Thanks, Chaser.
So, I bought my SMP in 2021. Upgraded it to ver. 1.3 and it was OK almost for a year. I was modifying factory sounds, importing my own sounds, playbacks, click tracks (not very large, 40-60 Mbs), and everything was working very well.
Last summer it started, sometimes, not loading the system. Freeze on welcome screen and stuck, no reaction to any buttons, even to power switch. Unplug / plug back into power source - and everything is OK, everything is working, playing and the device feeling good. I thought, it was a single error and will never happen again, because such devices are usually more stable (as I thought), then PCs with a VSTi on it.
But it started to happen more and more frequently, sometimes it required 3 or 5 times to unplug/plug power to make SMP pass the welcome screen, load the system and work normally. And then, one day, it hung right in the middle of playback.
I found videos on Youtube about this problem, and how to fix it, so I did. There was no errors of filesystem or something like that in the Sandisc SD card, that I ejected from the SMP. All files was readable, and I copied entire Sd card to a new one, inserted it into the device, and all started working good. Sounds were sounding, playbacks were playing, clicks were clicking and I was quite happy. But not for a long time...
A month or two passed and it all started from the beginning. I erased all user sounds, Reset it to Factory settings, even found firmware 1.1 and 1.2 and doungraded device to version 1.2. But all was the same... Now I bought another SD card, 16 Gb instead of factory 32, and a little slower, than previous. Copied the original SD to a new one. Now everything is working good, but for how long...
micro SD Cars were originally designed for cell phones/cameras for Storage and under product descriptions you'll typically see a Read/Write Cycle of 10,000.(not always accurate..not always true)
Consumer products using SD Cards these days have a manufacturer recommendation..size and write speed..they leave out there are different cell types of memory for SD Cards..(attached)
Every SD Card in the market has a limited number of write cycles. This is a measure of the cards hardware lifespan.
Writing and deleting is done by current that it is transferred through the SD Card cells, which gradually causes them to wear out.
The lower the voltage required the greater the life expectancy of the SD Card.
SLC require lower voltage levels compared to the other types. But even those are going eventually to fail.
To give you some rough numbers, SLCs are estimated to have around 100,000 write cycles. Where MLCs range around 40,000 and NAND/ TLC as low as 1500.Samsung and Micron have used a larger cell sizes in their TLC 3D NAND chips (up to 48 layers), and a life of maybe 20,000 cycles.
If you have two SD Cards of the same type ,example one is a 32GB and the other 64GB, it will take twice as long for 64GB card to reach the write cycle limit resulting in a longer life span...by going to 16GB you actually reduced usage/lifespan in 1/2..
You will get the longest lifespan and be more secure with a higher grade SLC card.
The SMP streams from the SD Card..it loads files from the USB Flash Drive into the system which is on the SD Card.
I don't know exactly if the SMP OS considers a loading a sample as a Read and a live edit as a write or not or the only Read is when powering on/loading the OS and the only write to the card is when powering down and you'll see the "Saving Data" prompt.There are multiple sorting listings involved and I believe this is usually if/when any corruption occurs.
Over the testing I have done I found the SMP auto saves or stores as you can adjust a setting/assign a sample..exit the kit..go into another kit etc and the settings stay in place..power down , power up and the setting change or pad/sample assignment remained.Whether or not this is actually the case in realtime I couldn't tell you for fact.If it's the latter (which is probably the case) and only Reads/Writes when powered on/off at 10,000 rating if you power on/off 25 times a day..the card will be done in a year...8 times/3 years...etc etc.I have had mine 5 years so the card would have failed long ago.
This is when an External Editor (one that
does not require the hardware being attached) is needed especially if you are a heavy user or Touring/Gigging musician and do a lot of editing kit building.
Since there hasn't been an actual Alesis Support Forum (Get Satisfaction was shutdown years ago) and Alesis support is minimal at best I am afraid there isn't much information for those that use the SMP for touring/gigging and musician experiences for the lifespan (months..year(s) of heavy usage) for the cards.The STRIKE Module has been out for well over 5 years so I have been watching to see if reports of SD Card failure is beginning to increase,the difference between the SMP and the STRIKE Module is the STRIKE Modules internal SD Card is write protected and all edits are written to the external SD Card,while the SMP edits are written to a large amount of folders including sort lists on the internal SD Card.I also don't know how or if the STRIKE's internal SD Card being write protected affects the Read Cycle.
I have been using Samsung Pro Endurance Cards 32GB (Wearout: a durability test of 10,000 swipes)..they are rated for 24/7 recording "Hours" and can range from 20-30,000 hours to 150,000 hours (16 years),
but I am not a Touring or Gigging Musician and haven't put them to the test so I can't give you a comparison on all the Endurance cards out there.
That's why I did the mods.If the card starts going bad or fails..I eject and pop in a backup.
EDIT:I forgot to mention you can use a 64 GB card..which will increase Read/Write but you'll see an odd amount under utilities.
