u-he refurbished Preset Browser discussion

[hakey]

Okay, Tas. Thanks

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Two things I'm still not clear on in the browser...

1. What exactly is a Smart Folder? I guess the favorites are a "Smart Folder" as is my Search History, but then I can save and create my own Smart Folders? I'm not sure the WIP is clear on this, and I'm certainly not at the moment.

2. Why does this happen when I double click on a folder? What's the benefit of this? I find it confusing and silly at the moment, but that may be because I'm missing something. It's tripped me up more than once.

Double-Click.jpg

[zvenx]

re:2... after you double clicked there it will only search in that folder.
rsp

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

re:2... after you double clicked there it will only search in that folder.
rsp

Ok, that makes sense. I guess at the moment it's not adding a ton of value because the number of presets is relatively small, but I guess it would add value if you had a ton of additional presets spread across many folders and knew you wanted to stick to only bass patches from a particular library. I'm not sure I'd ever use this feature myself, but at least now I understand it.

[Aspects of Tone]

Another reason the browser might be starting to feel a bit claustrophobic could be the increasing size of the top bar. Though Repro-5 seems to have bucked the trend by being slightly smaller than Repro-1 it is still twice the depth of Zebra and ACE.

Any particular design reason for the increasing size?

[EvilDragon]

It looks better.

[Aspects of Tone]

It looks better.

[Aspects of Tone]

Okay, I know I said I haven't used tags and stuff for presets but I do a lot of tagging of my photos so thought I'd have a go

Quite like assigning presets via drag n drop on the smart folders. Was a bit unintuitive to start with. However now that I know how it's done, it seems pretty powerful.

However, I don't seem to be able to assign categories via drag and drop so, unless I've missed something, can't assign a category to multiple presets at once. Have to do them one at a time via the window or right click in preset info. This seems very laborious if you have a lot of presets to add to a category.

Right click tagging from the preset info was a doddle. However, it's not clear what is happening if have multiple presets selected. I think it changes the first preset clicked, ignoring all the others? It would be cool if could assign/remove presets to multiple files via right clicking in the preset info pane.

Also how about a button, or right click menu item, to access the tagging window from the preset info? Seems like a more appropriate place than right click the save button

[spunkmuffin]

I think they want to be careful with multiple tagging...what if you accidentally select all patches in a folder and change all tags at once...oops!

[aMUSEd]

Needs an undo

[spunkmuffin]

Hmm yes but what if you are unaware that you mass-tagged till a week later when you are looking through your patches and thinking hey all my tags are wrong...undo doesn't work a week later...

I am not a fan of mass-tagging till I can see it working without the threat of mass destruction.

In any case I think they can leave the mass-tag idea for another time, it's not critical and can always be added later if people reeally really want it...and they have enough to do till December 12th launch already.

[Aspects of Tone]

I think they want to be careful with multiple tagging...what if you accidentally select all patches in a folder and change all tags at once...oops!

Then you should have been more careful

Needs an undo

Absolutely!

Hmm yes but what if you are unaware that you mass-tagged till a week later when you are looking through your patches and thinking hey all my tags are wrong...undo doesn't work a week later...

I always check that these things have worked as I intended. Never trust the app to do it for you
Also, would this really be a disaster? It's not like it's a one chance, mission critical thing. Can always be re-done.

I am not a fan of mass-tagging till I can see it working without the threat of mass destruction.

Although I see your point, I'm not a fan of reducing functionality to 'protect' users from themselves either

In any case I think they can leave the mass-tag idea for another time, it's not critical and can always be added later if people reeally really want it...and they have enough to do till December 12th launch already.

I tend to agree with you on this. Feels like they are trying to cram too much in.
IMO mass-tagging is essential for sound designers/preset bank creators. Searching and viewing tags is for users. So would it not make more sense to have a seperate tagging mode, or even a seperate app?
Then remove the 'smart' folders from the browser leaving 2 views. Folders and Search (by text or by tags). After all this is a preset browser, not a preset tagger

[Urs]

Any particular design reason for the increasing size?

Increase in screen resolution over the years, and added functionality that needs to be squeezed into the top bar. When Zebra 2.0 came out there was just a display and the 3 tabs and a save button, with an overall design for 1024 x 800 or 1280 x 1024 (or whatever it was). Then came preset back and forth, the MIDI indicator, the undo/redo, the view drop down, the info field, later on the cogwheel, master volume control, output meter, multi core button if applicable, HQ/zZz buttons in Repro-1, and now a screen width of 1600+ pixels is common.

[Aspects of Tone]

Any particular design reason for the increasing size?

Increase in screen resolution over the years, and added functionality that needs to be squeezed into the top bar. When Zebra 2.0 came out there was just a display and the 3 tabs and a save button, with an overall design for 1024 x 800 or 1280 x 1024 (or whatever it was). Then came preset back and forth, the MIDI indicator, the undo/redo, the view drop down, the info field, later on the cogwheel, master volume control, output meter, multi core button if applicable, HQ/zZz buttons in Repro-1, and now a screen width of 1600+ pixels is common.

Thanks for replying

Okay, I see where you are coming from, and that would make sense to me if it had got wider to get more space for more controls. But it has just got deeper and the controls bigger. Taking more space from the other parts of the synth including the browser.

I now have a 1440p monitor so I bump up the size using your very handy preference, to make things easier to see. So that takes care of the monitor resolution for me.

I'm pretty sure you could gain more space for the browser by reducing the size of buttons and thus the depth of the header. However that may be more work than can be justified at this stage.

I don't usually make comments about design, it is quite often subjective and controversial. However, there does seem to be a trend to make everything bigger these days, often unnecessarily and just to keep up with the current design trends. In this case I really couldn't see (and still don't) why the increase in depth. But you did ask for feedback

[rockbottom]

Overwriting a favourited preset 'defavourites' it.

Likewise, overwriting a preset changes its creation date: changing its modification date is expected, but the creation date should be preserved…