# Quick Load and moving samples



## JPShooter (May 23, 2016)

I am wondering if there is a way to re-link (if that's the right word) the Kontakt Quick Load associations if I move my entire sample library from one drive to another (giving the new drive a unique name)?

I have not yet attempted moving my sample library as I am afraid that I will have to totally re-build my Quick Load in Kontakt.

Thanks for any insights!
Jake


----------



## EvilDragon (May 23, 2016)

Quick Load entries are basically just link files... so you'd need to edit those links in batch.


----------



## JPShooter (May 23, 2016)

Thanks for the input! I'm not sure however what you mean by batch.

Would that be via the Kontakt "Files/Batch re-save" function or something similar, or are you referring to doing some kind of batch function outside of Kontakt?

P.S. Forgive my ignorance as I am still a Kontakt newbie. I've looked at a bunch of tuts on Quick Load and searched for articles as well, but everything I've found has only dealt with building Quick Load, but nothing dealing with moving the samples.


----------



## EvilDragon (May 23, 2016)

No, it would not be via Kontakt's batch resave function.

You need to go to your QuickLoad folder (on Windows that's C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5\QuickLoad) and then edit the paths in all the links using a batch shortcut editor like this: http://jacquelin.potier.free.fr/ShortcutsSearchAndReplace/

If you're on Mac, I'm sure there's a similar solution, but I do not know of it.


----------



## Chris Porter (May 23, 2016)

EvilDragon said:


> No, it would not be via Kontakt's batch resave function.
> 
> You need to go to your QuickLoad folder (on Windows that's C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5\QuickLoad) and then edit the paths in all the links using a batch shortcut editor like this: http://jacquelin.potier.free.fr/ShortcutsSearchAndReplace/
> 
> If you're on Mac, I'm sure there's a similar solution, but I do not know of it.



I wish I had known about that before rebuilding my entire Quick Load library as the OP fears. Haha! I built a new computer and I actually ended up cleaning up the quick load a bit, so it's fine, but that sure was a lot of work.


----------



## JPShooter (May 23, 2016)

EvilDragon said:


> No, it would not be via Kontakt's batch resave function.
> 
> You need to go to your QuickLoad folder (on Windows that's C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5\QuickLoad) and then edit the paths in all the links using a batch shortcut editor like this: http://jacquelin.potier.free.fr/ShortcutsSearchAndReplace/
> 
> If you're on Mac, I'm sure there's a similar solution, but I do not know of it.



Thanks so much for your time! 

Makes sense to me now. I am on a Mac, but I am sure that there's an application that corresponds, now that I know what I'm looking for.

You're usually there when folks need assistance, thanks again!


----------



## JPShooter (May 23, 2016)

Chris Porter said:


> I wish I had known about that before rebuilding my entire Quick Load library as the OP fears. Haha! I built a new computer and I actually ended up cleaning up the quick load a bit, so it's fine, but that sure was a lot of work.



If I had not just re arranged all my Quick Load links it might have been time to do some house cleaning anyway.


----------



## JPShooter (May 23, 2016)

UPDATE:

Tonight I received the SSD that I've been awaiting (MyDigitalSSD 960GB (1TB) BP5e) so I could finally proceed with the move that I've been planning. I started this thread, after researching via the web, looking for guidance on the Quick Load issue as stated above. What EvilDragon said got me searching in a direction that I had not tried and ultimately led me to an article about the type of link that Mac OS X uses in this instance.

The link is called an "alias", and this file type according to the article I found said that the link would find it's way to the parent file no matter where you put it on the system.

PLEASE SEE UDATE IN SUBSEQUENT POST BELOW (ALIAS FILES DO NOT TRACK TO ANOTHER DRIVE)

Lo and behold.... they were right! After moving my entire sample library from a Raid 0 external to a single SSD external, Kontakt Quick Load needed no help in finding the files. Nothing required on my part what so ever.

Of note that some may find interesting. The Raid 0 drive (Thunderbolt connection) that I moved from shows a read speed (with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test) of about 650 MB/s and the external SSD (USB 3.0 connection) shows a read speed of about 420 MB/s.

I timed the loading of Albion ONE Strings.nki from the Raid 0 and it took 11.5 seconds, with the SSD it loaded in just over 6 seconds. Why the SSD is faster with a lower read speed is beyond me, I just don't know enough about this stuff to say.

Thanks again for the assistance!

P.S. After a little more reading it may be that the SSD loads faster than the higher read speed Raid 0 with HDD's due to the SSD having faster access times. It seems that Raid 0 while faster on outright transfer speed will lose out to the SSD due to the many small files being found faster, even though they are not transferred as fast. Much to learn


----------



## JPShooter (May 24, 2016)

Update to the Update:

I was wrong about the alias links finding the new destination. Seems that I had thought I erased my original source files, when in fact I had not. Once that was done the links are now broken. I have since found clarification on the alias linking ability being restricted to movement within the same drive.

My mistake folks, sorry if I have caused any confusion.


----------



## kurtvanzo (May 24, 2016)

JPShooter said:


> Update to the Update:
> 
> I was wrong about the alias links finding the new destination. Seems that I had thought I erased my original source files, when in fact I had not. Once that was done the links are now broken. I have since found clarification on the alias linking ability being restricted to movement within the same drive.
> 
> My mistake folks, sorry if I have caused any confusion.



I would have been shocked if you're earlier post was correct, as I had to re-build quickload after switching to SSD (a major pain) and eventually gave up on quickload because of this shortcoming. I'm thankful to hear there is a workaround (editing the link file as Evil dragon suggested) but I'm interested to hear how it worked on a mac and if it's almost as much work (especially if you have to fix each link one at a time) please keep us posted of your progress.

Also posting links to the articles you find would be helpful, as I couldn't find anything on this when I made the switch over a year ago. Thanks.


----------



## JPShooter (May 24, 2016)

kurtvanzo said:


> I would have been shocked if you're earlier post was correct, as I had to re-build quickload after switching to SSD (a major pain) and eventually gave up on quickload because of this shortcoming. I'm thankful to hear there is a workaround (editing the link file as Evil dragon suggested) but I'm interested to hear how it worked on a mac and if it's almost as much work (especially if you have to fix each link one at a time) please keep us posted of your progress.
> 
> Also posting links to the articles you find would be helpful, as I couldn't find anything on this when I made the switch over a year ago. Thanks.



Ya, I was pretty stoked when I thought it had actually worked (insert sheepish grin here).

I had looked at so many articles that I don't even remember where I found the info that I needed. Thinking back now I believe it was a thread on some other forum that mentioned that the alias link ability to track movement was isolated to movement within the same physical drive.

I ended up redoing my links. But I did not redo them all. I had initially (over time, as acquired) built quick load links to all of my samples (about 850 gb worth) of which about 70 percent reside in the left hand pane of Kontakt (don't recall the technical name for those libraries that show up there). 

When I realized that I was going to have to either get into scripting to batch redo (as I could find nothing pre-made for OS X that would do the job for alias links, as the link is embedded within the file, it's not just a file renaming issue) I decided it would be faster to just redo only those libraries that don't reside in the GUI on the left pane in Kontakt.

It's really a shame that the quick load interface is so poorly executed, but I guess that's their way of prodding developers into forking over the cash for center stage (or I guess left stage in this case) rights. It really seems to me a blatant "pay up or else" type of situation.

On the other hand it would be nice if more developers would give the choice to pay the extra up front as the customer to decide for yourself where you want to see your library. I recall at least one developer that had arranged their purchasing options/levels in that manner.


----------



## kurtvanzo (May 25, 2016)

JPShooter said:


> Ya, I was pretty stoked when I thought it had actually worked (insert sheepish grin here).
> 
> I had looked at so many articles that I don't even remember where I found the info that I needed. Thinking back now I believe it was a thread on some other forum that mentioned that the alias link ability to track movement was isolated to movement within the same physical drive.
> 
> ...


This was the conclusion I came to too, but I'm closer to 70 percent NOT Kontakt Player Libraries (about 2TB). Ended up building Templates of all my favorites and just import the tracks, rather than use quickload and possibly loose it the next time I get new drives. Was worth it for SSD speed, just a shame since I really liked quickload otherwise.

The reason most smaller companies don't offer Kontakt Player versions is NI only sells the licenses in large packs (adds up to several thousand dollars), which must be paid up front by the developer. Many smaller instruments don't sell enough units to cover the cost, so it's not really feasible. Would be great if they would eventually allow smaller releases to get in, but I suppose the pane would get far too long (mine is already longer than I would like it).


----------



## JPShooter (May 25, 2016)

kurtvanzo said:


> The reason most smaller companies don't offer Kontakt Player versions is NI only sells the licenses in large packs (adds up to several thousand dollars), which must be paid up front by the developer. Many smaller instruments don't sell enough units to cover the cost, so it's not really feasible. Would be great if they would eventually allow smaller releases to get in, but I suppose the pane would get far too long (mine is already longer than I would like it).



That's a shame that there is not a viable option for the smaller developers.

It's really no big deal if the library gets in the "main window" or in quick load, it would just be nice if the quick load interface was more that what appears to be an afterthought. 

For instance, when you get layers deep in a library and the scroll bar on the bottom of the window is to the right, at least for me, it does not even respond to the scroll wheel, I have to grab that little scroll bar every time I want to get back to the left. It's just one of the many little annoyances with quick load that bug me.

In the end though, you are right, it was worth it to upgrade to an SSD!


----------



## Chris Porter (May 25, 2016)

JPShooter said:


> ...I have to grab that little scroll bar every time I want to get back to the left. It's just one of the many little annoyances with quick load that bug me.



A shortcut for getting back to the left is to just click one of the items or folders to the left of where you currently are. This will close any sub-folders to the right of where you clicked and automatically shorten the scroll window horizontally. No need to scroll back, just click away!


----------



## JPShooter (May 25, 2016)

Chris, thanks for the tip!


----------



## brett (Mar 23, 2017)

Given that quick load is simply a bunch of nested shortcuts / aliases you could simply do a file search for patches restricted to that specific location. I use the rather excellent 'Everything' by Voidtools. This way I have search syntax and can even place shortcuts to non kontakt libraries in the same nested folders!

Works a treat. I plan to do a longer post on this issue at a later date


----------



## Mrted (Jun 9, 2017)

Anyone know a shortcut editor in order to move quickload database to a brand new hard drive ? and resolve broken shortcuts. FOR SIERRA. Thank you very much.


----------



## Artemi (Dec 4, 2020)

can someone explain me how to use this replace software?
I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I can't relocate anything


----------



## curry36 (Feb 13, 2022)

Thanks god the old Aliases are still stored in the Quickloads folder. After moving all of my samples to different locations I lost almost all of my Quickloads which I use to tag nice patches in libraries that got way to many presets to overview. 

Manually researching for the original location works well but takes a lot of time. Is there really no software or terminal script that finds the new paths automatically?


----------



## brett (Feb 13, 2022)

curry36 said:


> Thanks god the old Aliases are still stored in the Quickloads folder. After moving all of my samples to different locations I lost almost all of my Quickloads which I use to tag nice patches in libraries that got way to many presets to overview.
> 
> Manually researching for the original location works well but takes a lot of time. Is there really no software or terminal script that finds the new paths automatically?


If you are on windows you can try this:





Shortcuts Search And Replace


Shortcuts Search And Replace : This is the tool you need to quickly update your shortcuts after moving files or portable softwares




jacquelin.potier.free.fr





Good luck!


----------



## curry36 (Feb 14, 2022)

brett said:


> If you are on windows you can try this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Unfortunately not, I forgot to mention! But thanks anyways.


----------

