More editing issues with MTM cover disks
Yet another cover disk that's not been properly checked during editing. There were two DVDs with MTM82. The regular cover disk and one called the Pro Video Tutorials Collection Vol 1. I found that the printed labels and the cases were swapped around on mine - ie, the DVD82 was labelled Pro Video and in the Pro Video case, and vice versa.
Worse than that, though, once again the Kontakt format samples have been saved with absolute directory paths, meaning that they won't work without time-consuming corrective editing by the user.
To give an example, I copied the Found Sounds Part 1 collection to my hard drive and tried to open the Kontakt instrument called 'Found Kicks (Dry)'. Kontakt then declared that the samples were missing from where they were supposed to be. The location given was H:\Song Data\AUDIO PROJECTS (2009)\MTM - Found Sounds (Nov 2009)\16bit Found Sound Samples\Found Kicks\Found Kick Samples.
Clearly that location is totally wrong and the samples couldn't haved worked even if I'd tried playing them directly from the DVD itself. Once I'd located the mislinked samples among the collection, I saved them as monoliths, meaning that the samples and the Kontakt instrument were both located within a single file rather than in separate folders.
While saving them, however, I saw that they'd originally been saved with absolute directory paths. Presumably that was done by the original creators of the sample collection? Well, it's not a professional way of saving samples - certainly not ones intended for use by anybody other than the original creator - as it commits you to keeping them in exactly the same directory location. That isn't going to work when you want to use them on another machine with a configuration that's even slightly different.
Kontakt samples should not be saved with an absolute directory path. In reality, a high proportion of Kontakt users would not be able to access the samples. Many wouldn't know how to correct such a problem. And it certainly requires patience to do that.
I raised the same issue about last month's magazine but can't find the original thread. Has it been deleted and, if so, why?
Worse than that, though, once again the Kontakt format samples have been saved with absolute directory paths, meaning that they won't work without time-consuming corrective editing by the user.
To give an example, I copied the Found Sounds Part 1 collection to my hard drive and tried to open the Kontakt instrument called 'Found Kicks (Dry)'. Kontakt then declared that the samples were missing from where they were supposed to be. The location given was H:\Song Data\AUDIO PROJECTS (2009)\MTM - Found Sounds (Nov 2009)\16bit Found Sound Samples\Found Kicks\Found Kick Samples.
Clearly that location is totally wrong and the samples couldn't haved worked even if I'd tried playing them directly from the DVD itself. Once I'd located the mislinked samples among the collection, I saved them as monoliths, meaning that the samples and the Kontakt instrument were both located within a single file rather than in separate folders.
While saving them, however, I saw that they'd originally been saved with absolute directory paths. Presumably that was done by the original creators of the sample collection? Well, it's not a professional way of saving samples - certainly not ones intended for use by anybody other than the original creator - as it commits you to keeping them in exactly the same directory location. That isn't going to work when you want to use them on another machine with a configuration that's even slightly different.
Kontakt samples should not be saved with an absolute directory path. In reality, a high proportion of Kontakt users would not be able to access the samples. Many wouldn't know how to correct such a problem. And it certainly requires patience to do that.
I raised the same issue about last month's magazine but can't find the original thread. Has it been deleted and, if so, why?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by EOSPete on -
mine were the same so its a batch issue with the labelling.
i guess mtm subcontracts this work out but they need to be told really.
i nearly went back to store to ask for replacement. two days later i discovered the labelling problem
p
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Permalink Reply by Music Tech Magazine on
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Hi all.
Sadly there was an error during pressing which led to the DVDs being transposed... Not good I know and we can only apologise. I'll ask Alex about the file path issue and he can raise it with the sample creators.
All the best.
Lewis Brangwyn
Editor
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Permalink Reply by EOSPete on
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thanks this will save potential embarrasment to the readership as well.
cheers
p
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Permalink Reply by Clive Booth on -
I've had problems with this month's DVD's too. I can't find any samples at all, and the samples are the main reason I buy the magazine.
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Permalink Reply by comradec on -
@Clive: Well, assuming that the wrong labelling applied to all the DVDs distributed with the magazine rather than just a limited batch, you'll need to make sure it's the DVD labelled as Pro Video Tutorials that you've got in your disk drive because that's the one with the sample content.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Booth on
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thanks comrade ;o)
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Permalink Reply by Alex - DVD Editor on -
Hey folks,
Thanks for bringing the Kontakt issue to my attention. I'll definitely be contacting the guys that put the pack together and hopefully this won't happen in the future. Just so we know, was this also the case for the 'House Organs' pack in issue 81? (As this was a different contributor and I don't want to bother him unnecessarily).
Let me also add my apologies for the disc print label error. It's frustrating when we put hard work into the disc and stuff like that happens, but hopefully it's a one off!
Best,
Alex
Multimedia Editor
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Permalink Reply by comradec on
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I've just run a couple of tests to remind myself which recent sample collections had issues prior to MTM82.
There were no problems with the House Organs pack in MTM81. All of the Kontakt instruments had been saved in the 'patch + samples' mode with the 'absolute sample paths' box left unticked, which is the proper way to save Kontakt instruments. That was a PinkNoise Studio collection and I've generally found Kontakt instruments from that source to be reliable and properly saved.
However, the Future Synths Part 2 collection with the magazine before that, MTM80, had the same problems as those with MTM82 - ie, none of the instruments were set up to find the relevant samples on any computer other than the one where the collection was created.
To show what's happening, I'll go through the process.
I saved the pack from the DVD to my D drive and then decompressed the file. I then tried launching the instrument titled 'X Filters 01.nki', which was located at D:\FutureSynths_Part2\16bit Multi\X Filters\Kontakt Patches\
Kontakt declared that 29 samples could not be found and their supposed location was given as C:\AUDIO PROJECTS (2009)\MTM Samples\MTM August 2009\16 bit Versions\X Filters\Samples\
To reconcile the samples with the instrument, I had to browse manually through the directory structure and point Kontakt towards their correct location at D:\FutureSynths_Part2\16bit Multi\X Filters\Kontakt Patches\
The problem arises because the instruments have been saved with the absolute sample path box ticked. That means that each Kontakt instrument's sample are referenced back only to the place where they were saved originally - ie, the exact folder where their creator saved them.
If samples are saved with the absolute box left unticked, the instrument will reference them to a location relative to anywhere that the instrument has been placed.
In this instance that was D:\FutureSynths_Part2\16bit Multi\X Filters\Kontakt Patches\, but if I had saved them at, say, F:\Samples\ then it would referenced them back to F:\Samples\FutureSynths_Part2\16bit Multi\X Filters\Kontakt Patches\ instead. Wherever I saved the collection, Kontakt would automatically find the samples for each instrument.
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Permalink Reply by comradec on
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Same problem again with the Found Sounds Part 2 collection in MTM 83.
Bring back PinkNoise Studio. They knew what they were doing.
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Permalink Reply by Alex - DVD Editor on
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Hi Comradec,
I know, apologies. Your post came up after we'd finalised that disc. However, rest assured DVD 84 is a PinkNoise sample collection and the other contributor has been informed about the issue.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. You have single handedly improved the lives of every MTM reader!!!
Best,
Alex
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