Plugin Content | Managing Blob Files

Table of Contents

Introduction

The main sample content for UJAM plug-ins is contained in a file of the type "blob" ("binary large object"). While there are other supporting files (in addition to the plug-ins themselves), the .blob files are by far the largest.

1) Choosing an alternate location for installation

The UJAM App has an option (in settings) to select a different location to install to.

❗️Important note about Usynth, Virtual Pianist and SUBCRAFT:

Please note that there are a few exceptions to relocating the files – the .blob files for the main (frames) of Usynth and Virtual Pianist as well as the .blob files for Subcraft need to remain in their default locations. This is handled correctly by the UJAM App, so avoid manually relocating the main .blob files from the Subcraft, Usynth, or Virtual Pianist folders.

2) Moving Content After Installation 

• The ability to move a plug-in's content was added to the UJAM App in v1.0.9. Simply click the ••• menu for the desired plug-in, select Move Content, navigate to the desired location then click Open. (Note that some plug-ins like SUBCRAFT do not support alternate content locations so will not show this option.)

Locating the Blob Files

• If your plug-in cannot find or access the plugin content, you may see this message:

• In this case, please close DAW and try to find the content. In general, we always recommend to keep the blob files in the default location, in order to ensure that your plug-in can always find and load its content files.
   
• In case you have not installed the content to a custom location, standard locations are:

Macintosh HD:/Library/Application Support/UJAM/

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\ProgramData\UJAM\

• Once you've found the blob files, open your UJAM App and click on ‘Locate Content‘:
  
   
• A window will pop up. Now you are supposed to navigate to the blob file location. You need to open the folder which contains the plugin content. If there are two blob files (usually called part1 and part2), make sure that both blob files are in the same folder and always point to part1 (!)
• Once you have located the correct blob file, you can open your DAW and the plugin should be working as expected.

Manually Relocating the Plugin Content after Installation

As content files can be pretty big, we understand some of you want to store them on external drives rather than filling up space on your primary internal disk. Learn how to move and find your plug-in content after installation.

At first, have a quick look at the following videos:

macOS

Windows

Step by Step

Step 1)

• Move your blob files to the desired location (different folder or different drive). Don't move the whole folder, just the files. If there are two blob files (usually called part1 and part2), move them both as they always need to be in the same folder. Sometimes there is only one blob file (differs from plugin to plugin).
   
• For example, the content file for Virtual Guitarist CARBON is called ‘VG-CARBON.blob‘ (4,36 GB) and the content file for Beatmaker DOPE is called ‘BM-DOPE.blob‘:

macOS:

Windows:

Step 2)

• After relocating the blob files, open your UJAM App and click on ‘locate content‘:
• A window will show up, in which you can then navigate to the blob file location. You need to open the folder which contains the plugin content. If there are two blob files (usually called part1 and part2), make sure that both blob files are in the same folder and always point to part1.
• If you don't have the UJAM App and you open the plugin in your DAW, the dialog window may look like this (depending on the plugin):

macOS:

Windows:

Step 3)

Always make sure you point to the correct location of the .blob files so that the plugin knows where to find its content and you're good to go! ✔️
 

Using Installer Files

Changing the location during the installation process is usually possible. In some edge cases this might not work properly though (depending on the product and operating system):

macOS:	Windows:

Additional Information

• Choosing a wrong blob file can crash the plug-in and DAW. 
  • Let's say you update your plug-in to version 2.1 but accidentally choose the 2.0 blob file –  you will now have to delete the .settings file of the plug-in or even remove all plugin files and reinstall the plug-in. 
• Always point to the blob file the dialog asks for, or else you might experience a crash. 
• If there are two or more blob files: they must always be located in the same folder. 
• If anything goes wrong and the plugin cannot load the content, you might see any of the following error messages: 

Advanced Troubleshooting for macOS

If the plug-in cannot find the content file, in some edge cases a Mac user needs to manually edit the blob file path. 
Note: This is not possible for Usynth and Virtual Pianist plug-ins! 

Here's how to: 

1. Make sure your DAW is closed.
2. Go to: Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/UJAM/
3. Make sure that your user account has ‘Read & Write‘ privileges for the folder and the sub-folders. Right-click the folder and select ‘Get Info‘:
   
4. Click on the tiny lock and unlock it in order to make changes. You will be asked to enter your system password.
   
5. Afterwards, click on the tiny plus icon:
   
6. Next, add you user account and add ‘Read and Write‘ privileges:
   
    
7. Once your user account has ‘Read & Write‘ privileges for the folder and the sub-folders, go to your custom location of the blob file.
8. In your custom folder, right-click the blob file (part1), press and hold the ‘alt(option)-key‘ and then click on ‘Copy "<Name of blob file>" as Pathname‘. Now you've copied the new path of the blob file.
9. In the default content directory, you should find the so called ‘.settings‘ file which contains the original path of the blob file:
   
    
10. Open the settings file in a text editor program.
11. Edit the blob file path by pasting your custom path between the "" characters in the settings file. As mentioned already, in order to let the plugin find the blob file you need to make sure that you enter the exact path.
12. Save the settings file.
13. Open your DAW and launch the plugin. It should now load the blob file from the custom location.