RipX DAW Portable

RipX DAW Portable v7.0.2 released!

A portable launcher for RipX DAW, Hit'n'Mix's stem separation and audio editing workstation, built with the PortableApps Compiler (pac-man). Every change it makes to Windows is recorded first and undone when RipX closes, or on the next launch if something went wrong.

The package doesn't include or handle RipX's licensing: use it with a copy of RipX DAW you're licensed to run.

System Requirements

• Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. RipX DAW has no 32-bit version.
• Administrator rights for the launcher. RipX itself runs with your normal rights (see Drag and drop).
• Data on a local drive (a USB drive is fine; a network share isn't). See Data.
• PortableApps.com Platform (optional).

Downloads

• Direct Link
• Mirror

Drag and drop

Windows doesn't let Explorer, or any other program running with normal rights, drag files into a program that runs as administrator. So a launcher that runs RipX elevated also breaks dragging audio files into it.

The launcher still needs administrator rights for the machine-wide registry key RipX reads (see Registry). But once it has set that up, it starts RipX the way Explorer would: with the rights of the signed-in user, using Explorer's own credentials. Dragging audio into RipX from Explorer, the desktop and other programs then works as it does with an installed RipX.

• A second launch while RipX runs (opening a rip from the PortableApps.com Platform, for example) isn't elevated at all, so there's no UAC prompt. It hands its files to the running RipX.
• If the launcher was elevated with a different account's password (a standard user typing an administrator's password), RipX has to run as that administrator, and dragging from your own Explorer can't work. Signing in with an account that is an administrator avoids that.

Configuration

RipXDAWPortable.ini, next to the launcher, holds the user settings. If it gets damaged, or you want to go back to the defaults, copy Other\Source\RipXDAWPortable.ini over it.

[RipXDAWPortable]
AdditionalParameters=
DisableSplashScreen=false
Symlinks=true

Key	Default	What it does
Symlinks	true	Link RipX's folders into Data while it runs. With false, RipX uses the folders on the computer and nothing in them travels with the package.
AdditionalParameters	empty	Extra command line switches passed to RipX.
DisableSplashScreen	false	Don't show the launcher's splash screen.

Data

While RipX runs, these are linked into Data with NTFS junctions, so nothing is copied back and forth. That matters here: a single rip is often several hundred megabytes.

RipX uses	Kept in
Documents\RipX (rips, stems, loops, sound palettes, RipLists, RipScripts)	Data\RipX
%APPDATA%\Hit'n'Mix (shared instrument data)	Data\Hit'n'Mix

If an installed RipX already has one of these folders, it's moved aside for the session and put back when RipX DAW Portable closes.

RipX's preferences, HKCU\Software\HitnMix\HitnMix\Kit, are kept in Data\settings\RipX.reg. They're loaded when RipX starts and saved when it closes; an installed RipX's preferences are put back afterward.

Close an installed RipX before starting RipX DAW Portable; the launcher won't start while one is open.

Registry

RipX reads where its resources are, and the user details its installer leaves, from HKLM\SOFTWARE\HitnMix. Without them it treats itself as a broken installation. For the session, the launcher writes what RipX's installer would, pointing at the package:

• HitnMix\ApplicationPath: the package's RipX.exe
• HitnMix\Kit\DataPath: ResourcePath and HitnMixSharedPath, the package's App\RipXDAW folder
• HitnMix\Kit\User info: the installer's defaults for Name, Company and ActivationCode, only where they aren't set

The whole key is recorded first. If it wasn't there it's deleted when RipX closes; if an installed RipX had it, it's put back exactly as it was, including the installed RipX's own user details.

Activation

The launcher doesn't touch RipX's activation. RipX keeps it for each Windows user in a registry key of its own, which stays on the computer, so RipX may ask you to activate it on each computer you use it on, as Hit'n'Mix intends.

If something goes wrong

If RipX DAW Portable didn't close properly (a crash, a power cut, a USB drive pulled out), the next launch tells you and undoes everything the last session changed. Start it again afterward. Your rips and files in Data are kept; preferences changed in the session that crashed aren't saved.

When reporting a problem, please include an export of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\pac-man\Journal registry key and the contents of %LOCALAPPDATA%\pac-man\Journal.

Building from source

The launcher is built with the PortableApps Compiler. Its configuration lives in App\AppInfo:

File	Contents
App\AppInfo\appinfo.ini	Package details, version and file types
App\AppInfo\Launcher\RipXDAWPortable.ini	The launcher configuration: the data links
App\AppInfo\Launcher\custom.nsh	Starting RipX without elevation, the machine-wide key and the portable preferences

Credits

• RipX DAW is developed by Hit'n'Mix Ltd.
• PortableApps.com Platform by PortableApps.com.
• PortableApps Compiler developed by daemon.devin.