Working with Presets

VSampler splits are combined into a so-called preset. A preset is a single instrument which receives data from MIDI channels and plays the assigned splits and thus the underlying samples it is based on.

A preset may contain any number of splits, it's also possible to stack several splits, to obtain certain soundeffects. With velcity-crossfading it is possible to define specific splits which should be played at a given velocity.

A VSampler preset consists of the following attributes:

The control center of the preset management is the "Presets" page:

PresetsPage.gif (49216 Byte)

Die presets page shows informationen about the available presets. VSampler presets are stored in so-called banks. VSampler manages 64 banks, numbered 1..64. Every bank is devided into 128 programs, numbered 1..128. The position of a preset is defined by it's bank number and it's program number (position within a bank). You see the position of the presets graphically dressed at the "Presets" page.

The Preset Grid

The preset grid (64 banks á 128 programs) enables the following operations:

Preset Operations

Preset operations are available at the following buttons:

Preset MIDI Options

By default VSampler receives MIDI data on all 16 MIDI channels and uses the multi settings to find the corresponding preset. If you did not assign the current multi at the actual MIDI channel with a preset, this can result in no sound output, if the Note-On commands have been sent from an external MIDI keyboard (e.g. for testing some sounds). The problem can be worked around if you create an appropriate multi entry at the channel which your external  keyboard uses to send the data. While just testing some sounds this can be awkward, because you would have to change the respective multi-entry every time. To simplify that, VSampler offers a Preset Mode at the "Presets" page. In this mode VSampler still receives MIDI data on all 16 MIDI channels, but it will always play the currently selected preset and ignore the multi settings.

Please note, this mapping applies to external MIDI data only, the VSampler on-screen keyboard always plays the currently selected preset.

Preset Split Mode

This control is used to specify a Split-Mode for the current Split. More information can be found under "Managing Splits".

The Preset Output Selection

Stand-alone version:
The preset output selector is located at the right lower corner of the VSampler main window. It defines the sound-output device for the currently selected preset. All splits of a preset use the same sound-output device. You can choose one from the DirectSound and ASIO devices of your system. Preferences for those devices and the activation of ASIO devices is located at menu Preferences|Audio (see Audio Preferences). You can specify the default preset output-device in this dialog too. By default the "default DirectSound device" is selected.

VST instrument
If you use VSampler in native Cubase VST instrument mode the sound runs internally through the Cubase mixer. Find more details in the sections Working with Multis and The VSampler VST Instrument.