Zen

[Big Tick]

I've seen no mention here of creating preset banks.... is anybody trying to use zen for live performance?

Probably no one yet, since it is still very new and (I hate to admit it) not totally crash-proof

I'd like to be able to save the results of a search as a bank and select the programs from it with a vst program change. I'd also like it to expose the list of names to my host.

What you can do is define your own custom tag and apply it to your desired presets, so that you can recall them with only one tag. As for program changes, there is no such thing as a Zen "bank", for at least 2 reasons:
- the vst specification forces plugins banks to have a predefined size, and I have no clue how many presets to put in a Zen bank.
- banks are, by definition, ordered. Zen presets, on the other hand, are pretty much order-less.

This said, if users think it is a good idea to have a fixed-size bank system for Zen (with, say, 100 presets), it is easy for me to add in the next version.

I could also add midi control for the "previous / next" buttons. Would this be useful ?

Also, I have to say the interface is lovely, but minimal to the point of being cryptic.... and I really miss a menu, which besides being readable, serves as a 'table of contents' for an application, giving a good overview of its capabilities, even if you stop using it after you learn what all the icons mean.

Have you seen the quickstart ? Also, icons are supposed to display a tooltip if you linger on them long enough...

[woodslanding]

I would think that 128 presets would be a nice number, as that matches the midi spec.... but you could also do 512, as does the Pro53--I don't know of a drawback to having a higher number, but maybe there is one. Does the VST spec mention an upper limit?? I'd think a large number would make sense, as Zen itself can access so many sounds, and you can always limit yourself to a lower subset of presets in a bank.

Since this is a feature that virtually all VSTs implement, it seems that there may be other cases where this compatibility would be useful.

As regards 'order' alphabetical is always nice. But I don't care much about order, I just want to be able to select favorite presets from a fixed list. The way I would see it work is that a bank starts with a bunch of empty presets called 'init'. Then you have the option to dump searches to the bank, probably just appending the list to existing presets (i.e. anything not called 'init') or optionally interleave them alphabetically, up to the maximum size of the bank.

That said, I am a tiny use-case, as most live keyboardists are still using hardware....

As for the tooltips--guess I wasn't lingering long enough.... thanks!

-e

[Big Tick]

Since this is a feature that virtually all VSTs implement, it seems that there may be other cases where this compatibility would be useful

Actually, many VSTi's don't, especially the newer ones - try Absynth or ACE, just to name 2. The trend is to move away from the bank system which is linked to the old day of limited memory on hardware instruments.

[woodslanding]

Since this is a feature that virtually all VSTs implement, it seems that there may be other cases where this compatibility would be useful

Actually, many VSTi's don't, especially the newer ones - try Absynth or ACE, just to name 2. The trend is to move away from the bank system which is linked to the old day of limited memory on hardware instruments.

Well, this is true, and it's a real pain for me, as it makes it much more difficult to control patch selection from my host's unified interface.

It's is VERY impractical to have 10 VST instrument windows open on my monitor, and try to select patches from each of them in live use. In order to simultaneously play keyboards, and call up and mix sounds, I have to have a single control window for all my VSTs, which USINE has allowed me to create.

With the new NI stuff, I have to type lists of patch names in by hand, in order to select them from the host. All my other VSTs deliver those lists automatically.... that said, at least with NI stuff, I can still actually select patches from the host!

I don't think it's an issue of hardware limitations that is moving us away from patch lists (even midi supports thousands of banks of sounds!) but the very limited acceptance by keyboardists of computers for live use--and the very limited awareness of live performance issues by software developers. The whole industry is driven by recording and by DJs playing tracks, both of which have much more limited realtime control requirements. And realistically, there are stability issues with computers that I'm willing to live with, and not a lot of performers are.

I would think users of Mainstage and Receptor would be encountering these same problems, but there don't seem to be many of them either....

-e[/img]

[Lichtreich]

In my file zen.properties are the lines

Code: Select all

# The midi control assignments for the 6 user controls
zen.userControl1.midiAssignment: 106
zen.userControl2.midiAssignment: 107
zen.userControl3.midiAssignment: 108
zen.userControl4.midiAssignment: 109
zen.userControl5.midiAssignment: 102
zen.userControl6.midiAssignment: 103

How do I permanently add the new two sliders ( 7+8 )?

I tried to add the lines

Code: Select all

zen.userControl7.midiAssignment: 104
zen.userControl8.midiAssignment: 105

but... eh... I don't know.

[Lichtreich]

Did I miss a point? Or is it not possible?

[Big Tick]

How many sliders do you see when you run Zen ?

[Lichtreich]

? Eight.

[Big Tick]

So all is fine then - if you use midi learn to assign a midi controller to the last 2 sliders, the associated entries will be created in the properties file.

[Kriminal]

so, despite many many requests the database hasnt grown much..which means zen is about as useful as.....dev not paying attention or just picking an choosing what suits?

[Big Tick]

Kriminal - just be patient. I will add every requested synth as long as they don't require to manage external samples.

Also, at the moment I believe it is much more important for me to fix some performance issues (causing considerable slowdowns with a database of over 20000 presets), rather than adding more presets and making it worse. I only have 10 fingers and 24 hours a day.

[Big Tick]

Just added TripleCheese, btw...

[Lichtreich]

So all is fine then - if you use midi learn to assign a midi controller to the last 2 sliders, the associated entries will be created in the properties file.

Sorry for bothering, but it just don't work for me. Anyway, thank you for your answer and this great tool! I'll use it everyday now.

[Big Tick]

Just added Angular Momentum's Retronix...

[sunhome]

1. Do you plan to add a rating system? It'd be nice if users could see the top rated / most rated presets.

Yes. The users/community system is actually flexible enough, so that eventually, it will be possible to have presets shared only within a group of users - super useful for collaborative work, where all you will have to do is tag your preset as belonging to the group, and publish it.

2. Will it be possible to add tags to presets? The name of the preset doesn't always represent the sound of the preset. Again, I think Omnisphere has a good system to handle this. There are about 15-20 adjectives like "light" "dark" "discord" "bass" etc.

Already there. The tags actually form a hierarchy. And, in addition to the system-wide tags, users can add their own parallel classification (which can be useful if you want to tag your own favorites, or which presets are used for a given project). And there also are "automatic" tags that Zen manages for you, like the "new" tag (automatically applied to all the new presets that have been downloaded and that you haven't heard yet).

Ok, I found a preset that I wanted to mark as favorite but I am unable to link the preset to the "fav" tag I just created. What's the directions for making favorites. I tried right clicking on the tag and/or dragging the preset to the tag, both seem intuitive but did not work.

Regards, James