Topic: Organising 300 plugins ?

– the main instrument folder (with 100s of objects listed)

I assume this is the ‘Devices’ folder on the main project page. I recommend you create your ‘Instrument’ and ‘Effect’ subfolders under the ‘Devices’ folder.

– often an “insert” folder with no objects listed

Is that the exact name of the folder? Podium does not create an “insert” folder, unless it is related to a plugin.

a device mappings folder

If the plugin uses multiple mappings, as opposed to a single ‘insert’ mapping, then these mappings are placed in a folder named after the plugin. Put both this folder and the device definition object located right before, into the instrument/effect category folders you have created.

All device definitions (in Device Mappings dialogue) are set as “none” – so I have to go through each one manually and set it to appropriate plugin definition ?

If the definition is set to ‘none’ in the mappings properties, then that probably is because you have copy/pasted objects when rearranging them into folders. If you copy mappings and device definitions separately, then the link between them will be broken. I recommend you use drag & drop. This is explained in the guide: http://www.zynewave.com/guide/guide11_browser.htm#dragdrop

These are not imported into Podium – just the basic crap fxb. Is this a limitation of Taupro ?

No.

There doesn’t appear to be a preset import facility in the Taupro gui – is it possible for me to still access these extra presets from Podium ?

After you have set up a track with the Taupro, and activated monitoring to load the plugins, use the ‘new program library preset’ track menu. Enter the properties dialog for the new preset object in the preset panel, and use the ‘import’ button.

I did try to drag the plugin folders into the “Instruments” folder I created but it didn’t seem to work. The dragged folder would just move to next to the “Instruments” folder, not actually INTO it…

If you hold the control key while dragging, the object will be dropped into the object under the cursor.

I did this for a few fxb banks but all that imports into the library folder is an object with no actual presets listed

e.g. “Vintage synth”

I almost forgot: Instead of using the ‘new program library preset’ menu and then using the import button in the properties dialog, it is easier to use the ‘import library preset from file…’ menu.

If you import a fxb file, then the preset object will contain the whole bank. Assigning this bank preset to the plugin track will load the bank in the plugin. If the plugin editor has no way to select presets in a bank, then I recommend you use the ‘create library presets for all programs’ menu. This will create library presets for the individual programs in the bank. After this you can delete the bank preset you imported, and then assign the desired program library preset to the track.

Incidently, is there an easy way to rearrange the contents of my huge VST instrument folder ?

No, sorry. Drag & drop only.

Also presets sometimes import with no name (either from fxb banks or from fxp files (all of which have the preset name in the file title). Is this related to the original preset programming ?

fxb files do not have an internal bank name, so the imported bank object is named after the filename.
fxp files have an internal VST program name, which Podium uses for the preset object, rather than the filename.

I guess the fxp/fxb files that, after importing, have no specific identifying name have not been given an internal VST program name correctly ?

Yes

I cant find how to do that , where are these commands?

If you right click on the header of a track with a plugin mapping, they are in the ‘plugin preset’ submenu. You can also find the menus in the track inspector preset panel, by clicking on the arrow button at the right edge of the preset page header.