Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?

Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« on: June 16, 2022, 03:00:47 AM »
Hi
Read manual and it seems to state
- press Write
- press Global to enter Compare
- navigate and listen to presets and decide which spot to save at
- press Global to exit Compare
- AGAIN NAVIGATE TO THE SPOT WHERE YOU WANT TO OVERWRITE
- press Write to finalize

What seems odd to me is the line i capital letters?
- am I getting that right?
- you don't have that spot where you exit Compare preselected ready to save just by a press, or?

Seems a bit cumbersome to walk through maybe banks away, and then have to redo it again before saving i made.

Manual is 2/19 probably feb 2019 then.

Or is this altered with a fw update since ?

Regards

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2022, 02:27:09 AM »
Perhaps I have misunderstood (and haven’t used the compare function for a while) but you don’t have to ‘navigate’ as such - when storing the program you simply select the location number you want to store at and hit write, and that’s it. Is that what you meant or did I get the wrong end of the stick?

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2022, 04:30:59 AM »
Thanks.

Normal situation is that once writing to all free locations once, there are a lot of intermediate saves made. A just a few keepers.

So when writing over you want to check by listening first, and do compare thingy, this is a keeper or not.
So from manual it seems so many unnecessary operations, as I read it.

With Nordlead, you press store once and immediately listen to current as stored before keeping edit buffer.
You just browse and listening to as many presets as you want and just decide you will overwrite this one you are listening to - and press Store again. Done.

Polybrute is similar, hold Write and press any matrix button in this or another page and you start listening to that location. Just press the next, the next and so forth and when feel like nothing interesting there - you press ok to overwrite, press ok again unless you want to change category of the preset.

For Prophet 6 I read it as
- first exit compare once you found something to overwrite, by pressing global again
- then again navigate to the bank+preset you just left in compare mode.
- press write to finalize.

You have to repeat the navigating process twice for every save, or am I misreading this?

Most of the time it's very small differences editing, and make plenty intermediate saves. Then go back and edit those I still find interesting and go in another direction, kind of. So memory is scattered very soon with keepers and those I will overwrite.

Just the way I enjoy the most doing exploration of what a synth offer.

The way Nordlead and Polybrute do preview before overwriting is so smooth, with minimum keypresses.
Once you listen to one location you will overwrite, you just execute the write.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2022, 10:29:11 AM »

You have to repeat the navigating process twice for every save, or am I misreading this?

Most of the time it's very small differences editing, and make plenty intermediate saves. Then go back and edit those I still find interesting and go in another direction, kind of. So memory is scattered very soon with keepers and those I will overwrite.

Yes - when you find a patch you want to overwrite you don’t press an overwrite button, instead you then exit Compare mode and then save the patch to the location of your choice. So if you cycled to patch 212 in Compare mode and you want to overwrite that then you leave Compare mode and hit  212 to write it there. ‘Compare’ and ‘Write’ are essentially two separate things.

I don’t understand your second point about things getting ‘scattered’ - you have to press a couple more buttons to overwrite but I don’t see the difference between the order in which the patches are stored between the Prophet 6 and the other synths you mentioned, unless I missed something perhaps.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2022, 06:59:17 AM »
Thanks for clarifying.

By "scattered" I just mean, first round all locations are free to overwrite and you save to adjacent locations, but some of them are keeper and others not next round you go back and continue. So might be 6 or 7 intermediate to overwrite and then one keeper, then 15 to overwrite and one keeper and so on. Just by accident in how you happend to save intermediates in previous round.

I think it might be easier to use compare and take notes of a couple of locations to overwrite on a paper, then continue working on sounds and save where not keepers. How I do it on Prologue basically, not having compare.

Just collecting Pros and Cons if getting one synth or the other. Compare on Prophet 6 does not collect any points in that regard. Prologue has this Favorite marker on a preset, so I just take notes of 5-10 free locations not having Favorite marker on browsing a bit before starting to modify. The continue modifying a preset and know where to save next.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2022, 11:21:37 AM »
Thanks for clarifying.

By "scattered" I just mean, first round all locations are free to overwrite and you save to adjacent locations, but some of them are keeper and others not next round you go back and continue. So might be 6 or 7 intermediate to overwrite and then one keeper, then 15 to overwrite and one keeper and so on. Just by accident in how you happend to save intermediates in previous round.

I think it might be easier to use compare and take notes of a couple of locations to overwrite on a paper, then continue working on sounds and save where not keepers. How I do it on Prologue basically, not having compare.

Just collecting Pros and Cons if getting one synth or the other. Compare on Prophet 6 does not collect any points in that regard. Prologue has this Favorite marker on a preset, so I just take notes of 5-10 free locations not having Favorite marker on browsing a bit before starting to modify. The continue modifying a preset and know where to save next.

OK got you - apologies, I thought you had a Prophet 6 and were trying to figure it out.

Yes, you are correct. I love the Prophet 6 and think it’s a great synth, but when it comes to patch management it is pretty old school (the OB6 is the same). You only get the two digit display and that’s it, and no one is going to memorise 500 patch locations! I personally keep a pad next to mine (again old school - pen and paper!), but it actually works quite well. But you do need to keep disciplined about it - also I don’t tend ti keep many ‘versions’ of the same patch, so it doesn’t affect me too much.

If you’re someone who works by keeping multiple versions of a patch as you tweak it though then yes that it a genuine consideration if you’re thinking about  getting a Prophet 6. There are other solutions to keeping a pen and paper handy though, for example there are editors available if you hook it up to a computer / laptop / tablet etc. In fact if you did want to keep multiple versions of patches that is probably worth looking into as well before deciding - it also means you’re not limited to 500 locations, and you can take easy backups while you work, as well as being able to name them whatever you wished!

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2022, 07:55:09 AM »
Just a little clarification, I don't save exactly same presets all over.
There are tiny differences, sometimes just a touch of a envelope attack or something.
Once saved, you can go back with the dot in the display feature to see what is saved in preset.
I just find it practical to go by this way, and then go back and dial new variations on what is there.

I had this P6 desktop B-stock with 20% discount, but now it's gone so not top of the list anymore.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2022, 05:10:15 AM »
A little update since I bought a REV2 now where manual states the same thing as for P6
- you have to exit compare to save, then navigate to previewed location, then write again.
- suggest that you have to navigate twice, once for compare and once for write

In fact REV2 works exactly as smooth as I want it to
- press write to indicate want to save
- press compare and navigate around and listen to a location you want to overwrite(knob turning in this case)
- exit compare and you are still on the last location you previewed and listened to
- press write to finalize

Just like I do it for Nordlead, Polybrute and REV2. Soooo smooth, no sidenotes needed.
You immediately feel if location you listen too is interesting or not, and just press write or in REV2 case exit compare first and press write.

Is it possibly the same for P6, the smooth operation navigate once only, or?
- or is it different because you finalize with a button press for that location
- P6 has some obscure way that to cancel save, you press write again
- soo unsmooth as described

Take 5 does not have any explanation about Compare button at all, so don't know the story there.

Just some more feedback on this....

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2022, 02:04:57 AM »
A little update since I bought a REV2 now where manual states the same thing as for P6
- you have to exit compare to save, then navigate to previewed location, then write again.
- suggest that you have to navigate twice, once for compare and once for write

In fact REV2 works exactly as smooth as I want it to
- press write to indicate want to save
- press compare and navigate around and listen to a location you want to overwrite(knob turning in this case)
- exit compare and you are still on the last location you previewed and listened to
- press write to finalize

Just like I do it for Nordlead, Polybrute and REV2. Soooo smooth, no sidenotes needed.
You immediately feel if location you listen too is interesting or not, and just press write or in REV2 case exit compare first and press write.

Is it possibly the same for P6, the smooth operation navigate once only, or?
- or is it different because you finalize with a button press for that location
- P6 has some obscure way that to cancel save, you press write again
- soo unsmooth as described

Take 5 does not have any explanation about Compare button at all, so don't know the story there.

Just some more feedback on this....

I can’t remember off the top of my head, I am away from my P6 for a couple of days but can check it then.

Regardless, I really don’t think you need to make notes or whatever. If it does work as I recall (and as described in the manual) you literally have to remember a 3 digit number for about 5 seconds, that’s it! You’re in compare, you find a patch you want to replace (let’s say 312), come out of compare and hit ‘write’ and 312. Whereas in the Rev2 example you don’t have to hit 312 again. That seems to be the only difference in the two processes you describe.

I will check it though when I get the chance and let you know for sure how it works on the P6 (pretty sure it’s as described in the manual though)

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2022, 09:55:30 PM »
Thanks.

Seems, reading manual over and over, that Write button does not for P6 do what it does in most synths
- it never execute anything, it just enter or exit write state
- it's buttons for location that execute the save/write

This inhibits to first activate a location to overwrite, and then execute with Write.

With just a bank knob and preset knob to browse locations in REV2 kind of allows this smooth operation.

But anything is possible in software, even firmware to have a setting which strategy you prefer. If to have Write button finalize and locations just navigate it would be doable, I think. If enough people care that is.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2022, 12:49:15 AM »
Thanks.

Seems, reading manual over and over, that Write button does not for P6 do what it does in most synths
- it never execute anything, it just enter or exit write state
- it's buttons for location that execute the save/write

This inhibits to first activate a location to overwrite, and then execute with Write.

With just a bank knob and preset knob to browse locations in REV2 kind of allows this smooth operation.

But anything is possible in software, even firmware to have a setting which strategy you prefer. If to have Write button finalize and locations just navigate it would be doable, I think. If enough people care that is.

To be honest with you I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I think for most people this will be pretty low on their list when it comes to a decision to buy a synth for 2k or more.

My advice is if it truly is a dealbreaker for you, do you have a chance to try out a P6 somewhere? Then you can try it out for yourself and truly know if it’s something that would stop you buying the synth or not.

Re: Compare/preview when saving presets/programs?
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2022, 01:33:35 AM »
Many thanks for chiming in.
It's not showstopper material, but clear disadvantage.
Unless a synth invites you in, it will just stay there for a while and then get travel pass to somebody else with more loss of money the more expensive it is as new. Below $1000 you can take a chance, not with $2500 ones.

P6, Take 5 and REV2 were my candidates highest on list.
REV2 won for now, lots of storage, lots of modulation features, lots of voices and allowing dual timbre etc. And workflow is really nice.

P6 approach with both HP+LP in series is a bit interesting though. Dial in HP a bit in low end with a bit of resonance etc.