u-he refurbished Preset Browser discussion

[Urs]

About our new preset browser... we've been working on this for a while and it's finally good to go. We did our homework and researched all sorts of tag based systems. We came up with something that we think is straight forward. In Diva and Repro-1 it was possible to tag presets for a while, but those tags were only of use in the info field and when saving presets for NKS. The new preset browser makes them usable.

Our concept is rather simple: We kept the file browsing structure as it ever was. We added a text input field for searches. We added multi-coloured favourites and - often requested - "smart folders" that show these. We added an optional view which shows presets by tag. We improved all sorts of things. Hence:

It all works like it always did, with the tagged search added as an *option*.



These are the main new features:

• Multi-coloured favourites which appear in their respective folders
• Textual search (which is tricky in hosts that don't give us all keys... in FL/Reaper you need to allow Key input to plug-ins)
• Double-click a folder to change the scope of the browser and search within only that
• Special Tag-based view where any sort of tags can be combined
• Drag'n'Drop of folders (drag smart folders to create copies, e.g. for archives)
• Trash

Special search options:

• Instead of just filenames etc. you can also search for tags using #. For instance, you can search for the tag "Bright" by typing #Bright.
• #Dark #Mono in search phrase finds all presets that have both tags "Dark" and "Mono".
• author:Howa finds all presets by authors that contain "Howa".
• name:, desc:, use: like above, searching filename, description field, usage field.
• "some thing" (in quotes) finds exact matches of "some thing", otherwise all searches also find partial matches.

Examples:

• Howa #favourite 1 #mono will find all presets that have a word containing Howa in the name, author, description or usage text and that are marked as favourite 1 and have the mono tag.
• #Basses:Acoustic will find all presets that have the tag Basses:Acoustic.

Check out the preliminary user guide chapter here:

https://uhedownloads-heckmannaudiogmb.n ... er_WIP.pdf

Get Repro V1.1 beta from here:

Repro-5 public beta (Repro V1.1)

Test Preset Browser in Repro-1 (Repro-5 does not come with thoroughly tagged presets yet)

We'll be happy to hear your thoughts. We know that it is a complex topic. We also know that it'll be impossible to make everyone happy. U-he is 15 people and we have 15 different opinions about these things. In the end we have to find a compromise that works.

Thanks,

- Urs

Browser 2.0 - selection of known issues:

• Possible crash when exiting Komplete Kontrol after using preset save dialog
• Possible crash when using MIDI learn while on the preset browser page
• Possible crash when trying to load script presets
• Folder highlighting after saving searches not consistent
• Junked presets always visible in some smart folders
• Graphic glitches while using preset browser & Velvet at same time
• Graphic glitches in directory and in preset inspector (display overflowing)
• Some small issues with preset restore function
• When working on multiple projects in parallel, a refresh might be needed to sync all instances
• Cut, copy, paste in search text input field not working in some hosts
• In some hosts (e.g. Reaper), one needs to activate ‘send all keys to plugin’ option. Hint: Shift-space might work to insert spaces in the search field
• Mac only - 32bit VST2 will open floating window for search text input field
• Win only - Sonar hangs when using Tab key in search text input field
• Win only - issue with mouse and search text input field in ProTools
• Win only - random short flashes while entering text in search text input field

[zvenx]

Is there a way to transfer database searches, favourites (which we currently can) from mac to pc and vice versa?
I use both.
thanks
rsp

[Howard]

Copy/paste the search string.

[zvenx]

Sorry,I meant like saved searches folder.. which if I am not mistaken isn't a physical folder?
thanks.
rsp

[EvilDragon]

For Reaper users: You do NOT need to enable the "Send all keyboard input to plugin" option in order to use the text search in Repro. Spacebar is the only problem - it will by default run transport, but this has a nifty workaround in Reaper - just use Shift+space to send spacebar keyboard event to the plugin. Et voila!

This all on Windows, but I believe it should also work on Mac.

[Howard]

Sorry,I meant like saved searches folder.. which if I am not mistaken isn't a physical folder?
thanks. rsp

You can drag a smart folder onto e.g. "User" and it will be converted to a real folder. Will work for searches IF the search string isn't too crazy.

[tasmaniandevil]

Sorry,I meant like saved searches folder.. which if I am not mistaken isn't a physical folder?
thanks.
rsp

There now is a preset database file which holds all this information.
On Mac it is stored here: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/u-he/Repro-1/PresetDatabase
And on Win, you can find it in the data folder: \Repro-1.data\PresetDatabase
Note that there is a separate folder for the Repro-5 database on Mac, but on Windows, both are in the same Repro-1.data folder.
You could take the preset database from one computer and put it in place on the other one.
During loading of the plugin, the database will scan the preset folders and update itself in order to show which presets are actually available on that machine. But favourites, junk, search history and saved searches from your first computer should then show up on the machine you copied the database to.

Another tip: You can drag smart folders (like the favourites, junk or saved searches) and drop them in the folder structure, e.g. inside the User area of the presets directory. They will then be converted into real folders, holding copies of all those presets. You can then transfer the folders with those presets to another machine.
Edit: Ah, I see Howard was faster than me and already mentioned that tip.

[zvenx]

This indeed is the info I was looking for.
Thanks a million.
So no longer need to copy over and edit my favourite.xml file for repro-1 and 5 I take it.
thanks
rsp

Sorry,I meant like saved searches folder.. which if I am not mistaken isn't a physical folder?
thanks.
rsp

There now is a preset database file which holds all this information.
On Mac it is stored here: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/u-he/Repro-1/PresetDatabase
And on Win, you can find it in the data folder: \Repro-1.data\PresetDatabase
Note that there is a separate folder for the Repro-5 database on Mac, but on Windows, both are in the same Repro-1.data folder.
You could take the preset database from one computer and put it in place on the other one.
During loading of the plugin, the database will scan the preset folders and update itself in order to show which presets are actually available on that machine. But favourites, junk, search history and saved searches from your first computer should then show up on the machine you copied the database to.

Another tip: You can drag smart folders (like the favourites, junk or saved searches) and drop them in the folder structure, e.g. inside the User area of the presets directory. They will then be converted into real folders, holding copies of all those presets. You can then transfer the folders with those presets to another machine.

[AnX]

Overly complex for me. I just need one folder and two clicks to load my own sounds. No tags or any other superflous stuff that just makes it a chore to work with.

Preset surfers obviously wont agree.

[EvilDragon]

Obviously you can still use that method.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I'm still very much getting used to the new browser but the first thing that stuck out as odd:

1. I go to the Tags page
2. I click on Category - Bass

Expected Result: I see all Bass patches.

Actual Result: No change in the visible presets. I actually need to click on "Any" first to see all basses. This isn't very intuitive to me.

Suggested Change: when clicking a new category, default to "Any" then let the user change it. This way if you want to see all basses in one click, you just click the "Bass" tag. Currently it's a two click process "Bass" then "Any."

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Also, skins created in the prior version use the old browser. Is this expected? If so, I guess I'll need to figure out how to recreate (God I hope I saved a macro) and upgrade my old skin.

[Urs]

Suggested Change: when clicking a new category, default to "Any" then let the user change it. This way if you want to see all basses in one click, you just click the "Bass" tag. Currently it's a two click process "Bass" then "Any."

Yep, that's probably the most discussed issue here as well

[Urs]

Also, skins created in the prior version use the old browser. Is this expected? If so, I guess I'll need to figure out how to recreate (God I hope I saved a macro) and upgrade my old skin.

Yes, we'll have to educate skin designers about it. It's a whole new system, but part of the long hold up was making 3rd party skins not crash. We hope that they'll just work, mostly the old way, and that there's a bit of time to update these.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Are the categories final? I'd like to see Categories (with unique, relevant sub-categories) for Brass, Strings, Poly, and FX at the very least. Basically, look at the existing folder structure for the Factory Presets: it would make sense if each folder type had a corresponding Category.

So I'm organizing some patches and right now, where do I put the poly brass patches (for example)? Not under Keys or Leads. Certainly not Other. There's no Brass category, there's no Poly category. Or can we create our own and I haven't found that yet?