Instruments show up twice. One is not working. [Resolved]

[Peter_from_Norway]

Hi Everybody,

Today I installed Miroslav, and everything is working. BUT all the instruments show up twice in the instrument list. One is working, the other one is not working. Obviously I have done something wrong on installing, but I have no idea what...

Is there an easy way to clean the database up?
Of course I have tried the refresh button, but that did not take care of it...

Thanks in advance for any help!

Peter
Norway

[DarkStar]

Do you mean MP2 or the old (32-bit) MP?

Can you investigate one specific instrument? Using Explorer / Finder find every occurrence of that instrument name in the MP sounds library. Let us know what files you find and the exact full path to each of those files.

[Peter_from_Norway]

Hi Dark Star,

Thanks for wanting to help me out!

It is MP2 we are talking about.

One instrument for example: Viola Sus mf LP
The path is: /Volumes/EKSTERN/SampleTank 3 Sound Content/Instruments/50__Miroslav Philharmonik 2/001__Strings/Solo/002__Viola/001__Viola Sustain
I have installed the instruments on an external harddisk (don´t have space enough on the internal harddisk)

In the MP2 interface (aswell as in Sampletank interface itself) the instrument is showing twice under: Strings/Solo/Viola/Viola Sustain
Namely as:
._Viola Sus mf LP (which is not working) and as:
Viola Sus mf LP (which is working as a charm)

This is the case with EVERY instrument (also the Multis) in MP2 for me. Every instrument that has ._ in front of its name is not working...
If I click on them, I get an error dialog box saying:
failed to load instrument:
´/Volumes/Ekstern/SampleTank 3 Sound Content/ etc....

Again, thanks for being so kind to help me!

Regards,
Peter

[Peter_from_Norway]

Forgot to mention that in Sampletank, the Sampletank instruments show up only once. It is just the MP2 instruments that show twice in the interface.

[DarkStar]

OK, you've found the problem - those pesky ._ files.

They are something to do with OSX: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4947897

On Windows you do not need them. If you look at them in Explorer you'll see that they are all very small (1KB or 4KB?). You can delete them all - go to the Sound Content folder, Search for "._", select them, check that nothing-else is selected and delete them.

--------------------------------------------
PS the traditional folder organisation is
.../IK Multimedia/SampleTank 3/, with Instruments, Samples etc sub-folders and various files. You might consider reorganising things (after you have resolved the current problem). You would need to select the top-level folder in ST3 or MP2 and rebuild the database

[Peter_from_Norway]

Thank you so much, mister! That did the trick.

I connected the external disk to a windows machine at work, and there the ._* files popped up in the explorer. They do not show in finder on the Mac...
I am aware that you probably are not a computer wizard, but do you happen to know how I can make such visible on Mac?

Anyway, I deleted them (all 3.220!), took a refresh and it looks perfect now.

Thanks again for great help! The instrument list in the interface looks much tidier now
I still have no idea how/why they got there in the first place...

Regards,
Peter

[DarkStar]

Good Oh!

Nope, I've never used OSX.

[garfy]

The ._* files are something to do with the way that the file system works on OSX. Possibly the drive you have them on (or if you have made backup copies) has been hooked up to a Mac at some point and they were then created. They will only show up in Windows as OSX makes them invisible.

As DarkStar has said, Windows doesn't need them.

[Peter_from_Norway]

Thanks for your input Garfy!

Yes, the harddrive IS used between OSX and Windows, so it has to have happened there at some point... Mac obviously doesn´t need them either. I deleted them all, and everything looks nice on the Mac.

Regards,
Peter

[garfy]

Yes, the harddrive IS used between OSX and Windows,

You might find that the next time you use the HD back on your Windows machine, those files may well appear again. I suspect (although I'm not sure) that OSX will remake the ._* files so it can use them (invisibly) in its own file system. Like I say, I'm not categorically sure about this and I don't have a Win machine to test it out on. I'd be interested to know if they do though.

[Peter_from_Norway]

Ahaaa, i see.

You know what? I will take the harddrive with me to work again tomorrow, and attach it to a windows machine. And see what has happened (or not) when i get home again. Like you, I start to wonder now too

I will keep you posted!

[Peter_from_Norway]

Hi Garfy,

Today I brought the external to work (windows PC) and copied a couple of files to and from the it.
Tonight I connected it to my Mac, and the ._ files did NOT reappear.
Interesting to know

Regards,
Peter

[garfy]

That's good to know, but....

I was under the impression that they only appeared on your Windows machine, as OSX normally leaves them hidden. I guess you didn't see them when you opened the external in Win?

Or do I have my wires crossed? Is your Mac the only place you use Miroslav with the external drive, or do you use it on Windows as well.

[Peter_from_Norway]

Ok, here is the case...

I installed MP2 (the instruments that is) on an external disc connected to my Mac, because I did not have enough space on the Mac itself anymore. But I have also used that disc on a PC for other things, NOT sampletank or MP2.

When i started Sampletank (or MP2), the instruments showed up twice in the instrument list in the interface. But one of them had ._ in front of their name. When I clicked on an instrument with ._ in front of it, I got an error message about that the instrument could not be found. So i tried to search for those ._ files on my Mac, but they did not appear in the search results. Nor did they show in Finder.
So after advice from Dark Star (I think he is called...?), I brought the disc to work and connected it to a PC. And there the ._ files DID show up in explorer. So I deleted all the files that started with ._ on the PC, took the disc home again, connected it to my Mac and pushed refresh in the interface. And then all the "instruments, that were not instruments after all" disappeared from the instrument list.

I have no idea why all those ._ files showed in the interface or why/where they came from in the first place, but they are gone now. And everything works like a charm!

And what a FANTASTIC library MP2 is! Too bad you have to pay 100 dollars extra for percussion instruments, which I think should be a natural part of the library. But apart from that, I am having a blast

So that is the story.

Regards,
Peter

[garfy]

I have no idea why all those ._ files showed in the interface or why/where they came from in the first place, but they are gone now. And everything works like a charm!

That is very curious. Maybe there is something in MP/ST that sees the files differently to when you are viewing them in Finder. Either way, they've gone and are not bothersome any more, which is a win in my book. Happy playing.