Any way to search across multiple projects?

[A Tolerable Quietude]

Let's say I've just discovered a problem with a VST I use occasionally, but rarely.  I want to find all the other Cakewalk projects on my computer that also use this plugin to see if the problem is there too.  Or let's say I remember working on a project in A mixolydian, which I would have written in the project notes.  But which project was it?  Or maybe I want to delete a sample library because I've never used it in anything.  At least I *think* I've never used it...

In all of these cases, it would be really handy to be able to search for something inside my Cakewalk projects across my whole Cakewalk Projects directory.  Has anyone got a solution for this? 

[Glenn Stanton]

or go old school and keep copious project notes in something like a text file (e.g. notepad++) ... ? then the Windows search can find it... also useful for later when your plugins "age out" and are no longer available in that project you just opened 15 years later and the settings you wanted to get are not to be found... except that one time you wrote them down so you would remember that really cool effect you used on the ...

sometimes lately i've been taking screenshots and pasting into Google slides as a record as well as my text files. not searchable per se but still handy.

Edited June 7 by Glenn Stanton

[A Tolerable Quietude]

19 minutes ago, Glenn Stanton said:

sometimes lately i've been taking screenshots and pasting into Google slides as a record as well as my text files. not searchable per se but still handy

Your screenshots might be searchable actually.  I think Google Drive routinely scans images for text and makes that text searchable.

I've often thought it would be a good idea to have some system outside of Cakewalk for meticulously tracking project details like this, but knowing me, I fear that would just get in the way of actually making stuff.

[Glenn Stanton]

well, the creative stuff is one thing, the post project cleanup, documenting and archiving is just a bit of work. of course if you decided to have 10-12 special FX on each of a 200 track project, then it might stifle your next project schedule a bit... LOL

[A Tolerable Quietude]

Out of curiosity, I tried opening a .cwp file in a text editor.

It looks like some things are stored as plain text in there.  Notably:  The basic names of synth VSTs, as well as their names in the synth rack.  The basic names of effects VSTs.  Track names and bus names.  Also, any text that's in the "Notes" field.

Not stored as plain text: Any details beyond the basic name of the plugin--for example, I can see the project uses Kontakt, but not what instrument is loaded into Kontakt.  Similarly, any patch names or preset names aren't available in plain text in the .cwp file (unsurprisingly).

So that's a start!  I suppose I could use some Windows version of grep to search for text strings in the .cwp files.

[tparker24]

17 hours ago, A Tolerable Quietude said:

 it would be really handy to be able to search for something inside my Cakewalk projects across my whole Cakewalk Projects directory.  Has anyone got a solution for this? 

There's a free utility called ProjectScope that might be of help.  It displays plugins used, along with many other things.  And I just found out that it has a Search facility too, so you can search across directories.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3218609

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3584169

Edited June 8 by tparker24
typo

[Glenn Stanton]

while it does display the tracks, track notes, and files, it doesn't display the plugins except "grooveplayer" (maybe the "core" of SONAR and CbB?) and "melodyne" (if i has left it enabled in a project). so, it probably needs some refreshing of the code to get into the plugin section of the files after v28 properly and of course it would be really handy to have not only the plugin, version, but any of the stored plugin settings ? 

in the newer file, i know i have at least 10 plugins - all but 2 (VST2) are VST3 - so that may be one thing to address.

screenshots of pre-v28 file

and really old files e.g. v12 - mostly show up as "unknown" in the plugin column... ? 

Edited June 8 by Glenn Stanton

[tparker24]

Good research Glenn!

Yes, it's too bad ProjectScope seems out of date, and so not too useful now, at least for plugins.

 

[A Tolerable Quietude]

So I've come up with a pretty simple solution for this, which I'll put here since it might be helpful for others in the future.

Go to your main Cakewalk projects folder in Windows Explorer, and right click on an empty space to choose "Open in terminal".  Then in your terminal, type in:

Quote

findstr /s /i /m "TEXT" *.cwp 

but replace TEXT with the text you're searching for.

For example, if I wanted to find all my Cakewalk projects that use Guitar Rig 6, I'd type:

Quote

findstr /s /i /m "guitar rig 6" *.cwp

If I wanted to find that one Cakewalk project where I was sure I'd written "A mixolydian" in the notes, I'd type:

Quote

findstr /s /i /m "A mixolydian" *.cwp

Hit enter, and findstr will search inside all the .cwp files in that directory and all subdirectories for the text you're looking for.  It will then output a list of all the projects that contain the text, along with their directories. 

This will work for anything that's stored as plain text inside a .cwp file, which includes VST plugin names, track and bus names, and anything you've saved in the "Notes" section of the project.  It won't work for specific instruments loaded into your VSTs, or patches, presets, or similar stuff internal to the VST.

Findstr is a windows native command, included with the operating system.  It will only search your files without modifying them at all.  You can read about it here.  If you're nervous about using it, you could always back up your Cakewalk projects folder beforehand. 

In fact, you should back up your Cakewalk projects folder regularly.  If you haven't done so lately, here's your gentle reminder to do so now!

 

[Steve Moddelmog]

Very frustrating that while the .cwp file clearly must have the name of the plugin (otherwise you'd have to manually load the desired plugin every time you re-opened a project), that information is not store in plain text.  I have many, many old files from the days of dxi that I'd like to resuscitate and work on where the plugin now has a modern VST (Native Instruments plugins, for example), but I didn't do track notes back then and I'd never be able to figure out what plugin to load.  If that information could be extracted from the file, I could replace, say, the dxi of FM8 with the most recent VST and then load the preset I originally used.  Ditto for old versions of VSTs (say Absynth 4) with newer versions (Absynth 5) and load the preset whose name I found poking into the .cwp file.  Yet the developers must know how to get that information - would really be great to see a tool created to do so. THAT would entice me to buy a subscription to the new Sonar.