Preset Bank Tab System

[baggio]

Hi Tick,

I've a feature request for the lazy amongst us. I am so lazy that I cannot be bothered to load different 64 patch banks all the time. I was wondering if to help me counteract my laziness whether it would be possible to load multiple banks by using a tab system from A-F for example. What I am thinking of is something like that used in Pentagon and Zeta.

Although this is half in jest - I do think it will help the work flow when working in Rhino as I would like to move between sound within different banks without have to load them.

Thanks

[Big Tick]

Yeah it's possible, but as I stated in another post, loaded banks eat up a lot of memory. Are you willing to pay that penalty ?
'Tick

[Rabid]

Just how much memory are we talking about here? I would love more active banks.

Robert

[Revolver]

Yeah it's possible, but as I stated in another post, loaded banks eat up a lot of memory. Are you willing to pay that penalty ?

Hmmm, the last response is a good question... just how much memory do the banks in Rhino take? Cause I know with Rhino there are waveforms involved so that might be a big thing whereas z3ta+ has like 640 patches available in a tab system and I don't see any drawback from it whatsoever. In virtual analog software synths having tons of banks loaded is no problem as the banks and presets act more like "shortcuts" to parameter settings. I have just now, as an experiment, downloaded 4 banks (both of Tim's the Ambient pad and the Polysynth banks), extracted them, and checked their total size and it was 4.35 megs. So Tick... how much memory are we talking here? Am I missing something? I have 512megs of memory but can easily upgrade to more. I think this feature would be great.

Revolver.

[tconrardy]

Just for some input: this would be a great feature as well!! You could have the option of leaving the tabs blank if memory is an issue.

timC

[Big Tick]

Revolver: waves are (heavily) compressed into the .vfs files, and are loaded and unpacked on the fly when selecting a preset. So they only use whatever memory they require, fortunately. Thus the preset system is similar to the one you describe for VA synths, except that, given the huge amount of parameters (especially the curves and envelopes), the size required for a 64 presets bank is quite big, about 1 megabyte per bank.

Ideally I think the "bank name" zone on the main page should be a drop-down where you can access all the banks available in the rhino/banks folder. There are some problems to think about, though, like what happens if you save a song in Cubase that references a bank in that folder and the banks is removed afterwards ?

'Tick

[Revolver]

the size required for a 64 presets bank is quite big, about 1 megabyte per bank.

Ideally I think the "bank name" zone on the main page should be a drop-down where you can access all the banks available in the rhino/banks folder.

Hey, your second method is also a good one. Makes it easier than having to do a file open bank and browse to the folder the bank is in. But as for the 1 meg per bank, that's nothing... not a problem at all. Doesn't that only apply though to banks that use different wavesets? Regardless though, having 8 banks available (for example) and only requiring 8 megs of memory is quite fine. As for the problem you mentioned with removing banks... well... people shouldn't remove 'em! If they did they'd be messing up their songs anyway. But yeah, again... your second method is cool too. Reminds me of Synth1's method.


Revolver.

[baggio]

I think request like this can come across as whingeing about minor details and not of great importance. However, as a user I think easy access to sounds helps to increase the workflow greatly. Also, I think this is a problem for plenty of other synths.

At the end of the day if implementing a new system adversely affects the synth to the point that it becomes impractical to use then obviously it is a change that I would not want. However, if it causes an incremental load onto my PC then I would be in favour of a different system.

[Big Tick]

OK, would it be ok if the system worked as follows:

- Rhino includes 2 banks areas: one, called "default", works like in the current version (it's automatically saved upon exit), while the other one is read-only.
- The "bank name" zone on the main page is a drop-down where you select the currently displayed bank: either the "default" one, or any bank file stored in the Rhino/presets/ directory. In this latter case the selected bank is loaded into the read-only area.
- Copy & Paste works across banks.

This way you could easily audition presets in the new banks, as well as move them around. But you wouldn't be able to destroy things in the released banks, nor lose edits you would have made in your default area.

I hope this makes sense
'Tick

[Soundspectral]

go ahead use the memory needed up to 32mb no problem !

Is it not possible just to load the samples when the programm needs them ?

[Rabid]

For the quality of sounds coming out of Rhino I think it is worth the memory needed to hold patches. Look at how much memory we use for Atmosphere or samplers. For the price of a VSTi you can easily stick a Gig of memory in the computer. As long as I have some way to arrange the content in the banks so I can have different banks for different types of sounds I will be happy. Even if this means loading a bank into the main slot and then filling it with, for example, bass patches, then moving that bank to another slot for future use. Well, that is better than what we have currently. I am trying to keep everything I like in a single favorites bank. It is just not big enough.

As someone else said, it would work very well if you set it up to have the banks. Then those who need to conserve memory could leave the extra banks blank. If it is set up so that blank banks do not take extra space.

Robert

[Big Tick]

Is it not possible just to load the samples when the programm needs them ?

That's what it does already.
'Tick

[max]

I'm new here, having just bought Rhino 1.08 and I want to say, that I also would love to have the extra banks available at all times... and think the method mentioned would be fine...

I would be quite happy using the extra memory for that purpose..no problem at all..

Rhino is such a fat killer synth, and I'm most happy to have these sounds at last...

many thanks and I look forward to all improvements of what is already a wonderful synth.