EZDrummer 2.1.4 Update Fail

[Department of Recording Industry]

Please refer to my previous related forum topic, “EZDrummer 2.1.1 Update Fail”.

First, thanks for the new Product Manager application. I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with it, but it appears to provide a better and easier means of updating Toontrack software, particularly for those of us that manage EZD2, SD2, all libraries, all producer presets, and all MIDI packs on multiple workstations!

Having said that, I am greatly disappointed that the update process is still problematic. As a courtesy refresher, I have EZDrummer 2.1.1 (build 10513) plug-in and standalone host versions installed and working perfectly on 30 lab Mac workstations running Yosemite 10.10.5. The workstations are 27″ iMacs, Late 2013, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7, 24 GB memory, and each has an external USB 3 hard drive (/Volumes/Libraries) where the EZDrummer libraries reside. Every workstation can access the 24 kit libraries as well as all of our EZD2 and SDX MIDI packs so there is no problem with EZD2 (or Superior Drummer 2 which we also have installed) locating the kit and MIDI libraries on the external drive.

Refer to attached screenshot “EZD214installError-digilab14.png”. Prior to updating one of my iMacs (digilab14), I verified the /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences folder was recursively set to 777 which includes write permissions for all the .plist files under it (see “Users” Finder window and associated “EZdrummer” folder info). I also verified that the “EZDrummer” alias in /Library/Application Support was pointing to the correct library target (/Volumes/Libraries/EZDrummer; see “Application Support” Finder window and associated “EZDrummer” alias info as well as list of files and library folders under in the “Libraries” Finder window). Nonetheless, I ran the updater and received an error dialog box similar to the 2.1.1 updater problem: “This update cannot proceed without a working EZdrummer 2 installation.” (see “Install EZdrummer 2 Update” window).

Since I had to get digilab14 back in operation for classes, I decided to go ahead and run the full EZD 2.0.2 installer from the Product Manager, which ran fine; however, the Product Manager reports that “A newer version is installed” (see “Toontrack Product Manager” window). In either case, the “Installation Status” still reports “Installed” so I figured it would be OK to run the 2.1.4 updater again. However, I still get the same error.

In the meantime, I opened up EZD2 in standalone mode just to make sure it was still working properly, and I have an absolute mess. You can see the “MIDI Database Error” that appears on launch, and you can also see that no libraries other than Modern and Vintage are showing in the library list. Needless to say, I wasn’t about to do anything else with this workstation before contacting support.

Refer now to attached screenshots “ToontrackPrefs-digilab15.png” and “EZD214installError-digilab15.png”. After once again verifying /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences folder permissions (see “Terminal” window) as well as the EZDrummer alias in /Library/Application Support, I tried the 2.1.4 updater on a different iMac (digilab15) today, but I still receive the same error (see “Toontrack Product Manager” window).

So in priority order, I desperately need digilab14 restored as easily and quickly as possible. Following that, I need a reliable 2.1.4 updater package that will work on the other 29 workstations without any additional unnecessary steps (i.e., re-running full installations of programs that already work, deleting aliases that already work, re-establishing libraries that already work, etc.). Please advise soonest–thanks, Darryl

Topic

[John]

Hi,

could you please attach those screen shots you are referring to, so I may forward this topic?

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Department of Recording Industry]

Not sure why they didn’t post the first time, but here are the first two.

[Department of Recording Industry]

…and here’s the 3rd one.

[Olof]

Hi,

Could you run the following Terminal commands and post a screenshot, please?

defaults read /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences/com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer SourcePath
defaults read com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer SourcePath

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Department of Recording Industry]

Ran defaults commands on both digilab14 and digilab15 with same results–see attached screenshot.

[Olof]

Okay, the problem is that there’s no SourcePath in /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences/com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer.plist. To fix it, you can run:

sudo defaults write /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences/com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer SourcePath “/Library/Application Support/EZDrummer”
or
sudo defaults write /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences/com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer SourcePath /Volumes/Libraries/EZDrummer

If you use the latter command you won’t need the symbolic link in /Library/Application Support anymore.

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Olof]

Actually, I recommend you use the second command but keep the symbolic link anyway, since certain older EZX installers (on DVDs) need it.

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Department of Recording Industry]

OK, this is what finally worked for me:

1. Terminal command sudo defaults write /Users/Shared/Toontrack/Preferences/com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer.plist SourcePath /Library/Application Support/EZDrummer
– Although not required for the defaults read commands, you have to specify “.plist” as part of the path and file. Additionally, the “/Library/Application Support/EZDrummer” path in quotes didn’t work–I had to specify the path without quotes and add the backslash () to account for the space in Application Support

2. When I applied the Terminal command above, I also noticed that it changed the owner and permissions to root and 600 respectively, so I had to deliberately change the permissions on com.toontrack.superior.auezdrummer.plist to 777.

Now that I’ve got EZDrummer updates working OK, I’m experiencing problems with the Superior Drummer updates, so I’ll start a new topic on that and refer back to this one. Thanks for the assist to date.

[Olof]

Thanks for the update.

Yes, sorry about the permissions changing, good you noticed it.

However, I don’t understand how “.plist” would be required since it works without for me on the same OS version (and the ‘man’ page says it is optional). Also, the path with quotes should be equivalent to what you used, but it is possible that the quotes got converted by the “smart quotes” feature in OS X, maybe if you copy/pasted the command to some text document in-between. Anyway, glad you got it working!

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Department of Recording Industry]

OK, Olof, I seem to be almost stabilized with the EZD and SD updates on at least 2 computers now. I have one remaining minor issue and an inquiry.

– If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even ask this question, but I’m asking on behalf of the faculty. I am not able to retrieve the Cocktail kit–see attached screenshot specifying that “The ‘Cocktail’ sound library is not working correctly…”. I’d be happy to “install the latest update” but this kit doesn’t show up in Product Manager. If this kit is now obsolete, please advise on complete removal instructions to make sure it’s not only removed from the Libraries drive but also removed from the EZD and SD drop down lists as an available kit.

– Regarding the inquiry, it appears that some renumbering/renaming was done with the MIDI updates for the Add On Packs and Superior Drummer Packs. After I finished all of the updates, I launched EZD2 to perform an ops check and under “Browser”, I found both of these MIDI lists duplicated. The new Superior Drummer Packs were renamed as “0000*” (including the label being called “Superior Libraries”) whereas the previous Superior Packs began with “9999*” and were called “SDX Libraries”. The Add On Packs were simply renumbered from “20*” to numbers beginning with “000088”, but they were duplicated nonetheless. This required me to go into the EZDrummer/Midi folder for additional file maintenance. All of this to say that it appears Product Manager looks for specific naming and numbering schemes to detect the presence of a given MIDI pack and, if this is so, then it also appears that no number/name customizations can be accomplished anymore unless a user chooses to re-accomplish the customization after a given update. Please provide any insight on this issue when you can.

Thanks,
Darryl

[Olof]

@Department of Recording Industry said:
– If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even ask this question, but I’m asking on behalf of the faculty. I am not able to retrieve the Cocktail kit–see attached screenshot specifying that “The ‘Cocktail’ sound library is not working correctly…”. I’d be happy to “install the latest update” but this kit doesn’t show up in Product Manager. If this kit is now obsolete, please advise on complete removal instructions to make sure it’s not only removed from the Libraries drive but also removed from the EZD and SD drop down lists as an available kit.

The Cocktail EZX download can be found as an ‘extra’ download for EZdrummer (1) – click “Show Details” for under EZdrummer in Product Manager. You can see if it helps to install that. If not, the problem must be that the EZX_Cocktail folder is missing a Configs file and a GraphicsV2 folder that are installed by the full EZdrummer 2 installer (but you could copy them in manually from Contents/Support/EZX_Cocktail on the installer dmg instead of reinstalling EZD2).

If you wish to uninstall Cocktail, simply removing the EZX_Cocktail folder is fine and will also remove it as an available kit. Optionally you can delete the MIDI (04@EZX_COCKTAIL) as well.

@Department of Recording Industry said:
– Regarding the inquiry, it appears that some renumbering/renaming was done with the MIDI updates for the Add On Packs and Superior Drummer Packs. After I finished all of the updates, I launched EZD2 to perform an ops check and under “Browser”, I found both of these MIDI lists duplicated. The new Superior Drummer Packs were renamed as “0000*” (including the label being called “Superior Libraries”) whereas the previous Superior Packs began with “9999*” and were called “SDX Libraries”. The Add On Packs were simply renumbered from “20*” to numbers beginning with “000088”, but they were duplicated nonetheless. This required me to go into the EZDrummer/Midi folder for additional file maintenance. All of this to say that it appears Product Manager looks for specific naming and numbering schemes to detect the presence of a given MIDI pack and, if this is so, then it also appears that no number/name customizations can be accomplished anymore unless a user chooses to re-accomplish the customization after a given update. Please provide any insight on this issue when you can.

We have not changed those folder/file names. If you want Product Manager to be able to see that they are installed and updaters to update the correct folders, you must not rename them. Custom reordering is not supported, I’m afraid.

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Olof]

Additionally, the Search MIDI functionality in EZdrummer 2 won’t work with renamed MIDI library folders.

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Department of Recording Industry]

Thanks again for your reply, Olof. It appears that I’m the victim of listening to “experts” instead of properly reading the manual regarding the renaming/renumbering of the Midi folder contents. The faculty wanted the packs ordered a certain way (primarily with Superior Drummer at the bottom since they routinely use EZ Drummer with their students) and assured me that the customization method was vendor-approved. So my fault for assuming, and sorry for even hassling you with this issue.

Regarding the Cocktail kit, however, I am unfortunately still dead in the water. I found the Cocktail download easily (thanks!) but I still get the same error after (1) just performing an install and (2) performing an uninstall and install. Please advise when you get a chance.

Many thanks,
Darryl

[Olof]

In the installed EZX_Cocktail folder, do you have a “Configs” file and a “GraphicsV2” folder? If not, open the dmg for the full EZdrummer 2 installer (2.0.2) and copy them from Contents/Support/EZX_Cocktail.

Olof Hermansson - Toontrack
Coder

[Author]

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