Logic Pro (X) Endlessly downloading the SAME content?

[EastWest Lurker]

I open the Drummer plug-in , click on a preset and I get a message that I am missing content, do I want to download it? So I do.

I wait until it is finished and "installing." When it appears to be done, I close Logic and start again. and the same thing happens. I swear this must be the 4th time I seem to be downloading the same content.

Clearly, the material has been downloaded and installed. My suspicion is that it is installed either in the wrong place or or some reason, Drummer is just not linking to it.

Where is the content stored? If it is in fact there. how do I link Drummer to it? All the other software instruments are fine.

 

[Eli]

Hey Jay,

I found that when downloading all the additional content, three items at a time would be displayed and downloaded before new items were added to the download list. And _A LOT_ of the new content is based on the Drummer and Drum Designer plug-in. So it's possible you haven't really downloaded all the content.

It seems to be stored in the following location:

Library --> Application Support --> Logic --> EXS Factory Samples --> Drum Kit Designer Consolidated. (see screenshot)

FWIW, that drum kit designer consolidated folder is 19.65 BB on my system!

 

[EastWest Lurker]

Thanks Eli, I think that while that is not exactly the answer it has pointed me in the right direction!

I have my EXS Samples and Sampler Instruments on an external drive with an alias to the SamplerInstruments Folder in the LogicApplication Support folder in the user library. Now it is a matter of adding the new stuff to the external drive, I hope.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Eli]

Hi Jay,

That Drum Kit Designer content is installed in the system library at the root level of the hard drive, not the User library.

The user content has been re-located in Logic Pro X. It is no longer in the User Library folder. It is now here:

User --> Music --> All Music Apps

Personally, I think this is a good thing, given that the user Library is hidden by default in OS 10.8.x

 

[EastWest Lurker]

So do I need to have all the EXS24 stuff on the boot drive now?

 

[Eli]

Good question. You know the conventional wisdom - leave the factory content alone.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't use alias' though in the User --> Music --> All Music Apps folder.

If I were you, I'd bite the bullet on that 19.65 GB of drum set designer content and leave it as is, and satisfy yourself with trying to place your user content on other drives and use alias'.

 

[tafkad]

way to get drummer content working

I hope this will be helpful for some users, note this is a little on the advanced side for some but is not that difficult.

I downloaded the extra content for Drummer but when it went to "Installing" all 12 packages it just stalled out and would not install (I won't get into why) a quick look around the net showed people having all kinds of trouble so I decided to share my "manual install" knowledge to help out.

Mac packages are extremely cool, when you delve inside and get to the heart you will find all the files you need placed in the correct folder hierarchy structure - this is your road-map to where they go.

One main issue is finding the temp packages that were downloaded to a hidden location, it is here:

"root drive"/private/var/folders/"?"

The "?" signifies a randomly named folder such as "z6" or whatever (just right click on a folder and choose "get info" and you will find out how much data is inside, looking for about 12 gigs in this case) - you will need to dig a little further in there to find the "com.apple.MusicApps" folder then a couple more directories in to the package content, but you will find it if you look.

Now after it successfully downloads all the content and then asks for your password to make the install, don't proceed just yet (this is if you have already had troubles, or if you prefer manually making things happen like me) instead now copy all the packages to a different folder to work from (otherwise it all gets deleted and you have to download again).

Now that you have the packages the rest is simple and times taking.

1st - Right click on a package and choose "Open with" select "Unarchiver"
2nd - enter the new folder after extraction and right click on the new package inside and choose "show package contents" this will enter the package
3rd - right click on the file "Payload" and select "open with" choose "Archive Utility" and let it run - note it will expand to a file called "Payload 2" and then automatically expand "Payload 2" and delete it leaving a folder named "Library" - note at this point you can also delete "Payload"
4th - Now you have the Hierarchy - inside it goes like this:
Library/Application Support/Logic <-go there and you will see 3 folders with the content you need {NOTE there is a lot of repeat content in these you don't need like shakers, claps etc}

Now you can move the samples to where ever you store your EXS samples and put the Presets where they go.

Drummer is all EXS based so you can put the samples anywhere and if you have EXS set to look everywhere it will find them automatically (no alias needed)

I almost always extract & expand packages to manually install when I can to help me better understand my machine and this method works for many situations.

Well I hope this helps as I don't have a lot of time to troubleshoot for other people and answer questions, everything I know I learned by trial and error and using the NET so you can learn it too. Best of luck to all!

[EXTRA - the reason I post this is because downloading the content is not the same as installing and some people are downloading but not having a successful install and this will work - after this method I open LAX and look through all the drummer presets on a track and they all work now, all players and kits]

 

[EastWest Lurker]

How do you see the "private" folders?

 

[tafkad]

How do you see the "private" folders?

I'll answer this one, but this is an indication you need to become more Google friendly haha - you need to enable seeing hidden folders, do a search and you can find multiple easy free apps to do this as well as the command line method - good luck!

 

[EastWest Lurker]

Good point. I should know that by now.

 

[tafkad]

Some things to look out for too - downloaded packages can be corrupt and need to be gotten again - also you will start finding more redundant repeat content as you unpack - I will say this, on a MAC you can do things with packages that will surprise you how easy it is to overcome install issues.

 

[EastWest Lurker]

How do you see the "private" folders?

I'll answer this one, but this is an indication you need to become more Google friendly haha - you need to enable seeing hidden folders, do a search and you can find multiple easy free apps to do this as well as the command line method - good luck!

Great so i downloaded one of these, dragged the hard drive onto it, and now I can toggle the hidden files on/off but when I toggle the hidden files off. my boot drive's icon disappears from the desktop and it does not appear in my computer's side bar.

How do I undo this cluster f&*k?

 

[tafkad]

How do you see the "private" folders?

I'll answer this one, but this is an indication you need to become more Google friendly haha - you need to enable seeing hidden folders, do a search and you can find multiple easy free apps to do this as well as the command line method - good luck!

Great so i downloaded one of these, dragged the hard drive onto it, and now I can toggle the hidden files on/off but when I toggle the hidden files off. my boot drive's icon disappears from the desktop and it does not appear in my computer's side bar.

How do I undo this cluster f&*k?

Well to start with it sounds like you are doing things you don't need to. Instead of me trying to sort it out for you let me just give a basic description of the procedure again and see if you can figure out where you went wrong.

First off it is fine to always have hidden files viewable and does not affect anything.

Now lets say you download 1 drum kit and again don't let the install take place (don't cancel just move the little window asking your password out of the way).

you go FIND the package that was downloaded to the remote hidden pathway and drag the package lets say to your desktop (have the folder open while it is downloading so you can see the package and wait for the part when it is fully downloaded and asks a password to install - then copy it somewhere before doing anything).

IMPORTANT- At this point I have not as you put it quote: "dragged the hard drive onto it" - which is what I meant by doing something you need not do. (this may be the new issue you have created as I am not sure exactly what you have done or what you mean by this) at no point did I state "Drag a Hard drive" anywhere.

The idea is to get the Package you just downloaded out of it's hidden location, so when you cancel the install it does not get deleted, period - nothing else and this has no affect on anything if you do just this.

After that you can proceed with the manual unpacking and installation.

Always take careful note of what you are doing on your MAC so you can undo it yourself if you mess up anything.

I have several Boot-able partitions and I use one as my experiment drive to perfect a procedure before I do it on my True Main drive. This is and has always been a preferred practice for all computer users who delve into advanced usage. I treat a computer like a car and fully understand my hardware before adding any operating system or software, software is replaceable and easy to manipulate, remember that "Trial & Error" does contain learning from the "Errors" and if you are not comfortable with this it is best to find someone local who can put hands on your machine and help you sort things out. If you are comfortable then be prepared and backed up and ready to make mistakes and to learn how to fix them and you will be miles ahead in the long run.

It sounds like you need to drag that Hard Drive back to where it was, but again just a guess as I did not watch what you did. Best of luck.

 

[Colin Shapiro]

How do you see the "private" folders?

You could also simply go to the Finder's [Go] menu, select [Go to Folder] and type or paste in: private/var/folders/
You'll get straight there....

 

[tafkad]

How do you see the "private" folders?

You could also simply go to the Finder's [Go] menu, select [Go to Folder] and type or paste in: private/var/folders/
You'll get straight there....

Yes indeed - it's all about navigating. I hope you're able to get through this EW Lurker, there is a way for sure. I've always loved that about Mac's - if it can be done on one machine you can do it too somehow.

 

[tafkad]

How do you see the "private" folders?

I'll answer this one, but this is an indication you need to become more Google friendly haha - you need to enable seeing hidden folders, do a search and you can find multiple easy free apps to do this as well as the command line method - good luck!

Using a simple Terminal command, you can work with all the files on your machine from the Finder. Open Terminal, type this command, and press Enter:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

To make the command take effect, you need to restart the Finder. One way to do this is to hold down the Option key, then click and hold on the Finder icon in the Dock. When the contextual menu appears, select Relaunch and the Finder will restart. (change YES to NO to reverse)

 

[EastWest Lurker]

I tried that and it did not work so I simply restored from TIme Machine to late last night's backup. Took about 4 and a half hours but all is well.

Thanks, folks.

 

[tafkad]

I tried that and it did not work so I simply restored from TIme Machine to late last night's backup. Took about 4 and a half hours but all is well.

Thanks, folks.

Glad you made it back to where you were. I've never used time machine and sounds like no fun. I've always done backups with disk utility from one of my clone drives or a boot usb stick - restore of an image made this way takes about 20 mins. (it's how I make a clone drive too)

I do hope you figure out how to manually install the drummer packages, they are very cool. Take care.

 

[EastWest Lurker]

Thanks Tafkad. Actually I do that with too Carbon Copy Cloner but it was not do e as recently as TM backup to last night. It's painless, just a little time consuming.

Everything seems good now, just missing some samples for the EXS24 Synth Bass apparently, which I do not really care about.

 

[Samuel Griffin-Ortiz]

I know this is an old post, but I've been experiencing the same problem with a slight difference. Ever since I moved my library (EXS Samples and Ultrabeat Samples) to an external hard drive, I haven't been able to access producer kits in the library, even when Logic tells me it has downloaded the required sounds. Furthermore, the are only eight raw kits listed in the library, which is considerably less than what I started with. The weird thing is that when I go to "Download Additional Content," it only lists the eight that appear as the ones I'm able to download. Am I missing something that's staring at me in the face, or is this a more intricate problem?