3 technical questions (Kontakt, Preferences & dual monitors)

[SymboliC]

Hi,

I would like to get some help with those quesitons below.

1) I recently bought a 32" Samsung TV that I use as main monitor with my PC and just put the old LG 22" monitor away.

I'd like to use both of them. I have Radeon R9 285 and know that it can support dual monitors.

I've just seen a recent topic here and the OP states he uses 1 for the main window and the other for Plug-in/VST viewing purposes. How do you set this up?...
That particular topic is this one ->
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=189590

2) Within my projects, I use 2-3 or maybe even 4 Kontakt instances. None of those are filled up to their output limits. Some have empty slots for new multis/instruments. The reason for this is that I group different type of instruments and FX'es within different instances of Kontakt.

I recently started to experience slow load times of projects. Does using a bunch of Kontakt instances cause this or is it just because of many different libraries that are involved within the project?

3) THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION WITHIN THESE THREE.

I'm planning to move my os/system (Windows 10) onto a SSD disk but postponing the whole process because of heavy laziness & also serious considerations about losing all settings and so.

Apart from many other graphical projects, applications that are installed I'm really worried about losing my project defaults/VST settings and all nice choices that I go with in my REAPER projects.

Once upon a time I have asked this question and some people told me that all the settings and parameters will be left as is and will appear correctly once I install the VSTs after Reaper installation.

But, of course, it didn't go that smooth. Probably because I have forgotten to backup VST specific presets and little files.

The question is,
IS there a script or tool which, in a way, records all the settings (by saying all, I mean it. From fader postions to VST specific parameters) in a TXT file or something like that?

In graphical softwares like Freehand there was an option "collect outsources" or something like that which copies the embedded bitmaps, font files and all other things in the project folder.

I'd like to have this feature in Reaper.

Please let me know if you have answers for any of these 3 questions.

Thank you all!

[SymboliC]

Hi again,

For the first question, I found the answers and set them up.

For the 2nd, I did some research on the web and as a result I came to a conclusion to use more instances of Kontakt instead of loading a bunch of plugins in fewer instances.

Anyone to confirm this?

3rd - THIS ONE STILL REMAINS UNANSWERED for me. Waiting to here from Reaper pro's.

Thank you all.

[serr]

#3 is the easy one.

Clone your old HDD volume to your new SSD.
A 1:1 clone is bit for bit identical and your OS will boot up as it always did.

This is how you should be making backups too.

Mac user here but your Disk Utility app should be able to do that or there are fancier apps available with features to also schedule backups and so forth.

One caveat:

Some paid software queries the serial number burned into a firmware chip on the physical hard drive. (So you can't pull a drive and put it into another machine to pirate the software.) If you have one of those apps, it will see the new hardware and ask you for your authorization again.

[Tod]

Apart from many other graphical projects, applications that are installed I'm really worried about losing my project defaults/VST settings and all nice choices that I go with in my REAPER projects.

Once upon a time I have asked this question and some people told me that all the settings and parameters will be left as is and will appear correctly once I install the VSTs after Reaper installation.

But, of course, it didn't go that smooth. Probably because I have forgotten to backup VST specific presets and little files.

The question is,
IS there a script or tool which, in a way, records all the settings (by saying all, I mean it. From fader postions to VST specific parameters) in a TXT file or something like that?

Hey SymboliC, I'm not sure this will help, Reaper has a way of saving all your Reaper settings, icons, toolbars, etc..

In "Preferences>General" you can "Export and Import" all your current Reaper settings and configurations. All you have to do is "Export" them from your current setup, and then when I get your new setup and installation of Reaper, you can "Import" them back.

Just be sure and save the Exported configuration file in a safe place and then put it back in the configuration folder of the new install and import it.

As far as your individual projects go, everything is saved with the RPP files. Just be sure and put them in a safe place too.

I think serr explained a way to save and get it all back.

[SymboliC]

Tod & serr,

Thank you both for your answers.
The thing is I'm able to preserve my Reaper settings but project specific ones.

Indeed this is something to do with plugin-specific presets.

Here is the scenario,

I arrange drums with EZDrummer and build a kit of my own. I, then save it to somewhere (and the number of these "somewhere"s gets huge as the number of projects and different VSTi's start to pile up). Then, when I do a fresh system installation and open up my projects in reaper I see that the drum kits and all the parameters related to kit parts are reversed back to defaults. It's because that I lose my presets this or that way and cannot load them into EZDrummer or I can't recall which specific preset I used within that project from a wide range selection of presets that I had created.

That's why I need to start all over and construct my kit from scratch and do tweakings.

Same goes with orchestral VSTi & sample libraries & saved instruments.

That's why I needed to have a plan B or copy sheet.

Besides, after some time it gets really messy to try to organize and keep track of all FX'es and VSTi presets in a project if there are huge numbers of elements take part.

Would it be hard to implement such a feature in Reaper which prints out all settings and parameters, named presets in an XML format? Would be cool for such people like me who usually gets lost in his files =D...


@serr,

I've always chosen to stay away from that method since I'm too much skeptical about the success of those sort of methods thinking that something always will be left out.
Plus, I intend to have a FRESH system installation, not cloning the one that I currently work on since because, in time, Windows gets really slow because of the small chunks and pieces of installed and uninstalled software throughout the months and years. Maybe you don't have to deal with such cases since you're a one lucky Mac user =))

[boon]

On your second point, I did a test a while back to see what the overhead was of having single instances of Kontakt, Omnisphere etc. for each instrument versus multiple instruments per instance.

There was hardly any difference in performance overhead (CPU) and a slight increase in RAM (but if you have 16GB like I do, there was still lots of free memory).

For me, single instances per instrument is the way to go from a workflow perspective. You can just load an instrument, record midi and mix the audio on the same track without any confusion.

My old process of separate tracks for midi and audio for multi-out instruments used to cause me endless headaches because I couldn't easily correlate the parts with envelopes and effects. Now it's dead easy.

Boon

[serr]

Originally Posted by SymboliC

I've always chosen to stay away from that method since I'm too much skeptical about the success of those sort of methods thinking that something always will be left out.

That would be like rewriting your resume from scratch every time because you don't trust the computer.

In reality, if that kind of hard drive failure was happening with that kind of data loss your machine wouldn't even be running! And then you'd really want that backup!

This is how it's done. Start backing your stuff up before you lose something. DO NOT do this manually file by file! Use a cloning app.

Prove it to yourself. Clone your system drive. Boot your machine from it and see that everything is exactly the same.

Think of your OS/apps install like a document (like your resume). This is absolutely the last thing you want to be starting over from scratch with because, for example, you did some R&D install and something broke!

FYI, you can also save your system volume as a disc image file for a "master" safety copy. (You'd need to write that back to a hard drive volume to boot from it.) This is insurance against screwing up your live backup clone like you were concerned about. Mac users aren't immune to operator error. (At least this one isn't!)

PS. I get the need to build new installs from time to time too. But a cloning app is mandatory toolkit.

[SymboliC]

Originally Posted by boon

For me, single instances per instrument is the way to go from a workflow perspective. You can just load an instrument, record midi and mix the audio on the same track without any confusion.

My old process of separate tracks for midi and audio for multi-out instruments used to cause me endless headaches because I couldn't easily correlate the parts with envelopes and effects. Now it's dead easy.

Boon

Thank you for your input on this!
Actually, you've answered one of the questions that I haven't asked yet and with which I've always felt undecided.
The method you've mentioned here seems a lot cleaner and easier to control in the mix side of the things.
Just one question, then how do you go about different articulations of the same instruments? Do you use keyswitches with that single instance or do you add another track with different MIDI channel as a an exception?

Thanks!

[SymboliC]

Originally Posted by serr

FYI, you can also save your system volume as a disc image file for a "master" safety copy. (You'd need to write that back to a hard drive volume to boot from it.) This is insurance against screwing up your live backup clone like you were concerned about. Mac users aren't immune to operator error. (At least this one isn't!)

PS. I get the need to build new installs from time to time too. But a cloning app is mandatory toolkit.

What about fresh system instal?? =/

OK, I'll give it a try for a whole back-up thing but whatif I actually want to do a fresh installation of my system?

[serr]

Originally Posted by SymboliC

What about fresh system instal?? =/

OK, I'll give it a try for a whole back-up thing but whatif I actually want to do a fresh installation of my system?

Sure. Like I said, building new systems is obviously required from time to time as entirely new hardware is designed and new OS builds are released.

A cloning app is still a required tool IMHO and there are plenty of times you want to copy your OS install as opposed to building a new system. You already have Disk Utility for free (whatever it's called for Windows).

Swapping in an new/upgraded hard drive should not require you to also build a new OS unless you intended to do both at the same time.

Ever install something that screwed your system up? Having to actually track down how to undo it or actually having to build your system back up from scratch sounds pretty painful compared to a 3 minute restore from your backup clone. (3 minutes or less because only the changed files are being overwritten from backup.)