Managing User Presets

For discussion of the Voltage Modular synthesis ecosystem.
Post Reply
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

I am at a loss on how to manage these preset files correctly. I thought, from reading another post, I could just delete the db preset file, and it would 'read' the directory and correctly rebuild. No - it does not do this.

(O/S Windows 10)
VM setting, default preset location:
x:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Voltage\Presets\

I wanted to organize my presets, rename a few, move a preset from one Category (folder location) to another, make a new category(folder), and so on, so I jumped to directory and away I went. The changes are not updating correctly.

where does this information reside?
what is the correct way to manage your own presets?
how can I fix this issue without 'reloading' saving each and every preset I have created one, by, one

It is painfully obvious, you cannot do any of this from the VM menu.

(since this BB has incredible issues loading multiple images, you will get these in 4 separate posts - I am, continually being amazed)
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

the preset directory
Attachments
1.jpg
1.jpg (135.04 KiB) Viewed 2527 times
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

my backup of my presets - different location
Attachments
my backup copy.jpg
my backup copy.jpg (82.59 KiB) Viewed 2527 times
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

what's located in the VM preset User Preset folder. I had totally deleted all in the User Preset folder. In VM, I went to User Presets and it was blank - correct, nothing was in there. I close VM, added back the <wip> folder - it is still holding on to the old names etc
Attachments
located in VM preset directory.jpg
located in VM preset directory.jpg (91.66 KiB) Viewed 2527 times
Last edited by g~tilde on Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

what VM tells me:
Attachments
inVM.jpg
inVM.jpg (57.84 KiB) Viewed 2527 times
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

I just need to know the correct way and successful way to manage user presets. I apologize in advance for the multiple screenshots but were needed to tell the story and this BB is . . . . not allowing (it search features are equally - challenging)
cheers,
g~
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

Problem discovered

The name is embedded in the preset file -
issue.jpg
issue.jpg (199.92 KiB) Viewed 2520 times
My original question, concern still stands - How do you manage your User Preset files?

It is painfully obvious, the file name, is not the same as what VM thinks is the correct name of the preset.

From the VM menu, how do you edit the preset name and/or change its Category, without having duplicate files on your drive which you have to manage manually from the OS??? As you can see - you can make a mess of things

We are musicians, we can have a change of mind calling a preset "study1," then decide later to call it the "Greatest Patch Ever," and at least for me, typos and misspellings are a way of life. I cannot believe this is not a thing . . .
ColinP
Posts: 935
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by ColinP »

You are not alone in being frustrated by the BB image attachment behaviour. It seems one can only reliably attach a single image per post. Although some people do manage to attach multiple images. It might be some quirky behaviour like it depending on whether you do a preview, or the exact way one performs the attachment, or which direction the wind is blowing.
ColinP
Posts: 935
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by ColinP »

On your main point about preset management I agree. There ought to be a "rename" option in the menu that appears when you right click on a preset or category in the load preset dialog. A "change category" option would be nice too.

I've been looking inside the .voltagepreset and .presetdb files and experimenting with file renaming and it looks like the .presetdb behaviour can actually track changes when you rename a .voltagepreset file that it references. Unexpectedly, you can rename a preset file and VM can still find it (albeit not on its first attempt).

I imagine from this behaviour that it was planned that renaming would be user accessible but the implementation is unfinished (as the preset name is not based on the filename). So as you say there doesn't appear to be any way to change category or preset names or move presets between different categories without actually creating functional but renamed copies and deleting the originals.

On another front I'm frustrated by the fact that using VM as a plugin inside a VM patch results in the patch no longer being machine independent. I work on PC and don't have a Mac so this is tricky. A temporary fix I'm thinking of is developing an automatic tool that generates a Mac compatible preset file from a PC one by modifying the internals of a .voltagepreset file.

In principle such file hacking could also be used to perform preset management too so it should be feasible to build a module that can do both. However I'm not sure that CA would approve of a module that did that. Perhaps they could comment on this?
g~tilde
Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:25 pm

Re: Managing User Presets

Post by g~tilde »

I am hopeful CA will comment on the module you suggested. This would then allow us, in the short term, a less clunky way to management our presets. Good suggestion..

As you pointed out, what we have now is a “Save as…” construct which requires then a second step to go back and delete the original. A process, if not completed to the end will be a freaking mess if you forgotten to delete the original file.

I do hope that this much needed functionality, will rise up on the to-do priority list.

Until then, embrace save as…. delete old… crap I misspelled the name, save as… delete old, crap wrong category/directory… save as…
Post Reply

Return to “Voltage Modular”