Preset managment absolute @#$!

Why is the preset managment in Spektral Delay so bad? I don't understand, it is totally confusing and doesn't work like it should. why is it so hard to create a preset and save it in a location on a bank then save the bank? This is the worst preset managment I have ever seen. I've had Spektral Delay since it came out and I am so disapointed that NI has done nothing to improve this app. I want to be able to open a blank bank! I want to be able to erase a preset! I want to be able to move presets around freely! ERRRRRRRRRR, I don't even no where to begin because IT"S SO DAM CONFUSING! Really it makse NO SENSE!

 

I agree completely. And I too have had it ever since it came out. It was confusing then and it's still confusing. SD is fun to program but I never do it much because I never know if my work will get saved or not.

 

yes i third that. The most difficult preset system in all of computerdom.

However...let's be honest, the tool is incredible. I use it all the time as one of my main Protools plugins, and turn to it everytime i am looking for some modulation that doesn't quite exist anywhere else.

I'm also using it extensively as plugin in Ableton Live. I have half a concert set in which I put on two animal sound samples, (a seal and a dolphin) and then modulate them in so many different ways in SD, the audience seems to get hynotised. You haven't lived until you've heard a dolphin filtered through the SD sponge.

I also use it occasionally as a software guitar amp. Think of it as the Martian version of Amplitube. There's this one preset called pointillism that does something to a recorded mandolin that turns it into one of the most seductive string sounds I've ever produced. Whenever i record mandolins these days (I'm a mandolin player myself) I keep returning to that SD preset.

 

i wish NI would post video tutorials of their products because SPEKTRAL DELAY & VOKATOR both are driving me up a wall

 

Here's my system for making presets in SD. When I get any complex software, I usually learn it slowly. If it has value to my work, after a month or two, I usually know it well enough to be able to figure out how to set it up precisely the way i want to use it. But at some point, i usually drop it for awhile to move on to other jobs using other software. When i drop it, I soon forget how to do all the complex procedures. With Spektral Delay, I once spent a long evening figuring out how to make presets, and then built 6 banks of presets that included not just my own, but all the ones i liked best from the bundled presets. Now, i pretty much stick to those 6 banks, and they are diverse enough that I always find something i like during a recording session, and then simply tweek it a little by hand. But I haven't made any new presets in over a year, because i can't remember how to do it.

Vokator is another story. i have owned it for 9 months, and I still haven't figured out how to use it in any meaningful way. It may actually be the only software i have ever used that i could not get any handle on. It's really too bad, because I had a very clear idea how i wanted to use it from reading the NI promotions. I often do readings of my books (about animals), and i got Vokator because i thought it would be fun to do public readings filtered through Vokator so my words sounded like they were being spoken by any number of different animals. Unfortunately, never figured out how to do that, or anything else for that matter.

 

right spotted.... I love also the tool, but the preset management is to put it mildly complicated. This is one of the most complicated ones to get it started, as it does not start as it should. NI should have a closer look to improve the flow there.

 

I completely, whole-heartedly agree. Spek needs a overhaul!!

it is the greatest effect ever, but man. what a pain in the ass!!!!

and NI could also try to make the Spek window less CPU intensive while they are fixing the preset problem

 

Uhf, tried to figure it out...
Copied one of the preset folders to make my own.
OK, it showed up. Edited some programs... Saved?
Whats the diff between Read and Load??
Well, now my Spectral Delay does not produce anything, the sound is just passing but I can see the out graph is different.
And no, I have not pressed the bypass button!

// C

 

Maybe we should moce to the Vokator thread but:
With Live as host, I route one audio to Vokator in, the other (say animal), to Vokator B-input and then chose the a*b or b*a mode.
By that I may have a speach of president Bush influenced by a craw etc.

// C

 

Presets:
My experimenting tells me the best thing is to avoid the bank handling.
I tweak whatever preset and use the rename and store fields at the left, then I save as a program.
Saving this and restarting in Plogue Bidule works OK.
(I don't care so much for midi program change)

// C

 

i second that...

my brain is largely made of mush these days, so any help i can get is welcome. these are not the most intuative of vsts imo.

 

Thank f*** for that! I thought it was just me who was mystified...

Kind regards.

 

Your not the only one, don't worry.

I'm like all of the others, I still haven't figured Spektral Delay out yet (Vokator either)

 

i agree..... ive just started to use SD, even though ive had it for a while (courtesy of Komplete 2)...... right now i use the 'Hail Mary' technique in savings presets: press some 'save' button, and Hail Mary - i hope it will save

 

I agree totally.

NI has some older products, namely Spektral, Vocator and PRO53 which should have been updated a long time ago. The preset management in Spektral is really cofusing to me too. Vokator I have no clue about and while PRO53 is straightforward as such the preset management is also a total *****. It was probably thought of as an amusing touch of vintage realism but I´d be willing to change this for practicality anytime.

i wish NI would keep developing these older products as well. However it was welcome surprise that B4 got updated. And I do like the improvements in it.


All the best,


Pessi
Helsinki, Finland

 

After spending a lot of time with Roland instruments, preset managers like Spektral are almost a breath of fresh air.

"Almost" though...I'll have to load up Spektral later, but I know that one of the tricks was needing to keep tuned into the "Active/Disk" patches. The LOAD button brings in presets from the Global area, and one of the options is to "load" in presets from a file. I believe LOAD also send out MIDI program changes based on the preset being loaded.

There is also a Read/Write menu that allows you to read/write single presets, or full banks. That's the area that has the A/B/C/D buttons where you can see 16 presets at a time...for a total of 64 (the size of a bank).

Not necessarily the best deal in preset managers, but I think NI was trying to allow extra functionality in preset use when using SD as a standalone.

I'll check it out later, seemed to me to process is pretty straightforward.

Happy Holidays!

Tom