BUG: Having to reload Slate Custom Kits
I have this issue that either I’ll add image art to a session, or maybe move the session to a new folder or sometimes just loading a session itself; where I have any custom drum kit made in slate where I have to reload the kit because of one of the aforementioned reasons. The sounds will show as read on the sample tab and it’s tough because a lot of times I’ll have custom tweaks to the pads for that beat and lose them due to reloading the kit vs manually going back and reloading each sample per pad. I don’t want to save the kit after each tweak (as some sort of preventative measure) because I use the kits across multiple sessions and each has its own tweaks etc.
Comments
Paths to all samples used in project are stored as relative paths, starting in directory where project is saved. I mean your own samples ! Factory banks contains absolute path to samples, so no matter where you move your project, they still works.
This is mainly to save disk space - you know, you use same sample / same kit in multiple projects
If you then move project file to different location, those relative paths are not valid anymore .. If you move project back where it was originally, all paths will be ok again. There is not much NS can do with this, because you can move project file (or better project folder) anywhere you want also from outside of NS (using Apple Files or WebDav client).
Currently there is just one solution - if you do project archive (this action packs all used samples into project archive file *.NSA) and then you open it again from archive - project will now really contain all used samples so you can move it anywhere you want).
If you are not afraid by some (very small) level of coding sorcery :-) Then there is one way how to fix such relative paths after you move your project somewhere else ..
If you move your project to different location, just run WebDAV server in Nanostudio (Settings > WebDAV), connect to it from your computer (for exampel using Cyberduck)
Copy whole project into your computer - it is folder with project name, containing various stuff. Amongst other things, there is file "Package.prj". This is XML file of project.
If you open this file in text editor (in windows for example Notepad, i use "Sublime Text"), you can locate all sample paths inside this file .. relative sample paths looks like this:
<Smpl V="1" File="../../Library/Audio/Brekeke.wav" />you can fix the paths (but do not break / change anything else, just stuff inside " ... " ) for example to
<Smpl V="1" File="../../../Library/Audio/Brekeke.wav" />(this is example for case when you created subfolder in projects folder directory and moved project there)
simply that whole path inside File="...." must be valid relative path to location of sample
Then copy project back to Nanostudio.
Before you try this, make backup of your project file, just in case you break something
Even small typo / mistake in that "Package.prj" will cause you will be not able to load that project at all ...
Thanks Dendy lots of info there. I probably wouldn’t dare to try the code one lol as for the samples showing the name in red and not playing audio, sometimes it happens without even moving a session. Simply from loading a new session then going to the other one with the custom kit and sometimes the custom kit is missing. I may have to screen record every session lol
It's good practice to save Slate kit - it then stored all used samples into kit folder. It helps you avoid such situations...
It may be that you for example coincidently moved that samples to different folder... simply hold on mind until you don't save Slate kit or Obsidian patch, all samples are reffered with relative paths, so if you move project (or that samples), it stops working...
After you save patch or bank, all used samples are packed to that patch / bank..
Good stuff @dendy.
Nah, this is actually pretty straight forward. There are apps for Windows and Mac that will make simple, 10 second work out of this. Happy to recommend one if you tell me your OS. Just do it on a copy first to make sure it's doing what you expect.
Would be sporting if NS automagically updated paths when a user moved a project file to a sub-folder. Or any NS document that contains references to samples/internal paths, really.
Doubt all that many folks do this currently so I can't imagine it jumping up the could-do list but as time goes on and people keep making tunes with NS it's easy to imagine some wanting to clean up their projects folder and running into this.
Software is hard.