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Duplicate Style Removal

Started by BjayG, September 11, 2013, 03:22:46 PM

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BjayG

Dear All,

This is my first post to this forum as I have only recently acquired vArranger (which I think is great). 

I don't believe this has already been mentioned - but if it has then apologies.

One of the problems with collecting styles from the Internet is that it is virtually impossible to avoid collecting duplicate styles and the result is a mess.

One solution I have found which helps is to use a duplicate file finder program.   Basically this digs into all the files selected and looks for anything that is internally identical (ignoring filenames and dates) - and then gives you an option to delete the duplicates en-mass.  What it cannot do is remove styles that are only slightly different but are really the same (e.g.  maybe someone has slightly tweaked a volume in the new version - so it sounds identical but is completely different internally at the file level). 

Anyway - in case anyone is interested - here is the program I used to do this task.  It is free for home use:-

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/duplicate-file-finder/   . 

To use it:-

1) Keep a backup of all your style files in case you screw up.
2) Make sure your style files are in a single directory tree (with no other file types in the tree) - otherwise you will finish up processing other files on the disk - and that may be a tad undesirable.  I have a directory called Styles with sub-directories called Yamaha, Roland, Ketron etc. 
3) Run the program.   It may be obvious but you do not need to run the program separately for each style type  (i.e. Roland, Yamaha etc) as these cannot cause a conflict because they will have a different fundamental structure
4) Select the path\directories where the styles exist  (e.g. D:\styles\
5) Select [ x ] 'Look for all file types'
6) Clear [   ]  'Ignore small files'
7) Clear [   ] 'Ignore large files'
8 ) Select  [ x ] 'Ignore file names'
9) Select [ x ] 'Ignore file dates'
10) Let the program run - it could take some time.

You should then finish up with a highlighted list of duplicates which can be deleted.

NOTE:  Delete nothing unless you have a backup of your original files mentioned in 1) above and do make sure that you are not processing directories other than ones containing the styles otherwise you might delete something important.     

I believe it is quite safe - but use only at your own risk!!!

I hope this is of some use to someone.

Cheers
Barry

Dan