iCloud or Google Drive for Music?

[james090]

I'm not sure whether it is the same on Macs but Google recently changed their system for PCs so that Google Drive files are no longer stored locally as well as on their servers. While they appear to be stored locally, it is actually just a virtual drive and the files themselves are on their server (unless they are in the process of being uploaded).

So meaning unlike iCloud, you can drag a sample from the Google Drive and it be downloaded into your DAW like it was on a local drive?

[James Perrett]

I'm not sure whether it is the same on Macs but Google recently changed their system for PCs so that Google Drive files are no longer stored locally as well as on their servers. While they appear to be stored locally, it is actually just a virtual drive and the files themselves are on their server (unless they are in the process of being uploaded).

So meaning unlike iCloud, you can drag a sample from the Google Drive and it be downloaded into your DAW like it was on a local drive?

If you make the file available offline then it will be on your local drive (as well as on the cloud).

[merlyn]

Last time I looked SSDs were about £100 per terabyte. For samples I think you want a physical drive.

Cloud storage is good for sharing files, or for files that you want to be accessible anywhere from any device including phones, tablets ...

[MarkOne]

James (Perrett) is right.

And the same is true on iCloud. I can open my iCloud folder on my Mac right now and see that the my documents folder is available, (and if I switch off WiFi, I can still see and access all those files) This is because in system preferences there is an option called Optimise Mac Storage (The Full Contents of iCloud Drive will be stored on this Mac if you have enough space, older documents will be stored only in iCloud when space is needed)

It's not as granular as Google Drive or OneDrive where I seem to remember you can determine what is local on a folder by folder basis.

But in all cases if you want the data NOT to be taking up space on your local drives, then it won't be available for real time usage.

The other thing to mention, is if you are using Logic and you drag a clip from somewhere (on a local drive or a network drive) Logic will include this in the project folder too, making it local. I'm pretty sure that is the same for other DAWs (But I won't say for sure it's the case)

[RichardT]

Last time I looked SSDs were about £100 per terabyte. For samples I think you want a physical drive.

Cloud storage is good for sharing files, or for files that you want to be accessible anywhere from any device including phones, tablets ...

And for near-instant offsite backups too. That’s the main value of Google Drive to me personally.

[BigRedX]

The other thing to mention, is if you are using Logic and you drag a clip from somewhere (on a local drive or a network drive) Logic will include this in the project folder too, making it local. I'm pretty sure that is the same for other DAWs (But I won't say for sure it's the case)

This only happens if you have set up the project file/folder to include all the imported files (which is what most people want), otherwise it will still reference it from it's original location.