Properties Save/Load features for VSTs

[chrisstiles]

Hi --

When a plugin is accessed, the properties page in the edit screen shows options to save/load patches/banks. For the native plugins this makes sense - however they also appear for all third party VSTs

What will be saved by these dialogues? I can't find documentation in either the user guide or the ref guide. It confuses me - especially as not all VST parameters will be available via it's 'software' interface anyway.

[haydxn]

well, plugins communicate their parameter values to the host. that allows two main things, which should hopefully illustrate the point:

1) you can automate parameters, as the host knows what they are and how to change them.

2) your parameters are 'magically' set to how you left them when you load a project.

the load/save buttons let you load and save these settings for yourself. if you fancy saving your current sound setup, then do so- that file can then be loaded into a different project if you wish. what's the point you say? well, what's the point in anything?

[chrisstiles]

well, plugins communicate their parameter values to the host. that allows two main things, which should hopefully illustrate the point:

2) your parameters are 'magically' set to how you left them when you load a project.

Perhaps I've been unlucky, but the two plugins I've tried this with so far don't have all their parameters reset by this save/load method.

[haydxn]

well i must admit that i don't use them myself, so i can't say how trustworthy they are!

[Beno]

well, plugins communicate their parameter values to the host. that allows two main things, which should hopefully illustrate the point:

2) your parameters are 'magically' set to how you left them when you load a project.

Perhaps I've been unlucky, but the two plugins I've tried this with so far don't have all their parameters reset by this save/load method.

What plug-ins are those? And was it all the parameters or just some? If the parameters are accesible to automation, they should be recalled. If they aren't automatable, then its the plug-ins fault for not makeing them so.

Ben

[haydxn]

as far as i can see it, if using the 'save' button did not recall your settings, then reloading your project wouldn't either, what with it being effectively the same process. and yes, it's the plugin's fault for that.

[valley]

Just to avoid confusion, I should add that parameters do *not* need to be automatable for the save preset function to work.

The VST spec allows for data 'chunks', which are effectively large blocks of data that the VST can use to store a complete patch. All plugins that have non-automatable parameters, or store extra data such as samples, are expected as a matter of common sense to support 'chunks'.

[valley]

as far as i can see it, if using the 'save' button did not recall your settings, then reloading your project wouldn't either

exactly.

[djsubject]

if one of them was novation's V station then you need to install the 1.0 version (just come back from a long nite of fixing another studio's DAW up) & this was the only problem we came across

just to add they had Tracktion 1 not 2 so i don't know if this has been fixed yet & he wouldent let me put the T2 demo on his PC

Subz

[flanneljammies]

Not sure if this is related... The other day Tracktion took a shit with some message about a critical plugin error. Then everytime I tried to restart Tracktion, it wouldn't open: I'd click on my desktop icon and I'd get the hourglass and then nothing. tracktion.exe WAS in the process list, but nothing was happening. I reinstalled T2 and still nothing. Then I uninstalled T2 and reinstalled it and I was able to open the app. All my settings and preferences were gone AND the edit I had been working on had lost saved VST preset settings for Grumblebum VST and Sophia VSTi. Would saving my settings as a .fxb instead of just saving as presets have helped here?

[djsubject]

Not sure if this is related... The other day Tracktion took a shit with some message about a critical plugin error. Then everytime I tried to restart Tracktion, it wouldn't open: I'd click on my desktop icon and I'd get the hourglass and then nothing. tracktion.exe WAS in the process list, but nothing was happening. I reinstalled T2 and still nothing. Then I uninstalled T2 and reinstalled it and I was able to open the app. All my settings and preferences were gone AND the edit I had been working on had lost saved VST preset settings for Grumblebum VST and Sophia VSTi. Would saving my settings as a .fxb instead of just saving as presets have helped here?

last time i had this problem i fixed it by killing the tracktion 2 prosses from the prosses list

the time before that i fixed it by rebooting

shame you had to go through all that trouble to fix it

Subz

[valley]

Then everytime I tried to restart Tracktion, it wouldn't open: I'd click on my desktop icon and I'd get the hourglass and then nothing.

Kill the process. If that fails, reboot. There is no need to reinstall.

Only one instance of Tracktion can be running at any given time, so if Windows has a fubar Tracktion process, it'll block new Tracktions from opening, whilst doing nothing useful itself.

A reboot will *always* fix this.

the edit I had been working on had lost saved VST preset settings for Grumblebum VST and Sophia VSTi. Would saving my settings as a .fxb instead of just saving as presets have helped here?

No. It is likely that one of those VSTs did something nasty and managed to wipe its own settings, and those of another plugin. Not a lot you can do when that kind of thing happens. Sometimes even save-as-you-work approaches don't help, 'cos if the plugin explodes during a save, and you are overwriting the edit on disk, it'll kill the whole edit.

The only surefire safe way of working is to start every session with a backup copy of an edit, and every so often alternate the file that is being overwritten during incremental saves.

[flanneljammies]

Kill the process. If that fails, reboot. There is no need to reinstall.

Only one instance of Tracktion can be running at any given time, so if Windows has a fubar Tracktion process, it'll block new Tracktions from opening, whilst doing nothing useful itself.

A reboot will *always* fix this.

I did try killing the rogue process (several times) but that didn't work. I can't remember if I tried rebooting or not, but based on what you've said, maybe not. Anyways, I'll definitely try that first if I ever have this problem again. Thanks all...

[chrisstiles]

Okay - the plugin was Equim. But it appears that there was a rogue Tracktion processes - once i killed it and rebooted everything was fine after that.