Loop folders

[pough]

I've just refurbished one of my computers and am re-installing software. This gives me a refresher on how it's all done now.

Loops are weird. The default folders according to the latest Waveform are... not what I would choose. It looks like Tracktion might add loops into a sub-folder in my main music folder; the one where I have songs to listen to. This means when I listen to music on random play I would also listen to loops sometimes. The default also includes the parent, so I guess 17,000+ songs will get scanned. Does it scan sub-folders? If so, why the parent and the sub-folder?

But it gets weirder. I installed one of the free drum loop packs using the Tracktion Download Manager. Where did they go? I'll tell you:

C:\ProgramData\Tracktion\Loops\

That's not a location that Waveform scans. That's not a folder that the installer told me about, so I had to search around in likely locations to find it. That's not a folder that anyone can see without setting the file browser to show hidden folders.

I really only use my own loops, so I don't have much invested in this, but I can't help but wonder if the default process works for new users. What do you end up with if you keep all the default settings and install the free loops?

EDIT: The free Imagina Drum Loops show up as presets, not loops.

By the way, there is also a scanned folder that you don't get to choose and is hidden and has 3 loops:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Tracktion\Waveform\Factory Loops

The "Loop Database" settings page doesn't seem to tell you anything about the loop database. I scanned for loops. Did it find any loops? I don't know. You have to create or load an edit to find out what's in it.

Please make the Loop Database settings page more useful. Even if it just reported the number of loops in the database, that would be better. Having to create or load an edit to see and tag the loop database is a bit awkward.

If I've made a mistake somewhere and the default process actually does work as expected, I apologize. I've installed Waveform many times, but have never just done the defaults since version... 1?

[pough]

I can't remember now if I changed the paths for VST files, but I don't think I did. Collective installs into

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins

It doesn't seem to be a path that exists by default for VST 2 plugins. And since nothing tells the user where Collective gets installed, how will they know to add that path?