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 .kta   file)

 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 .ktd  , KTPlayer loads the matching .ktd.user   from the same folder if one is present. Your previous edits appear immediately in edit view, the mixer, and anywhere else they apply. If no .ktd.user   exists yet, the show opens at the shipped defaults and KTPlayer creates a fresh sidecar the first time you save.


The .ktd.user   holds all of your customizations:

- 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 .ktd.user  :

- 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.user   file. Disabled when there is nothing unsaved.
  • Reset All Changes: discards the.ktd.user file, restoring the .ktd file to the shipped defaults
  • 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.

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