Save & recall montage workspace layouts to a network

WaveLab
1

Hi PG,

I would like to be able to save & recall montage workspace layouts to a network location i.e. to a UNC type address- for example “\this folder\this sub-folder”. I would like to use both local and network presets at the same time. I can almost do this in a really useful way- I can place a network shortcut in the local preset folder and in the montage menu I can see the montage layout presets on the network but I can’t open them or see any sub-folders. I would like to do this for other presets as well. What do you think? Is this possible?

Thank you,

Steven.

WL8.5.20/32 bit/Windows 7

2

PG might have a better built-in way to do this, but it seems like symbolic links should work and be safe, if this is only for added subfolders, not entire presets folders, or entire drives. I haven’t tried it with folders on network drives, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work. But maybe there are other limitations.

3

Just tried it again- same result with shortcuts to folders on the local drive. I can see the workspace layout preset in shortcut folder but I can’t open it. I think I had to close and open WL to make it visible. I’d like this so I could share presets so users could move between studios and recall their presets. The option for the “specific folder setting location” works for layout presets but also shares all other WL presets across all users on the network- which causes a large amount of confusion! The synchronization setting works (if you set up the ignore folders for all other folders) but I can’t get it to save to the synchronized folder- only read from it.

4

Stephen, I don’t know if you’ve worked out any of these things with PG yet, but for the shortcut issue, I think the only thing that’s going to work is to replace the shortcut with a symbolic link. I’ve tried it with the Wavelab presets folders to network and local targets and it works fine, read and write.

There are built-in commands to create symbolic links in Windows and Mac, they’re a little clunky to make by command line, but they work where shortcuts don’t.

To do this, make a folder called WavelabNetworkPresets on a share on the server. Then from an elevated command prompt (run as admin), right-click-paste the following command at the command cursor (after substituting your info for User1, Server1, and Share1):

mklink /d “\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\WaveLab 8.5\Presets\Workspace\Layout\AudioMontage\NetworkPresets” “\Server1\Share1\WavelabNetworkPresets”

then press Enter. It will tell you it made a Symbolic Link named NetworkPresets in the local AudioMontage folder. The link will act just like a local folder. Subfolders can be made and used. But Wavelab will need to be restarted to see new presets just added by someone else on the network. And separate folders should probably be made on the server for each different type of preset.

I’ve used symlinks before with other programs that don’t “understand shortcuts” (as Wikipedia puts it), to move the location of a large database that a program wanted to see in a certain place to an external drive. I think it’s quite common as I’ve seen it used for various similar things for iTunes, Gmail, Logic and Dropbox, where shortcuts could not be used.

So I guess the other question for PG is whether Wavelab can be made to “understand shortcuts”, if that’s really something that can be done, as Wikipedia implies. I’m not sure many programs can do that.

Hope you and PG can sort this, and the other things out. I’m interested in doing it myself and didn’t know about the other built-in options for networking in Wavelab that you’ve pointed out.

btw, I normally use a simple program from cnet to make symlinks, but it would require installing on every client machine, which you probably wouldn’t want to do. Also btw, symlinks can’t be easily copied (normal copies don’t work), they should be created on each client machine. And targets can’t be moved or renamed without re-creating the links.

But I also wondered, is there a reason why each user can’t have their own complete settings folder on the server, and just load those when they go from room to room? It seems like Wavelab could be better customized to handle a scenario like that (like choose a settings folder on startup, rather than going to Options, changing the folder, and restarting), but I’m not sure I won’t be trying that way first.

5

Hi Bob,

thank so much for- that will be extremely useful. I haven’t ever heard of symbolic links but that sounds like a great workaround.

But I also wondered, is there a reason why each user can’t have their own complete settings folder on the server, and just load those when they go from room to room?

Yes, I considered that, though the read/write would have to be manually initiated from outside Wavelab at each computer they use and there are multiple users with a range of skill levels. I thought I could perhaps use a script for users to automate a “preferences update”, but my preference is for a solution within Wavelab that is “hands off” for users to make the transition to WL8.5 as smooth as possible.

Thanks again for taking the time to document the symbolic link method.

Steven.

6

You’re welcome. Hope it works for you.

Just to be more specific, for the elevated command prompt:
Click the Start button . In the Search box, type command prompt. In the list of results, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

I have to look that up every time I use it, I do it so infrequently.

7

Having recommended this, I should say there are cautions about symlinks on the Internet. The most significant being the warning to never create a link to a file or folder that’s inside a folder that’s already linked. They say it will cause terrible problems. They didn’t say why.

The only other things I’ve found mentioned are backup and antivirus so I would Google your backup program or antivirus program along with symbolic link to see if there’s anything to be aware of. I think most backup programs ignore symlinks and don’t even back them up. And antivirus might scan the target as well as the link. I’ve had Norton 360 Antivirus and Backup with my link and never noticed a problem.

There’s one horror story online about Microsoft Robocopy and an infinite loop link pointing back to itself, but even though the writer titled it Symbolic Link I think he was actually talking about a built in Windows Junction Link, “Application Data”. But it only affected his backup drive, not his original drive.

I would recommend trying it with test files and folders first. I don’t think I’d link to a whole drive, I’d just keep it down to the necessary folder or folders. The symbolic links can just be deleted to get rid of them without affecting the target or anything else, but you can test that yourself as well.