Zen betatesting

[Big Tick]

Ok folks, want to try Zen beta ? it's ready and waiting for you. Here is how to proceed:

- create an account on http://www.bigtickaudio.com. You should have one anyway
- drop me a message. I will send you the demo and a temporary designer key.

Forewarning:
- the demo is PC only for now.
- don't ask if all you want is "see how it looks". You must be genuinely willing to integrate it as a part of your music making process.
- don't ask if you don't own and use any of the following vstis: synth1, ACE, Zebra, Rhino, Sylenth1, Z3ta+, Firebird, Gladiator. I will add more along the way, or let me know if you really want another one and are willing to upload its presets.
- don't ask if you are not willing to contribute to the classification effort - tagging a preset only takes 1 click, but I can't tag them all alone.
- be aware that I am still uploading presets, and that, as I said in another thread, I am stuck for most of the month with a GPRS connection. So don't expect to have 100000 presets at your fingertips just yet !

'Tick

[aMUSEd]

ooooh

inbeforethenextperson

[rlahalla]

PM sent..

BTW - you're missing the header image and some social networking images on your website..

[echopark]

pm sent.

[Big Tick]

ok guys, so when you get a message from me, log into your account and go to your profile. You will find:

- a link to the beta
- your designer key

Install the beta, go to the configuration page and enter your designer key. While you're here, activate the synths you would like to use. Then wait a little bit and Zen will start downloading presets, you will see them appearing in the preset list.

Here is a 1-page mini-guide to get you started:

Color codes
-----------
- Grey presets are public presets, uploaded by somebody else.
- Green presets are local presets, imported into Zen (obviously, by you).
- Purple presets are public presets uploaded by you.

Clicking on a preset selects it (and creates the vsti to play it). Double-click it to open the vsti editor window. When you select a preset, the tags associated with it will be highlighted.

Importing presets
-----------------

To import a preset, just open the vsti editor window, load your preset through the vsti, and then in Zen, click the "Import" (left arrow) button. The preset will appear in Zen (and will be green since it's a local preset).


To import a bunch of presets, double click the Import button. It will start flashing. Then in your vsti window, browse through all the presets you want to import. Whenever you select a new preset in the vsti, it gets automatically imported into Zen. Don't forget to double-click the Import button again when you are done.

Deleting a preset
-----------------

Sometimes, and despite the duplicate detection feature, you might end up with duplicates. If you ever want to delete a local preset, just shift-rightclick on it.

Tagging presets
---------------

Ctrl-click on a tag to apply it to the preset. If the preset is a public preset, because you are registered as a designer, the tag becomes public, so every tagging action that you do will be a useful contribution.

At the moment the list of tags is voluntarily minimal. Please send me your suggestions.

Uploading presets
-----------------

To upload a (green) preset, select it and click the "upload" (up arrow) button. The preset will turn purple after a little while.

You can upload all the green presets in the current search result by double-clicking the upload button. This action is a bit sensitive and might not stay in the final release, I recommend to wait until your presets have been uploaded until doing anything else.

Uploading is usually really fast if you have a decent connection (sigh), so feel free to tag and upload any free presets you may have.

[bM3w]

PM sent.

Just wondering how the upload/download of presets works in case of commercial banks? How does ZEN checks if I'm the legal owner of preset xyz? Or would it not work if I don't have the original preset?

[Big Tick]

Just wondering how the upload/download of presets works in case of commercial banks? How does ZEN checks if I'm the legal owner of preset xyz? Or would it not work if I don't have the original preset?

If you receive a commercial preset through Zen, then it will play in demo mode (e.g, dropping notes randomly) until you purchase it. You can either purchase it through Zen, or directly from the designer. In the latter case, you let Zen know by loading the purchased preset into the vsti, and importing it into Zen.


Regarding upload, you can't upload if you are not given designer privileges - and after the beta period, these will only be given to people who are serious about designing presets and sharing (or selling) them through Zen.

'Tick

[Big Tick]

oh and btw, can you make sure you send me emails rather than kvr PM's ? My mailbox is going to explode

Many thanks,
'Tick

[aMUSEd]

Just wondering how the upload/download of presets works in case of commercial banks? How does ZEN checks if I'm the legal owner of preset xyz? Or would it not work if I don't have the original preset?

If you receive a commercial preset through Zen, then it will play in demo mode (e.g, dropping notes randomly) until you purchase it. You can either purchase it through Zen, or directly from the designer. In the latter case, you let Zen know by loading the purchased preset into the vsti, and importing it into Zen.

Would that overwrite any tagging other people have done of that preset?

[rsmus7]

oh and btw, can you make sure you send me emails rather than kvr PM's ? My mailbox is going to explode

Many thanks,
'Tick

just sent a pm
but I can send an e-mail too

[Big Tick]

Would that overwrite any tagging other people have done of that preset?

No. When Zen recognizes that (public) preset A is the same than (local) preset B, it keeps preset A, and adds preset B tags to it.

[rsmus7]

is zen only for 32 bit?

I installed it in my WIN 7 64bit
and I get a "runtime error" when I try to start it from the desktop icon.

and one question,
is there a way to point it to my usual vsti folder?
that it can load the plugs from that folder?

[rsmus7]

ok I located the problem a bit more,
I closed zen,
but the process is still running.

[Big Tick]

Yes, it sometimes does this, and this is something I need to fix - you need to kill it from the task manager.

[asseca]

Running Zen WinXP-sp2, i3-530, 4GB RAM.
Zen.exe simply crashes ...
Zen.dll works fine so far.