Cross VI/DAW preset management

[mrj1nx]

Hey there.

I was opening up a bunch of sligtlhy older songs recently, and realizing that I have a bunch of really nice sounds that I dug up/tweaked. These are in various different VI plugins etc. My main DAW is Logic, and what I could do is build up a library of my own favorite EP's, Pads, Bases, etc and save them via Logics "Library" patch system.

The problem with that could be if apple would discontinue or somehow cripple logic, or for some other reason I would want to switch DAW. Is there any way to do this so it's also cross DAW? I'm assuming not really. I'm just curious if there's any cool tricks/ideas on how people are setting up their personal preset collection these days. Right now I'm mostly opening up different VI's and remembering some good starting point factory patches and tweaking from there, or randomly exploring until I find something good.

[jancivil]

If what you mean is a combination of things (I save at several levels), a patch, & then FX in the channel as inserts, a certain send relationship, all as a whole, here's how I work:
I use Vienna Ensemble Pro and save at higher levels than the patch/the FX preset as well as at that level; as what they call a channel set. Which can be all channels in the mixer or just the one channel. The channel may be based in an instrument, it may just be an FX bus, a set may be a group, there is no restriction as to type.
So in a way it's like a library in that it's all in the same place regardless of the sources as components and of course it can be named descriptively.

Or of course the channel set may simply be the instrument as saved; the idea being it's all called from one directory very simply. I mention it because you said "cross-DAW" ie., it connects to a DAW. I don't do much in Cubendo accordingly.

[zzz00m]

That's an interesting idea.

So the simple answer to your question, backing up your user preset folders for each of your VIs in their native preset format would cover you in case your DAW ever ceased to work, as far as recovering your tweaked "sounds". Just open an instance of the VI in another DAW and reload your user presets as needed.

But if you are going to use a DAW's proprietary "favorites" patch library system, you are probably on your own, unless they offer some way to export that. However, I am not aware of any universal formats to export that to.

Generally regarding virtual instruments, their presets, their DAW channel and bus routings, etc, I also haven't heard of a universal way to preserve the instrument track across DAWs, short of this: saving all of your presets in their native plugin format, backing up those preset folders, and then recreating that instrument track in a new DAW manually.

But it may not sound exactly the same in another DAW, especially if you were using bus effects in the original DAW, and haven't duplicated that bus routing exactly in the new DAW.

Probably the best advice that I have heard to date is to always bounce your VI tracks down to audio when you are finishing up a project, so that if for some reason a software update breaks your plugin, or you lose you presets, at least you will still have your VI track from the old song printed to audio.

I believe a lot of work has been done to date for exporting/importing audio files to/from Pro Tools for example. Audio tracks are fairly straightforward and standardized, but virtual instruments are all different and many use proprietary preset libraries, so that presents a lot of challenges.

[jancivil]

VE Pro used to save .fxp which would tend to travel. I'm not sure anymore, I know I have one au.preset saved.
I posited that as a way away from being tied to a sequencer DAW.

Perhaps out of the Pro Tools from way back there is the XML, and 'iXML chunk' for audio files, yes and this is very good for maintaining compatibility with say the audio editor at the video end regarding music for picture but I never really thought of a library of vi channels beyond what I do.
I'm pretty tight with organization so I know where everything is saved. I don't even use Media Bay in Cubendo, I never saw a need for it.

[logifuzz-vst-plugins]

FL Studio can also work with Cubase .fxp file format.