Presets and property pages

Presets are a way to store property page settings so that you can recall the exact same group of settings again in the future. Effects and soft synths use presets, and so do some other functions you’ll find in certain dialogs.

You manage presets with the Presets section that appears at the top of a plug-in property page, and the buttons next to the Presets box.

A. Host bypass B. Presets menu displays the name of the current preset C. Previous/Next Preset buttons D. Save Preset button E. Delete Preset button F. Slot A G. Copy selected slot to other slot H. Slot B I. Revert settings in selected slot J. Plugin format K. Settings menu L. Sidechain Sources M. ACT Learn button N. Open view O. Solo button P. Automation read and write buttons Q. Send all keystrokes to this plug-in button R. Pin plug-in window 

The Presets menu displays presets in the following order:

Most Recently Used presets. These appear at the top of the Presets menu, up to 8 in number, and followed by a horizontal line to separate this section from the next section of the menu.

VST factory presets. Any VST factory presets appear below the Most Recently Used section, and are also followed by a horizontal separator line.

Cakewalk and user presets. These appear at the bottom of the Presets menu.

The following table tells you how to use presets.

To do this	Do this
Load a preset	Do either of the following: Click the drop-down arrow on the right side of the Presets menu, and click the name of the preset in the drop-down menu. Click the left or right side of the Prev/Next button to load the previous or next preset in the menu. You can click the button repeatedly to step through the menu.
Save the current settings as a preset	If you’re using: A VST factory preset. These can not be deleted or overwritten (the Delete button appears grayed-out). If you want to change one of these, double-click the name, enter a new name, and click the Save button. Note: VST presets can be stored by saving a .fxp file (see the following instructions). A Cakewalk or user preset. Either save these under a new name: double-click the name, enter a new name, and click the Save button, or just click the Save button to overwrite the preset with current values.
Delete a preset	VST factory presets can not be deleted. If you’re not using a VST factory preset, simply display the preset name in the Presets window, and then click the Delete button.
Load or save a .fxp file	Use the Load Preset or Save Preset commands, respectively, in the VST button drop-down menu
Load or save a .fxb file	Use the Load Bank or Save Bank commands, respectively, in the VST button drop-down menu

The Presets window also has a feature called Preset Dirty Flags. A Preset Dirty Flag is an asterisk that appears next to the name of the preset. The asterisk tells you that you changed and saved this particular preset in another project, and the settings in the current project are different from the saved version. If you re-save the preset in the current project with the current settings, the asterisk disappears, but will reappear in the other project, showing you that the displayed settings in that project are different from the last saved version of the preset. If you want to get rid of the asterisk in all projects, save the preset in each project with the exact same settings.

Plug-in property pages have a couple of other controls not related to presets:

A/B plugin settings. Use the A/B buttons to compare two different versions of a plugin's settings. For details, see A/B plugin settings.

Settings menu:

Load Preset. Load a .vstpreset preset file.

Save Preset. Save the current plugin settings as a new .vstpreset preset file.

Randomize. Randomize the plugin parameter values.

Oversampling. Specify whether the plug-in’s incoming audio should be oversampled when bouncing, rendering, freezing, exporting, etc., or during playback:

Enable for Render. When rendering, upsample the incoming audio to 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x the project sample rate, process the plug-in at the new rate, and downsample the resulting output to the project sample rate. For details, see Plug-in oversampling on bounce/freeze/export.

Enable for Playback. During playback, upsample the incoming audio to 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x the project sample rate, process the plug-in at the new rate, and downsample the resulting output to the project sample rate.

Precision. Plugin oversampling uses very high quality resampling which may be overkill for playback and is a bit CPU intensive. To reduce the CPU load, the Precision submenu allows you to set multipliers for the resampling sinc size, which results in more efficient playback:

Low: The bandwidth is limited to 1/8 of the selected sample rate (for example, 6 KHz @48000). Low mode allows for significant CPU savings.

Medium (default): The bandwidth is limited to 1/4 of the selected sample rate, which is more than enough for playback.

High: The bandwidth is limited to 1/2 of the selected sample rate.

Highest: Full bandwidth. The Highest' quality mode improves audio precision with higher-order windowed- sine resampling of waveforms and noise-shaped dithering.

2x. Upsample the incoming audio to 2x the project sample rate.

4x. Upsample the incoming audio to 4x the project sample rate.

8x. Upsample the incoming audio to 8x the project sample rate.

16x. Upsample the incoming audio to 16x the project sample rate.

Sidechain Source. Select the plugin’s sidechain input source.

Enable MIDI Input. When enabled, the VST plug-in shows up as an available MIDI output destination in the project. For details, see To enable VST MIDI input and output ports.

Enable MIDI Output. When enabled, the VST plug-in shows up in the Browser’s Synth Rack, and the corresponding ports are exposed to Sonar.

Enable Plugin DPI Awareness. DPI Awareness is enabled by default for all VST plug-ins and can be disabled on a case-by-case basis depending on whether the plug-ins are compatible with display scaling. For example, some older plug-ins may appear too small on large, high resolution monitors, in which case disabling DPI Awareness might be preferable. For details, see DPI Awareness.

Plug-in Properties. Open the VST Plug-In Properties dialog box, which lets you configure various settings for the VST plugin.

Sidechain Sources. Open the Manage Sidechain Sources dialog box, which lets you a manage the plug-in’s sidechain sources. The button is only shown for sidechain capable plug-ins. For details, see Sidechaining.

ACT Learn. Enable/disable ACT Learn mode. ACT Learn allows you to assign a specific effect/synth parameter to a specific hardware control on your control surface. For more information, see To edit the default ACT mappings, ACT, and ACT module.

Open View button. This button lets you open a MIDI editing view for a soft synth’s corresponding MIDI track. Click the small down arrow to specify the default editing view from the menu. The following views are available:

Step Sequencer (default)

Piano Roll View

Staff View

Event List

Automation read and write buttons. These buttons enable or disable automation playback and recording for the plug-in’s parameters. See the online Help topic Automation for more information.

Keystrokes button . Enabling this button sends all keystrokes to a particular instance of a plug-in when the plug-in’s property page has focus.

Pin Plug-In Window . This button lets you pin individual plug-in windows so they remain open when you open another plug-in window. If you prefer to always open a separate window for each plug-in, go to Edit > Preferences > File - VST Settings and clear the Recycle Plug-In Windows check box.

To toggle the current behavior, hold down the CTRL key when you open a plug-in UI:

If Recycle Plug-In Windows is enabled when you hold down the CTRL key to open a plug-in, all other open plug-in widows also become pinned.

If Recycle Plug-In Windows is disabled when you hold down the CTRL key to open a plug-in, all other open plug-in widows close, and the new plug-in window is unpinned.

 

Note: Plug-ins that are docked in the MultiDock are not affected by the Recycle Plug-In Windows setting. Docked plug-ins are automatically pinned and cannot be unpinned. To dock a plug-in window, hold down the CTRL key and drag the window to the MultiDock.

 

Note: Plug-in window recycling is disabled when loading projects, which ensures that projects open with all previously open windows.

To solo track/bus from plug-in window

When tweaking an effect, it is often desirable to only hear the audio that is passing through the effect.

A Solo button is available on all plug-in property pages, which allows you to quickly solo the track or bus that the effect is inserted on while adjusting the plug-in. The Solo button functions the exact same way as the Solo button on the source track/bus.

Figure 407. A Solo button is available on each plug-in property page.

A. Solo button

 

Note: If you solo a software instrument in the Synth Rack, the Solo button will also affect all associated MIDI and audio tracks.

 

See:

Soloing tracks

Muting and soloing soft synth tracks

A/B plugin settings

Audio effects (audio plug-ins)