Is it possible to use a USB flash drive as extra storage?

Organelle
1

I’ve heard of people running patches from external USB drives. I’m wondering, would it be possible to run patches from the internal memory but plug in an external drive as needed for extra memory (for patches that produce a lot of saved audio files)?

Would this have to be set up per-patch, or would the Organelle automatically save to another drive if it was out of space on the main internal drive?

Apologies if any of this is obvious! I’m used to just using it without anything plugged in.

2

It’s probably easiest to do one of the following options:

  1. Use a USB drive for patch storage. This will keep all of your new audio files in their usual locations (relative to the location of the patch that is generating them). You can transfer files to/from the USB drive via WiFi or by inserting USB drive in your computer. You won’t have to do any of the OS updates or resizing commands in option #2. There’s more information about using a USB drive in the manual.
  2. Use a larger micro SD card and resize the patch storage partition using one of the following methods:
    – This new but unofficial OS release will automatically resize the storage partition to whatever space is available after OS requirements: New PD release - #23 by oweno
    – There are user-created instructions for resizing the storage partition on the current, official OS: How to resize sd card on OS 4 / 4.1 for organelle m - #2 by Elefou
3

Thank you! I’ll look into those.

4

Chris (or anyone knowledgeable about this) - I think I’ll try using method 1 (USB drive for patch storage), but I’d still like to use the internal SD card as my main storage, and just have the USB for backup (e.g., if I’m on the road and it’s not convenient for me to clear space on the micro SD card by connecting to a computer and saving recordings off of the organelle).

Would it work to simply have all my patches on both the internal SD card and an external USB drive? Am I correct that the SD card would be used when no USB is plugged in, and if I plugged in the USB drive that would be used instead?

Of course if I made recordings (e.g., in a looper patch), they wouldn’t be available on the other storage method, but would going back and forth between two patch storage locations like this cause any problems?

5

And one other thing I was wondering… is there a convenient way to check how much space is left on the SD card on the organelle?

6

Yes, this is correct.

Not from the Organelle’s perspective. The Organelle doesn’t have an opinion about which location it is using for patch storage. Either one is fine!

Unfortunately there isn’t a method for doing so using the OLED Screen and Encoder. But you can use the following command from the Organelle’s command line (terminal window):

df -h /sdcard

There are two ways of entering this command: 1. via WiFi or 2. by connecting HDMI monitor and USB Keyboard & Mouse:

  1. Once you have connected to the Organelle via WiFi (see manual Chapter 5), you can SSH into the Organelle from your computer’s terminal program:
    ssh music@organellem – you might have to append ‘.local’
    password: music
    You can also use the Organelle’s IP address (e.g. ssh music@192.168.x.x). To see the Organelle IP, navigate to the Settings → Info menu.
    After connecting, type the df command above in the same terminal window.
  2. If you connect HDMI monitor and USB Keyboard & Mouse, boot up the Organelle and enter the above command instead of typing ‘startx’
7

Perfect, thank you so much for the help!