How you wish Windows and your DAW interact

[paramita123]

Is there such a forum or place where we can post general requests to DAW & plugins manufacturers?

EG:

- Always ask users where they want programs installed, and that includes presets too
- Do not install aax format without asking
- Do not install any file in My Documents it's a ridiculous place to install program files
- Give users the option to bail out/erase/bypass your system, for example Cubase Save/load Track loads menus with hundreds of styles/built-in presets that I'll never want to see in a million years. Give users a chance for a clean start if they wish so
- All metadata in the hands of the user, eg favourites, category
- Allow users to delete/hide your bad presets if they wish

My general work ethos :
- fresh Windows install every couple of years, so want ALL important stuff OUT of the C drive including my personal presets, preferences, macros etc..
- external drive for all Libraries, samples, presets, making for an easy reinstall and backup

Other OSs and DAWs might work better, I wish next iterations of Cubase and perhaps of the vst standard would improve on that organisation part.

[whyterabbyt]

Is there such a forum or place where we can post general requests to DAW & plugins manufacturers?

Nope. People sometimes treat this place that way, seemingly thinking that developers are just hovering about here, waiting for someone to tell them how to do their job, but no, this isnt a place for 'hey developers you should all do this thing.'

Send Feature Requests to the specific companies by whatever mechanism they actually offer.

[chk071]

- Do not install any file in My Documents it's a ridiculous place to install program files

If anything then user and configuration files get installed there. And, it's a perfectly valid location to do so. Especially when you manually manage your presets, or want to find configuration files, without having to show and dig into hidden folders like AppData/Roaming or AppData/Local.

"Program" files are usually either installed in C:/ProgramFiles, or the specified plugin folder.

[paramita123]

- Do not install any file in My Documents it's a ridiculous place to install program files

If anything then user and configuration files get installed there. And, it's a perfectly valid location to do so. Especially when you manually manage your presets, or want to find configuration files, without having to show and dig into hidden folders like AppData/Roaming or AppData/Local.

"Program" files are usually either installed in C:/ProgramFiles, or the specified plugin folder.

Correct. I figured out where Steinberg hides track presets in Roaming indeed.
I just wish all this could be centralised on an external SSD for easy backup and even for browsing too. Nevermind I'll keep doing this by hand for now!
As for My Documents whilst it's easy to find, it also contains lots of other non-musical stuff. So I would argue it would be better to centralise to a purely music-related location defined by the user.

[whyterabbyt]

As for My Documents whilst it's easy to find, it also contains lots of other non-musical stuff. So I would argue it would be better to centralise to a purely music-related location defined by the user.

If you want your stuff outside the folders designated for use by Microsoft, learn to use symlinks.

[paramita123]

As for My Documents whilst it's easy to find, it also contains lots of other non-musical stuff. So I would argue it would be better to centralise to a purely music-related location defined by the user.

If you want your stuff outside the folders designated for use by Microsoft, learn to use symlinks.

Now that is a GREAT idea ! How did I not think of it?! Thanks!
So I suspect I need to MOVE each folder to my SSD then RECREATE it as symlink, right?

Or I could also use my backup software to watch those folder for changes and backup automatically. Good to think of workarounds

[whyterabbyt]

As for My Documents whilst it's easy to find, it also contains lots of other non-musical stuff. So I would argue it would be better to centralise to a purely music-related location defined by the user.

If you want your stuff outside the folders designated for use by Microsoft, learn to use symlinks.

Now that is a GREAT idea ! How did I not think of it?! Thanks!
So I suspect I need to MOVE each folder to my SSD then RECREATE it as symlink, right?

Basically, yes. Move stuff into 'My Music Projects' or whatever it is, then create a symlink/junction point from the place the software wants it to be (ie in My Documents) to the new actual location. Also useful if you have, say

I recommend using Link Shell Extension it makes it pretty easy to do.

(Also note that a very small amount of software seems not to like junction points for some things (ie Native Access 2 and symlinks to plugin folders), and sometimes installers create a new real folder instead of maintaining the symlink, but you can just repeat the original process; move files and redo the symlink)

[sl23]

currently, I use an app called sync folders to back up everything to do with vst's located on the system drive. It allows you to specify folder filters using a tree structure, making it easy to use.

Be careful though as it requires a check everytime you use it, just in case it's doing something it shouldn't. Like if you install an app on c drive you don't want backed up, it'll do it unless you add that to the white list.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

If you want your stuff outside the folders designated for use by Microsoft, learn to use symlinks.

This is what I do. (major props to Link Shell Extension)

No vendor ever gets to decide anything over here.

Every plugin, instrument, file etc has its place (or in the case of ANY AAX plugin - no place) - all controlled by me and custom symlinks.

Granted - this takes time to unpack and process but it is possible.

VP

[BONES]

Is there such a forum or place where we can post general requests to DAW & plugins manufacturers?

Maybe you need to learn how to use your computer properly? e.g. If you think your Documents folder is in "a ridiculous place", it is trivial to change it to a location that suits you better.

Elsewhere, I don't think too many people want to spend half-an-hour choosing install locations for each little thing every time they install a new plugin, so I doubt you'd get much traction on most of your gripes.

[_leras]

I don't think there is a perfect way to do this, every plug in company seems to do this a separate way, and some installers are really old...

With my last couple of installs I've just let installalers use their default location. It's a pain that they are spread out, but it makes th install quicker and sometimes I need to add a vst location in the DAW.

My biggest annoyance is that plug in preset location are also wildly inconsistent. I do have folders for my mainly used synths and plug ins on a non c:\ (along with sample libraries etc), where I try to save and or/copy presets.

So I think it's a valid point to raise this, even if it won't get resolved by the existence of this thread.