ACT saved presets - anybody know where they live? - SOLVED

by way of an update/bump... I have found where X1 puts SOME presets... as expected, in docs&settings/userx/Application Data/Cakewalk/Shared Presets - in one of those subfolders with complex names. HOWEVER... it doesn't put ALL of them in there. Others must live somewhere else - and not in that folder at all, or anywhere that Windows Search can find. It also seems random whether they appear there when I save a new one or not. 

Furthermore... if I move that folder away and restart Sonar, it still knows about those presets - it must store them with their locations in a table somewhere - but it can't load them because they're not there. Put the folder back in, it can load them, no problem. 

This raises several issues: a) where are the other presets? b) why not store them all in one place? and finally c) how can I load new presets into that list? just dropping a new one into the folder doesn't work, because X1 doesn't know to look for it there as it's not on the secret list, wherever that lives. 

Man, this is a drag. I want to share these setups, there are several people waiting who want them, but I'm stuck! Any help appreciated... 

i thought the presest were store in the preference menu.this is where i locate my act files..or how i get to them i should say..in preferences/control sirfaces.i think..im sorry im not sure right now im not at my daw..ill get back later.

Charlie: I think subtlearts has already saved the presets, but is wanting to share those files with others to save them time. Problem is - Sonar is not very clear at where it is saving those presets. 

I just saved a preset with a very unique name, then searched my entire computer for that preset and it could not find it. A search of the registry revealed that it is likely stored there. I'm not sure what good that does though, as it becomes nearly impossible to back it up or share it. You will surely lose all those settings when you move to a new computer, or re-install the old one.

You export ACT Presets from the Cakewalk Plugin Manager. 

Go to Utilities->Cakewalk Plug-in Manager.

Select "Control Surfaces" in the Plug-in Categories box.

Select "ACT MIDI Controller" in the Registered Plug-ins box.

Click the "Export..." button in the Cakewalk Plug-in Presets group box.

You can save them anywhere you want to from there.

Regards,
Don

charlie - no worries

Don - THANK YOU!!! I don't know why I didn't think of that, except that, well it's completely illogical. However, it looks like it'll work and I'm happy to have learned something new and useful today.

Ironically while you were posting that I was finding a method, which worked incidentally, of adding a preset to the list through adding a registry entry. However, the plugin manager will make it a bit easier... and maybe less dangerous, at least for folks that don't often crack open the big R... 

No problem, guys.

I learned it because I'm slothfully lazy so I obsess about backing things up, therefore I only ever have to do anything once. 

subtlearts

anyway. It seems to work, but the question remains - why is it in a completely different dialog, as opposed to having an import/export button where you're actually working on it?  

And, why store the list as a registry value? While poking around in there I observed that SOME presets are stored as files, so the registry entry contains a reference to said file, in one of the weirdly named subdirectories of the Shared Presets folder. BUT - and this is a big but - some are stored as binary data IN THE REGISTRY ITSELF - and therefore not as individual files.  

I'm far from a programmer myself, just a nominally-informed bystander, so hardly qualified to comment... but... does this seem efficient to you? Or does it seem, I don't know, needlessly convoluted and arcane? 

I'm just asking...  

I can only speculate, obviously, but my sophisticated wild-a$$ed guess is that the preset lists are stored in the registry for the same reason that the presets are managed in the Plug-in Manager...one-stop shopping convenience. It makes sense to me to have one common dialog to manage presets for a plethora of plug-ins rather than implementing a separate dialog for each. And keeping them in the registry is essentially storing them all in one "file" for convenient access. But, again, this may just be me seeing things through my laziness filter.


~Don

I write simple program, that Export ACT presets from registry in .reg file. No need installation. Just run prog and reg file will be in the same folder with program.
 Now you have BackUp of your presets, or share it with other computers or people.  Its Free.
http://depositfiles.com/files/c6qdyzdme