Help with Banks and Patches - and where to find them

[kenwchan]

Hi there,

I bought the IK Multimedia version of the Receptor. Not very clear how to get this all going.

After I authorized a few plugins, the bank selects still show the "showcase" banks. How can I get the banks and programs of the IK plugins to show up in Uniwire or remote viewer or do I have to bloody well fiddle with the tiny interface of each plugin in the Remote Viewers' edit page to choose a patch?

It seems like I am missing something...

Thanks for any help,
Ken

[johnrule]

It seems like I am missing something...

You are

I just went through this myself with my IK...all of those patches are programmed. There is no automatic patch recognition, so you must also program the patches that you want for easy recall into your own bank.

Fortunately, it's pretty simple:

- Load an Instrument manually from the Receptor GUI (graphic user interface).
- Load one of the patches that you want for recall.
- Save that 'snapshot' into a preset.

After you name and save the preset, it will be available to you for loading from the Receptor front panel (and other means). So, the Receptor is instantiating your plug-in and loading the correct file by just selecting your preset. This is the real value of the Receptor in my opinion...

JR

[kenwchan]

Oh no...

So that means those Banks and programs all have to programmed by yourself? That is there is no way to already have banks and presets for each instrument? Does that mean I'd have to choose the synths GUI in the edit tab of Remote Viewer, pick a preset within the GUI, and then save it as a preset in a bank myself?

It could be powerful, I suppose, but it all seems really time consuming. Especially because it seems like IK's GUI's use a hierarchical file structure to choose a preset and I find that really awkward.

Why couldn't they have given us banks and programs for every plugin in Receptor as a default?

But thanks for your reply - it's appreciated!

Rgds
Ken

[kenwchan]

It seems like I am missing something...

After you name and save the preset, it will be available to you for loading from the Receptor front panel (and other means). So, the Receptor is instantiating your plug-in and loading the correct file by just selecting your preset. This is the real value of the Receptor in my opinion...

JR

I think I see what you mean. Like in one bank, you could have presets that run a range of VSTi's - one from Miroslav and the next patch from Sample Moog...etc

Is that what you mean?

Cheers
Ken

[kenwchan]

This is getting worse.

If I am in the edit page, and loading sounds directly via the plugin's graphical interface, and then go up to the right hand corner to save the patch, then it is only saving that particular plugin's Bank/Preset.

In order for this loaded sound to be present in the Single Bank/Single Patch menu of the Uniwire plugin, I have to yet save it again in the Remote Viewer "Single" window (to include settings for the FX A, B, C, etc.

This makes this plugin very clumsy to navigate from a host sequencer, not to mention a huge task I'd rather not bother with.

I am beginning to regret this purchase a bit..

I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but the way IK designed their browser for sounds is so tedious in that small little window.

But it makes me worry- say I go to the hassle of installing Storm Drum for example, will I have to load a patch in the GUI, save it as a patch for that plugin, then go to the Mix window and save it again as a Single patch, for every program that Stormdrum has?

Is this what IK calls "automatically extracting presets? Or a way of dragging presets into the system folders?

This is from their website: "Receptor automatically extracts all the patches that are built-in to a plugin and creates a Receptor bank called <factory>." But my Factory patches for the included TRacksS plugin includes just 1 patch: Default! Thanks a lot!

Surely there is something I'm missing.

Regards to all
Ken

[jeamsler]

No you're not missing anything. Sometimes the automatic import works and sometimes it doesn't. But that little auto import only happens for the factory preset bank when you first install a plug. Usually people want to go beyond the factory stuff and put other banks in. I think what you are looking for is to get a plugin's presets in Receptor patch format. If that is it yes you can do that fairly easily depending on the plugin. You can drag a single fxb bank file or a collection of fxp presets in a directory onto the Receptor install directory and most of the time the presets will be converted into Receptor presets and banks. The trick is just to get things into standard fxb or fxp format since plugs may have their own way of organizing sounds. There are some tools that will extract patches from a plug and save as an fxp collection. For example the now freeware Wusik VM will do this. I haven't tried this with the IK stuff so I can't say how it will go but that is the process. I'm surprised though that since yours is the IK edition that they wouldn't include more banks than a couple. You say showcase bank. Does that mean a showcase for all the IK plugs or just say Sampletank? Each plug should have it's own bank or collection of banks I would think which should give a pretty wide range of selection.

Jon

[johnrule]

Why couldn't they have given us banks and programs for every plugin in Receptor as a default?

This is getting worse.

This makes this plugin very clumsy to navigate from a host sequencer, not to mention a huge task I'd rather not bother with.

I am beginning to regret this purchase a bit..

I don't think you have to program patch names just to load what you want. You just need to get the instrument loaded, and then you can send program changes (just like a plug-in). In chapter 11 of the User Manual (starting on page 129) you have a detailed explanation of how this works. It seems complicated at first, but it makes sense after you study it.

I am still new to this, and I have not yet set this up for use from my host sequencer, but I can see that each instrument will receive program changes on its channel. This means that once an instrument is loaded, I can simply send a program change to load a particular patch without having the name programmed in the Receptor. You setup how the Receptor responds to program change messages on the 'Setup' page.

All of the .fxp files that came pre-programmed with the IK Multimedia instruments were created manually by someone. In fact, ALL .fxb and .fxp files are created manually at some point. Having patch names translate to whatever environment you are working in has always been a juggling act, so don't think it's because of the complexity of the Receptor.

Someone please clarify if I have missed something, or stated something incorrectly...I am sure there is a way to do what you want.

JR

[kenwchan]

. There are some tools that will extract patches from a plug and save as an fxp collection. For example the now freeware Wusik VM will do this. I haven't tried this with the IK stuff so I can't say how it will go but that is the process. I'm surprised though that since yours is the IK edition that they wouldn't include more banks than a couple. You say showcase bank. Does that mean a showcase for all the IK plugs or just say Sampletank? Each plug should have it's own bank or collection of banks I would think which should give a pretty wide range of selection.

Jon

Hi Jon,

Thanks for your reply.

Wusik is only for PC - I'm a mac user - so no help there. To answer your question, the IK Receptor comes with 5 plugins (SampleTank, SampleMoog, SampleTron, Miroslav, and SonikSynth), and the "Factory set" for each plugin is just one bank each, each with between 64-128 patches. But of course the plugins themselves have many more patches than that. So you are correct, I am trying to get a way to have all of the synth's presets to appear as Receptor presets.

I know you can drag in .fxb files, but I can't find them for the included synths.

I will try to do a search for .fxb files for each plugin, but with the included install disks, the presets aren't in .fxb format, they look like IK's proprietary format; the extension is .ikmb


Thanks,
Ken

[kenwchan]

Why couldn't they have given us banks and programs for every plugin in Receptor as a default?

This is getting worse.

This makes this plugin very clumsy to navigate from a host sequencer, not to mention a huge task I'd rather not bother with.

I am beginning to regret this purchase a bit..

I don't think you have to program patch names just to load what you want. You just need to get the instrument loaded, and then you can send program changes (just like a plug-in). In chapter 11 of the User Manual (starting on page 129) you have a detailed explanation of how this works. It seems complicated at first, but it makes sense after you study it.

I am still new to this, and I have not yet set this up for use from my host sequencer, but I can see that each instrument will receive program changes on its channel. This means that once an instrument is loaded, I can simply send a program change to load a particular patch without having the name programmed in the Receptor. You setup how the Receptor responds to program change messages on the 'Setup' page.

All of the .fxp files that came pre-programmed with the IK Multimedia instruments were created manually by someone. In fact, ALL .fxb and .fxp files are created manually at some point. Having patch names translate to whatever environment you are working in has always been a juggling act, so don't think it's because of the complexity of the Receptor.

Someone please clarify if I have missed something, or stated something incorrectly...I am sure there is a way to do what you want.

JR

Hi John,

Thanks for your post. With regards to the program patch names and changing banks by the host sequencer, that only works for the Receptor patches and banks. So I would still need to get all (ie. program) all the patches from the plugin and convert them to Receptor patch format first. It is the Receptor's banks and programs that are responding to bank and program changes, not the presets within the plugins themselves.

The IK's plugins don't seem to use presets in the .fxp format so I'm really stuck with a lengthy process to get this going.

Yes, it's true that those 5 banks of patches that came installed were created manually by someone - I just wish that the "someone" did ALL of them!

I agree, I'm sure there is a way to do what i want - it's just the man-hours to do that task. I think IK or Muse should have included these files and done their homework instead of the end user. I hope I'm wrong about this.

Kind regards,
Ken

[kenwchan]

Hi there,

I bought the IK Multimedia version of the Receptor. Not very clear how to get this all going.

After I authorized a few plugins, the bank selects still show the "showcase" banks. How can I get the banks and programs of the IK plugins to show up in Uniwire or remote viewer or do I have to bloody well fiddle with the tiny interface of each plugin in the Remote Viewers' edit page to choose a patch?

It seems like I am missing something...

Thanks for any help,
Ken

This is from Plugorama Helpdesk:

Hi Ken,

The factory banks and patches should all be located within the interface
of the plugin itself. We made some "Receptorized" banks and patches for
them that are available from our interface, but not all of them. You can
access them directly through the plugin. If you'd like them to show up in
our interface, then you will need to save them manually.

********************
So unfortunately it looks like I'll have to spend some time doing this.

Ken

[kenwchan]

Actually, I did see that you can send program changes to the source itself, but that is only if that plugin supports it. I tried fiddling with it but could not get it to work and just succeeded in crashing the Receptor...

Maybe I'll try again today.

Rgds
Ken

[jeamsler]

I looked at Sampletank and can see the problem. ST does not use a standard bank/preset method of organizing patches. Everything is organized around a multi or combi patch. So when you load a sound you load directly into a multi patch in one of 16 slots. You are always playing a multi not matter what. So there are no patches except multi patches. So if you want individual sounds to come up as presets you have to load a sound into slot 1, save it out as a fxp patch, and do this for each sound. With that you would have a collection of multis all with one sound each that you can organize into banks. I think you could import those into Receptor but it would be a pain to say the least. Also each fxp saved in this way would be .75mb so you would eat up disk space after a while. The patch structures of ST and Receptor just aren't compatible and there is no way to change that. Your best bet I think is to save out the preset multis you like or make your own of groups of instruments you want and build up a set of Receptor patches that way.

The program change thing will work but have not tried it with ST. In ST you can create a map so that an instrument is loaded for a given program 0-127. Maps can be saved and loaded within ST. The file itself is a simple text file with the instrument name and program number associated with it. Probably easier to do on your computer and then copy over to Receptor.

Hope some of that helps
Jon

Jon

[jeamsler]

Don't know if this will help but I took the single sounds in Sampletank and put them all into multis and saved them out to fxp files so you can import them into Receptor. The sounds are in groups of 16 (the number of sounds in a multi). I added them to a multi from A to Z in order. I only labeled each patch as what generic category it contains i.e. Bass, Vocals, Strings, etc. So you won't have the name of each patch itself. Each sound in a patch responds on one midi channel from 1 to 16. So set your midi controller to ch 1 and you get the first sound in the patch. Set it to ch 2 you get the second and so on. At least this way you can flip through the sounds and play them from the receptor directly. I posted these on the Receptorized Yahoo group so you can find them there along with lots of other Receptorized patches. If someone would rather have them emailed directly I can do that. Just send me a PM with your email and I'll send it as an attached 350k rar file (expands to 75mb).

Jon

[Kermit Jagger]

Could you upload it at receptorized on Yahoo group ? Or email to me and I will put it there. receptorized was created as a repository for people to put their Receptor fxp banks.

I know what you mean re Sampletank. When I did all of Atmosphere, it took me ages !

[jeamsler]

Done.
Jon