Mounted 2tb External. Direct Read/Hard Linking?

[Lithalean]

Hello Steinberg Forums,

I have what might be considered a complex question / request / instruction. For starters, it requires 2 non-AppStore apps. They can be “jailed”, and do not require jailbreaking, but require Xcode and a developer account. (Or 3rd part Cert)
1.) MTerminal
2.) Filza

Step 1: Setting up the Hardware. (Skip 1 & 2 if you have USB-C iPad Pro)
Item 1: Apple Camera Connection Kit
Item 2: Onvian 3 Port USB Hub High Speed Splitter Plug and Play Bus Powered (Amazon)
Item 3: 2 of CY USB 3.1 Type C USB-C to Dual A Male Extra Power Data Y Cable for Cell Phone & Hard Disk 60cm (Amazon)
Item 4: External USB C Hard/SSDrive formatted to APFS
Item 5: Powerbank with 2100mA output (Usually the “Tablet” labeled one)(Recommend LED battery level display)

Step 2: Creating USB mount point and mounting APFS formatted External.
Part 1: Log into “/“ (Not required) (requires jailbreak)
Part 2: Navigate to “/var”
Part 3: Create mnt, and then navigate to it. (Only needed first time)
Part 4: Create usb, and then navigate to it. (Needed every time)
Part 5: Mount APFS formatted External.

Step 3: Using Filza to Navigate to External. Copy/Paste tested, and fully working.

Step 4: Creating Hard Link to External. (“Symbolic Link” in Filza Not working)
Step 5: Reading contents directly from external within Cubasis. (Not Working)

Note: My objective is to be able to work with my BOOM Libaries within Cubasis, but not have the libaries (Over 128gb) exist on my iPad Pro, but instead reside on my 2tb LaCie. Exporting projects to the LaCie would be great as well, but I can always copy/paste for that.

Thank you to anyone who helps me accomplish this!

-Lithalean (Tyler Allen)

[LSlowak]

Hi Lithalean,

Thanks for your message.

Here comes our feedback (after having exchanged with our engineering):
That’s an interesting approach, we haven’t tried MTerminal and Filza yet. If you succeed in placing a symbolic link in the folder Cubasis/Audio/User to a folder on your external drive that contains audio files, Cubasis would probably read them. However, the sandboxing of iOS may prevent you from step 4, but we don’t know for sure since we haven’t tried anything like this yet.

In general, Cubasis works with external USB drives (such as Sandisk’s flash drive and others) that have iOS support and come with their own iOS app. Files can be opened from the drive’s app with Cubasis, and vice versa, files in Cubasis can be shared to the drive’s app. But there is always a copy on the iPad’s internal storage involved, that’s the way it currently works on iOS.

Please keep us updated!

Best,
Lars

[Lithalean]

Step 3: Using Filza to navigate External. Copy/Paste tested and fully working.

Step 4: Creating symbolic link to external.

Step 5: Reading directly from External (Not Working)

[Lithalean]

@LSlowak

If you succeed in placing a symbolic link in the folder Cubasis/Audio/User to a folder on your external drive that contains audio files, Cubasis would probably read them. However, the sandboxing of iOS may prevent you from step 4, but we don’t know for sure since we haven’t tried anything like this yet.

Please keep us updated!

So you can’t link a folder, and have its contents show up inside of Cubasis, but if you link the audio file directly, then the audio file will show up inside of cubasis, but wont load.

I’ve contacted all developers involved, and hopefully this can be accomplished, as it would open up a lot of possibilities.

@LSlowak

In general, Cubasis works with external USB drives (such as Sandisk’s flash drive and others) that have iOS support and come with their own iOS app. Files can be opened from the drive’s app with Cubasis, and vice versa, files in Cubasis can be shared to the drive’s app. But there is always a copy on the iPad’s internal storage involved, that’s the way it currently works on iOS.

I tried, and returned the Sandisk. On that note: I was able to format it to exFAT, and get better performance, but it wouldn’t function normally formatted as APFS. I don’t mind buying it again, but It didn’t function the way I’d hoped. I’m not interested in importing anything to the internal storage.
A media app “Infuse” allowed me to stream directly from the Sandisk Xpand (6+GB x265 HEVC movies/shows) and that was nice, but I can do the same from my 2tb mounted external LaCie. Either by copy/pasting or directly with Filza. Same goes for the capabilities of FileBrowser Biz.
@ LSowak If Cubasis could read directly from the Sandisk for audio files, and not import them, then I’d buy a max capacity Sandisk, but that didn’t seem possible currently. Could you clarify if I’m correct on those limitations?

[LSlowak]

@ LSowak If Cubasis could read directly from the Sandisk for audio files, and not import them, then I’d buy a max capacity Sandisk, but that didn’t seem possible currently. Could you clarify if I’m correct on those limitations?

Hi,

As of yet, Cubasis is unable to directly read from hard drives.
In the case of Sandisk (and other iOS compatible hardware) a separate app allows to open/save files to be used with Cubasis.

We might look into feasible options at a later date.

Thanks,
Lars