Beginning with SynthMaker

SynthMaker’s stock Preset Manager module is very versatile and works well for most purposes without alteration. But you need to understand how it works to avoid a few common problems.

The first step to get ready for a painless addition of presets is to ensure all of the stock modules that include controls (knobs, buttons, etc.) have the ‘Preset’ property set to a unique value. Only modules that we have used more than once will need adjustments. That means each of the three modules within each of the four oscillators (12 total) and the additional ADSR used to modulate the filter will need to be adjusted.
For each of the four oscillators go into the module and click on the properties button for each of the three stock modules inside.

Add a digit to the end of the name that corresponds to the oscillator number (1-4). So in the first oscillator ‘Detuner’, ‘OSC’, and ‘Envelope’ become ‘Detuner1’, ‘OSC1’, and ‘Envelope1’.

Make the corresponding changes to the preset property of the other three oscilators

If this strikes you as a lot of grunt work, it is. For a really complex synth with multiple layers and dozens of repeated elements it would be too much maintenance. There is a way, however, to have component presets inherit names from their parent module and the stock modules and controls have this mechanism built in. But using it requires you to enter ‘Developer Mode’ and start dealing with the underlying event mechanism instead of simply connecting blocks of high-level components as we have done so far in these tutorials. A more advanced tutorial on the preset manager should be available in the not-too-distant future.

Once all your modules have their own unique name it’s pretty much just a matter of adding and managing the Preset Manager module. It should normally be added at the uppermost level of your project (at the same level as the Poly Section, Combiner and Mono Section.
Simply drag it from the toolbox to this level. To locate it click on the VST filter in the toolbox or type “preset manager” in the search field.
Note: there is also a primitive component with the same name. You will only see primitive components if you have SynthMaker set to ‘Developer Mode’.

Let’s take a look at the features available to the end user.

The interface includes the name of the program, the number of the current program over the total number of programs, and a file menu with the following options:

• Save Program
• Load Program
• Save All Programs
• Load All Programs

It also includes increment and decrement buttons and a button which allows the user the edit the name of the program.

To use the Preset Manager you need to set its behaviour with the properties panel. Open the properties panel and we’ll go over the most important settings.

• Total - the total number of programs saved
• Lock - a boolean setting that causes the programs to revert to there saved state when selected instead of the last state in which the user had left them
• Program - the name of the current program
• [+] - increment the program number by 1
• [-] - decrement the program number by 1
• Save - save the current control settings to the current program
  

Following these are a number of settings which effect the display of the Preset Module, we will not cover these in detail but you should be able to see for yourself what effect they have. The final setting of interest to us currently is the ‘Edit Names in Place’ boolean. It allows the user to alter the names of the programs and these names will be saved if the user saves a bank of single program using the main interface.