Please NI, fix file structure issues.

Recently moved to V2 of Maschine, and I like it a lot. However I put my content on an external disk (which NI even recommends), and every time I want to save something, Maschine automatically picks a local folder. I have to browse to my user library every time, which is bonkers.

I have chosen this external folder in the library pane, but this makes no difference. This is a really stupid issue to be having with a piece of pro software. It hurts workflow, and thats the main reason I use Maschine.

Also, I installed Maschine on a laptop for live use. For some reason, the folder structure it created for content is not the same as it is for my studio computer (not taking into account that it's on an external disk). I didn't instal factory content at all, as I only want to export projects from my studio computer to my laptop to use live. I don't need hundreds of files of user content. I wonder if not installing the factory content breaks the folder structure or something, because it's not remotely the same as on my studio computer.So, I can save a project with samples - export that to my laptop computer. But if I edit that project, and re-save with samples on my laptop, this cannot be opened on my studio computer. No real error message other than "file failed to load". All the permissions are fine, so I'm not sure why this would happen, but wonder if it's related to the folder hierarchy? For both computers, I'm putting the project file with it's accompanying sample folder into the user projects folder - but nope, my studio computer won't open the ones created by my laptop.

Has anyone else used two computers like this easily? Should I re-create a new folder structure on my laptop that mirrors the studio computer?Any advice is welcome.

 

generally when the m2 is open, it will try to save to the last save folder. when you first open m2, it will always save to the default user directory and thereafter save to the folder you last saved in. this is not broken, it is the way it is intended to work. if you had it saved to an external and that was not mounted, the it would be an invalid path. . in m2 to set it to another directory you need to change the path to the "Standard User Directory", this now becomes the default. unfortunately m2 does not play well with alias so you cannot open or see and alias. this is a file structure oversight. if you really want to make it easy, just link the external to the default folder, or reverse depending on where you actually want the files to be...
ln -s ~/Documents/Native\ Intruments/Maschine\ 2/Projects /Volumes/YourExternalVolume/M2projects

what m2 really needs is a way to set the default directory path with something as simple as a checkbox next to the path.

to answer your question, yes, i do that at times and the way i do it is by setting a user directory on the external and then logging into that user when i want to mount the external. this saves disc space on my laptop and ensure that the files needed by the local or the external user are alway there . when you switch computers, just log into the same user on the external and all is set up exactly the same... the only catch is your monitor may need to be reset if you do not have the same resolution. you can also do this on a network. this works best if the computers are identical or very similar in set up.

 

You should be able to select the external folder by clicking on the Folder Icon in Prefs > Library > User > Standard User Directory and selecting the folder you want. (It's best to copy the folder structure of the default one and add it to an external drive first though).

 

Make sure you set a permanent drive letter to your external drive too:
http://www.technipages.com/permanently-set-drive-letter-on-removable-disk-in-windows-8

 

Spot on. Just copy the Maschine 2 folder to your external and point the preference library path to this and it becomes your new default.

Good advice here.

 

I use a studio mac pro and separate laptop live, due to space constraints on the laptop and the size of portable vs desktop hard drives, I don't really have an option to mirror the library locations. For this reason, the only worth while work around has been to make sure I export the project with samples when moving to the laptop. On both laptop and studio computer I also have an separate user file structure that is mirrored (manually, meaning I periodically go through it to make sure everything is the same) so that my fx presets, user sounds, user groups etc are identical which gives me the same functionality on the laptop if needed.

 

I had this problem with some other application long time ago. What I did then was creating a shortcut leading to my external folder inside of local one. But this was old walk around.

I don't know if you're on a mac or pc, but there is nice way to do on os x. I do an install on one computer, all the software I need.

Then I do this trick.
http://music.tutsplus.com/articles/...d-libraries-to-an-external-drive--audio-19567
It's for Logic, but you can easy adapt it to other apps – this is what I did.
Also in comments people recommend symbolic links instead of aliases so it's worth to read about that,

Now I do a time machine backup of that new installed system with all my software.
On the other machine when installing I import the system from time machine.

The small problem can be installing new stuff but I don't install new things very often.

 

For me, this resets every time I re-open Maschine. It won't "thereafter" anything sadly. I never unmount my external drive, it's always available, as that is where I record audio to. For some unknown reason Maschine won't remember this folder location.

Yup, tried that, but for some reason, it does not get remembered.

I'm starting to think that I should have installed some default content on my laptop to see if that would force it to mirror the same structure it created on my desktop.

Also, I still have the strange issue where if I save a project with samples (on my laptop), this project cannot be opened on my studio computer. This isn't a permissions issue, but it's certainly a strange bug.

 

you do not have to have your user folder on your boot/internal drive. the files in your user folder are just files and having them on an external is not going to make a difference. if you set up an external user folder there is one thing you need to do first, that is make your you created an admin user on the internal drive (in case you forget or something happens to the external). if you have your main audio work user folder on the external, all files that would normally be written to the default user home are written there. if you have a network, you can even log into your studio computer user from you laptop, just set the user home path to that of the studio one.