Export data and settings for import to a new computer?

[alan933]

So I upgraded my computer and now i have all my old settings, files, and VSTs and VST settings on old computer.

Is there a way to move everything to a new one? Easily?

[Amberwolf]

If the VSTs were the typical free type that don't have installers, and you just copied the DLL files into your VST folder when you "installed" them originally, you can copy your VST folder over to get them to the new ocmputer, along with each folder that any of them uses to store it's data, samples, etc, if they are not within the subfolders of the VST folder.   There are varying locations the main VST folder could be, or you could have several of them.   There is also usually a separate VST3 folder, and possibly a VST2 folder, and sometimes 32bit and 64bit folders. 

If they have installers / licensing / protections /etc., you're almost certainly going to have to reinstall each one.  Some licensed stuff only gives you so many installs, or you have to deactivate it on one computer before you can reactivate it on a new one; those you'll have to check the documentation or the company that made it (if they're still around and still support it) should have the info. 

The settings and such for Cakewalk/SONAR/etc are probably within your C:\ProgramData folder and the specific username you login to under the C:\Users folder in the Local and/or Roaming folders, Appdata, etc.   Copying these over will have different results with different programs.  Some (few) will complain when installing them that the settings are already there and you need to uninstall the program first before reinstalling, some will inherit the settings correctly, and some will just overwrite all the existing settings with default values because it can see that the program wasn't actually installed, etc. Some will have other behaviors.   I don't know of a list of which programs do which behaviors; it's a try-as-you-go experiment.

 

The actual audio/MIDI/etc programs, soundcard drivers, etc., that you use will probably need to be installed one at a time.

If the OS on both systems is the same, you might be able to find software used on corporate systems to create distribution discs that install the same stuff on every system, creating an image from the old system to install on the new one, but if there are significant hardware differences the OS may or may not boot up correctly to continue letting it install all the drivers in the new system, and anything with licenses that are hardware-dependent will also probably complain/not work/etc. 

 

 

 

[alan933]

Thanks for all the helpful info on that. I guess the short of it is that its not an easy transfer. 

I did check as many of the recently modded files in Cakewalk Core and VSTs but I am still getting an error on the Analog Lab 4 plugin used in an old project.  I had to install them brand new on the new system but its not finding them.   I guess I need to remove those plugin tracks and re-add them? This is complicated and I would gladly pay a subscription if they had implemented a transfer tool or something .

 

[alan933]

To update the above, I activated the plugin with license info and it appears to work now without that message