Zen features requests

[hakey]

how many revisions of your presets are you typically doing ?

Difficult to say - I tend to tweak and tinker quite a lot. Typically I'll make a copy of a patch, tweak it and then A/B with the original. If it sounds better I'll save it. And I may repeat this process many times.

Something thing that Zen could come in very useful for regarding its potential as a sound designers tool would be if a facility for easy A/Bing were built in, ie to do away with this having to manually make two versions of the same patch, one to tweak, one to compare.

[hakey]

Welcome to the world of patch design

Yes indeed.

(I'm not really all that bitter about it, honest!)

[CaseyJames]

I thought I would suggest a feature request that would put me on to zen immediately.

It would be great if zen were able to batch output a mp3 file for each preset using a default preset test midi (this could be replaced with a custom one). Something like short and long, low mid and high notes, a legato scale and a chord. Ideally It could automatically remove silence between notes.

This way we could quickly browse through any and all presets quickly on the computer or take them around with us on an ipod to rate for later use.

After adding new presets, a new mp3 file would automatically created.

Finally.. the audio files could be stored with the preset to aid in searching -- a find similar or dissimilar to preset spectrum and envelope type function.

[Big Tick]

It would be great if zen were able to batch output a mp3 file for each preset using a default preset test midi

Nothing too complicated here - apart from the mp3 thing which could cause legal issues, so I'd rather output plain wav and let users batch-compress using their preferred format.

Finally.. the audio files could be stored with the preset to aid in searching -- a find similar or dissimilar to preset spectrum and envelope type function.

Clever. And yes, it might work, and find similar presets across different vstis.

[crimsonwarlock]

It would be great if zen were able to batch output a mp3 file for each preset using a default preset test midi

Nothing too complicated here - apart from the mp3 thing which could cause legal issues, so I'd rather output plain wav and let users batch-compress using their preferred format.

Finally.. the audio files could be stored with the preset to aid in searching -- a find similar or dissimilar to preset spectrum and envelope type function.

Clever. And yes, it might work, and find similar presets across different vstis.

But make sure to make this optional

[CaseyJames]

It would be great if zen were able to batch output a mp3 file for each preset using a default preset test midi

Nothing too complicated here - apart from the mp3 thing which could cause legal issues, so I'd rather output plain wav and let users batch-compress using their preferred format.

Finally.. the audio files could be stored with the preset to aid in searching -- a find similar or dissimilar to preset spectrum and envelope type function.

Clever. And yes, it might work, and find similar presets across different vstis.

No, let me twist you arm

How very exciting!

[crimsonwarlock]

Would it be possible when adding a soundbank (drag-drop) to ZEN, to set the designer and soundbank as a selection first (in addition to the synth) so all the sounds are automatically tagged with the designer and soundbank tag?

Besides my own patches this would also help a lot for adding 'legacy soundbanks' from other designers to the database.

[pwal]

how about an "auto-skip" or "auto-overwrite" for auto-import mode - i'm using an mouse auto-clicker, but it can get a bit crowded with "possible duplicate" windows...

[pwal]

also, if the plug has no way of licking through presets in its own UI, how to do this? (e.g., firebird - i can load the abstracts bank in the setup panel, but how to click through the presets?)

[Big Tick]

Would it be possible when adding a soundbank (drag-drop) to ZEN, to set the designer and soundbank as a selection first (in addition to the synth) so all the sounds are automatically tagged with the designer and soundbank tag?

When you drop a (fxb) bank, it doesn't import it - it just sends the bank to the current synth. You then need to import the bank presets one by one, using autoimport.

So I guess what you want is a way to set the soundbank and author tags globally for all the imported presets. You can actually do this quite easily: select "last import", then select all the presets (click on first one, shift-click last one), then apply your tags.

[Big Tick]

also, if the plug has no way of licking through presets in its own UI, how to do this? (e.g., firebird - i can load the abstracts bank in the setup panel, but how to click through the presets?)

Click on the instrument window bar, then use the left/right keys

[crimsonwarlock]

When you drop a (fxb) bank, it doesn't import it - it just sends the bank to the current synth. You then need to import the bank presets one by one, using autoimport.

OK, makes sense.

So I guess what you want is a way to set the soundbank and author tags globally for all the imported presets. You can actually do this quite easily: select "last import", then select all the presets (click on first one, shift-click last one), then apply your tags.

I'll try it out

[crimsonwarlock]

New FR

It would be very handy to have some visual indication to see what are public tags and what are local tags. Not only to handle duplicate tags but also simply to recognize my own tags in the lists. Maybe a simple colored dot on local tags or something like that.

Also, when tags are going to be managed in the cloud, maybe an option to still keep certain tags only local.

[pwal]

it would be nice to be able to midi-learn the next/previouis patch buttons

[hakey]

Just a couple more suggestions:

1. My user tags list is getting quite large and I've been thinking about how I would like to be able to manage them once Zen becomes fully user modable. I've come up with the following system, which I offer only as an illustration of how I would like to be able to manage my own patches (hopefully Zen will be flexible enough for each user to find the system that suits them):

>Categories - fairly self explanatory.

>Generative Process - eg Blown, Plucked, Synthesized, Hit, Sampled, Amplified

>Timbre - sub-divided into: Dynamics/Articulation, Tone/Colour, Texture

>Style/Genre/Mood - again, self explanatory

>Miscellaneous

I wouldn't necessarily need to be able to see all of my groups and tags on the same screen at any one time - tabs to toggle through each main group would be enough.

But I would like to see at a glance all of the tags that, a) I have appended to a patch and b) all users have appended.

2. There's bound to be some variance in the choice of tags that users apply to similar patches, eg an Electric Piano may have: Electric Piano, EP, Whurlitzer, Rhodes etc. A search for any single term might not bring up all of the patches relevant to that search - searching EP, would not bring up a patch tagged 'Rhodes'. It might be useful if, when searching for a tag, Zen could suggest other tags that are commonly attached to patches with a particular tag, to widen the search and return more relevant hits.

Similarly might it be possible for Zen to suggest related tags when a user appends a tag to a patch?

Apologies again for the blizzard of suggestions and queeries - and I really hope that these do come across as suggestions, rather than demands.