Files and saving
Every production involves three distinct files: the show file KeyboardTEK delivers, the sidecar that holds your edits, and the activation that allows you to use them. This article covers the first two, the files themselves and how saving works. For more information of activation, see Activation and licensing.
Files
| File | What it contains | Who edits it |
|---|---|---|
.ktd |
The show file KeyboardTEK delivered: cues, audio, shipped defaults. | KeyboardTEK |
.ktd.user |
Everything you have customized: mixer state, edit view changes, per-show settings. | The user, when you save changes |
|
Activation (key or |
The right to perform the show on a specific machine for a specific window. | KeyboardTEK. |
The .ktd and .ktd.user live in the same folder. The activation is a separate record, installed into KTPlayer itself, not stored alongside the show files.
How saving works
What gets saved to the .user |
What doesn't get saved to the .user |
|---|---|
|
When you open a The - Edit view changes: Visible, Color, Tpo, Tpo %, Pitch, Play, Xfade, Q (anything that shows yellow in edit view because it differs from the shipped default). - Mixer state: output assignments per channel, fader positions. |
App-level preferences live with KTPlayer itself, not with the show. These persist across shows and are not stored in the - Output device, sample rate, buffer size: these belong to the Mac you're running on. - MIDI device assignments and the Listen checkboxes. - Key commands and MIDI bindings: your assignments in Preferences → Assignments. - Global Quantize GO setting in Preferences → Behavior. - Fade audio on STOP for: the default Stop fade duration. - Warping quality. |
Saving controls
Three controls live in the File menu:
- Save Changes (
⌘S): writes pending edits from this session to the.ktd.userfile. Disabled when there is nothing unsaved. - Reset All Changes: discards every unsaved edit in the current session and reverts the show to the last saved state of the
.ktd.user(or to the shipped defaults if no.ktd.userexists yet). Disabled when there is nothing unsaved. - Close (
⌘W): closes the show file. If you have unsaved changes, KTPlayer prompts before closing.
Nothing saves until you press `⌘S`
Edits you make are held in memory until you press ⌘S . Until then, you can experiment freely and discard everything via Reset All Changes. Saving writes your edits to the .ktd.user file.
Moving your work to a new machine
To carry your work to a new Mac, copy both files (.ktd and .ktd.user ) to the same folder on the new machine, with the same names and both extensions intact. Open the .ktd in KTPlayer; it detects the matching .ktd.user and loads your edits. If you copy only the .ktd , the show opens at the shipped defaults.
Moving the files does not carry the activation: that is tied to the machine it was installed on. Production licenses allow for use on multiple computers, but you will need to follow the same activation process on the new machine. See Activation and licensing.