Organizing vst presets - practices?
I always end up making a huge mess when working with VSTs and editing/versioning VST presets in Max. I use [preset], and then [pattr] for writing everything including VST statuses to a JSON file, but I also sometimes recall presets from the vst from Max, which must be saved in their own format. Sometimes I also use Max snapshots that get saved with the patch. In the end, things are scattered all over different ways of saving things.
Would some of you be so kind as to let me know how you organize things and what works for you? I'd like to hear about that before inventing myself a more rigid system for that.
inventing your own system would be my first idea.
and then either use only that or only the export function of the plug-ins, because if you start mixing methods you will be lost when you reopen the patch 2 years later.
i am using a master coll file to save things to .txt - including current vst~ plug-in states.)
Thanks Roman! Yes, it IS already a mess and I already get lost sometimes.
Using coll, you have one single preset associated with your patch (or with each .txt file), right? Or do you use something like a umenu reading from a bank with multiple .txt presets?
Thinking aloud, I believe what I want is more or less a [preset] object in which I have multiple vst presets + other parameters saved, always saved along with the patch itself, one of which would be recalled automatically as the default or head version for that patch. Kind of a versioning system for the parameters of a patch, contained within the patch itself as much as possible.
yes, i save only the current state (i.e. only the selected preset) - as opposed to DAWs which save all presets.
Thanks. I think I need to A/B test different presets/configs, so I'll go the [pattrstorage] route for saving all presets coupled with an automatic reading of a json file that matches the patch filename.