I am setting up my backup laptop, so not just a one time transfer, but I want to be able to go back and forth between them. I understand that the plugin sample files need to be in the same exact folder structure on both computers. The same plugins are installed on both machines of course. Everything is more or less working.
I was surprised to find that some of the plugin parameters didn’t carry over. Everything mapped to a widget did, but the master volume setting of many Arturia plugins for example, did not. I thought all plugin settings are saved in the gig file. So my widgets that were mapped to levels, were levels of the presets within the plugin, not the plugin master volume itself. So many sounds were louder on one machine than the other. Same goes for some midi mappings inside the plugin. I disabled CC to control certain paramaters, but they were enabled in the new instance. It seems I have to manually go through all my plugins and compare these settings.
If an effort to avoid surprises, what else do I need to check??? What else does not carry over?
I also found that the lyrics default location does not get saved in the gig file. That’s actually a good thing. What about the other GP folders? Do those locations have to match? I’m thinking about folders such as Scaling Curves, Presets, GPPluginPresets etc. They are in the …user/***/Documents folder, but the *** is different on both machines. Does that matter besides plugin sample folders, strictly for GP operation?
When you save a gig file, GP requests the state of the plugin and is given a “blob” of data by the plugin that is intended to represent all the values of the plugin. That blob is simply saved into the gig file. GP does not (and cannot) interpret that meaning of whatever is in that blob.
When the gigfile is reloaded, that blob is sent back to the plugin to (hopefully) restore the previous values. However, if the plugin does not include some values in the blob, e.g, perhaps that Arturia master volume setting, then it’s not going to be restored.
You’d have to ask each plugin developer — it’s not something GP (or any host) has any control over.
UPDATE: Homer Simpson DUH moment! The old laptop had Melda v15. The new, v16. 16 read 15’s plugin info, but not the other way around. Once I updated the old laptop to v16, it read all of Melda’s plugin presets/info just fine. Whewww…
I thought I had all the folders synced up that needed to be in the same location in order to open/use the same gig file on 2 computers. When I opened to 4.5.8 version gig file from old pc on the new pc, it worked. I upgraded GP on both machines to 4.7 and made changes to the gig file on the NEW pc and tried to open it on the old PC and some plugin info the carried overy from old to new on 4.5.8 and not carrying over from new to old on 4.7. Specifically, Melda production MConvolutionEZ (that I use as my IR loader) did not have the proper presets / custom folder and was empty instead of the IR’s that I saved it with. Again, I’m not sure why it worked the first time and not now, the only difference is upgraded GP and going from new laptop to old.
I cannot figure out where Melda keeps the plugin data info. What I found online was to copy the Melda folder from Program Data but it didn’t help. So then I thought let me save it as a user plugin preset in GP itself and it should carry over. No. Even when I try to select that proper user preset in GP it doesn’t load. The IR’s are in the same exact folder structure / path location.
