Saving a patch. An all time low?

Tips and techniques for Minimoog Analog Synthesizers
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Do we need a faster/easier save method?

YES!
11
79%
No, I am having a ball every time I save.
3
21%
 
Total votes: 14

LDT
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Saving a patch. An all time low?

Post by LDT » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:14 am

Is there any synths out there that requires more button presses to save than the Voyager?
Don´t get me wrong, I love this machine, but saving a patch is.... yuck.
If you are lucky and your last visit to the edit menu was "save", then you "only" have five button presses to do (for saving your edits to the same patch you are on). If your lastest use of "edit" was "Trigger modes" then you need 17 (seventeen) button presses to perform the save. So a possible average would be around 11 button presses.

When I sit down at my JP-8 it feels so liberating to be able to save at any time, under any condition because it requires so little brain activity to do so. There is no breaking the creative flow. Am I the only one that feels that saving a Voyager patch is such a party killer?

Luckily this is "only" a matter of software. An easy save procedure could be implemented in many ways.
How about double click Enter for getting to "do you want to save?" And then one more click on Enter to save. Please none of that "are you sure?" stuff.
Last edited by LDT on Sat Apr 26, 2008 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mitchell Chastain
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Post by Mitchell Chastain » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:08 am

yes, saving a patch has always been my biggest complaint.

cl516
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Post by cl516 » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:11 am

good idea

EricK
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Post by EricK » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:57 am

WHen I had my Voyager, I thought that the real pain in the butt was naming the patch with the keys. I do love being able to save my presets though so no complaints there. After having tweaked a pure analog machine for so long I think the memory spoils you. I couldn't imagine having the OS and having to write down all of my various settings.

EricK
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Hal_McGee
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Post by Hal_McGee » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:10 am

You guys are a bunch of whining complainers, and over nothing. I have a RME and I never ever use the presets. Have any of you heard of sound exploration? And if so, what does that have to do with presets? Nothing. I suppose presets are a good thing if you want to explore the same old tired territory every time you turn on your Voyager - or if you do pop music I suppose.
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Mitchell Chastain
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Post by Mitchell Chastain » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:48 am

presets are also a good thing if you work for 30 min dialing in a sound to fit in a track just right. so if i don't have the time to waste programming the same sounds for a song every time i power up, guess that makes me a whiner.

theglyph
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Post by theglyph » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:59 am

Although it isn't a perfect solution perhaps, the SoundTower editor makes it a breeze to save (and edit) patches.

MarkM
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Post by MarkM » Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:02 am

Hal, I understand your point. Sometimes presets kill the desire to explore. However, there are some of us who do explore and need presets to access elaborate patches quickly. I do a solo set of 45-60 minute of continuous music and need to access 12 or more patches on my Voyager. (as well as many on other synths). These are patches I created, and without presets I would be unable to do this. As far as the procedure of saving them, it is a bit clunky. I actually love the way the keyboard is used for the alpha/numerical entries. It was the assigning the preset to a location that used to drive me crazy. The latest update has made that much easier.

I can also see the absence of presets killing the desire to explore. One could easily get in a procedural rut. Some of the presets that come with Voyager are very inspirational and have made me explore how they were created.
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LDT
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Post by LDT » Sat Apr 26, 2008 11:58 am

You guys are a bunch of whining complainers, and over nothing. I have a RME and I never ever use the presets. Have any of you heard of sound exploration? And if so, what does that have to do with presets? Nothing. I suppose presets are a good thing if you want to explore the same old tired territory every time you turn on your Voyager - or if you do pop music I suppose.
I get what you are saying. Despite my rant about the very clumsy "save", not using presets is an integral part of how I work. For me, being able to save a patch is more like an exotic spice in a kitchen of strictly analog machines.
I would say that just because the use of presets is a curse of modern day music, the ability to save a patch is not evil.

I love the way you can on a good synth play while creating the sound, all in one creative flow, and usually the two or three keystrokes it takes on other synths to save a sound, does not break the flow. I have though never come across a synth where saving a patch required so much attention as the Voyager. Initially I thought "oh, after I while I will get it into my fingers", but this is not going happen, because you have to look at the display every time, watching the cursor.

Oh well, I guess I should shut up and get myself a Voyager OS, haha.

EricK
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Post by EricK » Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:58 pm

EricK

If we didn't care about sound exploration, we wouldn't get a Moog.

:D
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earsmack
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Post by earsmack » Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:57 am

I agree with the OP.

Secondly, SAVING (what we're talking about here, right?) implies CUSTOMIZING sounds and NOT just be-bopping through presets. Although working the knobs fresh each time is fun, once I make up a sound I want to save it, especially if I use it in a track and want to reference it later. Also - it's nice that you can put the Voyager in Panel mode and more or less turn it into a Voyager OS :-)

I thought I got the inkling a long time ago that we Voyager users were going to see an OS update soon. Might have been in a thread about implementing various modes when you crank a knob that is not at the current setting of a patch (ie: does the knob jump to the new value, which it does now, vs does it smoothly ramp to the new value to avoid glitches, like the LP can do, etc.)

Anyway...I know Moog has been busy and probably keeping Rudy super busy but what is the word on the Voyager OS? Is an upgrade in the works?
Minimoog Voyager Performer Edition + LP Stage II + Sub37 + Model D reissue + CP-251 + VX-351

EricK
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Post by EricK » Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:05 pm

I think they really need to make a touchpad for the OS and the RME. I think that would be a big hit for them because not only would it work for Moogs, but any voltage controlled gear, including the Foogers, the vintage Moogs AND it will not let the people with the RME, OS and the Vx351 have the wasted space of the X Y and A cv outputs of the 351.

I think it would also compete with the Kaoss Pad. I'd definately get one, muptiply the signal and send it to everything!

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a touchpad and use it in conjunction with a ribbon controller?

EricK
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rberg
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Re: Saving a patch. An all time low?

Post by rberg » Sat Mar 27, 2021 5:25 pm

There's a Max4Live macro that stays in sync with your patching, stores the patch along with your song, and applies it when you load the song in Live. So by using that there'd be no need to store anything anymore.

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ummagumma
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Re: Saving a patch. An all time low?

Post by ummagumma » Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:59 pm

That sounds pretty cool!

The latest Voyager software has improved patch saving quite a bit: hit master menu now & it's right at the top

Thanks Rudi!!

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