Logic Pro X optimal workflow?

[ComposerLDG]

Ok, this week I'll be unboxing and getting to work on a brand spankin' new computer. That means I'm starting from scratch from a nice new internal SSD plus an external for my libraries.

In the past, I never really paid much attention to work flow/organization, just saving my projects as projects. This past year though, I've gotten far more serious about what I do, and so am looking for ideas on how others work.

Is there an advantage to saving as a folder instead of a project, other than having neatly organized folders and subfolders? What about copying assets? I like teh idea of being able to have everything a project depends on within its folder.

And lastly, I'll be streaming my libraries from an external USB 3 SSD (Samsung). Would I gain anything noticeable performance wise by saving to another external as opposed to saving on the system drive? I will be conducting regular backups.

Thanks all, and enjoy what's left of the weekend.

-Loren

[mojobone]

Is there an advantage to saving as a folder instead of a project, other than having neatly organized folders and subfolders? What about copying assets? I like teh idea of being able to have everything a project depends on within its folder.

And lastly, I'll be streaming my libraries from an external USB 3 SSD (Samsung). Would I gain anything noticeable performance wise by saving to another external as opposed to saving on the system drive?

-Loren

As to your second question, you won't get a speed boost, but you'll probably get at least slightly better reliability. This won't apply to your iMac sitch, but I ended up going with an SSD system drive, and three identical Toshiba 3T 7200RPM magnetics with the last two in RAID 0 configuration, mirrored. My samples/instruments (and maybe some programs, if I need the room) will go on the second drive since there's either a hard copy or they can be re-downoaded (not that they won't also be backed up) the RAID mirror is for all the output data; photo, video, audio etc. I also have a pair of 5T USB3 drives for incremental backups, but haven't yet decided exactly how they'll be implemented.

I'm not quite yet a Logic user, but my DAW keeps track of all the audio that's used in a project and most of the MIDI, so that when a project is archived, everything necessary to resuscitate the original session is included, minus the plugins and whatever was edited out, naturally. I'm not completely sure, (and I should check on that real soon) but I theenk muted audio and MIDI are included, so that when you destructively edit a copy of a file, you still have both the rendered version and the original.

[jonnybutter]

Hey Loren,

I don't think there's any advantage either way re: project package vs folder. I use folders just because I'm used to it, and it's easy to get in there if you need to. But it's easy to get into a project package too - just context click (control-click/ right click). I suppose it's more 'modern' to have all those files abstracted away like that, but..I dunno.

What Mojo said is the case for Logic X - all the files associated with that project stay with either form of project. I think there is an option to not copy media files along with app files, but the default is everything stays together. Perhaps this is a true advantage to the 'package' format; it reinforces the default, which is: all files stay together.

EDIT: I have plenty of drives to save to, so I like to have projects on other than the system drive. I can't prove it's better, but it feels hygienic Also, in Logic X all files, even if they are muted, are saved. The undo history is volatile, so that resets when you close the project, but there is a list of autosave versions you can revert to. Command for that is 'revert' (under 'File' I believe).

[mojobone]

EDIT: I have plenty of drives to save to, so I like to have projects on other than the system drive. I can't prove it's better, but it feels hygienic

Obviously, the situation you don't want is to have a physical read/write head reading and writing from the same drive simultaneously, like a one-legged man in an a$$-kickin' contest. IIRC, your DAW (or its plugins, really) mainly operates on data that's in a RAM buffer, but what you're monitoring actually streams from your disk,(s) so it's usually considered a good thing to stream virtual instruments and recorded audio from separate drives, though SSDs might have an easier time with this-I'll have to look into that; in a 64-bit system with multiple cores, it might not be much of a bottleneck, but still saves wear and tear on physical drive heads, when you can distribute the load.

[ComposerLDG]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

[jonnybutter]

Obviously, the situation you don't want is to have a physical read/write head reading and writing from the same drive simultaneously, like a one-legged man in an a$$-kickin' contest.

Exactly. In Logic X you can have audio files play from a different drive from where your project file is stored, while still having those files referenced in your project file.