U-He Diva User Manual

USER GUIDE
VERSION 1.4.4
10. December 2019!
U-HE - HECKMANN AUDIO GMBH - BERLIN
Introduction 5
The Spirit of Analogue 5 .........................................
Control Bar 6 ..........................................................
Editing 7 .................................................................
Programming 101 8 ...............................................
Preset Browser 9
Overview 9 .............................................................
Directory Panel 10 .................................................
The ‘Local’ folder 10 .................................................
The ‘User’ folder 11 ..................................................
Smart Folders 11 ......................................................
Directory context menu 11 ........................................
Presets Panel 12 ....................................................
Preset Tagging 13 ..................................................
Search by Tags 14 .................................................
Search by Text 16 ..................................................
Upper Panels 18
Oscillators 18 .........................................................
TRIPLE VCO 18 .......................................................
DUAL VCO 20 ..........................................................
DCO 22 ....................................................................
DUAL VCO ECO 23 .................................................
DIGITAL 24 ...............................................................
High-pass Filters / Feedback 26 ............................
NO HPF (just feedback) 26 ......................................
HPF | POST 26 ........................................................
HPF | PRE 26 ...........................................................
HPF | BITE 26 ..........................................................
Main Filters 27 .......................................................
VCF | LADDER 27 ....................................................
VCF | CASCADE 28 .................................................
VCF | MULTIMODE 29 .............................................
VCF | BITE 30 ..........................................................
VCF | UHBIE 31 .......................................................
Envelopes 32 .........................................................
ADS 32 .....................................................................
ANALOGUE 32 ........................................................
DIGITAL 33 ...............................................................
Lower Panels 34
LFOs 34 .................................................................
Effects 35 ...............................................................
Chorus 35 .................................................................
Phaser 35 .................................................................
Plate (reverb) 36 ......................................................
Delay 36 ...................................................................
Rotary 37 ..................................................................
Tuning 38 ...............................................................
Amplifier & Pan 38 .................................................
Voice 39 .................................................................
Clock & Arpeggiator 40 ..........................................
Modifications 41 .....................................................
VCO 41 ....................................................................
Filter 41 ....................................................................
Feedback 41 ............................................................
Modulation processors 42 ........................................
Trimmers 42 ...........................................................
Scope 43 ................................................................
Configuration 44
MIDI Control 44 ......................................................
Preferences 47 .......................................................
MIDI Specialities 49
Multichannel MIDI 49 ...............................................
Polyphonic aftertouch 49 ..........................................
Tips and Tricks 50
So bite me! 50 ..........................................................
Bass boost 50 ..........................................................
Twin effects 50 .........................................................
Stereo without effects 51 ..........................................
LFO as ramp generator 51 .......................................
Voice map tricks 51 ..................................................
Modulation processor tricks 52 ................................
NKS 53
Troubleshooting 54
List of Modulation Sources 55
Credits 56

INTRODUCTION

TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 5
INTRODUCTION
While real circuitry can process a signal within a few nanoseconds, digital models calculate per sample, adding about a million times as much latency to each iteration. The cumulative effect of feedback latency in digital emulations is very noticeable. Oversampling and higher sample rates help reduce the latency, but conventional digital filters always “smear” at high resonance levels.
Methods of addressing the latency have been available for many years, but the implementations either 1) don’t model the complex distortion inherent in real circuitry, or 2) aren’t suitable for realtime processing. Common to all methods is that they predict output values and use that prediction in the current calculation.
Of course we can’t see into the future either, but our routines are fast enough to deliver at least a few voices in realtime. We calculate the filter with a few test samples and look at the deviation between the prediction and the result, then we use that deviation to calculate a better prediction. The goal, of course, is to close the gap as quickly as possible!
Diva applies a classic trial-and-error principle but includes a rather intelligent way (or so we like to think) of learning from mistakes. As a rule of thumb, Diva’s filters only need to be calculated once or twice in succession. However, it can take up to 15 cycles if the resonance is very high and/or the input is very complex, for instance noise.
Accuracy
Click on the MAIN button at the bottom of the window. In the panel above the button are two selectors called Accuracy and OfflineAcc. These are global parameters, they remain fixed across all presets per loaded instance:
draft CPU-friendly, but FM will sound rough and resonance is primitive (not ‘zero delay’)"..........
fast Fine for older computers and/or when you need more polyphony in acceptable quality"............
great The best compromise between quality and polyphony on high-power computers"........
divine Top-quality zero delay feedback filters – but can your computer can handle it? .......
OfflineAcc selects the resolution at which Diva instances are rendered to audio (offline). The two options are same (same as the Accuracy setting) and best. Some hosts have trouble rendering at the selected accuracy, while the better ones include an “inform plug-ins of offline rendering status” or similarly named option.

Control Bar

Save
First, right-click on the [save] button to check (or change) the format you will be using. Standard is .h2p, which has the great advantage of being cross-platform compatible. The .h2p extended format is the same but also allows per-line comments.
Important: If you have set the Save Presets To preference from the default user folder to the other option, selected folder, make sure that the folder in which you want to store your preset is already selected – if not, click on it first.
Click on the [save] button, give your preset a name and enter any other details. Preset description, playing tips etc. – anything you would like to appear in the PRESET INFO panel of the browser. Finally, confirm by clicking on the apply button. If you have loaded Diva as VST2, you will also see the option .nksf. See the NKS chapter.
MIDI activity
Small indicator which flashes whenever MIDI data is received.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 6
INTRODUCTION
Data Display
Primarily, the central display shows the name of the selected preset or the current value of any element being edited. Clicking on the areas either side of the display steps through presets. Clicking in the middle opens a drop-down list containing all the presets in the current directory.
Undo/Redo
The two curved arrow symbols call Diva’s undo and redo functions – you can step backwards (or forwards again) through an unlimited number of edit points.
Multicore
Push this button to distribute voices between all available CPU cores so you can play more notes without ‘smoking’ your CPU. Multicore works well on recent processors such as the i5 and i7, but please note that performance can even be reduced if your CPU is older!
Note: Some hosts already offer multicore support, and having both active at the same time can lead to poorer performance for Diva. In such cases, try switching one or the other off.
Output
The final volume control for the preset. As this control doesn’t affect the tone, use Output (in preference to amp Volume) to balance the levels between presets.
u-he badge
Clicking on ‘u-he’ at the top right opens a popup menu containing direct links to this user guide, to our homepage, to our support forum, and to various social networks.

Editing

GUI size
To adjust the size of Diva’s user interface temporarily, right-click in the background and select from the list. The size is given in percentages and pixels (width times height).
To change the GUI size more permanently, go to the Preferences and change Default UI Size.
knobs
Values are adjusted via the usual click-and-drag, often allowing finer resolution via the SHIFT key on your computer. Knobs can be reset to their default values via double-click, and remote­controlled / automated via MIDI CC. Tip for wheel-mouse users: ‘mouseover’ and roll the wheel to edit values or scroll through a list (use SHIFT for fine tuning).
parameter locking
Clicking with the righthand mouse button on any knob or switch opens a context menu in which you can select ‘Lock’. A locked parameter can still be adjusted, but the value doesn’t change when you switch presets. To unlock again, right-click and untick Locked’.
modification indicator
This synbol appears next to a control if it is being modulated in the Modifications panel.
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 7
INTRODUCTION

Programming 101

Although Diva ships with a whole bunch of presets, she is meant to be tweaked – that’s why the interface is festooned with all those controls. Here’s a quick and easy tutorial to get you started:
1. Click on the PRESETS button at the bottom of the window, select the Local / 8 TEMPLATES folder and load the preset called INIT June-60. Click on the SCOPE button – this gives you access to Diva’s oscilloscope as well as all module panels.
2. Play a fairly low note (you do have a MIDI keyboard attached, right?). The shape you can see in Diva’s oscilloscope is moving in time with the tone of what you are hearing.
3. Find the TRANSPOSE knob in the lefthand (DCO) panel, and change it from 8’ to 16’. The oscillator is now an octave lower.
4. To the left of the TRANSPOSE knob are two faders. Double-click on the one labelled LFO2. The value of that fader (which controls pulse width modulation depth) is reset to the centre and the sound becomes static. Move the PW fader up and down while playing a low note. Watch how the shape changes, then leave it at minimum.
5. What you hear (and see) is a 50-50 mixture of 50% PULSE (i.e. a square) and SAWTOOTH. Click on the first SAWTOOTH option (silence) to isolate the pulse wave. Try the various HPF values, then leave it at 0.
6. Double-click on the PW fader (resets it to 25% pulse) and take the other fader (pulse width modulation depth from LFO2) up to maximum. Go to the bottom left of the window, change LFO2‘s Waveform to saw up and change Sync to 1/4. The result is a slow pulsing sound.
7. Go to the VCF panel and play with the CUTOFF and RESONANCE faders. Then double-click on both to reset them. Still in the filter panel, take the second cutoff modulation knob (currently labelled LFO 2) down to about -30.00. You now have a rhythmic sound that will cycle through the notes in a chord if you play them at different times.
8. Activate the two effects (Chorus and Delay) at the bottom right of the window by clicking on the small round buttons (they will light up). If you like, experiment with the effects parameters for a while, especially the Delay controls. Add a bit of NOISE from the DCO panel!
9. In the LFO 2 panel, click on the lower righthand button and select ModWheel (or default). Turn Depth Mod up to maximum. The depth of all LFO 2 modulation is now 100% controlled by the mod wheel. Then turn Depth Mod down to minimum so that the wheel has no effect again.
10. Swap the oscillator type: Click on the DCO label and select DUAL VCO instead. Click both Sawtooth icons to switch them off, and activate both pulse waves instead. Turn MIX to the centre. Click on the NO MOD label and select LFO 2 instead. Change the value of that knob to -20. Similarly, replace the VCF CASCADE with BITE. Experiment with the filter controls until you get a nicely grungy, resonant pulsating sound (note that REV 2 sounds fuller).
11. Start again from step 1, and take more liberties this time - experiment!!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 8
PRESETS

Preset Browser

Overview

Click on the PRESETS button at the bottom of Diva’s window – you should see something like this:
Folders appear on the left, presets in the centre and information about the currently active preset on the right. If you can’t see any presets at all, click on Local. If you don’t see a PRESET INFO panel, click on the [] button in the top right and tick Show Preset Info.
The Local root contains a representative selection of presets copied from the subfolders. Note that a left-pointing triangle next to a folder name means that the folder is currently in its collapsed state. If you can’t see the category folders (BASS, LEAD etc.), expand Local by clicking on that triangle. After loading a preset (click on its name) you can step through all the others using your computer’s cursor keys, which makes it easy to audition them sequentially
The folders numbered 1 to 7 contain the main factory presets. The TEMPLATES folder contains some very basic presets for whenever you want to start designing your own sounds from scratch. THIRD PARTY contains presets kindly submitted by various sound designers, plus a subfolder called TREASURE TROVE! containing hundreds more sounds.
That’s actually all you need to know for now. Diva’s browser has many more features for users who want to dig a bit deeper: The file functions include drag&drop, a powerful search engine and more. For details, read the rest of this chapter!
Default preset
Whenever Diva is started it checks whether the ‘Local’ root contains a preset called default. If this file exists, it is loaded instead of the demo sound. Note: default will not appear in the browser.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 9
Local
DIRECTORY TAGS
Search
RESTORE
initialize
BS TXSish BT dotted afterhour 01 (mw) BT flex butter seq (mw+vel BT juno hoovered bass (mw) BT the master himself (at+mw+pb) HS Albert Hall Mini HS All Processors HS Bass Nine HS Canterbury Creeper HS Chango Clique HS Chili Paste duo HS Divanity HS Duduwap 1 HS Fatima poly HS Gammond HS Hail Bob 1 HS High StraDIVAri HS House Dust HS I cant believe its not analogue HS Kit 1 acoustic HS Kit 2 electro HS Kromosaur HS Lounge Dust HS Model K12 HS Modular Bells HS Protocol HS Sparkle HS Strumpet HS Switched On Voicing
HS Sync Hangar HS Trans-Uranian Express HS Vulcan Pigs IW BP Strings Ensemble 1 IW Jump Brass IW Jupiter High Strings IW Mini Detuned Saw Lead IW Poly6 Strings JA WashingMachine JS Bud Pluck MK Bass In Tube MK Bass Pack Leader MK Brass Straight Up MK FX Scaled Resonance MK FX Wind MK Joy MK Pattern Grammaphone MK Pattern Metal Works MK Planet Earth MK Strings Short PWM MK Syncopat MM Choir In The Clouds PAK Karinanthon EP PG FilterConToUrs ROY EXPERIMENTAL God Particle ROY FX Cold December ROY FX Rewinding the Tape ROY Old Recipe SG Chica Go SG Crackpipe Organ
PRESET INFO
BS Deep Space Diva
BS Deep Space Diva
DESCRIPTION
USAGE
CATEGORIES
FEATURES
CHARACTER
/Local by Bronto Scorpio
mod wheel = cutoff
1 BASS 2 LEAD 3 POLY SYNTH 4 DREAM SYNTH 5 PERCUSSIVE 6 RHYTHMIC 7 EFFECTS 8 TEMPLATES MIDI Programs
THIRD PARTY User Search History Saved Searches Favourites Tags Author
push the modulation wheel…
ready
PRESETS

Directory Panel

If you don’t see this panel on the left of Diva’s Presets browser, click on DIRECTORY.

The ‘Local’ folder

Diva’s factory presets are sorted into folders 1 to 8. We recommend that you do not add or remove any Local presets, but save all your creations and third party soundsets in ‘User’ (see below).
MIDI Programs
‘Local’ also contains a special folder called ‘MIDI Programs’ which is normally empty. When the first instance of Diva starts, up to 128 presets from that folder are loaded into memory, to be selected via MIDI Program Change messages. It is a good idea to call those presets e.g. ‘000 rest-of-name’ to ‘127 rest-of-name’, as they are accessed in alphabetical order.
But that’s not all: the ‘MIDI Programs’ folder can contain up to 127 sub-folders, switched via MIDI Bank Select messages (CC#0). Send Bank Select first, then Program Change. ‘MIDI Programs’ is bank 0, sub-folders are addressed in alphabetical order starting with bank 1.
Changes to the MIDI Programs folder will only be updated after the host application is restarted. MIDI Program files cannot be a cannot be added, removed or renamed on the fly!
When Diva receives a program change, it will display the bank and program numbers to the left of the preset name e.g. “0:0” for the first preset in the first bank. In certain hosts e.g. Ableton Live, however, the first bank / preset is designated “1” instead of the correct “0”.
To avoid another possible source of cvonfusion, make sure that there are no junked presets in the MIDI Programs folder. All files there are indexed, whether they are visible or not.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 10
Local
DIRECTORY
Search
User Search History Saved Searches Favourites
Tags
Categories Features Character Untagged (n)
Junk (n)
Author
1 BASS 2 LEAD 3 POLY SYNTH 4 DREAM SYNTH 5 PERCUSSIVE 6 RHYTHMIC 7 EFFECTS 8 TEMPLATES MIDI Programs THIRD PARTY
PRESETS

The ‘User’ folder

The best address for your own creations as well as soundsets from other sources. You can either select User immediately before saving the preset, or set a global preference which ensures that it will always be saved to this folder – see the preference Save Presets To.
Tip: It’s worth finding out where the User folder actually resides on your computer. Right-click on User and select reveal in Finder (Mac) or open in Explorer (Win).

Smart Folders

The other folders do not actually contain files, but display the results of querying a database of all presets. The content is therefore dynamic i.e. it will change whenever the underlying data changes.
Search History
Click on this folder to display the results of past searches (maximum 10). Whenever you need to make the results of a search more permanent, right-click and select save Search… The entry will be moved to the ‘Saved Searches’ folder – see below. To remove all searches from the list, right-click on the ‘Search History’ folder and select clear.
Saved Searches
This folder contains searches that have been saved via right click from ‘Search History’. To remove individual saved searches, right-click on the search and select delete.
Tip: Entries dragged from ‘Saved Searches’ and dropped onto real folders within ‘Local’ or ‘User’ will create a folder containing copies of all found presets!
Favourites
8 smart folders, one for each Favourite colour. See Presets context menu. Presets dropped onto one of the Favourites folders will be marked as such.
Junk
A smart folder pointing to all junked presets. See Presets context menu. Presets dropped onto this folder will be junked, and will therefore disappear from the rest of the browser unless made visible (see show junk in the Presets context menu).
Tags
Smart folders for each Category/Subcategory, Features and Character tag. Presets dropped onto these folders will adopt the corresponding tag. Presets dropped onto the Untagged folder will have all Category/Subcategory, Features and Character tags removed.
Author
Smart folders for each Author. Tip: Instead of signing each of your creations, you could sign just one of them, then select them all and drag them onto Author/(You)/. As the process cannot be undone, you should use this feature with caution.

Directory context menu

Right-clicking on any folder within Local or User will open this menu:
refresh: Update the contents of the browser. For Windows users this will be necessary after you have moved, added, removed or renamed folders or presets using Explorer.
create new… Insert an empty subdirectory.
rename… Edit the folder name.
reveal in Finder / open in Explorer: Opens a system window for
the clicked folder. Wondows: if you add, remove or rename any preset files or folders there (i.e. outside of Diva’s browser), you should always refresh the directory afterwards.
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 11
refresh create new… rename… reveal in Finder *
move to Trash
on open expand to
PRESETS
on open expand to: These options determine how deeply the browser will open subdirectories whenever the GUI is opened again or the refresh function is called. The first option (none) collapses all folders, while the final option (all levels) reveals all nested folders.

Presets Panel

The central, unlabelled area of the browser is where you click to load presets…
Presets context menu
Right-click to open a menu containing functions that can be applied to individual presets.
mark as junk: Instead of deleting any unloved presets, you can mark them as ‘junk’ so that they (normally) disappear from the browser. See show junk below.
mark as favourite: Choose one of eight differently coloured dots. To remove the dot again, right-click on the preset(s) and select unmark as favourite.
select all, deselect: See Multiple Selection below.
show junk: Activate this option to display junked files (marked with a
STOP symbol), which would otherwise disappear.
rename…: You can change the names of presets using this function. Note that only the most recently selected preset can be renamed i.e. you can’t rename multiple files at once.
duplicate / copy to User Folder: The entry here depends on the status of the preference Save Presets To as well as on whether the source presets are in the Local or User folder. Selected presets are copied with a number appended to the name, which increments (just like the ‘Auto Versioning’ option) so that presets cannot be overwritten by mistake.
reveal in Finder / open in Explorer: Opens a system window for the selected preset. Remember: If you change anything there, refresh the directory (see the the previous page)!
convert to native / h2p / h2p extended / nksf: Converts the selected preset(s) into the format previously selected via right-click on the [save] button. For that final option, see the NKS chapter.
move to Trash / Recycle Bin: Moves the selected preset(s) to the system trash.
Restore
While in the browser you can audition as many presets as you like in any folders without losing the one that was previously loaded: Clicking the Restore button will get you back to where you started.
Scan / Ready
In the top right of the presets panel is a dark rectangle normally labelled ‘ready’. Whenever you use the refresh function (see the Directory context menu on the previous page), this turns into a progress indicator showing the preset database being refreshed. The process should only take a few seconds, even for a very large preset library.
Multiple selection, drag & drop
A block of presets can be selected via shift+click, and individual presets can be added to the selection via cmd-click (Mac) / alt+click (Win). Presets can be moved to a different folder via drag & drop. Use SHIFT etc. on your computer keyboard to highlight the files you want to move, click and drag them from the files area and drop them onto a target folder. To deselect, either click on an unselected preset or choose deselect from the context menu.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 12
mark as favourite
select all
deselect
show junk
rename… duplicate * reveal in Finder * convert to h2p
move to Trash
mark as junk
mark as favourite mark as favourite mark as favourite mark as favourite mark as favourite mark as favourite mark as favourite
PRESETS

Preset Tagging

Categories“Tags” are elements of metadata i.e. information you can add to presets so that they can be found according to certain attributes.
IMPORTANT: Clicking on [save] isn’t required, as tags are updated automatically. The obvious advantage is that presets don’t have to be saved every time you edit tags. The main drawback is that you should only edit tags after saving your preset. If you edit tags while in the process of creating a new version of something, you would also be changing the tags in the original preset!
The Tagging Window
Right-click on the [save] button and select Tag this patch:
Categories describe a preset by analogy to instrument types or classic synth genres. Each one has its own set of subcategories. Features are technical classifications, and Character tags are pairs of opposites from which you can choose only one.
Tagging via PRESET INFO
Open one of the numbered folders and load any preset. In the PRESET INFO panel, right-click on CATEGORIES, FEATURES or CHARACTER and select or unselect tags from the menu. Note that This method only works for individual presets. If you right-click on an existing tag, the first option in the menu becomes remove tag…
The function create Search from Tags searches for presets with ALL the same tags.
Tagging via the Tags subfolders
You can tag presets by drag & drop onto one of the Tags smart folders. To remove all tags, drag presets onto the Tags/Untagged/ smart folder.
Auto-Tag Features
In the Preferences page is a setting that can make adding Features tags more comfortable. Auto- tagging is temporary, but you can make the generated Features permanent using the convert to function in the context menu of the presets panel – any automatically generated Features tags will be written into the preset data.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 13
Bass
Leads
Keys
FX
Drums
Stabs
Seq & Arp
Other
Pads
Acoustic
Atonal
Breathy
Distorted
Drones
PWM
Lo-Fi
Rhythmic
Strings
Evolving
Categories
Arp
HostSync
Creative FXChord
Mono
Duo
Poly
Unison
Soft Attack
Percussive
Slow Release
Features
Clean
Wide
Soft
Harmonic
Bright
Constant
Phat
Inharmonic
Thin
Static
Moving
Aggressive
Character
Acoustic
Natural
Electric
Synthetic
Dirty
Narrow
Chords
Soundscape
Synth
Modulated
Dynamic
Modern
Dark
Vintage
Glide
CrossMod
Osc Sync
RingMod
Vocal
Brass
PRESETS

Search by Tags

Click on the TAGS tab to open this view. The buttons here let you set up search criteria according to tags with just a few mouseclicks:
There are four sets of buttons. The first three correspond to the tags in the tagging window (see the previous page), and the bottom row lets you find presets tagged as ‘Favourites’. Clicking on the [^] icon to the right will hide the options for that type of tag.
Categories and Subcategories
Here are just a few bullet points to get you started. Especially for Category tags, following a step­by-step tutorial is much easier than studying a full technical description. Try these:
Each of the Categories has its own set of subcategories. Not selecting any subcategory here means “show me presets tagged with any subcategory”. Click on [Leads]…
You can select multiple categories without specifying any subcategory if you hold Cmd (Mac) or Alt (Windows) while clicking on the category. Try that with the [Keys] button.
Selecting the subcategory with the same name as the category means “show me presets tagged without a subcategory”. You will not find any of these in the factory presets.
Completed category+subcategory tags appear below the subcategories as buttons with ‘off’ switches [X] so you can add other main categories by simply clicking on them.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 14
Search
TAGS
Bass Pads Leads Keys FX Drums Seq & Arp Stabs
Other
CATEGORIES
Leads Brass Chords Distorted Guitar Lo-Fi Plucked
PWM Reeds Rhythmic Sync Strings Synth Vocal
Winds
Mono Poly Duo Chord Arp HostSync Modulated
Unison OscSync RingMod CrossMod Creative FX
Percussive Soft Attack Slow Release Glide
Bright Dark Clean Dirty Modern Vintage Phat Thin
Soft Aggressive Constant Moving Natural Synthetic
Wide Narrow Harmonic Inharmonic Dynamic Static
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
FEATURES
CHARACTER
FAVOURITES
PRESETS
Here’s a practical tutorial
Click on the DIRECTORY tab, right-click on the Search History smart folder and select clear. Double-click on Local/2 LEAD to restrict the scope of the search to that particular folder. The selected path /Local/2 LEAD appears below the Search field instead of preset folders.
Click on the TA GS tab. In the Categories, select [Bass]. Subcategory buttons appear and the preset window is updated to list all presets in 2 LEAD that are tagged as [Bass].
Now click on [Pads]. The [Bass] category is switched off, and the preset window is updated to list all presets in 2 LEAD that are tagged as [Pads] - there are 8 of these. Note that you still haven’t specified a subcategory yet…
Hold Cmd (Mac) or Alt (Win) and select the [Bass] category again. Although no longer outlined, the previously selected [Pads] remains highlighted and the list shows all 12 presets in the 2 LEAD folder that have either of those tags (disregarding any subcategories).
Click on the DIRECTORY tab again: The text #Bass:* #Pads:* appears in the editable field as well as in the Search History smart folder, which also shows the number of found presets. The colon separates the category from the subcategory, and the star (*) means “any subcategory, even none”.
Click on the TAGS tab again. Select the [Leads] category without holding down Cmd/Alt this time… the [Bass] and the [Pads] tags are removed from the search. Select [Chords] as subcategory. The result is a list of all 10 presets in the 2 LEAD folder that have the Leads:Sync tag. Immediately below the subcategory options you will see the complete tag in the form [Category:Subcategory|X].
Let’s get more hits by including another subcategory: Click on the [Distorted] subcategory. [Sync] remains selected, and the list of hits is updated to include presets which have either of those tags i.e. 45 in total. Click on [Chords] again and the tag search will find only 36 presets – all those that are tagged as [Leads:Distorted].
Click the [Bass] category. Below the subcategories, the [Leads:Distorted|X] switch remains in place because that tag is complete (category plus subcategory). Check out the category tags in PRESET INFO by clicking on several presets in turn: Each one will have either a Leads:Distorted tag or a Bass tag (disregarding subcategory), or both.
Click on the DIRECTORY tab. The text #Bass:* #Leads:Distorted appears in the search field as well as the Search History smart folder. If you are feeling adventurous, you can edit this and the results will be updated accordingly.
To the left of the grey search path is an ‘up’ [^] symbol. Click on this to exit the current folder i.e. change the search path from /Local/2 LEAD to the /Local root. The list of hits is immediately updated to 417 presets because the search now includes all of /Local.
Another click on [^] exits to the whole preset library i.e. /Local and /User. Clicking on the [X] symbol to the right of the search path will exit immediately. Try that.
Repeat the above a few times if necessary – you’ll soon get the hang of it!!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 15
PRESETS
Features, Character
These tag types are simpler. For example, let’s find all thin sounding presets with a slow release:
Click on the TAGS tab. If any Categories are still highlighted, click them to disable.
Select Features = [Slow Release] and Character = [Thin]. That’s it.
Summary
In the DIRECTORY panel, specify a search path via double-click. In the TAGS panel, select category tags. Add others if required to extend the search, but remember to hold down the Cmd (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key if you want to retain category tags that don’t specify a subcategory. Select Features, Character and/or Favourites tags to refine the search. Exit any search path by clicking on the [X] to the right.

Search by Text

The editable field immediately below the DIRECTORY and TAGS tabs lets you search for presets according to a string of characters i.e. text. The search normally looks into the preset name, the author, the DESCRIPTION and USAGE (see the PRESET INFO panel). It is not case-sensitive, and quotes are not required unless you need to include spaces in the text.
If you want to restrict the search to a particular path e.g. Local/4 DREAM SYNTH, double click on that folder. The full path (from Local or User) appears immediately below the Search field, and all other normal folders are hidden except any subdirectories within that path (there are none in this example). Note that the smart folders also remain visible.
The grey field in the above image is the Search Path.
The [^] button to the left moves the search path up one level, in this case up to /Local. Alternatively, you can navigate directly to any higher level by right-clicking on the path.
The [X] button to the right expands the path to include all Hive presets (i.e. either in ’Local’ or in ‘User’), and all the regular preset folders will reappear.
Try a text search: Enter three or four letters then hit Return. For instance, star will find all files containing the text string star (e.g. mustard or starters). Entering "star wars" (with the quotes) would find e.g. Battlestar Warship, if such a string existed in the presets.!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 16
Search
DIRECTORY
Search History
Saved Searches Favourites
Junk (0)
Tags
/Local/02 LEAD
Author
PRESETS
Syntax
Scope
You can limit the scope of the search to just the preset name or specific parts of PRESET INFO by using name (preset name), author, desc (description) or use (usage) followed by a colon. For instance, author:the finds all presets by sound designers whose author names contain ‘the’. Similarly, desc:space will find all presets with the word space in the description.
Logic
Important: The following logical operators can only be used between text elements.
AND requires that presets contain both words. It can be written explicitly if you prefer, but is not necessary. For example, star AND wars (or simply star wars) will find presets that contain both star and wars.
OR means that presets can contain just one of the words or both. For example, star OR wars will find presets that contain star as well as presets that contain wars.
NOT excludes presets containing the word. To find all presets that contain star but don’t contain wars, enter star NOT wars.
Tags
Regular tags can also be entered into the search field if preceded with a ‘#’. For example, name:"hs " #bass:* will find all presets with "hs " in the name that are tagged as Bass with any or no subcategory. The colon separates category and subcategory, and the star (*) means “any subcategory, even none”. Between multiple tags of the same type is an implicit OR, while between different types is an implicit AND.
Note: In the current version of the browser, tags must appear after any text items!!
TOC PRE OSC HPF VCF ENV LFO EFX MODF TRIM ARP CONF TIPS NKS 17
Loading...
+ 39 hidden pages