Folder Location and Structure

Hi all, would like to ask if there is a possibility to customise the location of where User Files and other Data Files may be stored.

At the moment, it seems that there is stuff all over the place. This is a backup and restore nightmare in case if something goes wrong. Here’s what i’ve found so far:

  1. VST3 Presets - stored in the My Documents Folder > VST3 Presets
  2. Other Presets (Crash Dump, FX Chain & Strip) - stored in My Documents > Steinberg
  3. Lots of stuff - User (Roaming Profile)
  4. Track Presets - User (Roaming Profile) - stored in Steinberg > Track Presets
  5. Track Pictures - User (Roaming Profile) - stored in VST Sound > User Content > Track Pictures
    [there is also another location where the graphic cache files are stored - it not good as this is the system drive and these things are growing]

i guess there is also a lot more which could be better organised.

any advice all?

many thanks… :slight_smile:

You could use junction points/links to put the actual files on a common data drive, though the programs that maintain them will think they are where they put them.

Read the Wikipedia NTFS junction point article for details.

I prefer to use junction.exe from MS Windows Sysinternals.

Hi Patanjali, thank you for the tip.

I’ve used mklinks before via CMD to put network folders in the Library.

i’ll give the junction.exe a try later.

many thanks again. Cheers!!!

Junction.exe has the advantage of be a simple single point of junction management, whereas mklinks can only be used to create them, requiring other commands to remove and list them.

Hi Patanjali, once again thank you for the into to junction.

i’ve had some time to experiment this afternoon. it does as it should; thats great. :smiley:

hmmm… perhaps i’m to greedy to ask for it to work on Network links too… however, unfortunately, it does not. However, no worries, i can still use the mklink for those.

Once again thank you very much and have a wonderful day. Cheers!!! :smiley:

See if you can move all directories that contain any .vstpresets under a single parent directory, then open mediabay, point it to it and rescan. I was thinking of doing this, should work theoretically. Junction points seem like an overkill.

Hi lukasbrooklyn, thank you for joining in on this.

The .vstpresets are contained within the My Documents > VST3 Presets

When ever you save a setting of any VST (ie, instruments and or effects) they will be saved as individual folders with the Preset’s Company (root folder) > the VST’s Name (folder) > xxx.vstpreset [If you have WAVES stuff, the system will have one Waves folder and within contain a whole heap of effects both Stereo and Mono folders…]

Honestly, it was a huge mess when i started trying to consolidate.

I tried initially to put them into a single folder but later realised that if you save an effect or instrument as a default, Cubase will name it as Default.vstpreset; so in that sense we cant have 2 files of the same name “Default.vstpreset” within the same folder level. Ok… next, i gave up that idea… left Cubase to do its thing; leaving the folder and naming structure as it is.

i went hunting next for the Track Templates… man… thats another nightmare… if you save an Instrument Track, it reflects within the Mediabay as Instrument Track. However if you save an Instrument Track with additional MIDI Tracks, its reflected in the Mediabay as Instrument Track Multi. Fine… i can go with that but these save into the Users > AppData Folder which is on the system drive and as mentioned, its not a good sign because these templates will be growing and soon the C Drive will be clogged… :frowning: The worst was to discover that the cache and graphic files for Track Icons are also stored among these folders.

The actual problem i have is not pertaining to space but actually backing up and cloning. I made a huge error hacking the registry over the sluggish Control Room Meters hence upon restoration then i discovered that must of the previous day’s work was gone… :blush:

hope you guys will have a suggestion to customise location right from the start.

thanks again… :smiley:

oh I didnt mean to put different plugins’ vstpresets into a single folder, rather to see if presets of the same type are in different directories, to join those, and maybe use a directory on a different drive that’s easy to back up. However I have bo idea what happens when you start saving new presets. Like you say…could be a mess. It’s definitely not a hdd space issue though.

many thanks again lukasbrooklyn, let me see what else i can discover over the weekend… :wink:

cheers :smiley: