Scaler 3 has internal sounds which can be set manually to “no instrument”. There is an option to not download them when you first install S3 but not after this, so once downloaded you would have to manually delete them. The only way to set the global default instrument to “no instrument” seems to be to save it as a user preset.
Here are my thoughts on what should be possible.
Internal sounds should be optional and disabled by default. This would make S3 much smaller to download and would free up around 850Mb in hard drive/ssd space.
If it is not made optional, then at least give the option to store the sounds somewhere other than the system drive. For example, I have a sample drive (SSD) where I store all of my audio samples. So an option under preferences would allow the location of the samples to be specified, like with Scaler 2
It would be good to have a preferences option to set the default instrument to “no instrument” or anything else.
UPDATE:
The sounds are located here in Windows:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\Scaler Music\Scaler 3\Sounds
It seems that you can delete these manually and Scaler 3 still loads but just play silence for deleted sounds. So, I have cherry picked a small number of the sounds and left them in place, deleting the others.
You can turn off internal instrument by choosing Instruments > All > No Instrument. In Scaler 2 you could delete any internal sampleset leaving only those you need/like. This saved your diskspace. I haven’t tried this with Scaler 3 though. In Scaler 2, by the way, you could specify your default internal sound, if I remember it right.
It doesn’t help with the download size but the installer gives you the option not to install the sounds. Personally I find them quite convenient to sketch out stuff. I replace them later, although I have been known to use the Felt Piano in a final version of a song.
I disagree that the sounds should be disabled by default. One of the most common complaints from new users of MIDI VSTs is that they can’t get any sound out of them, usually because they have not routed it correctly to their DAW. Built-in sounds give instant gratification.
Yes, you are right about Scaler 2 - my point was about Scaler 3.
I have reworded my request to clarify this.
Also, to clarify, I know you can select “no instrument” but I would rather the internal instruments not be downloaded in the first place so that they don’t take up disk space. Especially as I already have plenty of better 3rd party instruments to choose from.
Maybe then, there should be a limited number of sounds downloaded by default (even just Felt Piano).
My main gripe though is having to store the sounds on the system drive. I know this can be circumvented using a junction but a built-in way would be far preferable, like in Scaler 2.
Incidentally, the sounds are stored here (for Windows users)
I think you can probably just delete the sounds you don’t want from that folder. Try moving everything except the Felt Piano to another location and see what Scaler 3 does. If all is OK then delete the moved files.
And, yes, I know what you mean about the system drive. Many, many apps and plugins install large amounts of stuff there without any thought to the fact that many modern systems have a small, fast SSD as a system drive and one or more larger slower drives as main storage.
Thanks, yes moving sounds that I don’t want somewhere else (or deleting them) seems to be a good workaround. I just tried it with all except a few sounds including Felt Piano.
All of the sounds are still selectable in Scaler 3, but only the ones that are still in that folder make a sound. The others are silent, but at least Scaler 3 doesn’t crash.
Have anybody found out how you can set the default sound? I’ve tried to override the default template so that “no instrument”/none would be the default. Of course I can save a separate template or make a track template in DAW, but whenever I create a new track in s3 arrange, I need to go to tick off the sound and other 3 fx things below it and etc. Of course it would be nice to set the default for all things related to adding a new track, but priority…
So I’ve seen this brought up about previous Scaler versions but from what I can gather, there is no way to relocate the sound library to another drive? Can’t see any preference options in install or in the plugin itself.
I really try to keep large sample libraries off the system drive as I have a relatively small system drive. A simple library path option in the preferences would be helpful. Manually removing to elsewhere of course results in internal sounds doing nothing, but there is strangely no warning or error messages thrown up by Scaler. Just silence.
I suppose there is probably a workaround with link shells and such but I really wish devs would give end users the option as to where they want to install the sound library components, especially as in this case, Scaler 3 has a large internal library.
Hi @Atardecer, welcome to the forum and thanks for your post. An option to store internal sounds/content on an external drive is on our list of potential features for future updates. Cheers.