Re: Sonar, File Structure, and Plug-ins
2018/11/03 16:26:52
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For years I battled vendor defaults in the name of file system tidiness and conservation of valuable C: space. And often lost those battles when software didn't work right or I ended up with multiple copies of the same plugin.
Ultimately, I surrendered that fight. Nowadays, I accept defaults for everything. It has greatly simplified things. Dupes still happen, such as when an installer doesn't give you the option of VST2 vs VST3 and drops both into place. But Cakewalk (mostly) transparently handles that by favoring the VST3 version. It still annoys me on an OCD level, having stuff scattered all about, but letting it happen is still easier than trying to enforce my own organization.
Because my C: drive is smaller than the other four disks, I don't want a lot of large files there that don't need to be there. The solution, as Steve notes above, is symbolic links. This allows me to physically locate large sample libraries wherever they make the most practical sense, without contradicting instruments' assumptions about where those files reside. All of my libraries, including Cakewalk, Spectrasonics, Superior Drummer and Kontakt are on drive E:, which is dedicated to samples. Someday I'll add an SSD for that role, and it'll be a seamless upgrade - I'll just copy everything over and designate the SSD as E:. But all the while Rapture, Kontakt, Omnisphere, etc. will be happily oblivious to where those files actually exist. As far as they're concerned, they're still on C:.
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to.
My Stuff