Hey, I hope you don't mind me shooting this question out here because it's pretty simple and I felt I could avoid bugging the dev about it, since this is a generous free product.
I thought Zen was a very cool idea and I own one of the more recent versions
(maybe not the current one) but I don't use it much, and there was one overriding reason for that: the way he had it designed originally you couldn't undock the VSTi's from Zen after opening them for editing, AND, Zen would not report parameter changes to your host for saving in projects. You actually had to save a new preset either in Zen, or save it in the VSTi itself (then reopen the VSTi outside of Zen and recall the new preset) to recall any changes you made and save them with the project.
I thought this was a huge shortcoming, because who wants to save an entire new VSTi preset when they adjust a filter knob by 10% for a specific project, but leave everything else the same from a preset they started with?
My question is, has this been changed in any updates (does Zen now report all parameter changes to the host or can you undock the VSTi after opening it in Zen so it will report changes itself to the host before the project is saved?).
Or, has he indicated in any threads he is considering adding this feature?
Thanks,
Dave
Question about Zen
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- KVRAF
- 5524 posts since 5 May, 2007 from Mars Colony
"You don’t expect much beyond a gaping, misspelled void when you stare into the cold dark place that is Internet comments."
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 5524 posts since 5 May, 2007 from Mars Colony
Dumb, dumb, dumb...I put this in the wrong forum but it's getting moved soon. 
"You don’t expect much beyond a gaping, misspelled void when you stare into the cold dark place that is Internet comments."
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
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- KVRAF
- 3388 posts since 29 May, 2001 from New York, NY
Well, I will reply here anyway.
- Undocking the vsti is unfortunately not feasible with VST.
- Zen will report parameter changes made through the quick edit sliders.
I could definitely save any edits made to the vsti along when saving the project.
'Tick
- Undocking the vsti is unfortunately not feasible with VST.
- Zen will report parameter changes made through the quick edit sliders.
I could definitely save any edits made to the vsti along when saving the project.
'Tick
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- KVRAF
- 3388 posts since 29 May, 2001 from New York, NY
Different thing - after loading the bridged version of the plugin, you can't remove it and have the host deal with the 32bits plugin directly.
Zen is exactly that - a vst hosting a vst. But once you've loaded Zen in your host, and loaded, for example, synth1 in Zen, there is no way to tell the host, "forget about me - here is the synth1 plugin you should replace me with".
Zen is exactly that - a vst hosting a vst. But once you've loaded Zen in your host, and loaded, for example, synth1 in Zen, there is no way to tell the host, "forget about me - here is the synth1 plugin you should replace me with".
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 5524 posts since 5 May, 2007 from Mars Colony
Are you saying you could do it by making a future change to the program, or it's possible to do now?Big Tick wrote:Well, I will reply here anyway.
- Undocking the vsti is unfortunately not feasible with VST.
- Zen will report parameter changes made through the quick edit sliders.
I could definitely save any edits made to the vsti along when saving the project.
'Tick
If you are going to have to make a change to the program, I will lobby strongly here for that (with many thanks to you for the extra effort), since I abandoned using Zen for this reason.
The quick edits are nice, but access to the entire synth with project-saving would be better. I got the impression you conceived Zen mostly as a preset community/sharing interface, which is great, but my main use for it would be more to have a very consolidated way to scan my whole inventory of VSTi's with a particular type of patch in mind (pad, brass, string, etc. etc.). What this means is that I'm looking through presets I already have, not accumulating new ones from a sharing network (though I might do that as well).
I ended up opening the VSTi twice---once in Zen, and then once outside of Zen, finding and reloading the preset, and going from there so the VSTi would be fully independent. I did this mostly just so all minor changes would be saved with each project. This double handling I was doing seemed like it was almost defeating the convenience factor of using Zen, so I stopped.
I think it has a lot of value for people who are just using it as a big preset menu system for their own presets, since it often opens you to things that might not have been thought of when one tries a preset on a synth that wouldn't necessarily have come to mind first for a given category of sound.
"You don’t expect much beyond a gaping, misspelled void when you stare into the cold dark place that is Internet comments."
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
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- KVRAF
- 3388 posts since 29 May, 2001 from New York, NY
With a future (and relatively minor) change.A.M. Gold wrote:Are you saying you could do it by making a future change to the program, or it's possible to do now?
You are right about Zen and the preset database/sharing aspect, but at the same time new uses for it are emerging, which I want to encourage.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 5524 posts since 5 May, 2007 from Mars Colony
Hey, great. I'll look out for it. Can you anounce the new update here or get it into the news feed?
I think this aspect of Zen is really important because so often when you're just looking at a long list of VSTi's in your host you end up going back to your mainstays the vast majority of the time and repeating a lot of the same sounds. Zen really makes it easier to stumble upon "new" sounds that you already had. 
Thanks!
I think this aspect of Zen is really important because so often when you're just looking at a long list of VSTi's in your host you end up going back to your mainstays the vast majority of the time and repeating a lot of the same sounds. Zen really makes it easier to stumble upon "new" sounds that you already had.
Thanks!
"You don’t expect much beyond a gaping, misspelled void when you stare into the cold dark place that is Internet comments."
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry
---Salon on internet trolls attacking Cleveland kidnapping victim Amanda Berry