how to prevent that🧡

[@CreativeSauce]

So glad you found it helpful man :)

[@braezee]

@@CreativeSauce keep it up👍🏼

[@raoulbandera]

Mike...just a comment that's related to everything you've done. Kudo's to you on your excellent enunciation; clear, and distinct. You couldn't ask for anything better. The pace that you take your videos at is extremely comfortable, and helps (at least me) to understand everything that is being explained. And finally, your delivery of the material being talked about; it's concise, it's understandable, and rarely is anything left in question. I just wanted to get that out to you. You do extremely well as a teacher, and, a speaker. My thanks to you.

[@michaelzissaleblanc1859]

Made it to the end Mike. Over the years I've lost so much by not backing up every day that I lost count. This system takes that worry out of all of that now that my music data is becoming the bulk of real estate on my hard drive. I save your videos too by the way since starting with cakewalk. Its the best defense against my short term memory. Thanks for all the great info.

[@joegrint6280]

Great advice as always Mike! As a friend once said to me 'There are two types of computer user - one who's had a failed disc and the other who will have a failed disc'! I keep a full backup of my all my PC discs on a Seagate External HDD (your video reminded me it was time to do a backup!). I use Macrium Reflect Free to do this and it seems to work well. I used to take the Seagate into work but now I'm retired I don't have that option but I do take it on holiday with me in case of a break in while we are away! I keep two further back ups of my essential files - one on a laptop and the other in BT Cloud, my ISP free 1Tb Cloud service (recently upped from 200Gb). Only problem with the cloud service is that it requires a spare copy to be kept on a drive on the PC which is a huge waste of disc space!

[@richardharmon9596]

I can't THANK YOU enough, I'm buying one of these and 4 of the 4Tb hard drives immediately . Awesome info

[@juergen_b]

Very important topic, thank you for this video. Note: I turn off the Synology Drive Client during recording and rendering because I experienced clicks/pops in the wav files if it ran at the same time.

[@CreativeSauce]

Ah, interesting thank you! I don't think I've experienced that yet, but of course it would depend on system specifics. Thanks for the great tip!

[@robsexton4181]

The DS920+ is awesome. You can set automated backups to not have an auto-sync potentially causing system burps while recording. If you’re doing differential backups this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. There’s also bare-metal backup and restore. This can get you back up and running quickly if your system dies. Synology DSM is awesome with loads of included software.

[@cjpizzixbmc]

Great video, important indeed! Be sure to have a recovery plan in mind too. Test it out every few weeks by restoring an old project or document to your workstation and make sure it still opens.

[@CreativeSauce]

Great advice thanks Chris!

[@DioZambrano]

Great video, I got mine a few days ago, the #DS1522+. I wanted one for years, mostly for the media server, until a terrible mistake pushed me to buy it immediately. I formatted the external hard drive where I store all my music samples, in a second I lost years of sample selection, thanks to Ableton still showing the folders in your browser, I could see the libraries name and recovered all the libraries that I bought, but still lost the one I made. Now I have plenty of space to back up everything without worrying about disk space + I use #Synology as a server for #Plex, #HomeAssistant, #PiHole and more, this is like a small #Linux computer. Ah, I made my own streaming server with all my downloaded music and I can play it wherever I go ads free. Nad when i'm with my music friends i do not need to wait to be back home to share with them some project, audio sample or any musical thing, from my phone I do create a link and bam they can have it in a minute.

[@MrTommyW12]

Yeah, I have seen this video till the end and I think it is most imported you t=learned us. Thanks for that. At this moment I backup my musical data to a external 1Tb SSD and to One Cloud. When I create more data I will think about a system like yours. Thanks for shearing!

[@clarencehooksjr7471]

This is great information. Thank you for the way you presented it.

[@jossymusic752]

Hi Mike, great video! This is a very important thing to keep in mind. I actually had experienced a data loss two years ago, when I was just starting making music. My computer was infected with ransomware and my files got unrepairable. Fortunately, I hadn't made anything I was happy with, since I was just starting out, plus I already had a backup of my other personal data (photos, videos, etc). At least it happened early, so no major damage. and I have been regularly copying a backup to another drive since that.

[@CreativeSauce]

Sorry to hear that happened to you Jossy. As you say, as least you hadn't heard lesson early! Good luck with your music making!

[@jossymusic752]

@@CreativeSauce Thanx man, keep up the good work👍

[@jayneubauer3401]

In October I had a catastrophic hard drive failure in my studio computer. I had to completely rebuild my new drive from scratch. I guess I was lucky in that there was enough of my old hard drive recoverable that I could see the software I had loaded previously. It took 5 weeks (!!!) to get back up and running, mostly because of the size of libraries I had to re-install (eg - NI Komplete 13 Ultimate, UVI VIntage Vault 3 and Synth Anthology 3, and don't even get me started on Spitfire Audio, et al!). No, the libraries themselves weren't saved to my internal hard drive, but it is all part of the software install process. I now have an automated backup, daily uploads to Dropbox, and a cloned drive (just have to re-install serial numbers from what I am told). Here's hoping it is a long time until this happens again....

[@christophercoston1703]

When I get some drives, I will be utilizing RAID 5. It's fast, native to the Windows environment and once it is set up properly, you don't have to do much afterward. I liked your 3,2,1 philosophy. I've been in a discussion on the Facebook page about this very subject and referred the person to your video. People have to be very careful during the RAID setup process though to ensure it is proper.

[@hubbarao]

Thanks for the reminder, I've been meaning to setup a RAID system for a long time, and need to setup a cloud or dropbox. Recently lost some files from an external, I was actually able to recover them all myself but it was a lot of work and trial and error

[@knowledge4741]

I use a DAS backup along side my NAS setup. All my final projects go into my NAS since I do not run it as much, it won't fail as easy, and there is no internet access possible on that drive so I know it will always be safe. My DAS currently holds 144TB but that will probably be filled by the end of this year after my trip.

[@roberthusband]

This and your video, File Management for Music Production, may be the two most important postings you have made, at least from the perspective of "set it and forget it". Thanks to these videos combined, with your help I am confident I am finding and backing up the data that matters. BTW, another huge benefit of this approach is a strategy which protects against ransomware by getting the backed up data away from accessibility by attacker malware. I agree you can reduce the cost of cloud storage if you are selective about what is being saved there. Rather than counting on being able to go back to vendors to re-download lost content which seldom changes (like plugins and sound libraries), I've been storing off-site copies on a separate USB drive, just in case. Many thanks for your Cakewalk and studio management videos. Super helpful!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks Robert, a really useful comment, and you are so right about the ransomware aspect!

[@polmorgan3533]

with tripple redundancy, - that is three coppies of the same thing, then your chances of losing all three at once are ten thousand to one agenst. that's why arircraft have three of each system. ... Dear Mike I'm a Studio one user Thank you so much for all the great advice.

[@CreativeSauce]

My pleasure Pol, thanks for watching:)

[@Melissa-yg5uf]

This was so nice and clear 🙏

[@LonelyRocker]

Great info. You've made it clear I'll need to step up my backup game...

[@CreativeSauce]

:) I know you'll do a great job!

[@LonelyRocker]

@@CreativeSauce Seems I need to spend more money ;)

[@shawnman9128]

Made it to the end Mike! I always do when you put up a new vid. Hope you are well💯

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you do much Shawn!

[@andlinux]

Great video but isn't it Network Attached Storage (NAS) ?

[@CreativeSauce]

Yes! And I was totally saying to myself before "I must get that right, I must get that right"... duh!

[@MikeMcKyes]

thank you for your insight!

[@jonrosenblum8371]

Very good information! Not quite timely enough for me, though. My music computer died two days ago and I don't know, yet, if I'll be able to recover everything. The sad thing is that I know this stuff, I just wasn't doing it. Appreciate your channel very much!

[@CreativeSauce]

I feel your pain man, and I've made the same mistake. Too carried away with the fun stuff!

[@Raj-zb3fh]

Hey Mike, amazing content!! thanks a lot for making this informative video. Everything is beautifully explained and in depth as well. Thanks a lot!!

[@DDIII3]

Very smart. My RAID is the type that does require four of the same drives. I really like the software that supports this Synology option. Thanks Mike. Oh, and yes. All the way to the end. :) We all have a data loss story. The trick is to have only one. Backup backup backup.

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks man, always good to see you here :)

[@guitarmandan9831]

Outstanding Vid, Mike-you are a SAINT!

[@jnelson508]

Watched to the end! Thanks... I'll be checking this out.

[@CreativeSauce]

I'm impressed by you dedication, thank you!

[@robhayes6060]

I've done corporate backups as part of my job for years and agree with everything you said apart from the pronunciation of "data" 😄

[@CreativeSauce]

Lol, thanks Rob :)

[@RonnieVaiArovo]

Lmao

[@RonnieVaiArovo]

I pronounce it ' Day - Ta ' , not ' Dar - Ta '

[@pierrecarter3090]

Just for laughs, on my side, I say "données" ("donn-nay') so I always have the correct pronounciation, hahaha!!!

[@101AOK]

OH YEA...I agree with you 100% the way he says it... is like Ta Tas.... it's "DAY -TA",,, damn Y'all Scheesh!!! Just sayin...(correctly) 🎵🎶🎤🧮

[@roblingard]

no way im ignoring any of your vidios mike your my man...can i ask in my uncatogorized fx section i have loads of yellow things that dont open eg butter comp2, groove wear etc do i ignor these or should they be working ? theres 180 of them lol thank you so much and keep making videos

[@Rickytee2]

Excellent vid Mike in the past I shamefully admit that I have been one of the idiots that just never dealt with the subject of ensuring I have a viable back up solution in place. I've been very lucky I wasn't caught out but it has become one of my own priorities with my 2nd set up. Just about to install a proper NAS system in my main studio, I'll be breathing easier when It's all set up.

[@nickellis9251]

Thanks Mike - Great advice as always!

[@CreativeSauce]

Cheers Nick :)

[@therealjackfisher]

Ohh yesss... Very important video.. Thanks..

[@CreativeSauce]

You're most welcome!

[@kevinburgess6877]

Thanks Mike, another great video (that I did watch to the end). I have external USB hard drives I use for back ups, and have wondered about storing at someone else's house for extra protection. I have never had to restore anything (yet), but am thinking of upgrading my pc soon, so have you got any videos on which folders to back up and how to restore them on a new pc? Cheers Kevin

[@fiveangle]

There's 2 kinds of people in the world: those that have HAD a storage device fail, and those that WILL :-p

[@bhajan_bula_roo723]

Thanks!

[@striverfor7628]

3:55 Best Practices 5:01 Synology DS920+ 7:51 Automated Backups 9:03 The OS 9:43 DSM 11:32 Off-site backups 12:04 Cloud services 13:13 Cloud services 15:18 USB copy 17:16 Conclusion

[@jacka55penguin]

I wish I had stuff worth saving. :)

[@CreativeSauce]

Lol

[@boblyn4402]

Go ahead and be impressed. LOL Great info as usual👌

[@CreativeSauce]

I shall! Thank you :)

[@97guitarzan]

Really informative video. I have only been keeping one backup of my work and manually. I've been thinking about this type of solution. So far I have never lost all my stuff, but once I had a backup drive that somehow lost all the contents of of many folders. Going to look into this NAS box you featured here. I'm curious/concerned about it affecting DAW performance while running in the background. Does this run in realtime, or do you have things only set to work say in the middle of the night, when not in use.

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Kim, I havnt been aware of it affecting performance, but it may depend on your system and how much load it's already under. I'm running an i7 7700, with 32gb RAM. WiFi 6. Of course, the cloud backups all happen at between 2am and 4am... so no affect on us there. If you feel however that you are under too much load, you can suspend them.

[@97guitarzan]

@@CreativeSauce I have a very well tuned i9 9900k machine with 32GB of RAM as well. Using a Thunderbolt 3 adudio interface with ethernet connection direct to router. I think I'd be ok. Thanks for your speedy reply...You have made some really great videos for DAW and realted subjects. Cheers!

[@OculumProductions]

As an ex IT guy, I know damn well nobody ever worries about backups until they lose everything. Including me! I lost an external USB drive to the click of death, losing 10 years of videos. Back then, duplicating a 2Tb drive for backup seemed like an expense too far. Now I have DUAL NASes, one off-site, both with redundancy AND an onsite backup. It's 24 x 8Tb drives, but meh.... rule #1 is: Nobody ever worries about backup until they lose everything.

[@DeeringAmps]

Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy; learned it as a kid watching NASA put a man on the moon. Left a mark on me. BTW, great vid as always Mike!

[@CreativeSauce]

Lol! Thanks man :)

[@neoaureus]

Who was the Redundancy backup for Neil and Buzz though ? Systems engineering yes!

[@brunogourvil4167]

Thank's a lot for this video Mike, great again, as always. May be, there is still a problem in case of a ransomware encrypting all your data the malware can access online, which seems to be the case. Is there any protection available on the NAS system to prevent from unwanted data encryption ? If not, you should have another backup on a system (another hard drive) which is always disconnected, except for the time necessary to backup your data files.

[@ThomasJLopez-zg9zd]

Hey Mike: Loving it as always I (we) would value what you do on the front prevention end. By that I mean what you use for surge protection and a clean power source to add to both security and protection. Here in Florida weather is a demon with all the daily storms and the title of being the lightning strike capital of the world. Thanks and you make music production a Cakewalk (pun intended) !

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Thomas. I use a Furman power conditioner and surge protector. I don't get too many issues with spikes, but I get lots of noise - so for me this is a must! It cleans it up perfectly.

[@thefantasizer]

I noticed the hard drive you recommend is 5400 RPM? I was always told to use 7200 RPM drives by the engineers I work with. Whats your take on that? Thanks in advance.

[@jonathanpittock1447]

Very informative, thanks. My question would be what if the NAS failed? I have a NAS and it is linux based and unfortunately if the NAS failed I would have to find another compatible NAS in order to recover the data of the HDD (I believe). Instead for backups I use a twin external HDD caddy which I plug a pair of HDDs in to copy the data from my PC, and then to duplicate the backup on a second HDD. Unfortunately it is a manual process and relies on discipline to do it, but the advantage is should the caddy fail I should just be able to use another SATA HDD caddy and plug the backup HDDs straight in. I'd be interested to know what the work around is for a NAS failure (I may have misunderstood the proprietary aspect of it). Thanks again

[@renetstjacques1761]

Thank you @UCESNxzJHzDnCIuRO0RhQLeA for the info .. Merci Creative Sauce pour l'info..

[@philipgreene8345]

Hey mike, I hope you are well! This stuff is so important. I get it. Sorry if I'm off topic, but in a previous video about latency, Mike brought up a "task Manager" or "Resource Monitor" that showed so clearly CPU usage and RAM usage on a current project. Where can I find this? Is it a Windows thing or an external app? What's it called exactly? There's no mention of it in the completely useless Cakewalk documentation. If anyone has an idea, let me know. Endless thanks again to Mike!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Philip! Yes, just right click on your task bar in Windows, and then click on Task Manager.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

i use time capsule but it sucks since the internet is exclusive, i cant use it without going offline from main internet. The ideal is an automatic backup that is not primitive and complicated for everyday

[@jukkajalo229]

Important comments.

[@jtromsness]

Currently waiting to have my data recovered on an external drive that failed to mount. 10 years of work potentially gone… I’m a little late to the game here. 😬

[@gregpace5982]

Ahaha. Hit the thumbs down button twice, clever. I hit mine 4 times, I win. Thanks by the way, great content, very helpful.

[@unclemick-synths]

That solution is sadly a bit beyond my budget. I have a network drive and I back up my computers and devices to it. I back up the network drive to one of a pair of USB drives, the other of which is stored offsite in a safety deposit box and I swap them out regularly. I use Cloud services for temporary backups of important stuff that's not yet at the bank. To do the backups I use Microsoft SyncToy - it's old and it's not automated but it works for me for backing up the deltas.

[@CreativeSauce]

At least you are doing all the right things! Thank you :)

[@ivanbuljanvanboelken4676]

Could cakewalk be used by profesional producers?

[@theonlymudgel]

Yes, Absolutely though its PC only - no Mac version. It’s as powerful as any I’ve used including ProTools 12, Cubase 11, Studio One 5, Reason, Live, Reaper, Samplitude X3 just to name some. To make it even better, its completely free, no strings attached. Requires inline activation every 6 months.

[@charleshuguley9903]

I once lost four internal drives simultaneously as a result of a power supply failure. Yes, a power supply failure can extinguish all the drives in your computer.

[@music_creator_capable]

Hey!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hey MC :)

[@davidwatts5019]

If the lads house and his grandmothers house at the other side of town are both destroyed in the same disaster I think restoring his music data will probably be way down on the list of things to worry about.🤣

[@CreativeSauce]

Lol, fair comment!

[@davidpotsdam]

buying external next

[@jasyenjo]

whos better at video games you or your son

[@CreativeSauce]

Depends on the game :p

[@dtrelzmusic]

Nice idea horrible concept of youtube and others being your cloud backup.