.ch1 samples stop working in compiled VSTi (did i miss something?)

[d.healey]

@Straticah said in .ch1 samples stop working in compiled VSTi (did i miss something?):

What does it do

It screws things up, so don't use it I'm sure it has some use case, but I don't know what it is.

How are you creating the LinkOSX file?

[Straticah]

@d-healey Haha i just experienced that :)

Back to unchecked now!

The current flow is like that:

• VST3 gets installed to default location
• User opens VST - Dialog hat opens Expansion folder
• User places Expansion in this folder - restart

paths: /Users/julian/Library/Application Support/Prototype Audio/Fraction/Expansions/Pro-Essentials/Samples/Phase Shift Pad.ch1

This has been working with sample based expansions so far.

I assume the HR archive creates the LinkOSX file usually?
And then it can be changed with the Settings panel?

So when its missing HISE does not know where to look for samples.
This could actually be the issue its very likely. (why it worked before is not clear tho)

[d.healey]

@Straticah Yes you need to create a LinkOSX file (and LinkWindows on Windows) within the expansion's Samples folder inside AppData that points to the location of the samples. Also it's not a good idea to force the user to put all the samples in AppData, especially if you have a lot of samples.

[Straticah]

@d-healey This kind of solves two things at the same time then :) thanks!

I hope this thread will be helpful to others who have the same issue.

[Straticah]

@d-healey How do i know which paths work and which do not work? (because some did not work at least for me)

[d.healey]

@Straticah could you give me more context?

[Straticah]

@d-healey Honestly the expansions only worked without issues when set to AppData folder:

This custom path did not work on my mac expansions.

I have a couple questions:

• Does this "Locate Samples" menu work with expanions?
• We use expansion only - so i assume custom path looks for all exp. content?
• What is the "recommended way" of installing & moving expansions on user side?

Thank you in advance i should probably know more about expansions but i have worked with "baked in" samplemaps most of the time and this is new for me :)

[d.healey]

@Straticah said in .ch1 samples stop working in compiled VSTi (did i miss something?):

Does this "Locate Samples" menu work with expanions?

I'm not sure, it's been a long time since I used expansions. I think each expansion has its own Samples folder and own Link file.

[Straticah]

@d-healey This would make sense, but i have not found anything that confirms that.

If anybody can shine some light on how users can install/move expansions, this would help a ton.

[d.healey]

@Straticah I just checked with Rhapsody and each expansion does have its own Samples folder. I'm not using the encrypted expansions with Rhapsody but I suspect it will be the same.

[Straticah]

@d-healey Okay that makes sense - where/how does Rhapsody store and recall the locations of the users Expansion Samples? Is it custom or is HISE doing it via the the startup "overlay"?

[d.healey]

@Straticah There's a link file in each expansion's Samples folder that points to the location of the samples. I create the link file as part of my expansion install process, I also have scripted a system to allow the user to update it if they move the samples to another location.

[Christoph Hart]

@d-healey I think it also looks automatically in the global sample folder when the monolith can‘t be found in the expansion folder but it‘s also been ages that I‘ve used this myself.

I definitely tried to offer both sample location possibilities so you can decide whats more convenient for you.

[Straticah]

@Christoph-Hart Okay i will try to utilize the linker files and set path with them.

If it does not work maybe i can still read it and override HISE expansion search path via API.

If you have examples on how to set a custom expansion path for HISE lmk.

Will look into Rhapsody path handling aswell. @d-healey

[bendurso]

@Straticah What I do is this: when the user opens the plugin for the first time, I ask them where they want to store all the samples and save that path in a JSON file.

Then, during each expansion installation, when I call expHandler.installExpansionFromPackage, I always send the samples to that folder inside a new subfolder. The file link is created automatically by this function.

If the user later wants to change the location, I provide a master configuration option for relocating samples. So I call Expansion.setSampleFolder for all the expansions and change the path of the json file. This way, the user can simply move all expansions at once.

I analyzed different approaches a while back, and this one seemed the most reasonable.

[Lindon]

@Christoph-Hart said in .ch1 samples stop working in compiled VSTi (did i miss something?):

@d-healey I think it also looks automatically in the global sample folder when the monolith can‘t be found in the expansion folder but it‘s also been ages that I‘ve used this myself.

I definitely tried to offer both sample location possibilities so you can decide whats more convenient for you.

Yes I definitely need tthis facility of using the default samples link as we don't use separate folders for expansions, everything goes in the default AppData defined. Lnk folder

[Straticah]

Yes an example would be great i still dont understand 100% how it works.

@bendurso I have some troubles

What works: creating a .json with external samplepath that gets saved in AppData
What does not: using Expansion.setSampleFolder to tell HISE the path
Link Files: The link are not reliable on mac on my end - I have HISE_DEACTIVATE_OVERLAY=1 and tested/created the link files manually via the stock settings panel:

LinkOSX file

/Volumes/WD_BLACK/Music/Fraction/Samples (all ch1 files go here)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<GLOBAL_SETTINGS DISK_MODE="0" SCALE_FACTOR="1.0" VOICE_AMOUNT_MULTIPLIER="2"
                 MIDI_CHANNELS="1" SAMPLES_FOUND="0" OPEN_GL="0"/>

Sometimes the link file worked (when using the settings panel) but sometimes it does not work...
Tested different folders, paths, locations etc. no pattern yet.

Edit:
I got sound when i removed all expansion content from AppData/Plugin/Expansion and pasted the LinkOSX file in my Expansion folder instead. :o

Worked, link file is needed in empty expansion folder and also in AppData root folder.

Thanks for the help guys tho this was quite hard as a first timer. :)

[bendurso]

@Straticah Yeah, this is my code to install the expansions (i'm actually saving other things on that json file, so that's why I used "SampleFolder" to retrieve it from the json)

var CompletePath;

inline function InstallPackage()
{
	local parentFolder = FileSystem.getFolder("../");
	local SampleFile = parentFolder.getChildFile("settings.json");
    local SampleObject = SampleFile.loadAsObject();
    
    local DirectoryFile = FileSystem.fromAbsolutePath(SampleObject.SampleFolder);
    
    CompletePath = DirectoryFile.createDirectory(InstrumentName);
      
    if (CompletePath.isDirectory())
    {       
           expHandler.installExpansionFromPackage(selectedInstrumentFile, CompletePath);  
    }
    else
    {
        Console.print("Could not create the installation directory.");
    }
}

When I use expHandler.installExpansionFromPackage, it creates the link file on expansion samples folder with the samples path. It always worked for me, and I never received a support ticket.

And then I created my own button to change the samples path on settings. This will change the sample paths for all the expansions.

inline function onbtnChangeSamplesDirectoryControl(component, value)
{
    if (value)
    {
        FileSystem.browseForDirectory("", function(selectedFolder)
        {
            if (selectedFolder)
            {
                if (selectedFolder.hasWriteAccess())
                {
                    var path = selectedFolder.toString(0);
                    currentSampleFolderPath = path;

                    var notFound = [];

                    for (e in expHandler.getExpansionList())
                    {
                        var name = e.getProperties().Name;
                        var fullPath = path + "/" + name;
                        var folderObject = FileSystem.fromAbsolutePath(fullPath);

                        if (folderObject.isDirectory())
                        {
                            e.setSampleFolder(folderObject);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            notFound.push(name);
                        }
                    }

                    if (notFound.length > 0)
                    {
                        Console.print("Not found");
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.print("All sample folders updated successfully");
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.print("The selected folder can't be accessed due to insufficient write permissions. Please choose a different folder.");
                }
            }
        });
    }
};

Content.getComponent("btnChangeSamplesDirectory").setControlCallback(onbtnChangeSamplesDirectoryControl);