How to move presets between sound banks, and generally organize them?

Software Instruments Pigments
#1

In Pigments 5, I have sound banks for Factory, Pigments 2 through 5, and various other that I’ve installed from PGTX files.

How do I move presets between banks, copy, delete, and otherwise manage the presets and sound banks?
I see delete, rename, and export mentioned in the manual.

For example I have 12 sound banks each with less than 10 presets. How do I merge them into one?

#2

Hi @timg11 ,

If this is user presets/ presets that is allowed to be changed, then simply make a multi selection for all presets in a bank, then put the new bank name in the bank attribute.

To select all preset in the bank click the first preset. Then press SHIFT while clicking the last preset in the bank.

You can also go to your preset folders, and then move user presets from one folder to another. Then open the application. The preset folder name is the bank name, so the bank names should have been changed by doing this. It’s some time since i have done this.

Use the Save Preset As to copy a preset. This is also possible for factory presets.

If you wish to change names for copied presets. If you copy a preset folder and rename it, then the presets will have the same names.
You preset folder is installed and located at the ressource folder path set in Arturia Software Centers Preferences.

Keep in mind, that if you change locations for for example factory presets, then they automaticly can be installed again in an update to the original location. So this is not a good idea. Keep factory presets and other presets that you can’t Save without using Save As in the original location. Also to save your self from future work and complications.
Mostly there is no point in copying and moving factory presets and soundbanks presets. You have a great preset browser with many functions to search, tag and sort. But that’s up to you. Be careful not to complicate things.

INFO: If you use Playlists, then presets in the Playlists is copies.

I can only suggest you try things out, and get a feeling how it work.

#3

@LBH, Thanks for the quick reply - I’m trying to clean up user presets - no need to modify factory.

I went to a bank, and multi-selected all presets. I right click on the presets. Nothing but tags and playlist in the menu. After looking around a while, I finally noticed the drop down symbol “V” on the BANK field of the Preset Info panel on the right.
That dropdown allowed me to select the desired target bank.

It says “preset existing - operation not permitted” No option to replace, or skip those that already exist. No clue on which of the selected presets exist. Just “not permitted”. So I have to go through presets one by one and examine each bank?

Are the presets just files in a file structure? This would be trivial to do in a file explorer window.

IMHO, there is a need for better preset management. I’ve been using Pigments for a month or so and am running into this issue. On my 10 year old Korg Kronos, I have about 10,000 patches and combis - fortunately there is software to manage them.

In addition to standard skip/replace options for preset copying between banks, an effective preventative measure would be to have a message appear when importing a sound bank: “A preset of identical name and designer already exists in bank xxxx, are you sure you want to import?” Bonus points for performing a content comparison and alerting on any differences, and offering to change preset name to preset_v1.

#4

@timg11 . You are welcome.

Yes. That’s normal for software instruments. This way you can use the computers features. So you will be asked if there are duplicate names.

You are not allowed to move a preset to a bank with similar preset from inside Pigments browser.

I don’t have any software instruments browsers that have better features. Do you? Not that i don’t wish the features you mention. It has been requested before - also for the import feature.