How I stay organized

    I frequently transport my KPA between 2 rooms, one with a desktop computer I use as a DAW connected to studio monitors and the other with a more "live" setup, connecting to a PA speaker/wedge monitor and using a laptop to run Rig Manager. I have bought quite a lot of commercial packs and also downloaded a lot of free rig packs not available on the Rig Exchange. I like to keep the unaltered rigs on local hard drives. And even though Rig Exchange is awesome, I don't want to get caught in a situation where there's no internet and I can't access a rig I want. I also want .kipr files on my local HD's, not have them buried in the Rig Manager database files - there are times when Rig Manager's files can get corrupted and it won't open. However, importing via USB drive is a pain, so I want them in Rig Manager, which is mainly how I'm going to load them.


    So to recap, I have 2 computers that I want to have the same folder organization with .kipr files for all my rigs, and I want these to stay in sync. I want these organizations to be loosely sync'ed with my local library folders in Rig Manager, and I want that to be sync'ed between computers as well.


    To sync files between computers, I use dropbox. I have a Kemper folder in my dropbox folder, automatically syncing between computers. I have a few folders in the Kemper folder:

    • Commercial Raw
    • Commercial Mods
    • Free Raw
    • Free Mods
    • Favorites
    • OS
    • Utilities
    • Backups

    OS has subfolders for each FW version, with the kaos.bin file for that version - useful if I ever need to revert. Utilities includes installers for Rig Manager, Cab Maker, and various 3rd party software used to make Kemper life easier. Backups just stores the backup files I copy off of my USB drive.


    I separate free and commercial profiles to make sure I'm only sharing free stuff. Free Raw consists largely of profile packs that aren't available on the Rig Exchange but are shared as dropbox links on the forum. I have a subfolder in there for random Rig Exchange profiles I like. Usually I'm importing local files into Rig Manager, not exporting from Rig Manager to my local file system, other than modifications, which are easy - I always put "MAB" in the rig name for modified rigs. In Rig Manager, I look at my profiler and search for "MAB" to see all the modified rigs. Usually it's apparent by the author's name whether it is commercial or not, but if necessary, I can search for the identical rig name w/o "MAB" to see if it appears in Free Raw or Commercial Raw to figure out which it is.


    Now, to sync Rig Manager, I make a "Rig Manager" folder under my Kemper folder in dropbox. In here I'm going to copy the entire contents of the Rig Manager data folder from one of my local computers. That's C:\users\username\appdata\local\Kemper Amps\Rig Manager\. I make a shortcut to this folder for each computer (since I have different usernames and thus different paths on each) and also store those shortcuts in my Kemper\Rig Manager folder in dropbox. When I'm finished using Rig Manager on either computer, I close the program, go to my DropBox\Kemper\Rig Manager folder, open the shortcut to the Rig Manager appdata folder, copy the contents, go back to DropBox\Kemper\Rig Manager, delete all the files (except my shortcuts) then paste the updated files. Now when I go to my other computer, before I open Rig Manager, I do the process in reverse. I copy all the Rig Manager files from my dropbox folder, open the shortcut, delete the local files, and paste the copies from the cloud. Boom - everything is in sync.


    If you ever have Rig Manager hang on you or it won't start up, I found that the RigExchange.db file can get corrupted. To fix this, I deleted that file, then went into RigExchange.xml and deleted all the <rig ... > lines. Then Rig Manager started up correctly and downloaded any missing Rig Exchange rigs.

    Dude, your guide took my Pod HD500 from unusable to as good as it could be, and here you are on the Kemper forum after I switched over improving my Kemper experience!


    Thanks so much for your knowledge sharing!

    Thanks for sharing this! I do have 2 locations as well, my studio MacPro and my MacBook Pro. I haven't used the Rig Manager much yet but I did run into the problem with having 2 different locations for my Rig Mananger.


    Question: can I simply move my RM folder from my laptop or studio computer to my drop box and then then recreate or reappoint the path in both rig manager apps?


    thanks

    I am not sure how Rig Manager works in regards to where it stores the database files on Mac, but on Windows, I don't think there's a way to customize where it looks for them. I tried to replace the RigManager folder (C:\Users\username\appdata\Local\Kemper Amps\RigManager\) with a shortcut named "RigManager" that pointed to the corresponding folder inside my DropBox folder, but that didn't work - RigManager just created a new RigManager folder.


    There may be a way to hack into the binary and force it to look for the corresponding files in other locations, but otherwise I don't see any way to make that happen. So yes, unfortunately, there's still a manual component to this otherwise totally cloud setup. Which is ironic since Rig Manager throws around the "cloud" term so much.

    No problem. Also should point out that under my commercial and free raw folders I make folders for the profiles' author, then subfolders for each pack. But in rig manager i dont bother with all that, as it just clutters up the interface. I dump all the profiles into the commercial/free raw folders then use the search filter and ordering options to find what i want.

    the symbolic link appears to have worked. First, I moved the entire RigManger folder from C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Kemper Amps\ to C:\Users\<username>\DropBox\Kemper\


    So the Kemper folder under AppData\Local is now completely empty. Then I ran a command prompt with admin privileges (press the start button, type cmd, right click on the cmd.exe icon and choose run as administrator). I entered the following command (be sure to replace <username> with your username:


    Code
    mklink /J "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Kemper Amps\RigManager" "C:\Users\<username>\Dropbox\kemper\RigManager"


    and got the following response


    Code
    Junction created for C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Kemper Amps\RigManager <<===>> C:\Users\<username>\Dropbox\kemper\RigManager


    Now if I go to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Kemper Amps\RigManager, I see the files in my Dropbox folder, but it look like they're in the AppData path as though "RigManager" it isn't a shortcut. But when I look at it, it does have the shortcut icon. I can open Rig Manager, and it is none-the-wiser that it's actually loading cloud-sync'ed data from my dropbox folder.


    be sure to close rig manager whenever you are done using it. never use rig manager simultaneously on both computers.


    Oh Great And Powerful Oz-meambobbo.... I'm not worthy.... I'm not worthy.... have to agree with a previous poster about the old HD500 page. :)

    I am a Profile Whore... Sometimes a Recovering Profile Whore...
    but mostly a Complete and Utter Profile Whore... I want them all... aCk!!! 8|:love:

    Like 1


    Nice idea, I definitely need to get more sorted, time to put the guitar down for a bit and do some housekeeping.

    German, I read up a little on how Macs handle shortcuts - check this out:


    http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/…ard-Links-In-Mac-Os-X.htm.


    I would try to use an alias to the RigManager folder before creating a symbolic link. So move the RigManager folder to a Kemper folder in your dropbox folder, then create an alias to RigManager and place that where the folder used to exist. This seems to be as simple as dragging the folder while holding command and option. Then launch RigManager. If your local library rigs are still there, it worked. If not, delete the alias and try to create a symbolic link instead. It looks like you'd need to do so through the terminal.


    https://gigaom.com/2011/04/27/…nd-use-symlinks-on-a-mac/


    of course, I am not a regular Mac user, so if someone with more experience could chime in, that would be helpful!


    Great stuff! Thank you for sharing. Seems like German engineering drives German organization.

    Saw the post "how I stay organized" and my left brain said to ignore it for a few days maybe it would go away, my right brain won out so here I am. Great stuff, thanks for the tips! Once I'm done procrastinating I will use it for sure! Cheers!