Suggestion about engine's preset choice

[mheidt]

I don’t need a solution for this specific “Live”-issue.
But you want to have the option to play along, browse the presets and decide with a button (or footswitch) that the sound changes and not by every NOTE-ON event.

[john]

currently in all engines except mod-ui.
if a program change 1 comes over Midi the channel the engine will Increment down the list or program change 128 will go up the list up. On my midi guitar I have a program up and down buttons. it works just fine click button try the next preset until I find what I want. Just does not change banks. but that I can do on the touch screen.

[mheidt]

@john, this not what this thread is about. I am talking about the changes, Fernando did in the new branch.
This is not about Midi program change events.

[john]

I understand If you are in Zynaddsubfx and you are on a given preset lets say 25 and you want to try the next 10 presets I just send a Program change 128 it goes to preset 26 no I dont like that so send another program change 128 and test the next preset if I send a program change 0 it will go backwards. no need to go back and forth on the UI. It is fast and easy for auditioning the sounds,

Note this does not always work in MOD-UI.

[ivanmonterosso]

Honestly in live scenarios i think more about using pre- edited snapshots built for each song, rather than switch on the fly the engine’s sound… or if you want use sounds as “snapshots”, you should work alot on each engine structure…
(if its structure allows you to do it)

Let’s assume this: Zynthian has to be more similar to a classsic synth/workstation, in which you must be able to build combinations (Speaking in “korg language” ) of several sounds using just its interface…
(with MOD UI sadly you MUST pre-build a patch… but we know…)

It’s ok if sitting on a PC and you prepare snapshots comfortably,. But on Live you have to be fast. (even pre-organized too… )
The Note ON behaviour is great for speeding up snapshot building process, it allows quick auditing through sounds, but…

@Schpion

Imagine you are playing live and you know, you have to change to another preset soon and want to go to the bank and wait for the moment to select the preset.

if your habits are slightly different, in fact yes, the note ON, playing instantly on highlighted item, doesn’t allow you to play continuously with a sound on a layer and switch to another sound on that layer on your demand . (maybe you want unchanged the rest of snapshot, and changing snapshot for just a sound variation… would stop the sound…)

So, could be in this alternative way:

• Leaving untouched NoteON operation only on fresh layers.
• On fullfilled layers, short-pressing “Select” confirms sound monitoring - UI remains on sound list - no layer overwrite.
• (middle?)pressing again, if sound hasn’t changed, layer will be overwritten - UI jumps to control pages.

Or ( sayin’ goodbye to Note ON, sadly ) leaving only push select for sound monitoring in any case.

In this way you are free to navigate thru sounds while you play, and choose to change sound with another push on Select (could be enough just only monitoring without the need of overwriting layer…)

P.S.:in any of these situations, there’s a “fault” mentioned before, that could not be solvable:
In each engine, of any type, changing between sounds causes a sound interruption. Only a Master Effect could (almost) solve the silence gap…
The thing is more aggressive on switching between snapshots, obviously… it could contain several engines and must complete loading of their respective sounds…

But this is another story

[john]

check out this post,

Integration with Bandhelper app -> MIDI remote control for Zynthian UI

I use the Bandhelper app (iPad) to send midi presets to my different keyboard/synthesizers and I would like to send midi presets to my Zynthian as well to select specific “snapshots”. Which midi presets / program changes should I use to do this job? Regards, Leo

This is in the process of being implemented.

[Schpion]

We still have two unused zyncoders on the “preset” screen
I think, we could turn the “monitoring mode” on and off by rotating, for example, the “LS” zyncoder. And it’s current on/off status could be displayed somewhere on screen

[jofemodo]

Hi @Zynthianers!

I’ve fixed and improved the preload feature. This is the changelog:

• Use “bold back” event for restoring the selected preset, maintaining the original functionality (go to bank list) for the “short back” event.
• Fix restoring to selected preset when preloading from different banks.
• Fix operation: when no preset is selected in the layer, preload works, but “bold back” goes to “bank list” instead of “control” (no restoring of selected prset, as there is no selected preset
• Add a config flag for enabling/disabling the “note-on preload” feature.

(@mheidt , could you add the new flag to the webconf tool? Its name is “ZYNTHIAN_PRESET_PRELOAD_NOTEON” and can be 1/0. I suggest adding it to the “MIDI config” section. Thanks!)

Enjoy!

[ivanmonterosso]

@Schpion

And it’s current on/off status could be displayed somewhere on screen

maybe changing color of highlighed items (blue instead of red )…? but i’m afraid in giving some other different functions to zyncoders… could become too much functions to remember for each page…expecially if there is no label on what kind of function on UI

[jofemodo]

I think that configuring via “webconf tool” should be enough by now. Let’s play with the feature some time and will comeback again when we feel the need

[ivanmonterosso]

ah ok, sure… i think could remain customizable via webconf forever , depends on player’s habits…

[Schpion]

@ivanmonterosso

And it’s current on/off status could be displayed somewhere on screen

Maybe, something like this:

[ivanmonterosso]

ah, ok… maybe leaving it off by default…i mean: the command is on overall page, not per preset…right?

[Schpion]

@ivanmonterosso

i mean: the command is on overall page, not per preset…right?

Yes, it should be global. Also, I think that the default value could be set via webconf

[jofemodo]

I like your idea, @Schpion … but it’s a little bit more complex than what it seems to be. Perhaps in the next iteration. There are tasks with higher priority

Thanks!

[jofemodo]

Hi @zynthianers!

@mheidt has added a new flag to the webconf tool to enable/disable the preload feature. Also, i’ve merged the changes into the master, including some extra bugfix.

You should “update software” from the admin menu

Regards!

[mheidt]

Great Fernando.

But a couple of things I saw.
a) shouldn’t we say in the webconf, if a save is restarting the zynthian? Didn’t go to all handlers. But MIDI triggers a reboot.
b) I have a master keyboard, that has a ± one octave button. Normally it was one octave. But now it shifts 2 octaves.

[jofemodo]

@mheidt

a) shouldn’t we say in the webconf, if a save is restarting the zynthian? Didn’t go to all handlers. But MIDI triggers a reboot.

There are a few handlers that trigger a reboot (display, audio) or restart the UI (wiring, style, MIDI). Probably it would be nice to warn about the Zynthian “reboot” or “UI restart”

@mheidt

b) I have a master keyboard, that has a ± one octave button. Normally it was one octave. But now it shifts 2 octaves.

I doesn’t changed anything that could affect in such a way. BTW, MIDI filter is not implemented yet.
Anyway, do you know if this scale button trigger some MIDI message that could reach to Zynthian?

Regards,

[ivanmonterosso]

Hi… would give a Little tip: by now, with note On feature, each engine’s preset list should highlight last memory from snapshot… because while playing, if going back to list, noteOn activates the first sound highlighted, which is not the one still Active in Memory.
Let me know if it’s possibile
Regards

[mheidt]

Have you tried “bold back”?