Backup VstSharedBanks-folder

[Debby747]

Hi Brad,

The VstSharedBanks are a great feature for instruments with lots of banks to choose from.
On the other hand, I have spent quite some time to import all 30 banks for a synthesizer, and wonder how I can backup my efforts, so I won't have to do it again?

I see that Cantabile uses (sorry) weird encrypted names for folders within
the VstSharedBanks-folder, in which the programs are saved, each in its own "slot", with a defining .dat file.

I wonder, would it be unreasonable to be able to also export the shared bank
into a fxb?
Right now one can export programs form a loaded fxb but not from the programs in a shared bank.

Perhaps I do not understand how fxbs work-
how many fxp can they hold? How do they need to be splitted (some come with hundreds of programs bundled in 128s)?


Oh well, backing up the whole folder might work.
I just think that reorganising or customising fxb via export from the shared banks would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

Greetings,
D.

[bradr]

Hi Brad,

The VstSharedBanks are a great feature for instruments with lots of banks to choose from.
On the other hand, I have spent quite some time to import all 30 banks for a synthesizer, and wonder how I can backup my efforts, so I won't have to do it again?

I see that Cantabile uses (sorry) weird encrypted names for folders within
the VstSharedBanks-folder, in which the programs are saved, each in its own "slot", with a defining .dat file.

Actually, their not encrypted (though they might as well be), they're the plugin's unique ID hex encoded and yes each program is saved as a fxp file.

I wonder, would it be unreasonable to be able to also export the shared bank
into a fxb?
Right now one can export programs form a loaded fxb but not from the programs in a shared bank.

Yes that's just the way it is, but you're right it is a bit of a deficiency.

Perhaps I do not understand how fxbs work-
how many fxp can they hold? How do they need to be splitted (some come with hundreds of programs bundled in 128s)?

Technically a fxb can hold hundreds of programs though it depends on the plugin as to what would happen if a fxb contained a different number of programs than the plugin itself has.

Oh well, backing up the whole folder might work.
I just think that reorganising or customising fxb via export from the shared banks would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

Yes, backing up the whole folder should work as there's nothing machine specific in there.

[Debby747]

Thanks for the explanations.
Backing up the folder is convenient enough.

The only thing that worries me is what happens when a synth is updated.
Then its id is different... isn't it?

I am just curious about what to expect and how to use this feature efficiently.

Greetings,
D.

[bradr]

The only thing that worries me is what happens when a synth is updated.
Then its id is different... isn't it?

If a plugin developer changes their plugin id, nothing saved in any host related to that plugin will reload...

After looking back at this for the first time in a long time, there's a number of things about that folder that really annoy me (especially all those empty folders). There'll probably be some clean up of all this in the next build.

[bradr]

Build 2006 changes a number of things in this area.

* The VstSharedBanks folder has been moved to <appdata>\Topten Software\Cantabile 2.0\VstSharedBanks. Existing banks will be automatically copied.
* Plugins with no shared programs don't create empty folders (de-cluttered)
* The folder names now include the name of the plugin making it easier to locate the correct folder.
* You can now manually copy in, or delete fxp files in those folders and the directory will be updated automatically (but it may require restarting Cantabile)