MDrummer FR - Appeal for better file management

[peejay123]

Note: this is a bit of a bump of this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=138&t=544088&start=15&h ... mmer+paths

More and more I'm running into trouble with Melda's sample file handling. Mainly with MDrummer but have experienced it with MSF as well.

Simply put, when you open MDrummer and a third party sample is missing, the means of relinking to the file is close to appalling. You are given a one-time list of the missing files when you open the plugin and have to manually work out which drum (or even which layer) each sample belongs to and manually go and find the file and relink it. If you've got a 20-sample drumset, this is very laborious and prone to error. If you've got 100s of songs like this, you're in real trouble (hint: that's my situation).

Here's an example list:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yr2aclfszf17l ... s.png?dl=0

You're not even told which drum is missing which file.

You only have to rename a folder or change the folder structure where you keep third party samples and you are screwed. Or if you get a new computer – which I just have – links to all my samples are irreconcilably broken (my username is different, so I can't even replicate the paths).

I shouldn't have to do so much manual work where software can automate this process so easily. I've never experienced this sort of thing with Melda plugins before – they're usually so good at this sort of stuff.

Please, please, could we have a better way of relinking to samples? Automatic search perhaps? Or at least that each drum remembers the name of the missing file and there's a relink button to go find the sample.

Literally ** anything ** will be better than what's there now!

Thanks.

[MeldaProduction]

This is actually more complex than it looks due to the modular nature of the plugins. But I'll add it to todo list. Personally I'd recommend keeping stuff "organized" and setting the "Sample path" (MSF) and "Custom path" (MDrummer Sampler) to proper locations. This way stuff will always work without the need to change anything.

[jrgillam]

+1 on this. I was confused by how the sampler modules handle custom user content, and what happens if you share presets that use samples or if you change computer systems. It would be great to make it more idiot-proof, and to have some better documentation as well.

[ralfrobert]

+1

Idiot-proof, yes. For me.

[peejay123]

Thanks for adding this to the to do list, it's much appreciated especially given the complexity.

My samples are pretty well organised, but I can't guarantee that I won't need to re-organise/re-name the folders at some point.

Regarding this:
"setting the "Sample path" (MSF) and "Custom path" (MDrummer Sampler) to proper locations"

– it would be great to get some guidance on how to do this.

[padillac]

Do MSF and MDrummer use relative paths within the sample path? So if my sample path was "/Samples" and I referenced a file "/Samples/cool/sound.wav", does MSF just recognize it as "cool/sound.wav"? Then I could move the whole samples folder and change the sample path, and MSF would continue to work. But files outside of the samples path are have absolute path references?

[mibby]

Is there a recommended "best practice" for organized sample folders?

[Fraser19ka]

I had a similar thing happen when I did full reinstall of the plugins. Usually do the half-ass quick clean. Had no idea what file it was unable to link to but couldn't close the window down. Had to force close studio one a few times. Sorted eventually and no problems since. Probably user error but a definite area that can glitch.

[peejay123]

I ended up raising a support ticket about this and here's what Vojtech said i'm relation to my issue of switching between Mac and PC:

Here's to solution I'd strongly recommend:
1. Open MDrummer, go to Drumset editor and open Sampler.
2. Set "Custom" as Root path.
3. Next to the Custom there will be a "pencil" button, click it and select some global path for your samples. This path is stored globally, so it can be different on Windows (say C:/Samples) and macOS (say /Users/yourname/Samples).
4. Put all samples to this folder.
5. Make sure whenever you use these samples, the Sampler is using the "Custom" as Root path. It should do this automatically when you drag & drop files. When you select them manually, do this by first setting the Root path to "Custom".

If you are switching between machines like me, then make sure your samples folders match in terms of path structure.

He also said:
"You must ensure it [the Sampler] does NOT use the Global root. All other options are fine, but Global means it is not in MDrummer factory folder nor custom folder (or it didn't make it that way for some reason)."

What you need to do is make sure you have the custom path set on both computers and I suspect you'll need to reimport samples into legacy files as well – I haven't tried yet.

The above worked for me when I went from one Mac to another today.

I hope that helps!