Excellent post, curious to read more as you experiments develop.
Do you feel the difference in loading time has to do with the difference in storage? i.e. Does the Verbatim load faster just due to being 32 vs. the original’s 64?
Sequential speeds were nearly identical, but random 4K read was significantly different — and that’s probably what matters when loading many small sample files.
So it seems more related to actual random access performance than capacity itself.
I fully reformatted the Verbatim card (MBR + ExFAT), copied only the Factory Content (no user packs), and repeated the measurements.
Results:
Power On → Factory Project Ready (DONE):
33.95 s (no real change)
Factory Project + all samples into RAM:
1:55.46
Previously I was getting ~2:54 with additional user content on the card.
So after a completely clean format and factory-only structure, load time dropped by almost a minute.
This suggests that overall file count / directory structure may also influence load time — not just raw sequential speed. Random 4K performance still seems important, but card state definitely plays a role.
I’ll continue testing with user content added back to see where the slowdown starts.
If random read is what Tonverk needs then you should try the Kingston Canvas Go! Plus (128gb or smaller). This is the card used in M8, which also depends on random read.
The Dirtywave M8 uses cards that have a good sustained read speed, because it streams all its samples from the card. The peak speeds usually tested don’t apply.
I wonder if something similar is happening here? The TV is loading a whole bunch of stuff in one go, which might call for a good sustained read speed?
Dirtywave has a list of recommended cards, but they’re all microSD, not SD. Still, perhaps the full-sized versions of those are worth testing if anybody has them:
Elektron has given a recommendation for what SD card to use. Users understood it like: don’t go below these specs, but if you go above, nothing will improve.
very good thread , actually i’m getting mad about save times. my project is loaded with only 600mb of samples but i start having lots of patterns and saving the project takes more than 1 minute each time ( i like saving each time i do a significant change in sound design or composition ) . can you give us the entire reference for that verbatim card you tested ?
Imo the issue is all about indexing, not speed. Common sense would dictate to create a master index and if the control sum changes to re index again. Meanwhile, I feel like the device is indexing files from scratch with each new project.
