All about presets

If you use Presets, it is very important that you know the following information....

What is a Preset ?

A Preset is a device that can save and restore the control values of other devices.  As such, a Preset has no direct signal processing action. Presets use the PC file system for control value storage, and each Preset can save and restore a single set of control values.

What is Saved and Loaded ?

A Preset will save the settings of all of the controls of the devices in a view.  A Sub-Preset, on the other hand, will save only the controls within its scope. (You can consider a Preset as a Sub-Preset with global scope.)  A Sub-Preset's scope is defined as the block that the Sub-Preset appears in, and all blocks descending from that block.  If some controls of a device have been copied from outside to inside the scope of a Sub-Preset, just those controls, and not the other controls of that device, will be saved. If a device is within the scope of a Sub-Preset, all of its control settings will be saved, even if its controls have been deleted or moved outside of the Sub-Preset's scope.

Correcting the above statement, display-only controls, such as meters, are not saved in presets.  In addition, controls which have been assigned to BoB external control are not saved.  As an example, if the trim control of the Level device has been selected for BoB control, the setting for that trim control will not be stored.  If, however, a preset is saved while a trim control is not under BoB control, and later the trim control is assigned to a BoB and the preset is loaded, the trim control will be set to the preset value and will no longer be under BoB control.  This is because the controls that assign a device to BoB external control are saved in presets.  This can sometimes lead to some even more confusing situations.  For example, note the following sequence of events:

A preset is saved.

1. That preset is then assigned to BoB external control.

2. The preset is loaded by twiddling the BoB external control port.

3. Now, the preset can no longer be controlled externally!  Why?  Because the controls that assign the preset to BoB external control have been restored to the off state.

Preset Data Files

When a Preset or Sub-Preset is saved, the preset data is written to a file in the same directory as the currently compiled View file.  The Preset data file is given the name filename.xxp, where filename is the View file name and xx is the preset number.  A Sub-Preset data file is given the name filename.xxs, where filename is the View file name and xx is the preset number.  If a file does not exist for a given preset, one will be created on the first save of that preset.

Some aspects of preset files are not automatically managed by MediaMatrix.  This has several important consequences:

• If you build a new View (using File | New) that contains a preset, compile, and then click the save button in the preset, the preset will be saved in a file called noname00.xxp. (noname00.pav is the default name of a new view file.)

• If you perform a File | Save As command on a View file and do not re-compile, the presets will save to and load from the files associated with the original View file.  Watch out!

• If you copy a View file to a different machine or directory, you should also copy the preset files that go with that View file.

• If you edit a View file by adding, deleting or replacing any devices (and then re-compile), preset files that were saved before the edits will no longer exactly match the new view.  When you load a preset with such a problem, it is indicated (in the preset control panel) with the message EXTRA PRM(S) or MISSED PRMS.  You can, however, retain the control settings of the devices that were not deleted or replaced.  To do this, simply load and then save each preset.

Preset Load Time

Loading a preset takes a finite amount of time.  Loading a large preset that contains thousands, or even tens of thousands, of control settings can appear to take quite a long time. (For the larger presets, the "loaded" LED will be seen to blink during saves and loads)  Appearances can be misleading, however, because if there are many controls displayed on the screen, the time lag between the actual completion of the preset load and the graphical updating of those controls can be significant.

In any case, a finite preset load time can, in theory, result in undesirable audio artifacts.  As an example, consider a preset change that includes a significant boost of signal level at one point in the audio chain followed by a compensating gain reduction - if the delay between recalling the boost and recalling the cut is too great, and audio is passing through that signal path, an audible artifact may appear at a system output.

As of Version 3.0, preset load times have been improved, reducing the chances of inadvertent audio artifacts.  A load now consists of two phases, one during which control settings are read from the preset file, followed by a shorter phase during which the settings are applied to the signal processing engine.  If, however, you do encounter an audio problem during preset loads, you can optionally cause all audio to mute during preset loads.  To do so, enter the following line in the [PADPU] section of your PA.INI file: "pst_MuteDuringLoad=TRUE".