Sampletank 4 crashing in CbB

[Matthew Sorrels]

No you need every generation (some with multiple versions) installed.  Some software still uses each generation.  You have to have them all really or you could break things.  Which is why it's such a headache.

And yes this is crazy (these are just the pre 2015-2019 version):

Then you need:

And you need 32 and 64 bit versions of all of them too.

In theory every thing you install should also install what they need, but plugins often fail to to do that.  Or they do it badly.

 

[JoeGBradford]

Ah right thanks - just as well I asked! Yep crazy! I wondered why I had so many! Didn't even know what they were for until tonight - and still not sure I entirely understand - they seem to be a sort of building block of code to simplify developers' programming?

Thanks for the help again!

[Robert Bone]

1 hour ago, JoeGBradford said:

Thanks - just a bit concerned that the Major Geeks link is a couple of years old so I might be better updating from the MS site even if it is a bit longer? I could then check version no to see if they are up to date presumably

Edit - I updated the 2017 - 2019 one and noticed it leaves the old ones behind - presumably I can now safely uninstall those?

Leave the old ones - they may still be referenced by other stuff - and they all live happily alongside each other.

Bob Bone

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

not sure I entirely understand - they seem to be a sort of building block of code to simplify developers' programming?

You got it. They're libraries that programs can use instead of the coders having to write them from scratch. For instance file open and save dialogs and menu lists and DirectX interfaces and color pickers, just a ton of stuff that Microsoft programmers put together. The main program calls them up when it needs them. It saves a lot of work on the part of the programmers and has the huge benefit of the look and feel of Windows programs being standardized. You can always spot a program where the programmers used their own code for the file dialogs, right? Unfortunately, I guess the libraries change as the different versions evolve, so the different versions all need to be available for the programs to access. It would be great if the latest installer could be backward compatible, but it's not. Hence we get Visual C++ runtime libraries up the rootie kazootie.

[abacab]

On 4/30/2020 at 9:52 AM, ZincT said:

To answer your question about favourites they are saved so that they will show up in whichever version you load (standalone, VST2, VST3). It's been a while since I uninstalled it so I cannot recall whether there is a prompt to leave them in place or not. Also I have googled and found a few support questions (remember to use the non UK spelling - favorites) asking where they are stored but haven't managed to track a definitive answer.  A quick search of standard places on my system (program folder, sample/instrument folders, ProgramData and Common Files drew a blank so maybe they are in the registry IDK?

I suspect that they are saved in the "settings.properties" file in this path: "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4".

[ZincT]

9 minutes ago, abacab said:

I suspect that they are saved in the "settings.properties" file in this path: "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4".

Thanks abacab, I will have a look. 

[abacab]

4 minutes ago, ZincT said:

Thanks abacab, I will have a look. 

Nevermind. I opened that file up in Notepad++, and it appears to only be system settings for ST4, but no favorites. They must be elsewhere...

[JoeGBradford]

The first person to find them wins a prize! A simplified, streamlined IK installation ? 

[JoeGBradford]

One thing that is a bit frustrating is that when ST4 has crashed and I reopen the project the ST4 gui isn't shown and when it opens it defaults to the ST4 CS instruments rather than the ST3 instruments (or other) I'm working through. Is this something I can alter? Not an issue with other plugins as far as I can recall

[abacab]

1 minute ago, JoeGBradford said:

The first person to find them wins a prize! A simplified, streamlined IK installation ? 

I wonder what the "SampleTank 4.pak" file is in the "Program Files/IK Multimedia" folder is. It's too big to open with any editor I have.

[abacab]

6 minutes ago, JoeGBradford said:

One thing that is a bit frustrating is that when ST4 has crashed and I reopen the project the ST4 gui isn't shown and when it opens it defaults to the ST4 CS instruments rather than the ST3 instruments (or other) I'm working through. Is this something I can alter? Not an issue with other plugins as far as I can recall

One thing you can do is create separate paths for your ST3 content and your ST4 content (don't install them all in the same folder path), then add both paths to the ST4 GUI. If this ever gets messed up, just delete the content paths  from the sound content settings in the GUI and then re-add them to the GUI.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by abacab

[JoeGBradford]

57 minutes ago, abacab said:

I wonder what the "SampleTank 4.pak" file is in the "Program Files/IK Multimedia" folder is. It's too big to open with any editor I have.

It's pretty critical whatever it is as when I tried to manually install the sounds it was that one it couldn't find and thus load the sounds

[Matthew Sorrels]

5 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

The first person to find them wins a prize! A simplified, streamlined IK installation ? 

The Favorites for Sampletank 4 are stored in the SQLite database instruments.db in your user Documents\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4 folder.  The favorites are in the table "Instrument", the column is_favorite

Use your personal favorite SQLite DB tool to check it.  Handy note, Cakewalk uses a SQLite database for the Browser Categories also.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Matthew Sorrels

[JoeGBradford]

How did I guess that Matthew would probably win the prize. ?  Thanks! I must admit I had never heard of SQ Lite before. On that note what is the best programme to open .dmp files with - I tried notepad but got gobbledegook

I should just say again that I hugely appreciate all of your help here - this is a really great community

[Matthew Sorrels]

If you really want to look at a crash dump, install Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 community edition.  It's free.  Open it up.  Skip the project wizard (pick continue without code) and then do File->Open->File and find the .dmp file (or right click it in the explorer and choose open with Visual Studio 2019).  It will come up with a minidump file summary.  On the right is an action "Debug with native Only"  Pick that.

It will then load the crash and show you exactly where it crashed.  You'll want to make the Call Stack window visible and most likely the threads window (open those under the Debug->Windows menu item).  The Call stack shows the location of the crash and the functions that were called that got the CPU to that point.

Here's the crash from the first message, the call stack is at the bottom right, the active threads on the bottom left.

 

[ZincT]

8 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

The Favorites for Sampletank 4 are stored in the SQLite database instruments.db in your user Documents\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4 folder.  The favorites are in the table "Instrument", the column is_favorite

Use your personal favorite SQLite DB tool to check it.  Handy note, Cakewalk uses a SQLite database for the Browser Categories also.

 

Good find, thanks Matthew. Should also make it easy to backup any favourites. 
 

[Matthew Sorrels]

30 minutes ago, ZincT said:

Good find, thanks Matthew. Should also make it easy to backup any favourites. 
 

Not sure about "easy" -- it's hard to tell for sure but I think the id field isn't unique.  So two computers would have different values.  So you have to use the path (name isn't unique enough by itself).  Still it wouldn't be hard to build something to dump out your favorites to a csv file and import them in.  You could definitely do it with already existing SQLite tools, though I'd most likely just do it with something like PHP.

[ZincT]

23 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Not sure about "easy" -- it's hard to tell for sure but I think the id field isn't unique.  So two computers would have different values.  So you have to use the path (name isn't unique enough by itself).  Still it wouldn't be hard to build something to dump out your favorites to a csv file and import them in.  You could definitely do it with already existing SQLite tools, though I'd most likely just do it with something like PHP.

I meant for backing up on the same machine when you uninstall and reinstall. So you don't think a copy of the file made before un-installation and then restored to it's correct location after a clean install would work? I suppose if ST4 installation creates a new db file then overwriting it with a different backup copy might confuse it. Then again if the uninstaller leaves the file alone or asks whether to leave it there that would imply that a fresh installation can use the file. IDK.

Anyway, that's useful information and it's a good excuse for me to blow the cobwebs off some old SQL course notes  .

[Matthew Sorrels]

For just backing up I think you'd be fine.  I was thinking about more along the lines of "moving" favorites from one machine to another. 

[ZincT]

I found this portable SQL Lite browser which seems to work OK just for viewing the database offline and it's a nice small install in a single folder (being portable).

https://sqlitebrowser.org/blog/portableapp-for-3-11-2-release-now-available/ 

(Kaspersky AV gives it a clean bill of health as does VirusTotal btw)

I created a couple of favourites in ST4 and they appeared in the "Instrument" table when I looked in SQL Lite browser.

The "is_favorite" field is set to 1 for favourites and otherwise 0, so just put a 1 in the is_favorite filter to see your favourites.

This could actually be quite useful for searching instruments when you don't have ST4 loaded or are on a different PC without ST4 (just copy the instrument.db file there for browsing in SQLLite).

Edited May 2, 2020 by ZincT