Recently I found it was time to update the hard drives in my new studio. The old drives were getting filled to capacity, and I had added a couple of mega-sized drives for archiving, iTunes, and so on. But with my new studio, which is a very quiet space, a problem became apparent: those drives were surprisingly noisy! My search for a storage solution led me to Glyph’s latest offering, the Studio mini series. The Studio minis are compact, bus-powerable (a power adapter is optional) drives offering USB 3.0, FireWire 800, and eSATA connectivity. There are 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes available, with solid-state versions coming soon. I picked up a couple of 1TB drives: one for recording and playing audio sessions and the other for virtual instrument libraries. I’ve been super pleased with them! They rotate at 7,200 RPM, deliver tons of simultaneous tracks (I haven’t topped them out yet), and effortlessly power soft synth libraries. Best of all, they’re quiet — I mean whisper quiet. The Studio mini drives feature heat transfer technology to draw heat from internal components, while custom sensors monitor the health of the drive. Plus, the whole thing is covered by a 3-year warranty with 2-year free basic data recovery and 1-year advanced replacement. And, they’re small enough to easily throw in a bag for portable use. These things rock.