zebra 2.8 local resource folder organization

[glittle]

I run both zebra 2.8 and Dark Zebra. I have some local folders for my own resources such as patch files, oscillator waveform files, etc. In some cases, I want both synths' browsers to be able to point to this same stuff.

In the past, I've used shortcuts (Windows 7) in appropriate places in the Z2 and TDZ data folder hierarchies. However, it seems that with z2.8, the shortcuts are ignored?

I've seen a couple of posts here indicating one may now need to use symbolic links rather than shortcuts. Is that truly the case? Is that a permanent situation, or will shortcuts eventually work again?

While I am comfortable with symlinks (use them all the time on unix/linux), I much prefer using shortcuts from the gui when in windows since it just feels more "standard" there, is quick and easy to see what is going on and make changes, don't have to go to the command line, etc.

Just wondering what is up with these and what the future plans are.

Thanks!

[yellowmix]

I had a ton of shortcuts set up like you describe. The newest versions of u-He plugins seem to ignore shortcuts.

What I had to do is create symbolic links. You can do it on the command line but since is Windows is GUI oriented you may as well use a shell extension like this: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshel ... nsion.html

But an in-GUI "user-based hierarchy root folder" location would be great.

[aMUSEd]

Might be an idea to wait till HZ has caught up with Zebra 2.8, at the moment they no longer share certain modules, might cause problems?

[glittle]

Do we know if there is a technical reason that shortcuts no longer work? Although it's great that symlinks work, I don't like to go too far down the "less obvious" road of having to use third-party apps (or a cmd window), at least on my music machine. When I'm in tech mode on linux, that's different, I guess because it's expected and I'm happy to be in that headspace. For music, I just want standard vanilla, don't-think-about-it WinOS, with customizations that are dead-obvious to any non-power-user (symlinks are not that in the Windows world for most people).

Beyond wanting to share patches between TDZ and Z3, I also just like to have my own custom stuff be in its own place that is untouched by installers and so on. So if shortcuts are never going to work, yellowmix's idea would at least be workable.

[glittle]

Just wanted to ping on this again. I'm curious why Shortcuts no longer work, but more importantly, would love to know how others are solving these issues. Do you just plop your local presets (and 3rd-party presets), oscillators, etc right in the middle of the manufacturer-managed folder space? That idea gives me the willies. I want my stuff *outside* of something that might be changed by a future installer. I will , again, second Yellowmix's idea (config for "user hierarchy root folder")

In the meantime, how many of you have found solutions *other* than actually creating symlinks?

[tasmaniandevil]

But an in-GUI "user-based hierarchy root folder" location would be great.

That's exactly what the UserPresets location is used for (Zebra2.data\UserPresets\Zebra2). This will show up in the plugin's browser as "User" folder.

[tasmaniandevil]

Just wanted to ping on this again. I'm curious why Shortcuts no longer work

There is a technical reason why shortcuts can't be used anymore, having to do with the implementation of the new browser. But I don't know the exact details.
For now, please use symlinks if you need to store your presets outside of the plugin's data folder.

I want my stuff *outside* of something that might be changed by a future installer.

The installer will never delete any user created content. You would only be in danger of losing user presets if you want to do a "fresh" installation (instead of an update installation), and thus delete the whole data folder without first saving your user content.

[rockmachine]

If there are worries about user presets, data, etcetera, why not just make a copy of all that stuff and place it on the desktop before installing any new version of Zebra, et al. You can always leave the originals there and if they retained after, no harm done. I've never lost any of my own folders when installing new versions.

[glittle]

It's doable, but not ideal. I still think the ability to configure an external root for truly user-created material is best. Just keep user content *outside* of manufacturer folders. My thread here is one example of when I just don't want to have to think of having to save subfolders of material etc... I removed this stuff (both manually and by reverting to older restore points) multiple times in the course of debugging.

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=521853

[yellowmix]

But an in-GUI "user-based hierarchy root folder" location would be great.

That's exactly what the UserPresets location is used for (Zebra2.data\UserPresets\Zebra2). This will show up in the plugin's browser as "User" folder.

1. I meant root root. One that would include \Modules\MSEG and \Modules\Oscillator and \Tunefiles but only user not factory, also
2. The ability to set it outside of the Zebra2.data folder, arbitrarily anywhere with a proper path.

I personally don't need it since I am symlinking to where I want them to be though.

While we're on this topic, while the stealing trick works (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEEjx6TW1u4), would love to be able to save User LFOs, MMaps, Arps in Zebra 3.

Thanks for listening!

[diaper@ky]

Thanks for this thread it really helped me, and thanks Taz for your help in the other thread.
Time to re install 2.8.
It’s prettier too.

[glittle]

Yeah, what yellowmix said. Including about other "savable" things like oscillator presets, wavetables, and also LFOs, mmaps, or whatever else might happen in the future. It can all be done with symlinks, so it's not a fatal problem. But it just seems fussier than it could otherwise be and since "clean and reinstall from scratch" seems to have to happen more than I'd like, it's not much comfort that normal installs won't overwrite user-created content. So a little fussing with symlinks (and re-creating them every time a clean reinstall is performed) is necessary.

[tasmaniandevil]

1. I meant root root. One that would include \Modules\MSEG and \Modules\Oscillator and \Tunefiles but only user not factory, also
2. The ability to set it outside of the Zebra2.data folder, arbitrarily anywhere with a proper path.

Ah, now I understand, thanks for clarifying.
In this case, using symlinks really is the best solution right now.