Edit (Mai 7th 2016) : im gonna cover Alternative datapaths for windows too very soon since i recently moved to Windows Reaper
its not that different from osx but it always helps to see the correct paths for understanding the patterns for those who struggle a little, i struggled my self in the beginning so i know exactly how that feels
external HHD`s can be used with great success on both windows and os x, even with sub folders



ok, we need a place to explain and share information on how to for nebula

so we can have it in one place rather than scrolling trough countless of Nebula tip of the Month

ill start with posting a copy of my xml file with path`s for external hdd

this xml is for mac osx

im a Logic Pro X user so its the Nebula3 x64.xml you should start with within the component folder if you use Logic Pro X

if it does not make sense just ask

its all about the ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH
but you should first look at your own xml file located in component folder if you use logic and see whats different
thats the way i did it the first time




MAKE A COPY OF YOUR XML FILE BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE




when you have successfully gotten this to work with the regular nebula xml
you can do the same with the reverb version

but once you understand this you may want to organise your folders within the main nebula libraries folder different than i did it, thats totally up to you




WARNING!!!
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V must not be deleted,
so you can not delete Vector and Program folders where nebula is installed as those files need to stay in there

everything else in vector and Program folders in the nebula directory should not be a problem to remove and be placed on external HDD

ITS ABSOLUTE IMPORTANT NOT TO DELETE
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V
WITHIN NEBULA AFTER REMOVING YOUR LIBRARIES FROM THESE FOLDERS VECTOR AND PROGRAM

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<?generated by Nebula2 parser?>
<MASTER>
<MAGIC> 126d </MAGIC>
<DATAPATH> /Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/HO/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/Div/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/AlexB/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/cdsoundmasters/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/genelennon/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/timp/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/osx hdd/nebulapro/stn/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>
<VECTORSUBPATH> Vectors/ </VECTORSUBPATH>
<SETUPSUBPATH> Setups/ </SETUPSUBPATH>
<CACHESUBPATH> Temp/ </CACHESUBPATH>
<SKINSUBPATH> Skins/ </SKINSUBPATH>
<SETUPROMNAME> Rom.xml </SETUPROMNAME>
<DICTIONARYSUBPATH> Dictionaries/ </DICTIONARYSUBPATH>
<DICTIONARYROMNAME> Rom.xml </DICTIONARYROMNAME>
<WORKBUFFER> 32768 </WORKBUFFER>
<HDIMMAX> 10 </HDIMMAX>
<FIXEDQUALITY> 0 </FIXEDQUALITY>
<SERVERADDRESS> . </SERVERADDRESS>
<SERVERPORT> 6000 </SERVERPORT>
<PRESERVEOFFSET> 1 </PRESERVEOFFSET>
<ZEROLATENCY> 0 </ZEROLATENCY>
<METERTYPE> 4 </METERTYPE>
<OTIMED> 5 </OTIMED>
<OFREQD> 25 </OFREQD>
<PROGRAMRATE> 2000 </PROGRAMRATE>
<EXPORTAUDIOQUALITY> 1 </EXPORTAUDIOQUALITY>
<FORCEOFFSET> 1500 </FORCEOFFSET>
<LTIMED> 10000 </LTIMED>
<LFREQD> 20000 </LFREQD>
<GUIRATE> 30000 </GUIRATE>
<HDIM> 10 </HDIM>
<BPMDEFAULT> 120000 </BPMDEFAULT>
<AHEADLENGTH> 5941 </AHEADLENGTH>
<SCANBOOT> 1 </SCANBOOT>
<AUTOTHREAD> 0 </AUTOTHREAD>
<FASTBOOT> 1 </FASTBOOT>
<RATECONVERSION> 4500000 </RATECONVERSION>
<FONTCOLOUR> 0 </FONTCOLOUR>
<SKINNAME> OVERWRITEME.N2S </SKINNAME>
<NODROP> 0 </NODROP>
<LOADERPRIORITY> 1 </LOADERPRIORITY>
<MODE> 1 </MODE>
<DSPBUFFER> 1024 </DSPBUFFER>
<MIDISTSMIX1> 176 </MIDISTSMIX1>
<MIDICTRMIX1> 127 </MIDICTRMIX1>
<MIDISTSMIX2> 176 </MIDISTSMIX2>
<MIDICTRMIX2> 127 </MIDICTRMIX2>
<MIDISTSMIX3> 176 </MIDISTSMIX3>
<MIDICTRMIX3> 127 </MIDICTRMIX3>
<MIDISTSMIX4> 176 </MIDISTSMIX4>
<MIDICTRMIX4> 127 </MIDICTRMIX4>
<MIDISTSMIX5> 176 </MIDISTSMIX5>
<MIDICTRMIX5> 127 </MIDICTRMIX5>
<MIDISTSMIX6> 176 </MIDISTSMIX6>
<MIDICTRMIX6> 127 </MIDICTRMIX6>
<MIDISTSMIX7> 176 </MIDISTSMIX7>
<MIDICTRMIX7> 127 </MIDICTRMIX7>
<MIDISTSMIX8> 176 </MIDISTSMIX8>
<MIDICTRMIX8> 127 </MIDICTRMIX8>
</MASTER>

im gonna fill in a better explanation in this post trough the day, so bare with me ,its work in progress
osx external hdd nebula libraries explanation :




its between these lines you have to make the changes with the ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH who directs to you're external hdd

do not change anything over this line and this line it selves
/Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>




( in between here is where you change your path/paths )




<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>
and change nothing under this line and the line it selves












so lets pretend now that i just bought a new external hdd where im gonna put my nebula libraries on
lets call the new external hdd for: New hdd

first thing i would do is to place my nebula libraries on the root of the new hdd, so lets call the nebula library folder for Nebulalib

lets say we install all our vectors and programs in this one folder Nebulalib the first time around to keep it simple
so in this Nebulalib when you open it it should be two folders Vectors and Programs, i know you knew that, but for the sake of not keeping anything out i mentioned it hehe

ok now we have made our folder:Nebulalib, placed it on the root of our external hdd we called: New hdd

so now we can go in to our xml file(located in component folder for logic users) and direct to that external hdd



so heres what the new path would look like with the new external hdd :

<DATAPATH> /Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>

what i did not find and understand before i obviously found it my self was that the ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH have to start with volumes on osx to work
Now take a look at the first xml file i posted and see what changed from this new path to New hdd i created, you will learn a lot from that





i hope this first explanation helped a little
you can just copy this path and fill in the name of your external hdd with the name you gave it
and fill in your nebula libraries folder with the name you gave it

but i highly recommend creating organised subfolders within your main nebula libraries folder as this libraries will be a huge mess if you just drop them all in the same place, it will still work this way though so thats up to you

dont be afraid to ask if you cant make it work

i will answer


AGAIN MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A COPY OF YOUR XML FILE BEFORE YOU CHANGE ANYTHING JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE


if you did understand this first explanation
you are very likely going to understand very much of the xml file i posted as my second post just by looking at it
and are probably already making sub folders for you're 3rd party developers to keep you're libraries organised


im still gonna fill out a whole path with sub folders though and post a screen shot too of my subfolders within my main nebula external hdd folder so hang on if you still don't get it









lets say that i want to use my current organised nebula external hdd libraries on this: New hdd we called it
because i need a bigger hdd

the paths would look like this :

<DATAPATH> /Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/HO/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/Div/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/AlexB/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/cdsoundmasters/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/genelennon/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/timp/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/New hdd/nebulapro/stn/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>

you can clearly see now whats the hdd in the paths
and right after it is my main libraries folder that i called nebulapro
and you guessed it, after that is my organised subfolders
so the reason for more than one alternative datapath is actually those subfolders that is very useful to have





lets call the external something else, hmmm , lets call it : samsung ssd


ok the paths for the samsung ssd would look like :

<DATAPATH> /Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/HO/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/Div/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/AlexB/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/cdsoundmasters/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/genelennon/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/timp/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/nebulapro/stn/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>



i hope you are starting to see a pattern here


if my main nebula library was called Nebulalib on the root of the samsung the path with the samsung ssd would be :


<DATAPATH> /Library/Audio/Presets/AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/ </DATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/HO/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/Div/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/AlexB/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/cdsoundmasters/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/genelennon/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/timp/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/samsung ssd/Nebulalib/stn/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
<PROGRAMSUBPATH> Programs/ </PROGRAMSUBPATH>






i`ll explain later in the next post how to make own folders for all you're favourite 3rd party developers to keep it organised



WARNING!!!
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V must not be deleted,
so you can not delete Vector and Program folders where nebula is installed as those files need to stay in there

everything else should not be a problem to remove and be placed on external HDD

ITS ABSOLUTE IMPORTANT NOT TO DELETE
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V
WITHIN NEBULA AFTER REMOVING YOUR LIBRARIES FROM THESE FOLDERS VECTOR AND PROGRAM

More than thankful for this as my Nebula Libraries take up a huge amount of my system drive. Offloading them to another drive would create a lot more room for me as I'm starting to run a bit short. Please keep these little tidbits coming. I'll have to try this tonight. Thanks for taking the time.

i just added a path to a secondary external hdd to make sure i haven't forgot anything and i can confirm it does work, i just wanted to double check it

dont want to make a fool of my self hahaha

so the key is to understand the alternative datapath and you can do what ever you want really

right now im connected to 2 external hdd`s just to prove it works

i recommend using only one external hdd though to keep it simple and organised

i can also confirm that this is working with nebula setups with organised sub folders as I'm using nebula setups my self



ok now i will post some screens of my main external folder, although i think most of you got it by now

but to see pics of these folders and to recognize them in the paths i made could still be helpful to some of you so I'm gonna do it :

heres inside my main external nebula folder

i also added a zipped file of the pic if you want to view it in full size, i don't know why the pic got so small and degraded when i uploaded it hehe

so heres the pic from inside one of my subfolders : Alex B

i actually think this explains it all

i know this explanation can come off as a little childish but i wanted to explain it as easy as possible so all can understand

i will still edit this thread if i remember something useful that i forgot to mention to make it even easier

and sorry for my English as I'm from Norway hehe hope its understandable the way i explained it though

but if you have questions about this just ask, i`ll answer no problem

Best of luck


Cheers



WARNING!!!
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V must not be deleted,
so you can not delete Vector and Program folders where nebula is installed as those files need to stay in there

everything else should not be a problem to remove and be placed on external HDD

ITS ABSOLUTE IMPORTANT NOT TO DELETE
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V
WITHIN NEBULA AFTER REMOVING YOUR LIBRARIES FROM THESE FOLDERS VECTOR AND PROGRAM

next useful thing to learn is to organise folders and stuff inside the nebula it self

but thats for another day i`ll do it maybe next week or maybe sooner

if someone of you have useful nebula tips you want to share just post it in this thread

as the nebula community is still pretty small and we should learn from each other

have to say though that the nebula community is a particular nice one

i love the Aqua`s too of course

Peace

Adding hardware name to your Nebula Presets

1) To add the hardware name to your Nebula Presets, open your Rom.xml file located in AcusticaAudio/Nebula3/Dictionaries
2) Open the Rom.xml file with any text editor.
3) Depending on what libraries you own and taking Tim Petherick's Sum100a compressor as an example, Nebula will show the library preset name as 100.
4) To add the hardware name, add this line to the Rom.xml file and save.

<100> Dynamics - Summit Audio 100a </100>

Relaunch your Nebula instance and the name will show up in the preset list.

So you can do this to all your libraries you have purchased from Consoles, EQ, Reverb and Dynamics.

I added the Console, EQ and Dynamic tag in front so that all the Console, EQ and Dynamics presets are grouped together by category instead of it being all over the preset listing.

Have fun & Cheers

Very nice davidgary73 my friend

MIDI modifications can be made within said XML file.

I control a group of Nebula instances through my 'NVC' [NebulaVirtualController] VST plugin with MIDI [C]ontinuous[C]ontroller parameters
of the available 8 knobs/sliders.

XML example:

Most welcome mate. Hope that helps.

So it's not really necessary to add the subfolders to the new data path unless you want to organize it that way correct? It will still point to the Nebulalib and you can just search from there within the Nebula browser for whichever preset you want to load right?

I followed the directions above to create an Alternate Data Path. Here is what I put in<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>

This did not work for me. It crashed PT after I deleted the Vectors and Program files from where I originally had them installed. I copied what you had above and inserted the path where my programs and vectors are: Drum Samples/Nebulalib/
Can you see what I'm doing wrong? It seemed like a pretty simple thing but it's not working for me.

I guess it is necessary to have subfolders. Not to have them in the data path:

<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> D:/Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>

... but you need a folder-structure like:

D:/Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/Vectors

and

D:/Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/Programs

good luck

Oh, OK. It doesn't know where to look other than the Nebulalib folder if you have your Programs and Vectors in a subfolder to that? Understand.

What is your external hdd called, i cant see it in your path unless its called Drum Samples. On osx your hdd should be named after volumes
Example :

<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> Volumes/your hdd Name/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>

If this path is gonna work your nebula lib folder also has to be on the root of your hdd,
well that isn't absolute but we have to keep it simple the first time we do it

If you're hdd is called Drum Samples you're Vector and Program folders should be placed directly in the Nebulalib on the root of your Drum Samples HDD
There should be no letter before volumes on osx ,drive letter's is for windows

It's very strange to me that pro tools crashed, because when you open nebula and the path is not right it should not crash, it simly should be blank and not find your libraries.hope you didn't remove other things in nebula's own folder where its installed, did you delete vector and program folder's where nebula is installed ? You probably should have vector and program folders in there even if they're empty because the first path before alternative datapath directs to that

I also hope you followed my advice to make a copy of your original xml file just in case

You should also post your xml file so i can see if you did something wrong, post it in this thread or in my private message box on GS, the best would be to post it in the thread though as that could help others as well to understand more when we try to fix your path
We learn best by our mistakes
Organized sub folders is not necessary for this to work, the simpler it is the simpler it should work

The reason i have sub folders is to have better control over my libraries if im gonna delete somthing like demos or to see what i got in my libraries, if you have just one folder it will take serious time to find stuff if needed if your libraries is huge

Best of luck

Ok, so when I went to my disk utility, this is what the drive is called; Hitachi HDE721064SLA360 Media not as a volume, but it shows up on my desktop as what I have renamed it, Drum Samples. I don't have it partitioned off, it is just one big partition for the whole drive. So do I need to put the Hitachi name/ then /Drum Samples and then the /Vector and /Program file paths as well? It didn't really crash PT, when I tried to open up Nebula from Blue Cat Patchwork it just froze and I couldn't do anything to it. This happened after I deleted the Program and Vector files from the original drive where they were. I did this to make sure that Nebula was actually accessing the programs from the alternate drive. Yes I made copies of the original paths and all still works now that I reverted back, but I do want to get these programs on to another drive as I have about 40Gb of space being taken by them on my system drive and I'm starting to get a little short of space on my system drive. Thanks for your help.

well first of all , very good you had backed up everything


it must be a problem with your HDD name

instead of moving all of you libraries just copy over just a few to check if it works first if not copy them back

but you're path seems fine actually, got to be a conflict with the name but try Hitachi instead

meanwhile i will check if any of my external drives show up with another name in the disc utility

i have not encountered this before so its new to me , but we are gonna find a solution

i see worst case scenario is reformatting you're external HDD

but one thing at a time hehe

nope my drives have two names too

what they all got in common however is that they all are are mac os extended(journaled) formatted
and i can run nebula libraries on both my external HDD`s

<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
should be correct as long as long as vector and program is in the Nebulalib


an easy way to find out if its youre external hdd that is the issue would be to install a small nebulalib on the root of your internal hdd
<ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH> /Volumes/Drum Samples/Nebulalib/ </ALTERNATIVEDATAPATH>
exactly the same path but with your internal HDD`s name instead of course ,
if that works its got to be the way the external hdd is formatted

So I don't need to point Nebula any further than Nebulalib?? It will open the Vector and Programs that are in folders inside of Nebulalib? I suppose so as I didn't have to direct it to do so on the original install. You only need to place the libraries on the Alternate drive right? Not the entire program file.

yep , you are correct , only need to direct to Nebulalib on the alternative drive as long as Nebulalib it placed on the root of the alternative drive

So by saying "the root", if the disk is not partitioned i.e. there is only one partition to the whole disk, then there really is no root, correct?

by the root i mean place it directly on the disk

So if I just copy and paste the libraries on the disk I should be good to go. That's what I'm hearing.

yep, that should do it, but don't delete the vector and program folders where nebula is installed, i think they have to be in there even if there is nothing in them

i would start by taking out some of the libraries to begin with and place them on the external drive just to see if it works first

actually download a demo of something you don't have, place it in Nebulalib, there should be two folders in that lib Vector and Program, if that shows up in nebula you know it works without messing anything up, i think that would be the safest and fastest way to do it

as im still not 100% sure if a hdd has to be extended (journaled) formatted for it to work

that was the reason i suggested to test this out with a small Nebula library on your internal hdd on the root because its formatted just like my drives

i will attempt to install some nebula libraries on a windows formatted drive later today
just to see if how the drive is formatted has anything to do with external nebula libs to work on a external HDD

how is your external HDD formatted by the way ?

DID you delete everything within Vector and Program folders where nebula is installed the first time after you placed you're whole lib on the external hdd ?

ok i just looked in my program and vector folders that are installed in the main nebula folder where nebula is installed

there is two files that you must not delete as these files are the files that actually authorise nebula it self


INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V must not be deleted,
so you can not delete Vector and Program folders where nebula is installed as those files need to stay in there

everything else should not be a problem to remove and be placed on external HDD

ITS ABSOLUTE IMPORTANT NOT TO DELETE
INIT.N2P and INIT.N2V
WITHIN NEBULA

I think this may be the issue. I moved all of the Program and Vector files and folders they were in to the Alternate drive and their folders were not left in the program file so that is probably what happened. Those folders with the INT files need to be left there. I'll try it when I get home today. Thanks very much for your responses. Very, very helpful.

im sorry for not remembering this as there have been a long time since i opened up my main Vector and Program folders within the Nebula installation directory,

its easy to think everybody know this when you know it you're self , my bad
you're struggles will help a lot of people not making the same mistake
but I'm pretty sure this will solve it

please confirm if you get it to work in this thread as I'm not a pro tools user
this will be very useful information to have in this thread for the next one who struggles

Thanks

Will do.

Ok, it worked perfectly after leaving the INIT files in place using Nebula in PT 10.10 and 12.4 with Blue Cat Patchwork. Thanks much bro. This freed up 40G of hard drive space for me.