This should probably be posted in the Instruments section of the forum, but with all the focus on Rapture and DimPro I thought I would post this up here.

For those who like to keep their samples and user-changeable stuff in a separate drive, I will show what I do as an example.

I bought Dimension Pro, Rapture and Zeta+ 2 as separate sale items and installed them on X1 a while back and now use them on X2.
Everything seems to be working OK so far as I go through the tests on X2. I have all the latest version of these.

I have Windows 7 Pro SP1 and Sonar X2 Producer, so your paths may be different than mine. I mainly use the 64-bit versions, but since I also have Live, I need the 32-bit versions for that DAW.

For Dimension Pro I have these registry settings modified:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\dp]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Dimension Pro\\Content"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Dimension Pro\\"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\dp]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Dimension Pro\\Content"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Dimension Pro\\"


I moved all the stuff from the Program Files folder to the Content folder and the Multisamples to that other folder on my K drive.
I left the Dimension Pro programs in the 'ProgramData' folder on the C drive.

For Rapture I have these registry settings modified:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\rp]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Rapture\\Content"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\rp]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Rapture\\Content"


Similarly, I moved the Program Files stuff to these spots. I left the programs in the ProgramData folder.

For Z3TA+2 I have these registry changes:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\z3ta+\2.0]
"Dll Path"="G:\\VST-64\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2"
"AppData Path"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2\\AppData"
"UserData Path"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2\\UserData"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\z3ta+\2.0]
"Dll Path"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2"
"AppData Path"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2\\AppData"
"UserData Path"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Z3TA+ 2\\UserData"


Z3TA+2 doesn't use the 'ProgramData' folder.

So basically, I looked at these registry settings and moved everything synth-related in the old folders to the new folders (not the obvious stuff like the uninstaller data, etc. that needs to stay in place.)

After I did these changes I downloaded all the Scala scale files and put them in: K:\Scala\Tunings

Then I went through each of the synth's places where the tunings were stored and I deleted those 'Tunings' folder and made a symlink to the Scala folder. That is, in each folder I did this:


mklink /d Tunings "K:\Scala\Tunings"


These were three places for me:

K:\Cakewalk\Dimension Pro\Tunings
K:\Cakewalk\Rapture\Content\Tunings
K:\Cakewalk\Z3TA+ 2\UserData\Tunings


Each of these were a tuning folder, but I deleted the folder and made the symlink to the Scala folder, replacing the folder with a symlink of the same name. There are currently 4,158 Scala Scales ('.scl' files) as of today!

I made other types of changes as well, I removed the DXi versions of these synths and made the standalone menu item point to the VST 64-bit folder where I have the minihost executable for each VST.

I think I had to move a few other start menu items around - the Documentation got moved to the content folder, and stuff like that.

Now everything runs standalone, in X1, X2 and in Live (32-bit).

As far as I can tell there are no problems. Even Help popups and the synth menus load and save things properly.

I may have problems with the next update, but I'll face that when I need to.

I don't recommend this for most people, but for those who run a tight system and know their way around the filesystem this is a good layout. I basically believe that data should reside in one spot, but we can point to it from various other spots if we need local copies.

I use a registry checker and shortcut file system checker to make sure all the old folders and links still resolve properly.

Naturally you should back up your files and registry before you attempt anything like this, and rename the folders while you test - deleting them later when everything is working.


EDIT - typos

Great info for keeping large data off the C drive!

Thanks for the detailed info. I'll add it to my Cakewalk user knowledge base files.
Thanks again.

I'm currently checking each plug-in in detail as I put X2 through the paces.

I'm doing a similar move and shuffle for Beatscape and RXP. These I've finished and they work fine.

Next Session Drummer and Studio Instruments.

These have large-ish libraries that can benefit from a move.

I noticed several VSTs that I have in my 64 bit directory are actually 32-bit VSTs:

RXP, Sound Center, Drop Zone, Perfect Space and Square I.

I'll be moving them to the 32-bit VST folder.  I don't know if I put them there or the installer did. I test these in Live (32-bit).

This kind of work is very error-prone, so again I warn others not to try it unless you really know what you're doing.

There are several things that motivate me to do this. One is that I have a long heritage from Unix work, where symlinks are used everywhere for this sort of thing. But more so is that eventually I want to get an SSD drive for the C drive and I don't want any data on it, just programs.

If you keep the system drive small enough, backups and restores go very fast.

The data that gets moved does not change very much - if at all, so these drives get nightly incremental backups that are usually very small changes.

But it does mean that one must become a system administrator - not a thing for most, and not really needed either. Some people are just obsessive about these things.

You can even mount NTFS file systems as a folder, just like a Unix mount point.

That means that you can create a drive called ProgramData and mount it on C: in the empty folder 'ProgramData'. Use the Computer Management->Disk Management->Change Drive Letter->Change path. Now you are really in trouble. If you ever run out of Drive letters you need to do that.

I hope Windows 9 removes the concept of drive letters.

Thanks!

Thanks for this info. 

arachnaut


I'm currently checking each plug-in in detail as I put X2 through the paces.

I'm doing a similar move and shuffle for Beatscape and RXP. These I've finished and they work fine.

Next Session Drummer and Studio Instruments.

These have large-ish libraries that can benefit from a move.

I noticed several VSTs that I have in my 64 bit directory are actually 32-bit VSTs:

RXP, Sound Center, Drop Zone, Perfect Space and Square I.

think some of them are DXi's as my other DAW doesn't open them.. RXP has a more rigid folder option (think it was drive only) or maybe I'm getting it mixed up with another one.

Fog


think some of them are DXi's as my other DAW doesn't open them.. RXP has a more rigid folder option (think it was drive only) or maybe I'm getting it mixed up with another one.

RXP's help file says it is a DXi, but that is not so it is a VST. Maybe that is old info that never got updated.

I apologize for posting here rather than below in the Instruments thread, but I would like to continue with the stuff I posted earlier.
Today I completed all the consolidation work and re-arrangement of the Cakewalk VSTs in Sonar Producer X2.
I wrote about the changes to DimPro, Rapture and Z3TA+2 above. I'll write about the other changes I made here.

There were two types of changes :

1. Moving the large content material from where it was to a central location (In my case it is on the folder K:\Cakewalk). This folder now holds 16 GB of mulltisamples and instrument data that were moved from various places.
2. Moving the 32-bit plugins from the 64-bit folder to my 32-bit folder. I use the folder G:\VST-32 for 32-bit plug-ins and G:\VST-64 for 64-bit plug-ins. Inside this folder are subfolders with Vendor names (eg Cakewalk, AAS, NI, Camel. u-he, etc...) with their VSTs in these folders.

I tell you these things so you can intelligently modify the paths I changed. I'm running Windows 7 SP1 64-bit and Sonar X2 (build 306).

I use Live 8.3.4 as a test for the 32-bit plug-in changes as well as these other programs: Plogue Bidule (32), Temper, Seib VSTHost (32), toybear MiniHost, xlutop Chainer.
I tested the 64-bit changes on Sonar X2 Producer these 64-bit hosts: Sonar X1d Producer Expanded, Plogue Bidule (64) and Seib VSTHost (64).
I believe these should all be the most up-to-date versions.

When I completed the move I transfered about 16 GB of data from the system drive to my K: drive. That's quite significant.

Here is a summary of the changes for each instrument. For each of these registry values look at what you have for the folder and move that data to the new location shown in the example. Basically anything marked 'K:' is a change of (sample) data and the 'G:' data changes a VST.

Beatscape:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Beatscape\1.0]
"Samples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Beatscape\\Library"
"Installation Folder"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Cakewalk\\Beatscape"
"User Data Folder"="C:\\ProgramData\\Cakewalk\\Beatscape"

RXP:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\RXP]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\RXP"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\RXP]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\RXP"

Session Drummer 3:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\SessionDrummer3]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3"
"Resources Folder"="G:\\VST-64\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3\\Resources"
"Documentation Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3\\Documentation"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\SessionDrummer3]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3"
"Resources Folder"="G:\\VST-64\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3\\Resources"
"Documentation Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3\\Documentation"

Studio Instruments:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Bass]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Bass Guitar"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Bass Guitar"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Drums]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Drum Kit"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Drum Kit"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\EPiano]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Electric Piano"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Electric Piano"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Strings]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-String Section"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-String Section"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Bass]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Bass Guitar"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Bass Guitar"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Drums]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Drum Kit"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Drum Kit"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\Strings]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-String Section"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-String Section"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Studio Instruments\EPiano]
"Contents Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Electric Piano"
"Multisamples Folder"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Studio Instruments\\SI-Electric Piano"

Here is a summary of the changes when you move the 32-bit VST2 to the 32-bit folder. My VST 32-bit folder is 'G:\VST-32'.

Drop Zone:

no changes to registry needed, just move the folder.

Sound Center:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk Sound Center\1.0]
"Installation Folder"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Cakewalk Sound Center"

Perfect Space:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Shared Plugins\Perfect Space]
"LastImpulseFolder"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Perfect Space"
"InstallDirectory"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Perfect Space"



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\Shared Plugins\Perfect Space]
"LastImpulseFolder"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Perfect Space"
"InstallDirectory"="G:\\VST-32\\Cakewalk\\Perfect Space"


Changes to Sonar X1 registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer\X1\ContentLocations]
"Session Drummer 3 MIDI Drum Loops"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Session Drummer 3\\Contents\\Patterns"
"RXP REX Loops"="K:\\Cakewalk\\RXP\\Contents"

Changes to Sonar 8.5 registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer\8.5\ContentLocations]
"Beatscape REX Loops"="K:\\Cakewalk\\Beatscape\\Library\\Beatscape Factory Content"

This is a straightforward, but tedious job that requires a great deal of care in every step.
Make sure you back everything up (registry, File system, your data, etc) and rename the old folders until you finish testing.
I rename the folders from something like this "FOLDER" to this "FOLDER---" so that I can find them easily. I archive them for safe keeping for a while and then finally delete them.

I can't guarantee that I remembered each step, but I think this gives you the idea. Don't even think of trying this if you've never done anything like this before. You will be sorry.

I did make some mistakes and had to use SysInternals PROCMON to debug some problems, but it was not that hard, just takes time.

Finally, changing something like this will probably void your warranty and will not fair you well if you call Cakewalk and ask for tech support. Also it may make uninstalls and future install very difficult.

But I like to live dangerously.

A complete directory listing of my consolidated folder is available here:
http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/Sonar/Cakewalk-Content-consolidation.zip


Naturally, you may have purchased different content for some of the synths, but this may help verify your move for the data you change.

I am thinking of this as an alternative to reinstalling everything and moving it all to a new drive. I don't know why I went with the default installations when I built this machine. I know better. But lazy I guess.

It took me over two months to get all my stuff back up and running. That was a lot of time spent just to be able to see how it was going to run. And once I was half way through,...

Anyway thanks for that info. Gave me some good ideas.