Feature Request: User folder path for presets

[stardustmedia]

I couldn't find the possibility to choose a specific folder during installation in the Mac-installer.

That's true, because the resources are dealt with in different ways on the two operating systems. There are special folders for things like documentation files and patches and program-specific settings on OSX, so we use them. These types of locations don't exist on Windows, so we can't use them, that's why we aggregate everything into the .data folders and ask where to put everything.

As our patches and module presets are basically text files, even a huge collection of them will not take up more than a few Megabytes of space on the system drive. So it's usually not necessary to move them off the system drive like you would, understandably, do with a multi-Gigabyte sample library.

Also, keep in mind that file access times are higher on external drives than they are on internal drives, so that could have an effect on loading times when the patch folders are scanned and/or when presets are loaded.

Thanks Rob for that explanation. That makes sense. Though I still hope for such a feature

In my case, using Dropbox, it is actually not an external drive, but still the internal one. I use the default Dropbox setup path. The synchronisation with the server is then done by the Dropbox app.

That works flawlessly with Fabfilter for example.

[Erkenfresh]

Rob, he would be missing out on the automatic backup that saving to Dropbox does. That way when he creates the ultimate patch that defines him as an artist, it isn't lost when the HDD crashes, nor does it require any extra effort to keep backed up.

On the other hand, keep in mind that the features we customers request do take time. If implementing such a patch folder moving feature would take, say, 100 developer hours, then that's 100 less developer hours spent on things like, new filters in Diva or the fabled U-he drum synth. So U-he's gotta prioritize and if there's a workaround for you that takes 0 developer hours, then that's even better.

[stardustmedia]

Rob, he would be missing out on the automatic backup that saving to Dropbox does. That way when he creates the ultimate patch that defines him as an artist, it isn't lost when the HDD crashes, nor does it require any extra effort to keep backed up.

On the other hand, keep in mind that the features we customers request do take time. If implementing such a patch folder moving feature would take, say, 100 developer hours, then that's 100 less developer hours spent on things like, new filters in Diva or the fabled U-he drum synth. So U-he's gotta prioritize and if there's a workaround for you that takes 0 developer hours, then that's even better.

Whaaaat, you dare to say U-He sound can get even better... you infidel

Yes, of course. It's also a matter of developer philosophy. On the other hand, a little features, that makes a program more user friendly and easier to use, will sell just better than competitors.

I can imagine that U-He built a pretty decoupled architecture, where once the browser is updated with such a feature, it can be fairly easily implemented for all plugins once. So the spent time will be divided by the amount of plugins, so the effort/gain ratio increases again...

not accounted is the fabled U-He drum synth, or any other future plugin that will benefit from this feature.

We'll see what the U-He future brings.

[comfortablynick]

Totally agree on having the option to move the user presets folder. I have hundreds of symbolic links on Mac and Windows to allow me to place user presets in Dropbox, but it would be sooooo much easier if all the devs allowed this to be configured directly.

Everyone stores things in different places and it will take forever for me to redo all of my workarounds if I get a new machine!

[padillac]

I just want u-he plugins to default to MY presets when they open.

No matter how much time I spend creating presets, u-he plugins think that factory presets are more important.

There's a whole folder for user presets - why can't the u-he browser default to that folder instead of factory?

[Howard]

I just want u-he plugins to default to MY presets when they open.

For now, you could move all the factory presets into a new folder (called "Factory"?) and all your own presets into 'Local'.

[padillac]

I just want u-he plugins to default to MY presets when they open.

For now, you could move all the factory presets into a new folder (called "Factory"?) and all your own presets into 'Local'.

Good idea!

[aMUSEd]

Just came across this which Mac users may find useful - I assume it just works by creating symlinks to the folder in Dropbox (which many of us do already) but it simplifies that process

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37029/macdropany

[stardustmedia]

Don't know that app. But yes, you can do it with sym links. But that's just a work around, and I wouldn't want to do that for all preset folders. I'd rather have the plugin set the path itself to a place the user chooses.

Definitely I wouldn't install another app that integrates that deeply into the system.

[stardustmedia]

Any news about that feature request?

Would like to know if I can skip the installation of symlinks, but instead be able to use a U-he native solution for a user defined folder path.

[present]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. Did this get fixed? I just realised I lots a load of awesome presets after a computer was stolen. WISH they'd been backed up, and I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen again. Are we still mucknig about with simlinks for this?

[tasmaniandevil]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. Did this get fixed?

There was nothing broken, so there was nothing that needed to be fixed.

As Rob pointed out in an earlier post, Mac has standardized paths for many file types, like documentation or presets, so we are using those paths.

Meanwhile we completely rewrote our whole preset browser.
All plugins which are using the new browser (which should be the majority of the plugins by now, just check the release notes if you are unsure) can handle symlinks on Mac, in case you want to store presets in a different location.

While you can do this with presets, we do not recommended to move the preset database file to a Dropbox folder, because we cannot guarantee flawless operation if a service like Dropbox is accessing the database at the same time as the plugin. There could be all sorts of things going wrong, potentially damaging the database.