Music performance setup - with HDD + SSD + more SSDs?

Question

Question: I'm aware that the OS runs much faster on an SSD than on a HDD.

I'm still confused though. I want to do live DJing with my computer.

Essentially l need to simultaneously do 3 things very fast:

Fast 1: Run DJ software
Fast 2: Load songs and samples (to trigger alongside the songs)
Fast 3: Record everything on a multitrack music program

As l see it, running the OS (booting up OS, opening browser, opening calculator, changing font size etc. etc.) need not be so fast (I only want to use that computer in one acute situation: live DJ performances). Therefore am l OK to relegate running OS as:

Slow 1: Running OS

... or is it that the OS's activity is intertwined with Fast 1, 2 & 3? And therefore the OS would also need to be fast?

My current plan:

HDD: For running the OS
SSD: Install DJ program here. Also install multitrack program here. Also store songs and samples.

This also raises another question: surely, recording into a multitrack program, whilst simultaneously also playing tunes via a DJ program, all on the same SSD drive, with the songs and samples also being loaded on that SSD drive, would slow the SSD down?

Therefore should I have at least 1 more SSD for the multitrack recording? And perhaps 1 more for the tunes and samples?

Please help, as I'm about to add a million SSDs to my shopping and this could be costly. I hope I'm missing something here, and that all I will need is 1 HDD and 1 SSD.

Oh and there's the original question as well: could the OS go on the HDD rather than the SSD?

Assumptions: the computer is equipped (speed, memory, drive size) for the task.

Answer 1

I'm a musician myself, so I know how you feel.

You're lucky though, what you want to do does not require an SSD at all.

DJ software loads the samples into memory and plays them from there, so preloading the samples is something you can wait for.

It determinds how big the library is you are talking about though. If its a 10+GB library set, then you'll benefit from having them on the SSD.

You would want to have lots of memory installed though. 8GB or more is preferred. I used to use 12 GB and am using 16 GB now. This is the area you'll want to be, as most of what you're doing is being done in memory, not your SSD.

Your OS should definitely run on the SSD. Recording on a multitrack program does not require an SSD. It records to memory and only when you actually save, it'll be doing the action. I use a network share to do this task, and a network share is even slower than using my internal HDD which is slower than my internal SSD.

So what you want is get one SSD. If you don't install anything other than what you mentioned above, 120GB should be plenty enough. If you want to go safe, get 240GB or more if you have the money for it.