KVR Audio

trackzone · Post by **trackzone** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:40 pm

Is there any application which can export any vsti or vst-fx preset parameters in text format, e.g. using a csv file structure, delimiters could be a comma or a tab.

If yes, is it possible to export also all presets parameters values from a whole bank into a single text file using for each preset one line. e.g. a bank of 128 preset programs would result then in a text file having 128 lines, each line listing all values from all preset parameters, separated by a comma or tab.

Why and how would this be useful?
We could compare vst-preset parameters using tools which can work with/visualize data in text format, e.g. for similarity analysis, further statistics, clustering and more.

Or asked in another way do any .fxp and .fxb to .txt or .csv file converters exist?

Thanks in advance.

goyya76 · Post by **goyya76** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:44 pm

hi, there was a small steinberg app that allowed to do that...but i can't remember the name! sorry...

trackzone · Post by **trackzone** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:02 pm

No problem, at least it is a hint that I have to use the term Steinberg in my searches. I suppose Steinberg would have not linked it somewhere on their websites, I would assume more maybe in one of their SDK packages?

amiga909 · Post by **amiga909** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:12 pm

would love to have a forth and back converter to easily manipulate vst presets

Optomadic · Post by **Optomadic** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:13 pm

You just have to parse/convert nulls into readable characters then you can extract ledgable parameter strings from the FXB/FXP using a character pattern in a loop search.

For instance:

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amiga909 · Post by **amiga909** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:20 pm

thanks for the example, Optomadic.

hmmm... parameter names are not written in the FXP? they are stored in the DLL?

and how would u want to determine which param names are the same across all plugins (if u want this)?

trackzone · Post by **trackzone** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:25 pm

Optomadic wrote:You just have to parse/convert nulls into readable characters then you can extract ledgable parameter strings from the FXB/FXP using a character pattern in a loop search. ...
After null conversion I'd be looking for strings between characters and \.

Thanks Optomadic for your tip but this goes above my understanding and application level. Some simpler solutions would be nice, I just can not imagine such a tool is not existing yet. How are others comparing preset parameters in bigger sets?

Optomadic · Post by **Optomadic** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:33 pm

I got a huge outdoor gig today.
When I get back I will check to see if fxb formatting is universal across all vst(i)'s.
I wrote a null character converter a couple of weeks ago that worked intermittently.
I'll see if I can get it to convert fxb/p's to and from text format.

Perhaps someone could code something up while I'm gone??

plastique · Post by **plastique** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:53 pm

The main reason why something like this doesn't exist is that it won't work with all plugins (you can save yourself the extra work to figure this out !), as some plugins use float data and some use raw byte data, where in the latter case a tool like this will be pretty useless, as it won't be able to tell what a parameter is and what not.

For the former case it will work, and you'll end up with only a list of floating point values per preset. If that's what you want, go for it !

trackzone · Post by **trackzone** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:00 pm

plastique wrote:... and you'll end up with only a list of floating point values per preset. If that's what you want, go for it !

Yes, exactly that is what I am asking for, just a list of numbers for each preset, preceded by the preset name in column one or in the last column, nothing else.

The parameter values would be the "extracted features" of that particular plugin preset.

mystran · Post by **mystran** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:24 pm

I think a better way would be to load/wrap the VST plugin, and call getParameter/Name/Label to get the human readable names that a plugin is supposed to provide, then dump them into a file somewhere. Unfortunately not all plugins provide those either in very useful format, and it might not include everything, but at least that should be more usable, and for plugins that do provide meaningful values, you might be able to get things like envelope timings in formats (say milliseconds?) that you might even be able to compare between different plugins with minimal effort (with obvious pitfalls of every plugin's interpretation of what the times mean, ofcourse).

Christian Budde · Post by **Christian Budde** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:29 pm

Hi there,

I once wrote a program to convert the parameters of all programs of a VST plugin to Excel. See http://www.savioursofsoul.de/Christian/?page_id=111.

It hosts the plugin and queries the parameters via the automation support. Though it only works if automation support is available.

Maybe this is useful,

Christian

PS: The code is open source (except the Excel export itself)...

trackzone · Post by **trackzone** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:43 pm

Thanks Christian,

but I could not find a help file or a manual for it, also I could not find where the source code is.

I am not an expert in this field but I suppose the probability of being the number of plugin parameters bigger than 256 is smaller than the probability of being the number of plugin presets bigger than 256. Or said in a different way I would write each preset into a new line and the parameters into the columns. Preset2Excel.exe does just the opposite. So it seems it can not handle plugins which can have more than 256 presets like e.g. in V-Station.

I have to try also if Preset2Excel.exe accepts .fxb names in the command line, e.g.

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Preset2Excel.exe plugin.dll presetbank.fxb

Anyway, thanks Christian for writing this useful tool.

Optomadic · Post by **Optomadic** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:29 pm

Also take a look at MissWatson

http://www.teragon.org/products/MissWatson.html

I think it can send the parameters to standard text output.

hth

Optomadic · Post by **Optomadic** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 6:49 am

I was able to convert preset files to text...

but

plastique wrote:...you'll end up with only a list of floating point values per preset....

This is exacly what happens making it useless for some plugins.
See here:

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I have to agree with plastique, doing it this way is kind of a waste of time.
It will not be universal, very difficult to parse conditionally, and more importantly I found it has file size limitations.

I'm checking to see if this format or the 1st I posted are the only 2 generated.
If so then theres a slight chance it could still be done this way..
No promises though..

Exporting vst parameters in text format