OK, I have to travel and want to be able to use Live on the road. Right now I have Live 11 on my desktop. I need to be able to transfer all my Live files to my laptop so I can create on the road. Any help doing this????
Im on Macs
Thx
RD
Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
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dagwaremedia
- Posts: 45
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:58 pm
Re: Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
Well, if you're already organized with your files, it's just a matter of:
- copying your User library to your laptop
- copying the live sets you need, obviously
- make sure you installed the same Live Packs on both machines (at least the ones used by your live sets)
- if you're using 3rd party plugins, same logic
- copying your User library to your laptop
- copying the live sets you need, obviously
- make sure you installed the same Live Packs on both machines (at least the ones used by your live sets)
- if you're using 3rd party plugins, same logic
Ableton Forum Moderator
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dagwaremedia
- Posts: 45
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:58 pm
Re: Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
Ok I had to come back to this, I got some replies but let me be more specific.
I have Live 11 on my desktop. I also have it on my MacBook.
I need to copy ALL the folders I will need to access
.als files
plug ins
instruments
and anything I used for my regular workflow .
I know there is more than one folder I would need to copy so I want to make sure.
My workflow
I have a folder on my desktop hard drive which has
all .als files
all samples
plug ins etc
called ( ABELTON STUFF)
what OTHER folders do I need to copy over?
Also is it best to copy all folders to external drive or on my laptop drive
I have Live 11 on my desktop. I also have it on my MacBook.
I need to copy ALL the folders I will need to access
.als files
plug ins
instruments
and anything I used for my regular workflow .
I know there is more than one folder I would need to copy so I want to make sure.
My workflow
I have a folder on my desktop hard drive which has
all .als files
all samples
plug ins etc
called ( ABELTON STUFF)
what OTHER folders do I need to copy over?
Also is it best to copy all folders to external drive or on my laptop drive
Re: Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
Let's look at this from another perspective for a moments.
1. There are the files that come with Live itself, the core files plus various add ons such as packs.
2. There are customized extensions that you may have created like drum racks or audio effect racks.
3. There are your Live projects consisting of als files and audio files
4. There are 3rd party VST's or AU's
Live has a number of standard places to store things like packs and customised extensions and the current location of these objects can be found in the Preferences. My approach would be to setup Live on the laptop to mirror the way Live is setup on your desktop. It will make moving things between the desktop and the Laptop easier. Another approach would be to set everything up on an external drive and move this between the desktop and laptop but I have not done this myself so I'm not sure what the potential problems might be.
The same thing could apply to you Live projects. Set it up the same way on both computers. In your case a folder on your desktop
3rd party VST/AU are a little different since there are standard places for these to reside on a Mac and the vendor installation process puts things there by default. I don't know how easy it would be to move this to an external drive.
Problem to be aware of is that is the moment of creation you may find a resources like a sample that is not in a standard place and everything works fine. Hower when you move the project other machine the sample file can't be found. The solution to this and generally a good practice is to use the collect all function in Live. This function gathers up all the loose files and puts them in your project so that it can be moved from machine to machine.
1. There are the files that come with Live itself, the core files plus various add ons such as packs.
2. There are customized extensions that you may have created like drum racks or audio effect racks.
3. There are your Live projects consisting of als files and audio files
4. There are 3rd party VST's or AU's
Live has a number of standard places to store things like packs and customised extensions and the current location of these objects can be found in the Preferences. My approach would be to setup Live on the laptop to mirror the way Live is setup on your desktop. It will make moving things between the desktop and the Laptop easier. Another approach would be to set everything up on an external drive and move this between the desktop and laptop but I have not done this myself so I'm not sure what the potential problems might be.
The same thing could apply to you Live projects. Set it up the same way on both computers. In your case a folder on your desktop
3rd party VST/AU are a little different since there are standard places for these to reside on a Mac and the vendor installation process puts things there by default. I don't know how easy it would be to move this to an external drive.
Problem to be aware of is that is the moment of creation you may find a resources like a sample that is not in a standard place and everything works fine. Hower when you move the project other machine the sample file can't be found. The solution to this and generally a good practice is to use the collect all function in Live. This function gathers up all the loose files and puts them in your project so that it can be moved from machine to machine.
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dagwaremedia
- Posts: 45
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:58 pm
Re: Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
Ok Dont want to be a pest about this but so far I was able to do the following:
All my .als files with the backups and samples are in one folder. They work no problem
Now I need my plug ins and vet instruments I can't find the folder to copy.
Anyone??
All my .als files with the backups and samples are in one folder. They work no problem
Now I need my plug ins and vet instruments I can't find the folder to copy.
Anyone??
Re: Copying all my abelton files from desktop to laptop
I keep all my Ableton stuff synced between my desktop and laptop computers. Desktop is Windows 10, laptop is Windows 11.
On each machine, I have a single folder with the same path name. It contains subfolders for the factory packs, user library, etc.
Over my local network, I use a program called freefilesync to keep these folders the same on each machine.
However, as far as I know, there is no workable way to do the same thing with VSTs, with the Live program itself, or with any other executables. The reason for this is that in general, programs are tailed for the specific machine on which they will run in order to prevent users from stealing them. How aggressive this protection is varies from one application to another; but in general, I do not think there is any way around having to install each application (VST, Live executables, etc.,) on each machine.
On each machine, I have a single folder with the same path name. It contains subfolders for the factory packs, user library, etc.
Over my local network, I use a program called freefilesync to keep these folders the same on each machine.
However, as far as I know, there is no workable way to do the same thing with VSTs, with the Live program itself, or with any other executables. The reason for this is that in general, programs are tailed for the specific machine on which they will run in order to prevent users from stealing them. How aggressive this protection is varies from one application to another; but in general, I do not think there is any way around having to install each application (VST, Live executables, etc.,) on each machine.