Ableton Forum

Heyall,

I have been using reaktor for a bit, and just bought ableton, everything seems to be working nicely.
One thing that has me confused though is the auto-saving in reaktor. Any reaktor users around here have any suggestions?
What are the advantages to auto-saving instead of just bypassing that and working from the original plug-in? I don't want a million ensembles of virtually the same plug-in every time i use it in a new set.

On the other hand I don't plan on opening reaktor in stand-alone mode very often.

So i ask, what strategies do you use to wrap your mind around this silly system?
I am running reaktor 5.5 btw.

-K

If you are just using factory snapshots, you'll be fine.

If you are making your own, you will need some strategy to save a new version as saving the ensemble is required to save new snapshots.

Szuumm wrote:If you are just using factory snapshots, you'll be fine.

If you are making your own, you will need some strategy to save a new version as saving the ensemble is required to save new snapshots.

This is correct, but just to clarify, if you do your sound design in reaktor standalone, save the ensemble you're "editing" (even if that just means saving a bank of your own presets in it) then you could later open this as a plugin and continue to bypass the autosave. this way you can still use your own stuff and not just factory snapshots while still bypassing the autosave mode.

I've also been annoyed by this system, too, just btw.

-M

kaples wrote:I don't want a million ensembles of virtually the same plug-in every time i use it in a new set.

This drives me nuts too. There are so many ensebles to keep track of already, I really don't need a copy of each. I posted this question on the NI forums, will little feedback:http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... post708743

I don't understand why we can't auto-save factory ensembles.

hennessey wrote:

kaples wrote:I don't want a million ensembles of virtually the same plug-in every time i use it in a new set.

This drives me nuts too. There are so many ensebles to keep track of already, I really don't need a copy of each. I posted this question on the NI forums, will little feedback:http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... post708743

I don't understand why we can't auto-save factory ensembles.

the thing is that if you would use 1 version of an ensemble and use it with multiple Live sets you could change a preset used by another set..

I always save a version of an ensemble inside the Live project folder so I always keep things organized..
this also prevents messing up the path to the ensemble..

it's very good that reaktor saves the ensembles with the project...
seeing as you can change the ensembles insides...
I don't think the main worry was about destroying snapshots..
Live does this as well btw..
it saves your presets/racks with the project..for the same reason

Ok I think I figured out the best strategy... Let me know if you have any better ideas:

I make a back-up of the original ensemble and save it somewhere safe (a folder within my ensembles folder). Then I point the auto-save to the original file, that way, whatever snapshots I add while working in ableton will automatically save to the original ensemble, and if I ever totally fudge anything up, I can always revert to the back-up.
Sounds pretty good eh?

Any better ideas?

kaples wrote: Then I point the auto-save to the original file

It doesn't allow you to auto-save the factory ensembles (at least the 5.5 beta didn't), you would need to make a copy somewhere else and use the copy. You could copy the entire factory ensemble structure to your user ensemble directory and just use those.

hennessey wrote:

kaples wrote: Then I point the auto-save to the original file

It doesn't allow you to auto-save the factory ensembles (at least the 5.5 beta didn't), you would need to make a copy somewhere else and use the copy. You could copy the entire factory ensemble structure to your user ensemble directory and just use those.

I figured as much. To save time, open the factory ensemble, auto-save it to the user ensembles, so the backup IS the factory ensemble. Now whenever you open it in ableton make sure to open the user ensemble copy.

This whole process really should be streamlined by NI... I thought they said they 'improved' the auto-saving in 5.5?

Yeah it seems like to easiest way to go is to have a user path set up for autosave where a duplicate ensemble is saved continuously. You wouldn't want to keep resaving the factory ensembles with your own snapshots anyways because any time Reaktor is updated, those snapshots would be wiped out of the factory ensembles.

but what if you want two or more instances of the same ensemble in one session? auto-save will continually ask to overwrite the original ensemble you saved when you loaded the first instance...doesn't that crew everything up?

in any case my answer is to not save anything within reaktor plugin period -- I load it up, skip autosave, dial in my tweaks in the ensemble, rack it, and save the rack. done. no need for reaktor's stupid saving system, live will load the rack with the ensemble in it and all the settings stored, every time. yes, the huge downside is you can only load these tweaks in Live, but I only use Live, soooo

-M

mholloway wrote:but what if you want two or more instances of the same ensemble in one session? auto-save will continually ask to overwrite the original ensemble you saved when you loaded the first instance...doesn't that crew everything up?

in any case my answer is to not save anything within reaktor plugin period -- I load it up, skip autosave, dial in my tweaks in the ensemble, rack it, and save the rack. done. no need for reaktor's stupid saving system, live will load the rack with the ensemble in it and all the settings stored, every time. yes, the huge downside is you can only load these tweaks in Live, but I only use Live, soooo

-M

Ya that's the system I like to use too. For many VSTs. Saving racks of my own presets. Or saving a Koresound. For people who want to save snapshots though, it's pretty important to save a version of the ensemble separately.

Some good tips in here, cheers.

Stupid me made a load of snapshots once, saved them all (with the retarded press save twice thing, that caught me out at first) then didnt save the ensemble as didnt realise i needed too.

The rack idea sounds sweet!

Cheers

The reason why you have to autosave factory stuff to a user location? The factory location gets overwritten with any update- the autosave thing's there to protect your work.

Personally, I leave autosave off. YMMV.

ew

Paradigm X wrote: The rack idea sounds sweet!

Cheers

Yeah, and like glitchrckbuddha above, I use this system for saving/organizing nearly ALL of my self-made patches, for any software instrument plugin. Think about it this way: instead of needing to save-to and later navigate through the idiosyncratic file/patch storing system of every softsynth you own, you can instead simply navigate through a single universal folder every time, visible in Live's browser, which you categorize/label however you like. Makes for a much smoother+faster workflow, and avoids numerous pop-up file-search windows, which keeps me a happy boy.

-M