Posted
After three years with Synfire, sound preparation is still one of my biggest workflow bottlenecks.
I’d love a simple Save Sound button on the sound panel that captures the current plug-in state together with its name, category, playing ranges, and tags (metadata). Then I could audition my plugin's presets quickly, save snapshots against my current phrase and apply one without repeatedly navigating setup dialogs.
This could build on existing Rack Module Presets, with a clear choice between replacing the selected module’s sound and adding another module.
For plug-ins that don’t expose usable MIDI program selection (most non orchestral modern plugins do not), I don’t want to build manual bank mappings or use another wrapper just to recall sounds.
Please make it clear whether applying a preset changes an existing module or creates another one. A warning when other instruments share the affected module would also help.
The Sound Wizard could remain for initial configuration, but ordinary sound auditioning should have a quicker path.
Result: It should work WITHOUT MIDI program mapping and WITHOUT using a menu. Could a minimal version be available this week, even as a beta? We are dying here.
Mon, 2026-10-12 - 20:27 Permalink
Rack module presets do almost what you describe. They keep the plug-in & state plus a device description (often merely a single sound and its properties). When you save a preset there's a check box "Save current instrument properties" – that was originally meant to cover this use case.
I'll check if that's a good basis for a more convenient UI, like "Save Sound" as you suggested.
Mon, 2026-10-12 - 21:11 Permalink
When you drop a preset on an existing rack module that replaces the module's contents without adding a new one (any instruments that lose a sound will go orange and look for a replacement) .
When you drop a preset on an instrument, that always adds a module. Maybe that's a point where something like holding ALT should decide whether to replace the current module or not?
Or if its a single-instrument module, it replaces, and if it's a multi-instrument module, it asks?
One thing that needs a bit more thought is, when you save hundreds of sounds as presets incl. plug-in states, the disk space is certainly not a concern. An overpopulated library browser is. Loading plug-in states also takes time. That's not really a fast auditioning of sounds.
Mon, 2026-10-12 - 21:34 Permalink
Thanks, Andre. That sounds like the right foundation. My ideal workflow would be to choose a preset inside the plug-in, audition it against my phrase, then press Save Sound on the sound panel to save its state, category, and playing ranges.
Currently, dragging a Rack Module Preset onto a track still opens the Sound Wizard and takes a while to load. Could a fully configured preset be recalled directly, with the wizard available only when needed? A simple option to replace the selected module’s sound or create a new module would make the behavior clear.
For quick auditioning, left and right arrows could cycle through saved sound presets for the same plug-in and category, applying each to the selected module. That would make both saving sounds and comparing them much smoother.
Mon, 2026-10-12 - 21:41 Permalink
Thanks, Andre. I missed your reply before posting mine. Replacing directly for a single-instrument module and asking when it’s shared makes sense.
I understand that loading plug-in states takes time. My main goal is fewer manual steps: save the current sound directly, then audition saved sounds on the selected instrument without dragging and dropping each one or reopening the wizard.
A filtered list by plug-in and category, with favorites and left/right buttons to audition the previous or next saved sound, would make this much smoother. Loading time is acceptable; repeatedly navigating the interface is the bottleneck for me.
Tue, 2026-10-27 - 14:44 Permalink
Thanks again for the suggestion. This has been on our wish list for a long time. Currently testing it. Saved plugin states will appear as children of the rack module preset that you can grab and drop.
There is no button/menu in the Audio Engine's plugin window yet (that's probably what you imagined). That will be more difficult because the engine has no direct access to Synfire.
The advantage of having this in the module library is that every saved state includes insert effects, playing ranges, custom controllers, etc.
Tue, 2026-10-27 - 15:20 Permalink
This would be a game changer. Please implement shortcuts to save and load presets. If possible, also add shortcuts for "Next" and "Previous Preset" to allow for cycling. While this isn't common for orchestral instruments, it is the standard workflow for modern, mainstream producers.
Thu, 2026-10-29 - 08:32 Permalink
That works for up to a dozen or so of your favorite sounds. It's no substitute for browsing the hundreds (or thousands) of presets of a synth.
Every synth has its own way of managing sounds and their developers simply don't care about communicating with the outside world (because DAWs have little use for it). And where they do, you can extract a device description and use that.
Thu, 2026-10-29 - 13:20 Permalink
That's true. At least we can start with the shortcut to save and shortcut to recall. Every daw and app can save state and recall. It's just a matter of setting up a shortcut, one key to do that.
When can we expect this update? It's been a week now since you said you were testing it.
Sat, 2026-10-31 - 08:40 Permalink
This isn't a small feature we could release in isolation. File formats changed. Irreversible data migration is involved (user's entire presets collections are rewritten on first startup). There's a hell of consequential long term implications involved with this (new naming conventions, folder structure, different unique identifiers, etc).
This can't be rushed, lest we risk catastrophe and loads of tech debt that may bite back. The final 5% are always the hardest. The MCP is also in the pipline.
Sat, 2026-10-31 - 15:08 Permalink
"There's a hell of consequential long term implications involved with this (new naming conventions, folder structure, different unique identifiers, etc)."
Fortunately, you can use AI for this—it’s actually really good at figuring all this out (use ChatGPT Sol 6.1 or Astra).
