Latest Builds: Zebra 2.8 (beta 02)

[tasmaniandevil]

everything is working great here over 20,000 presets and instant load times now and reopening the GUI is a breeze !!!

Very, very glad to hear that.

[Theturbinman]

everything is working great here over 20,000 presets and instant load times now and reopening the GUI is a breeze !!!

Very, very glad to hear that.

Thank you my friend !!

[Russell Grand]

Everything works great in the VST2 version.
I got an error message when trying to load the VST3 version, the second time it loaded up fine but gave me another error message when I tried to replace Zebra with another plug.
I'm in FL Studio 12.5.1.

I've had a look at it. Are you maybe on Mac, using the FLStudio Mac Alpha version?
This version seems to have some issues with VST3 plugins which contain multiple plugins (like Zebra2, Zebralette, and Zebrify in our case). It can't figure out on its own if the plugin is an effect or a synth, and as a result it throws some errors.
You could manually set the type to synth in FLStudio's plugin database, but I'd rather use the VST2 version for now, and wait until they improve the VST3 handling on Mac.
Actually, there is already a 12.9 beta version for Mac available, I'll try to download it and check if things are working better in this version.

I also tried it on Windows with FLStudio 12.5 (build 59), and there everything works, I can load the Zebra2 VST3 version without getting errors.

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Of course, now I can't replicate what happened last time.
It seems to be working fine now, no matter what I do. Perhaps it was just a fluke? Kinda strange.

I'll mess around with the Zebra beta throughout the weekend and see if I can get the error again. If I do, I'll repost in this thread. And no, I'm on PC.

[tasmaniandevil]

I'll mess around with the Zebra beta throughout the weekend and see if I can get the error again. If I do, I'll repost in this thread. And no, I'm on PC.

Okeydokey. If you're on Windows, then I currently have no clue either about what was going on, since the only problems I found were the ones mentioned with the Mac version of FL Studio.
Anyway, let me know if you encounter the error again, then I'll take another look at it.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Is it possible that the database trims whitespaces from the author's name's start/end, so the author name "name" and "name " and " name" would be listed as the same author?

Also I have a problem with the target preset dirs: I usually have all presets in "/Library/Audio/Presets", and not in my user dir. If I now want to edit a preset from my dir, it will be saved into my userdir, so I have the preset twice now.

So I would like to request a switch in the preset save dialogue named "global" or "user".

Also after editing/fixing the author's name, it still seem to keep the old version of the author in the database, even after refresh of the database. Or it does not update it. I save it within the preset browser. Not in the synth view.

So in the end, I have multiple versions of the same presets, and have no clue what version is the recent, and where it is located (assumingly in the userdir).

Also it seems that zebra is changing the filename of the preset, using a increasing number? I find that quite problematic, for example I have some presets named "synbass 1" to "synbass 9". Now I edit synbass 1 patching its author name, saving it 2 times, I suddenly have "synbass 2" as preset file in my user dir, but "synbass 2" is another bass preset.

[EvilDragon]

Also after editing/fixing the author's name, it still seem to keep the old version of the author in the database, even after refresh of the database. Or it does not update it. I save it within the preset browser. Not in the synth view.

Sounds like you have the preference to save presets in the user folder, rather than selected folder. So when you re-tag patches, they get saved in a new location rather than overwritten. Change that preference.

While in preferences, change the preference to auto-increment patch names so it's disabled.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Sounds like you have the preference to save presets in the user folder, rather than selected folder. So when you re-tag patches, they get saved in a new location rather than overwritten. Change that preference.

Ah, indeed. Thanks.

So still weird is to me:

- If I use the save dialogue to change the authors name, the preset does not seem to be updated

- After resaving multiple times I seem to have new presets with a running number, I am not able anymore to see what is the original preset (since synbass X was another preset maybe). IMO the preset file name should always match the preset name. Or at least, if the original preset was named "synbass 1", the running number should be like "synbass 1 1", "synbass 1 2", etc. Or even better, use something like "[1]", "[2]".., so it is very clear that this is a running number

- If I change the author in the save dialogue, also the author lists in the database are not updated.

[EvilDragon]

Don't use the save dialog. Just filter out the presets with misnamed author, select them all, then drag&drop on the correct author name tag. No need to tediously resave them one by one.

- After resaving multiple times I seem to have new presets with a running number, I am not able anymore to see what is the original preset (since synbass X was another preset maybe). IMO the preset file name should always match the preset name. Or at least, if the original preset was named "synbass 1", the running number should be like "synbass 1 1", "synbass 1 2", etc. Or even better, use something like "[1]", "[2]".., so it is very clear that this is a running number

As mentioned in previous post, disable auto-versioning in prefs. Remove all the presets that you managed to save in user folder before you changed the preference for where to save presets... then refresh database.

[tasmaniandevil]

Is it possible that the database trims whitespaces from the author's name's start/end, so the author name "name" and "name " and " name" would be listed as the same author?

There was already some thinking about removing whitespaces automatically from preset-names. So such an automatic character cleaning might be integrated in the future, but can't promise it.

In the meantime, the fastest way to fix this is the way EvilDragon already described.
Select the author smart folder with the wrongly named author, select all the presets it shows, and drag them onto the author smart folder which has the correct author name. This way the author smart folders will also be updated instantly, and you don't need to do a refresh to see the changes.

And as Evil already mentioned, check the preferences section and set them to your liking.
Whenever there is a new version of a software, it usually pays off to have a quick look at the manual to get to know the details.

[Biome_Digital]

Nice thanks!

[Hanz Meyzer]

And as Evil already mentioned, check the preferences section and set them to your liking.
Whenever there is a new version of a software, it usually pays off to have a quick look at the manual to get to know the details.

Oh yes that is very true for me, always to lazy for that.

But you got my suggestion to do versioning with "[1]", "[2]"... instead, so names with numbers at the end would not interfere?

I also would like to suggest a simple preset compare feature: Having two times the same preset in the list, mark both, right click for context menu and select "compare". Now the browser simply answers "same" or "different". Or maybe even automatically, as soon as you select multiple presets, displaying comparison info on the right column?

Also super helpful was if you could select a directory and an author at the same time!

[Toddskins]

I also would like to suggest a simple preset compare feature: Having two times the same preset in the list, mark both, right click for context menu and select "compare". Now the browser simply answers "same" or "different". Or maybe even automatically, as soon as you select multiple presets, displaying comparison info on the right column?

For whatever it's worth, on hardware synths the compare button, at least to my knowledge, is a momentary button switch. Depressed is the original, released is back to your newly modified.

[tasmaniandevil]

Oh yes that is very true for me, always to lazy for that.

Hehe.

But you got my suggestion to do versioning with "[1]", "[2]"... instead, so names with numbers at the end would not interfere?

Yes, have not overlooked this. I can hand it off to Frank and the other developers, to see what they think about it.

I also would like to suggest a simple preset compare feature: Having two times the same preset in the list, mark both, right click for context menu and select "compare". Now the browser simply answers "same" or "different". Or maybe even automatically, as soon as you select multiple presets, displaying comparison info on the right column?

Probably won't happen in the near future.

Also super helpful was if you could select a directory and an author at the same time!

Double-click on a folder, this makes it the new search root. Now select the author smart folder, and it will show you only the presets from this author in the selected folder and its subfolders.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Oh nice. Is it possible then you could also make a author the search root?

Was it ever possible to use Zebra2 as vst effect only? Because I only see Zebrify fx listed, and that does not provide the fx section of zebra2.


Another workflow question: I selected a dir as search root and then selected "unknown author" as author. Now I would like to set a new (or now not visible) author for many presets at once. But only "unknown author" is listed.


EDIT: The selected root searchdir will be deleted, as soon as I (over-)write a preset. Kinda strange.

EDIT2: If I select a upper folder as root searchdir, I am then only able to select the first subdir, but nothing will happen while clicking on the next subdirs. Also why the upper dir does not show the subdir contents recursively?

Do you use sqllite for your preset browser?

[Viktor [TUC]]

Was it ever possible to use Zebra2 as vst effect only? Because I only see Zebrify fx listed, and that does not provide the fx section of zebra2.

Zebra2's FX are available in Zebrify, they're part of the main grid, not as a separate unit below.