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Software Instruments => SQ-80 V => SQ80 V - Feature Requests => Topic started by: MarkP on November 07, 2021, 04:43:03 am

Title: More flexible import features
Post by: MarkP on November 07, 2021, 04:43:03 am

The SQ80 V program/preset import functions are practically undocumented, so it takes some trial and error to figure out how they work.

• Only one sysex file can be imported at a time. It is not possible to select multiple files for import.
• Only single programs or banks of 40 can be imported. If you create a file with any other number of programs, only the last program will be imported.
• Programs imported as a bank will be numbered 01 to 40. The number is prefixed to the program name. This makes sorting rather peculiar, as eventually you will have multiple programs numbered 01, for example.
• Operating system folder names, with the suffix '_Sysex' are used to name SQ80V banks, but they can be freely renamed.
• Two different banks in the same folder will be imported into the same SQ80V bank. This occurs even if they share some programs.
• Two banks or two programs with identical contents and in the same folder will be imported into two SQ80V banks. Any extra SQ80V bank will have underscore and a number suffixed to its name.
• Similarly, the same bank accidentally imported twice will be imported into two separate SQ80V banks. Any time a previously imported file is imported, a new, separate, SQ80V bank will be created.
• If a program has already been loaded as part of a bank, and is then loaded on its own, it will be loaded to the same SQ80V bank, providing the bank and progam are in the same folder.
• When a bank is loaded, SQ80V does not eliminate cloned copies of programs in the bank.

There are thus problems when the user wants to load many programs. They must either:

• load programs singly, which could take hours
• load banks, then manually remove any known clones and padding and, perhaps, the automatic numbering

I request that:
1a) it be possible to import specially created bank files of any number of programs OR
1b) it be possible to select any number of single programs for simultaneous import.
2) it be possible to switch off automatic numbering.

This would enable the user to, for example, assemble all bass programs in one folder (or special bank) and import them in a single action to a SQ80V bank to be called, say, "Basses". It would also allow new sets of bass programs to be added later without conflicting number sequences.

And here's another idea: give the user the option of naming an imported program using its filename rather than the six-character Ensoniq name embedded in the data. This could permit more descriptive, usefully sortable names.