Phoenix
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Dimension content folder
I keep my DXIs on my programs drive, and my loops and samples on my audio drive. Since the P5 v2 install does not give you a choice of where to install juswt the content, I had to let it install everything on my programs drive. Is it OK if I move the content over to my audio drive? Will Dimension function?
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Divinit
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/05/31 21:20:32
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Phoenix,
Not likely. I've found Dimension to be pretty finicky about working when anything out of the ordinary is done during installation. Most of my sounds and banks from other programs are stored on a separate drive, like yours, but I, too, was disappointed that there didn't seem to be any way to install the sound path anywhere but the program drive. Once installed, however, I believe you can relocate the sound data to another drive, but then you have to do the "browse" thing. You might try copying the data files to your other drive, opening Dimension and then seeing if you can browse to that drive to open the sounds. You have to have a decent drive that has been defragmented and has at least 7200 RPM and 8 mb cache, which most modern drives do. And it will definitely increase your processor usage to pull the sounds from a drive different from your program drive.
Your call as to the tradeoffs, but I believe you can run it in that fashion. Once you get it to run that way, you should be able to delete the raw data file from your program drive.
Hope that helps..
Divinit
A+, CCNA, MSCS
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Phoenix
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/05/31 22:04:50
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I think if I created shortcuts to the audio drive folder in the default folder it might work. I am going to experiment by copying the multisamples folder to the audio drive and opening the samples from there, and see if it is any different from opening them from the default location. I was just wondering if anyone had done it, and I'd was also hoping someone from CW would respond as well.
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René
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/05/31 22:10:42
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During installation, Project 5II will ask you where to install Dimension contents, which is the largest part of the total size (~3Gb). You can select to install Dimension's contents anywhere, regardless of where you decided to install Project 5 and the DXis, including Dimension.
-René
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Phoenix
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/05/31 22:23:42
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Perhaps I misunderstood the install process. It did ask me that, but I thought that meant it would install the entire DXi in a different location. Re-reading your post I see it means that it would install Dimension with the other DXi's and the multisamples in whatever other location (please correct me if I'm wrong). Since you created Dimension, Rene, do you have an opinion on where the content should be? Do you agree with what Divinit said about processor usage?
post edited by Phoenix - 2005/06/01 01:13:25
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xylyx
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/01 01:55:08
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ORIGINAL: Phoenix
Perhaps I misunderstood the install process. It did ask me that, but I thought that meant it would install the entire DXi in a different location. Re-reading your post I see it means that it would install Dimension with the other DXi's and the multisamples in whatever other location (please correct me if I'm wrong). This is correct. It will install the DXi alongside all the others, but place the content in whatever other location you choose.
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René
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/01 19:43:21
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Since you created Dimension, Rene, do you have an opinion on where the content should be? Do you agree with what Divinit said about processor usage? Anywhere. As Dimension loads the samples in memory before playing them, the locations of the samples have zero impact on the processor/memory usage. The only difference will be loading time: placing the contents in slow drives (i.e. networked drives) will result in programs/songs loading slower. Just as a general reference time, Dimension should load the biggest piano (230Mb) in about 12 seconds in a standard 7200 hard drive, after a fresh reboot (subsequent loads will be much faster due the cache effect). If it takes much longer than that, you might need to revise the dma mode for that drive. -René
post edited by René - 2005/06/01 19:45:12
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Phoenix
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/01 19:49:05
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Thanks, Rene; that clears it up, for my main DAW, anyway (see below).
post edited by Phoenix - 2005/06/01 21:52:26
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/01 21:26:31
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Can I chime in and ask what about if the drive letter changed for all the Dimension content? I work via laptop so I keep my big files on an external USB drive. Unfortunately Windows seems to like to change the drive letter from time to time on this external drive. Now Dimension can't find its content. How can I repoint Dimension to the new drive letter without having to reinstall everything?
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Phoenix
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/01 21:50:54
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Darrell, you read my mind. I was just going to ask about my laptop too. So far the drive letter for my external drive has been consistent, but if Windows has been reasigning yours, that may change for me too. Also, sometimes I may not have the external with me, and I don't want Dimension not to work because of it. I was wondering if I could move the content to the external and just keep song-related presets in the content folder on the laptop, or do I have to leave all the content on the program drive? Or is there just an easy way to change the default folder for Dimension content as needed?
Rene, what do you suggest for us laptop users?
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/08 22:19:44
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I'll boink this back to the top in the hopes that someone from Cakewalk or rgc:audio will reply ....... 
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techead
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 08:51:14
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ORIGINAL: palancar
I'll boink this back to the top in the hopes that someone from Cakewalk or rgc:audio will reply .......
Darrell, René, who responded already in this topic thread, is the creator of the Dimension synth and his company (RGC:Audio) was consumed by Cakewalk, so you have both a Cakewalk employee and the creator of the Dimension Synth of Project5 responding about installation of content for Dimension. Take a peek at his responses already at these two links: http://forum.cakewalk.com/m.asp?m=480671&mpage=1&key= http://forum.cakewalk.com/m.asp?m=481671&mpage=1&key= Enjoy!
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 09:34:09
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ORIGINAL: techead
ORIGINAL: palancar
I'll boink this back to the top in the hopes that someone from Cakewalk or rgc:audio will reply .......
Darrell,
René, who responded already in this topic thread, is the creator of the Dimension synth and his company (RGC:Audio) was consumed by Cakewalk, so you have both a Cakewalk employee and the creator of the Dimension Synth of Project5 responding about installation of content for Dimension. Take a peek at his responses already at these two links:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/m.asp?m=480671&mpage=1&key=
http://forum.cakewalk.com/m.asp?m=481671&mpage=1&key=
Enjoy!
Yeah I read this entire thread already. I asked a specific question, though, about how I can tell Dimension where the content folder is, if it changes. My Dimension content is on an external USB drive and Windows changed the drive letter on me. How can I tell Dimension where the new content location is? That's the thing nobody has responded to ...
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wrench45us
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 10:07:45
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i don't understand the circumstances when Windows would reassign an external drive letter.
are there times when you map a network drive or have a flash memory USB drive installed?
i have an external drive on my laptop and have never seen the drive letter re-assigned. i imagine if I had my USB flash drive installed it might. -- but given the same startup sequence and same drives I can't see why this would ever happen
at work we use these USB flash memory 'drives' a lot and they always pop up as the 1st available drive letter
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 10:14:03
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ORIGINAL: wrench45us
i don't understand the circumstances when Windows would reassign an external drive letter.
are there times when you map a network drive or have a flash memory USB drive installed?
i have an external drive on my laptop and have never seen the drive letter re-assigned. i imagine if I had my USB flash drive installed it might. -- but given the same startup sequence and same drives I can't see why this would ever happen
at work we use these USB flash memory 'drives' a lot and they always pop up as the 1st available drive letter
Try shutting off the USB drive while Windows is running, then turn it back on again. Windows correctly handles re-mounting the drive but it assigns a new drive letter to it. If you plug the drive into a different USB port, it may change the startup order, which may change the drive letter. Put simply: it happens. Dimension needs a way a user can tell it where the content is, if it moves. Rene can you help, please?
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RJ
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 10:40:05
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Yes USB is wonderful. I have 7 usb ports on my machine and xp just uses whatever drive letters it likes at the moment
RJ
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techead
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 10:40:49
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You can force the drive letter of the USB drive to be anything you want. Just mount the USB device as usual then go to "Start | Run" and enter in this command: diskmgmt.msc then press enter. This will bring up the Windows disk management tool. You can use this tool to change the drive letter of the disk drives. Just change it to whatever you originally used when installing Dimension. That way you don't have to worry about how to tell Dimension to look for content elsewhere. Hope that helps. -Techead Edit: On my system if I use a different USB port it does change the drive letter assignment, but if I use the same USB port it reassigns the same drive letter. If I change to the second USB port I get the "second" drive letter again. It seems to consistently assign drive letters to ports to me. I don't know if this is a driver dependent behavior--might be different on your system?
post edited by techead - 2005/06/09 10:44:18
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wrench45us
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 11:10:46
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where i work
this is the kind of issue that gets me into trouble with sales and marketing
i don't necessarily think the customer is always right and gets to reconfigure their system and still expect the software to run, but then we don't exactly do shrink-wrapped off-the-shelf PC-based products either -- and apparently it's a good thing.
so i don't think it's too much to ask that Dimesion can find its samples where they were loaded at install
thanks techead for providing a means for those who have a need to twiddle
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/09 11:48:57
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Personally I think it is a serious omission that Dimension has no way to reparent the content. Fortunately, the manual does document where the definition of the parent folder for the content can be found: [!] The default \Multisamples folder can be overriden by generating the registry key (string)
HKLM\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\Dimension\Multisamples Folder
The string value is the new default multisamples folder. Folder must end in backslash (i.e. “d:\Dimension\â€. The whole ‘Multisamples’ folder must be moved to that location (in the previous example, “d:\Dimension\Multisamples\<all contents here>â€).
So there you go, one can fix it up by editing the registry. This, however, is still an unnecessary PITA. I don't think it's at all unreasonable that a rompler should prompt the user for the new parent folder if the rom samples cannot be found.
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Phoenix
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/10 02:09:16
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wrench45us
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/10 08:50:46
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So there you go, one can fix it up by editing the registry. This, however, is still an unnecessary PITA. I don't think it's at all unreasonable that a rompler should prompt the user for the new parent folder if the rom samples cannot be found. you should submit this as a feature request i noticed last night once my power was resotored (after a mere 40 HOURS), that Native Instruments sample based synths put up a message that offers a variety of options to quit loading or browse elsewhere when the samples can't be found.
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techead
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/10 09:00:59
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According to the documentation supplied with Dimension it will search around automatically for missing multisamples, but the way I interpret the reading it seems that it doesn't popup dialogs asking for help nor does it look outside of its default multisamples directory.
The tweakDimension tool I wrote may be the safest and easiest alternative at the moment until a new version of Dimension is supplied with the requested features.
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palancar
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RE: Dimension content folder
2005/06/10 11:41:56
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ORIGINAL: techead
According to the documentation supplied with Dimension it will search around automatically for missing multisamples, but the way I interpret the reading it seems that it doesn't popup dialogs asking for help nor does it look outside of its default multisamples directory.
The tweakDimension tool I wrote may be the safest and easiest alternative at the moment until a new version of Dimension is supplied with the requested features.
Yup tweakDimension does exactly what I need! Thanks for writing it.
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