Recording directly to a USB flash drive?

Gentleman Jim · Post by **Gentleman Jim** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:09 pm

Am I setting myself up for misery and heartbreak if I try to record a friend's band directly to an 8GB thumb style USB drive? I searched and didn't see anything, but has anyone here had either success or failure with this?

I'm looking to record about 18-20 tracks at 24/48, so I don't think USB is a problem. I'm looking for what, about 120MB/Minute?

Yeah, I could go to a firewire drive and then transfer it over, but if I can skip that step I will.

Thanks.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:20 pm

It might not be fast enough to record audio.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:21 am

I don't think it would be fast enough. Not the USB connection, but the memory in the drive itself. Flash tends to be slow.

the finger genius · Post by **the finger genius** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:19 am

Yeah, I'd be pretty surprised if this works. You'd probably be better off recording to your internal drive if you have space. Let us know how it turns out if you try it tho'.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:54 am

Really, how much time are you going to save by doing this monkey business instead of just the transferring later monkey business?

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:58 am

I did a quick test with my work computer,and it seems like the flash drives hit the CPU much harder than a regular hard drive. Not sure why. Between that and the slower access times and write times, it choked on an 8-track 24bit/44.1khz recording.

You can pick up a 160gb StoreJet, a decent bus-powered USB2 hard drive for around $70, that's the way I would go if you need external.

Gentleman Jim · Post by **Gentleman Jim** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:20 am

Thanks to all for the answers, and darjama in particular for testing it. It did kind of seem like it was too good to be true, but I was surprised that I couldn't find any mention of it in previous discussions.

ysyrtypy, the reason I was looking to skip the transfer step is because the band is playing last in a bar and I don't want to incur wrath for standing there transferring files at 2 am. No, they are not jetting off to Barbados an hour later to mix with Nile Rodgers, but all the same if it could be one clean motion rather than having to bring the memory stick to them the next day that would be preferable. You know, use less gas/save the earth/yadda yadda.

Maybe I'll experiment on my own at a later date. Probably not, though.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:34 am

i've recorded to a 4GB USB 2.0 thumb drive.

you don't want to do more than 4 mono or 2 stereo tracks at a time and not more than 24/44.1.

beyond that, no way.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:48 am

I just read though that the new USB 3.0 spec is supposed to be faster than firewire 800...so that might be more possible.

kingmetal · Post by **kingmetal** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:21 am

I'd be worried about tracking that kind of session to an external USB hard drive 7200RPM, let alone a cheapo flash drive.

Do the transfer while they're tearing down - it'll be slow but it's not going to take all night.

Also, the USB2 spec should be enough to deal with that kind of tracking, the issue is more the medium not the interface. Cheapo USB key flash drives should NOT be confused with SSDs (solid state drives) that people are putting in laptops now and getting crazy read/write speeds with. Totally different weight class (and price class, I bet that stick cost you less than $50 while SSDs still run over $150!)

stephenmc · Post by **stephenmc** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:44 pm

You can find portable, USB-powered hard drives for really cheap. http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... &t=1134213. That's a 250 GB Seagate for $60.

But yeah, maybe wait until USB 3.0?

kingmetal · Post by **kingmetal** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:20 pm

stephenmc wrote:You can find portable, USB-powered hard drives for really cheap. http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... &t=1134213. That's a 250 GB Seagate for $60.

But yeah, maybe wait until USB 3.0?

Be advised that USB-powered hard drives will more than likely be 5400rpm or 4200rpm. Coupled with the USB interface, drives that spin slowly will severely limit the amount of tracks you and read/write off the drive. I'm not convinced you'd be able to track 20 inputs on a USB powered drive over USB, although your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the USB interface, the quality of the enclosure's interface and the speed of the drive.

I was hitting about an 15 track read limit on my USB powered Seagate (5400rpm). Tracking would be a whole 'nother kettle of fish and I'd be MUCH more worried about it.

bap · Post by **bap** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:38 pm

The USB flash drives will always read faster than they write.

I can record up to 4 tracks at 88.2 on my Toshiba 5400 RPM USB external drive for location stuff. Any more and I would move to firewire.

Just bought a 8GB OCZ dual channel stick because they are supposed to be significantly faster than cheap USB flash media. I've heard people recording to them say that they are blazing fast... we'll see.

kingmetal · Post by **kingmetal** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:48 pm

bap wrote:The USB flash drives will always read faster than they write.

I can record up to 4 tracks at 88.2 on my Toshiba 5400 RPM USB external drive for location stuff. Any more and I would move to firewire.

Just bought a 8GB OCZ dual channel stick because they are supposed to be significantly faster than cheap USB flash media. I've heard people recording to them say that they are blazing fast... we'll see.

I'd love to head what your track limits on that 8GB stick are. Flash memory is particularly shitty at doing random writes, but since audio is a mostly linear write it's going to be more about the sustained transfer rates and it might be okay. I'm going to assume that it will top out around 8 tracks at the absolute maximum.

Also, have you found that moving to firewire on the same drive allows for more than 4 tracks to be recorded on your external? I haven't found the interface to be as big of a deal as the spin speed of the drive in audio situations since it's a linear write operation.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:21 pm

*remembers when it was a HUGE THING that the dollar-per-megabyte barrier had finally been broken*

*also remembers briefly having the platter from an ancient 10 MB hard disk as a small, round coffee table

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Recording directly to a USB flash drive?

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