VSL Presets--Dead on Arrival

[drpgleeson]

I'm pretty frustrated. 2 1/2 weeks after proposing various initial difficulties with the VS Instruments library I've purchased, Ilio has thrown up their hands and suggested I contact VSL directly, and at this point I've written three times in 2 weeks to VSL directly and have gotten one reply, which didn't solve the problem.

Which is:

It can't load a Preset. It may well be the user not the library, but without some help from VSL I have no way of knowing or how to proceed.

I've installed the library (full Strings I and full Strings II so far--which may be as far as it gets), correctly I believe and Ilio believes, on my PC. The PC in question is fast with lots of memory, but was used previously for Gigastudio--which may be a residual issue, although I'm not using it for that now. The Vienna Instruments are within V-Stack. The directory manager correctly names and locates the library. If I activate a patch--VI 14_staccato short, for instance--all is well. Similarly, if I assign a Matrix--L1 VI-Articulation Combi--for example--everything seems to be OK.

However, if I try to load a Preset--VI-14 VSL Preset Level 1 for example--it immediately returns "Cannot find...and then follows what seems to be a fairly comprehensive list. And then nothing happens. The pattern is similar throughout the library, except that when we get to the Celli the program never gets as far as "Cannot find...but just freezes while (apparently) attempting to load.

I've deinstalled and reinstalled the library from scratch twice now, dragged the library from the DVD's onto another drive, then installed from there rather than installing directly, but with the same result.

Help?

Patrick Gleeson

[drpgleeson]

OK, the problem isn't quite as I described it above. I went through the library patch by patch last night and what I discovered was that most, and strangely not all, the samples from the extended library are missing and some, not too many, of the samples from the standard library are missing. As noted above, I've done installs from scratch three times now, twice by first dragging the disk contents onto a different drive from the eventual drives to contain the library, then installed from there, once, the first time, by doing a direct install. Could this simply be bad installation disks?

Patrick Gleeson

[cm]

dear patrick,
in my reply feb. 14th to your email from 13th i asked you to check the permissions of your custom folder and if it's even set. unfortunately i don't have an answer so far from your side.
i have also suggested to remove all references in the directory manager and add them again (preferrably using drag&drop from an explorer window - see also our video tutorial about the directory manager ) - have you already tried this?

additional question (because a message regarding *missing samples* indicates they are really missing) - have you moved data after installation or is it possibly located on a firewire-disk which goes to sleep-mode?

have you checked your harddrive for consistency (properties of drive - tools - error-checking).
i'd exclude a faulty disk from possible reasons, because otherwise already the installer had given you an error message.
christian

[drpgleeson]

I didn't receive an email from you on feb. 14th. Did you mean you replied on the other thread? After about a week without any activity I stopped checking that. My e-mail address in any case is drpgleeson@hotmail.com. I checked my junk-mail folder as well, but nothing there.

I have repeatedly rebooted, then gone immediately to the directory manager (without opening any other apps), removed all existing directories, then dragged the items into the directory manager, then rebooted, then checked the directory manager again, which looks fine, then launched V-stack and instantiated the Vienna Instruments, always with the same results--won't load a preset (lots and lots of missing samples), and only a few partial and halting patches from anything from the extended libraries. Some, not all, of the patches from the standard library will drag across and play. I haven't gone through thousands of samples to check that they are always the same ones missing, but I have noted several dozen that are always missing, and other patches that are always OK. In other words, the problem is either that samples are actually missing or that the plug repeatedly and consistently can't find these samples--it's a repeatable problem.

I doubt that the problem has anything to do with hard-drives for several reasons. The drives are regularly checked by my tech and were all OK 2-3 weeks ago. The problems occur no matter which drive the library is on which I am attempting to access--2 different drives that were OK a couple of weeks ago would now have to have gone bad independently and yet with identical symptoms. Also, the consistency of the missing samples sounds more like missing samples to me than a drive having problems, although sometimes drives have sectors that go bad and then one can't access anything from there. However, this would be a whopping amount of sectors, all with exactly repeatable symptoms. The drives do have other material on them (there are 5 drives in all counting the boot drive, totalling a little under a trilobyte of capacity, none utilizing more than about 40%), and I've checked the other material in this regard and it all accesses without incident. In short, while we can never be absolutely sure as long as we don't know what the problem actually is, I would say that drive problems are low probabilities.

No drive in this studio ever goes to sleep, and the drives in question are all internal.

I agree with you that it would seem likely that the problem would NOT be bad DVD's. But, again, we're three weeks into this problem now without a solution. Wouldn't it be a good idea to try installing from different DVD's? As I said in earlier e-mails and perhaps in the above posts, I have reinstalled from these DVD's at least three times, I think four actually at this point, once using the standard install method (directly from the DVD's), and the other times dragging the DVD contents onto a drive different from the eventual target drives, and then installing from that drive. Results, as noted above, are always consistent and I think identical. Many many apparently missing samples.

Patrick Gleeson

Regarding the custom folder permissions: at this point the custom folder is empty. Would that still be an issue?

Patrick Gleeson

[DG]

OK, one more suggestion. Have you undone any GS tweaks and returned to Windows default?

DG

[drpgleeson]

DG--Thanks! I'd done this a couple of weeks ago when I first installed the VI library, but your suggestion led to what seems to be the solution: I deinstalled Giga entirely, then tried the VI again, and it's apparently working--I haven't checked all presets and patches, but I checked several that weren't working before and they are now.


Patrick Gleeson

PS--checked with Ilio tech regarding Christian's suggestion regarding permissions for the custom folder and he doesn't know what that means, so, Christian, some input regarding this would be good. How do I check the permissions on this folder?

[DG]

My 2000th post, and finally I'm of some use to someone. [:D]

Actually, I had the same problem as you well over a year ago, and this was the solution that I found then. I'm surprised that it didn't make it into VSL VI folklore, but maybe you can carry the torch from now on. [[;)]]

DG

[cm]

thanks patrick for replying with the result - we have heard sometimes the amount of loaded samples is not satisfying with giga-tweaks applied, but this effect was new to me.
next time i'm warned and will ask for a system information file to get some clue about the reason of such a behaviour.
christian

ps: the location of the custom folder can be found in the directory manager - then you can browse to this folder in the explorer, rightclick on the folder shows security&permissions in one of the tabs of the properties dialog. any tech should know that, but possibly it has been a language issue or your system preferences are set to not show this tab.