How Much Storage Do I Need For Music Production?

Improvements in technology allow us to basically handle all music production processes on our computers.

It is a well known fact that you need to have adequate storage space as a music producer in order to handle and keep all your projects and other necessary things that you need for your processes.

So how much storage space do you need for music production?

My recommendation is have at-least 500 GB of storage space for your music production work. This will help you avoid running out of space too soon and will allow you have enough space to run and process software more effectively and efficiently. I personally have 1 TB of storage space and a back up external drive of 500 GB that I store the important stuff on which are mainly things I cannot afford to lose like Software, Sample Libraries and other things.

You need a enough solid state drive (SSD) space for music production and this is why:

Speed

500GB – 1TB Solid State Drives are able to read and write that much more quickly which makes them very handy high speed tools which can make your work easier.

The last thing you need is working with a slow Drive because it can slow down a lot of things and eventually frustrate you.

There are moments in music production that call for quick processes on your computer and having a good sized SSD will be very beneficial to you and will avoid having to deal with slowness that could lead to entire projects not being finished on time.

OS

Most modern day OS like Windows 10 or better will usually require adequate space for most of the software that you’ll run on them.

Furthermore, OS’s are constantly under development and are updated quite enough which will call upon having enough space to store and run these updates.

Most features that are being embedded in modern and New operating systems require having adequate space paired with the right processor and RAM in order for these features to be fully functional.

Therefore you should ensure that you enough storage is acquired for you to avoid any headaches that may result due to the lack of storage space.

Software

Music production software is constantly evolving, as much as any other technological field.

Therefore you need the right system specs which will usually call for a good processor like an i5, i7 or i9 atleast 8GB of Ram and finally ENOUGH hard disk memory to be able to run complex software.

This is why I’d advise you to get enough storage space because most music software that you’ll encounter these days like plugins will usually be upwards of 10 GB in size, with various expansion packs and additional material that could easily take up almost if not all of 100 GB of your storage space once they are unpacked.

Convenience

It’s more Convenient if you have enough storage space because you can then focus on your work without having to constantly worry about how much space you have.

Having limited storage space makes it difficult to work with a lot of required necessitates for music production.

For example, collaboration may sometimes involve having access to stems of a record which may be large in size especially if it was a big session that had a lot of moving parts.

It may be that much harder because it would mean having to delete some of your other things to free up space to accommodate the project.

Storing project files

Most digital audio workstations require a lot of storage space and it is because they need that space for the storage of project files.

If you’ve worked with most DAWs like Cubase or ProTools you obviously know that you need enough storage space for the session project files that you work on.

You need enough space to account for your projects to avoid running out of space that may lead to your system crashing or losing your projects entirely.

Storing Plugins

Modern day effect and instrument plugins are pretty large, therefore you need adequate space to properly store them.

For example instruments plugins like Omnisphere take up over 20 GB of storage plus and then some.

This is just one example, but most plugin suites do require even more space which makes it important to have enough space.

If you’re to run plugins well and carry out your music production processes professionally without hiccups, then you definitely need atleast 500GB of storage space dedicated to music production necessities.

Having more than enough “Required Free Space”

Most music production software requires having enough space to install it and the required free space that has to be available after the install.

Having enough storage space will allow you take this into account and avoid not being able to run your software due to insufficient space.

OS and Partitions

A good way to effectively manage your files is to create partitions.

Have a smaller partition for your operating system and utilize the other partition for installation and storage of files.

This will make it easier for you keep track of your space and avoid losing your data due to operating system crashes. Furthermore, it’s not a good idea to have your installs and your OS in the same partition because you need to give the OS some room to breathe.

Having a big enough hard drive in terms of space will allow you to create more than one partition.

If you do notice that you’re running our of space and wish to free up some, you can purchase an external hard drive that can help you achieve this.

below I’ll go into some finer points about the importance of an external hard drive.

The importance of having an External Hard Drive

Back Up

An external hard drive allows you to back up certain files that you need.

This can be important because it allows you to avoid situations where a PC Crash leads to total loss of data.

You can simply have back ups of the important stuff as a safe guard against accidental loss.

Easy to Carry

External hard drives are portable and can be carried anywhere you wish to go.

It can save you the trouble of having to move with a laptop because you can easily load up all you need on an external drive and move with it.

Things like collaboration can be easily done without having to worry about running out of space on your computer.

Furthermore, an external hard drive can be a place to store things that take up too much space but don’t necessarily need all the time.

This can take a huge load off your CPU and free up some of that power so it can be used elsewhere.

Conclusion

I recommend having a 500 GB hard drive but that should really be your starting point, the more space you have the better.

Also have a back up external drive.