Help! MDrummer moving to other computer, lost connection to samples

[peejay123]

I do most of my music in my home studio on a Windows 10 PC running Ableton 10.

I recently got a MacBook Pro for work and have been doing some music on there in Ableton 10, while chilling on my sofa!

I use my own sample library for Drumsets, not the samples that come with MDrummer.

I have created a few songs and transferred them from the Mac to the PC and MDrummer can't find the files (obviously, file systems on a Mac and PC are totally different). But it just says it can't find the samples and essentially gives me an empty Drumset (unlike say Battery which would give you the option to search for the missing samples).

This isn't a great user experience and I'm sure I am just missing something here. I use the the same sample libraries on both computers.

How can I restore the paths to the samples without having to laboriously recreate the Drumsets by sight? Is there someway to save the samples in a preset? Or to relink the paths rather than MDrummer just going "I can't find your samples, sorry, here's a useless patch"!

Thanks in advance

[peejay123]

EDIT: I've found in the Drumset panel that there's a way to save the Drumset (via the Advanced menu), but when I try to load it on the PC via the same menu, it just sticks at 0% and crashes Ableton!

[sirmonkey]

Do you have another DAW besides Ableton? If so, try it on another DAW.
Even if it works in another DAW, that might not get it to work in Ableton.
But just maybe....

[peejay123]

Good idea, I can try it in Cubase.

In the end I manually added the samples by comparing the drumset on the two computers. Not the typical melda ux/workflow we all love!

I think a find and replace/relink function like Battery would be ideal. Or at least some way of knowing what the sample name is for each drum without having to look it up on the other computer.

I have to say this is a big concern should my computer die and I end up on a new system. Would all my tracks with Mdrummer lose their connection to the samples, if the paths weren't 100% exact? It certainly looks that way. Potential for ruining several years of music there without a fallback. I'd be interested to know if there is a solution to this.

[sirmonkey]

Here's a video that covers importing sample libraries into MDrummer. * You can use keywords to find stuff if the samples in a library have non-standard names. Might come in handy at some point...

[peejay123]

Thanks, I used this process to import my 3rd party libraries on both computers - it's a great feature and one of the many reasons I love MDrummer, but I'm not sure how it helps with migrating tracks from one computer to another and preserve the links to the samples.

[sirmonkey]

Hmmm. I'll have to think about that. This might be a DAW thing, that any plugin doesn't directly control, but yet has to take into consideration. But I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure.
How well are your other instrument plugins working? Any similar issues?

[peejay123]

Thanks for your help with this.

The whole suite of melda plugins works fine - I have them all and have been using them for years - and apart from one other plugin, they are all I use. It's unusual to have a crash with melda stuff for me. I'm using the latest version too.

Having said that, the save Drumset function only solves the smaller of my problems. Migrating a few songs from Mac to PC.

I'm now more worried that the 100s of songs I've written using MDrummer are vulnerable to irrevocably losing their sample paths should I need to change/upgrade my computer (which is becoming a consideration). I don't want to have to go through each song and export the Drumset. Even if that function works, it would take days and duplicate my sample files all over the place, taking up unnecessary disk space.

There must be a more elegant solution. And if not, I do feel a search and replace/relink function may need to be a feature request.

[goldglob]

Yes, like in Kontakt et al, where you can point to a folder then all files (samples) are found in one process and ready to go. MDrummer does have a similar thing of sorts but I think you have to point to each missing sample separately which is of course extremely tedious.
This issue has been raised before and from memory I think Vojtech said that because user samples for any one kit might reside in several different locations it was too complicated....but even if that was the case surely the replace/relink function could at least scoop up at once all the relevant samples in one folder then ask for the next relevant folder and so on...or indeed just search one huge samples location including sub folders......there must be a way?

[peejay123]

To be honest, I'd be happy relinking each sample individually, but I don't think that's an option. Or at least I can't find it.

From what I can see, once the connection is lost, that's it, empty sampler with no reference to even the file name. Even a reference to the file name for each drum would be fine by me!

[goldglob]

On the Mac MDrummer you could:
Menu> Create MDrummer Pack,
then on the PC MDrummer Install Pack.

Depending on the way you have your Drumsets saved on the Mac, you might (before creating pack) have to save-as them following the keyword requirements for packs.

The created pack on the Mac will duplicate samples, but once sent/copied to PC you could just delete it (the original).
And if the same samples are already on the PC, you'll end up with duplicates in the PC MD installation. No way round that I think.

I haven't done this, and I guess it would take a bit of organized head scratching to set up, but once done, you'd have everything you need right there on the PC MD.
....................
Regarding re-linking manually:
If your Drumsets on the Mac MD are saved, and you have those Drumset files transferred to your PC MD ProgramData, then by loading the Drumset in PC MD you'll at least have your Drumset settings including the Drum Types in the Drum List, then you can re-link manually...and do a new save-as for PC.

[MeldaProduction]

Please always either put your samples to the MDrummer factory folder, or setup the "Custom path" (kind of a root for custom samples). Otherwise you will just need to replicate the exact same paths on the target computer, or face lots of manual editing . And I'm lazy, so I always put evberything to MDrummer factory or D:/Samples

[goldglob]

There's a problem with the custom sample path thing.
Here's a very simple example.
Let's say I have a folder of about 20 drums called 'Best Drums'. It's a subfolder on my D drive.
I define 'Best Drums' as my custom sample path.
I create a Drumset using a Kick, Snare, and Ride from that folder.
I save the Drumset as 'Small Kit'
I close DAW.

In Windows I move 'Best Drums' folder to desktop.
Open DAW.
Load MDrummer...as expected I get the missing samples message.
In Drum Editor I define my custom sample path as my 'Best Drums' folder in its new location (Desktop).
I get excited because I see that my chosen Snare and Ride have come up connected.
But then I get depressed to see that Bass Drum 1 in the DRUM LIST is not connected to my chosen kick but is connected to the first drum top of the browser (which is not a kick).

[peejay123]

Thanks for taking the time to help investigate this. It's a bit concerning. I'll try a few experiments like this myself, see if I can work out a disaster recovery plan. I wonder if I just move the samples to the MDrummer folder whether it would find them there?

Will report back!

[MeldaProduction]

There's a problem with the custom sample path thing.
Here's a very simple example.
Let's say I have a folder of about 20 drums called 'Best Drums'. It's a subfolder on my D drive.
I define 'Best Drums' as my custom sample path.
I create a Drumset using a Kick, Snare, and Ride from that folder.
I save the Drumset as 'Small Kit'
I close DAW.

In Windows I move 'Best Drums' folder to desktop.
Open DAW.
Load MDrummer...as expected I get the missing samples message.
In Drum Editor I define my custom sample path as my 'Best Drums' folder in its new location (Desktop).
I get excited because I see that my chosen Snare and Ride have come up connected.
But then I get depressed to see that Bass Drum 1 in the DRUM LIST is not connected to my chosen kick but is connected to the first drum top of the browser (which is not a kick).

If you move things, you must NOT save the drumsets first. MDrummer doesn't really know what happened (and if at all), so by changing the "Custom path" you tell it "from now it is here", then restart it, and all should be fine.