Folder aliases within instruments folders ?
2005-07-13 by Gérald RYCKEBOER
I try to manage my instrument folders. I've still noticed problems with aliases but had'nt took time enough to deal with, what I've finally done today (tricky job ! ). So if at the end I now understand what happens, I don't find any solution : It's certainly not of the biggest importance but the solution (if any) or correction of that problem could be helpfull, quite more for big collections of instruments : EXS24 don't recognize aliases of instrument files. So for the purpose of organization of the instrument folder (as an example : an african log drum can be considered as - let's say - "percussion" and, at the same time, "african", or "ethnic") I thought to use aliases of folders that EXS seems to recognize but : actually when choosing an instrument in the pop up menu of EXS24 plugin, only the first item (found alphabetically in the list, according to the ASCII code I presume) of the folder (alias or original), can be opened. I made a lot of tests with the same result, so I try to give an easy to reproduce example which would be more understandable (I hope so) : For trial, you can create a (smartly named) folder "Trial" in the Instrument folder (so easy to remove), in which you create 4 different folders : 1-Folder 2-Folder 3-Folder and 4-Aliases In that fourth folder, put aliases of the three other ones in which you would have copy at least one ESX instrument file (not the alias), no matter which, just for the folder to be seen in the menu. In the EXS plug in, refresh the instrument menu first and open each folder within that "Trial" folder : you will see the instrument(s) in each of the first 3 folders, but in the fourth one, aliases will only show the grey name of the 3 other folders instead of open and show the instrument(s) inside. Well then rename "3-Folder" in "4-Folder" what will make it swap with "4-Alias" in the window list (if display is not with icons), and in the pop up Instrument menu of EXS plug in (after refreshing menu). If you try to open an instrument now, the 2 first folders will still show their instrument(s), the 3d one (which is now named "3-Aliases") will still show the same grey name for folders 1 and 2 but will then show instruments inside "3- Folder" alias, but so the "3-Folder" itself (now at 4th place) will no longer show its instruments. If you lift the folder "Alias" up in the list (by renaming it "2-Aliases" and then "1-Aliases"), the changing will continue the same manner, and at the end, when "1-Alias" will be the first of the list, the 3 folder aliases it contains will show their instruments, but the original folders no longer will do so. That's to say that only the first of each folder found alphabetically in the list (no matter alias or original) will open and show its instruments. I hope it had been clear enough, sorry for to be long. I've test in Logic Pro 6.4 and 7.01 with exactly the same result, but perheaps had it been still corrected in L7.1 ?. Or is it another way to do the job ? If no correction done, I think it may be a good idea to send to Emapple, but it's probably better to have other users advice first. -- Gérald RYCKEBOER ryckeboerg@...