S4 Tier 0: the bank plays — VST3 marshals MIDI to the S3 core, reads the live bank + resolves WAV the M4 way, mono downmix, lock-free load handoff, LICE sample-pick

src/persist.cpp

@@ -128,11 +128,11 @@ void* readActiveProject(std::string& rppPathOut) {
 // Parent directory of the .rpp, forward-slashed, no trailing slash. Empty in ->
 // empty out. Mirrors capture.cpp's derivation so the bank sits alongside the
 // .rpp (NOT GetProjectPathEx, which returns the recording path — see capture.cpp
-// for the full rationale). normalizeSlashes lives in capture_paths (pure).
+// for the full rationale). The derivation itself is projectDirOfRpp in capture_paths
+// (pure) — the SAME convention the VST3 instrument resolves audio paths by, so both
+// artifacts share one implementation rather than duplicating the parent-of-.rpp step.
 std::string projectDirOf(const std::string& rppPath) {
-    if (rppPath.empty()) return {};
-    std::string dir = fs::path(rppPath).parent_path().string();
-    return normalizeSlashes(dir);
+    return projectDirOfRpp(rppPath);
 }
 
 // GetProjExtState needs a caller-supplied buffer; the index JSON can be large