I’ve recently installed SubLab XL (Windows 11, Bitwig, VST3), and all factory presets including the New Preset init show a Missing sample “” (empty quotes) error. The sample screen also says: Drop “” here to relink the file, with Relink and Forget buttons. The “” empty quotes suggests that the preset doesn’t know the name of the sample it’s looking for. If I click the Relink button, it opens C:\Program Files\FAW\SubLabXL\Samples, which contains a folder structure with wave files, but I have no clue which file would be required for the respective preset. Any ideas how to fix?
Ok, so something is up if you can’t see the sample files. Usually that means that the database is looking for the files and can’t find them at the correct location.
If the files are in the correct location and you go to relink and it doesn’t find them then something is blocking XL from opening the files.
- Do you have a full admin rights on your computer?
- Do you run any other software that could be blocking SubLab XL from opening the files?
- When you load XL, do you see a list of presets?
Hi Gavin. Yes, I have full admin rights. Nothing should be blocking access to the wav files. I can see them in the filesystem and open/play each from Windows Explorer. I can see the name of the sample that should be used in the preset xml file (e.g. Hard-Saw-808 in the Analog Moog 808 preset). If I attempt to relink that file in the UI it fails, and continues to display the Missing sample “” message. Yes, I see the list of presets in SubLab XL. Scrolling through the list of collections and presets seems kinda buggy, but it works to browse and to load other aspects of each preset.
@Pablo yeah that does sound strange…can you zip up your database file (sublabxl.db) and send it through to support@futureaudioworkshop.com
Hi Gavin. Email has been sent. Thanks for your help.
Hi Pablo,
I saw your message come into support - I’ll get that file and send it over to Gavin 
Take care,
Julia
Similar bug from an earlier beta where the installer deletes samples.
ProgramData and AppData (presets, samples etc.) should be in ProgramData or AppData NOT Program Files (since Windows2000).
"Windows provides specific locations in the file system to store programs and software components, shared application data, and application data specific to a user:
Applications should be installed to the Program Files folder by default. User data or application data must never be stored in this location because of the security permissions configured for this folder"
So I’m still not making use of this plugin. Any ideas how I can get the presets working as they should?
Hey @Pablo,
Are you logged in under an account with full admin privileges?
Also, make sure to send me your database directly to my personal email address. You can find it at the location /Program Files/FAW/SubLabXL/sublabxl.db
By any chance did you also change the installation directory from its default location when you ran the installer?
Yes. Done. And no. All of this information is in the above conversation trail.
Never mind. I’m moving on. Plugin uninstalled.
The review will be up on YouTube shortly.
Hi Pablo,
Sorry for the slow reply…we’ve been checking into it seems that the issue is a corrupted database, we open the file you sent and it contains no samples. The delay has in replying was due to us trying to figure out what happened, we haven’t had any other bug report with a similar issue…yet. So we want to figure out what is up.
Firstly, I’ve send you a fresh database which you can drop into the installation folder where the existing corrupt database resided.
Second, is there anything that you think could have caused the issue with the database. We’re struggling to figure out what could have gone wrong…one scenario is that the standalone and the plugin VST3 in Bitwig were open at the same time and somehow wrote to the database concurrently, but this is a very narrow edge. Another scenario might have been a hard quit of Bitwig while the plugin was loading.
Gavin.
Hi Gavin and Julia,
Thanks for coming back to me. I’ve reinstalled SubLab XL (VST 2 and 3 installed, standalone not installed) with a fresh download via Plugin Boutique. As far as I’m aware, I’ve done everything the same as the past several attempts. This time, I’m pleased to say, things appear to work correctly out of the box. I haven’t needed to use the database you’ve sent me. Is this the same product version I would have installed previously?
I can’t think of anything I might have done that could have corrupted the database. Bitwig is quite stable and I’ve never needed to force-close it. I’ve had the occasional plugin crash, which Bitwig shrugs off due to the way it sandboxes things, but I don’t recall that having happened with SubLab XL. I don’t think I’ve had multiple instances of the plugin open at once. And I think the only time I would have attempted to write anything to the database is while trying to manually map the already broken samples to existing presets.
Thanks again for getting back to me. I’m looking forward to making use of the plugin.
If I can be of any assistance to troubleshoot what may have happened, feel free to reach out.
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I’m having this issue as well. I’m going to reinstall and see what happens.
Keep me filled in guys on how it goes. I’d love to know what is happening.