Categorize Tool for Presets on a Mac

[ricochet99]

Hi there,

meanwhile Sylenth1 allows to export all presets from a bank to the local disk and e.g. a regrouping into separate new banks.
For me this is still too static. Let's say i would like to create new banks for every new track i start from a huge presets repository on my local disk. I am missing (or just did not find) a tool which allows

• import and managing presets
• tagging presets with category (e.g. "Strings") and single tag names i can freely choose
• listen to presets directly in the tool or in combination with a plugin like Sylenth1
• arrange selected presets and export into a new sound bank file ready to be used within e.g. Sylenth1

Does anybody know if there already exists such a tool for Mac (which fully or partly fulfills the named options)?
Thanks for your help!

[aumordia]

I think you want Kore.

[blue monk]

Patch management in the VSTi would be high on my wish list as well.
Having patches in banks was how a hardware synth would work in 1997. For a soft synth this is antiquated.

Being able to delete and tag individual patches without big fuss right in the soft synths patch browser is what you'd expect in 2017.
Obviously some things have higher priority than others. But I hope there will be some news on this in the foreseeable future.

[aumordia]

I actually like the current approach to patches. Obsessing over presets doesn't result in any music getting made anyway.

[blue monk]

I actually like the current approach to patches. Obsessing over presets doesn't result in any music getting made anyway.

Most musicians today have many patches and samples. Efficiently organizing them is essential for finding the right sounds as quickly as possible when creativity strikes instead of spending a long time searching a sound you want at the moment and losing inspiration.

Also people who are very able to program their own sounds use patches. You may have many self-created patches. The key is to find the ones you want when you need them.
There are many genres with stereotypical sounds.

There's also many people who mostly or exclusively use patches. You may not like that but that's a fact.
So you may not need patch management, but many people want that. I certainly do.
For me personally it's all about how I can delete 95% of patches that I will never use and organize the rest efficiently.

[aumordia]

If you watch any pro actually work you'll laugh at how inefficient their workflow is. Just peruse Sonic Academy, for starters.

Obsessing over presets accomplishes nothing. If Lennard thinks it will sell more copies of Sylenth1 then I can't fault him for working on the preset management system, but there are other more interesting possibilities he could explore.

So, I disagree.

[fluffy_little_something]

I think instrument categories would make sense, genre categories not so much, in my view. The current banks are a mess, with all kinds of instruments scattered all over each bank. Luckily I never use them and have my own instrument sub-folders instead. So I couldn't care less about a real browser.

[blue monk]

It doesn't have to be too fancy.
What I think of is not having to deal with banks. You import them and then you have a long list with all patches.
Categories for sound types (Bass, Lead, Pluck, Pad, Strings, Chords, FX, Athmo, Sequencer, Percussion, ...), attributes/tags (super saw, square, hard, soft, lush, analog, digital, dirty, ...), genres, author/source bank name, and rating -1 to +5.
Important for me is that I can delete patches. A filter for the rating on top of the browser would come in handy. I could select to filter all patches I rated -1 to +2 and the browser would show only those. Then I could delete all of those.
In other case I would want to set the filter so the browser shows all sounds made by one author. So I could create a number of patches for my next project and have them all listed quickly. Then when I find there is a particular sound missing, I might add another author (maybe someone I am cooperating with on the project) and have his patches also listed.

That being said, the browser in Native Instruments Absynth for example is annoying because it is incredibly slow. Done correctly it would be very useful.

[blue monk]

Obsessing over presets accomplishes nothing.

You're repeating yourself.
Different people have a different workflow. Some genres have bread and butter sounds. It makes no sense to create those from scratch. Many people use patches made by others as a starting point and tweak them for their needs. The result can be a very different sound.
And some people use preset patches without tweaking. Who is to say they do it wrong?

When you have an init sound for example with 2 saw OSCs, 7 voice unison, detune, envelopes pre-set to pluck or lead and other init sounds for pads etc. then this saves 1 minute each of the 50 times you try a new sound in a project. If you don't think this is useful for you, then I don't have a problem with that.

So, I disagree.

We have to agree to disagree.

If you watch any pro actually work you'll laugh at how inefficient their workflow is. Just peruse Sonic Academy, for starters.

How many chart hits have the people of Sonic Academy produced last year?

Maybe you want to check out "Lessons of KSHMR" at youtube. The difference to the usual tutorials at youtube (even the better ones) is immense. It's a totally different level.

[blue monk]

double

[aumordia]

I'll let you have the last word salad.