Sure. This is why I turned to NKSf to vstPreset conversion. Took me half an hour to program, and 15 minutes to convert 65,000 presets, basically almost all my plugins. The problem with this approach however is I don’t really know whether it would be legal to share. I have a thread on this one: Sharing vstPreset files creation utilities, and this is actually the reason I haven’t already shared my utilities.
Hi, nope. Unfortunately many plugins hold names and properties inside database files, and many times they’re encrypted. AND this in conjunction with your previous points takes us to this: It would be ideal that the manufacturers prepare such vstPreset directories, it is just too simple for them. I can imagine some reasons for not doing this, and time needed is not one of them.
Hi, I’m not surprised at all. Many users are not even convinced that this type of browsing is helpful. So if there’s no big demand, a pro won’t easily get to prepare such utilities. At the same time, users who find this thing useful, some times turn to the Komplete Kontrol solution. You can see that for the NKS standard, there are some paid libraries over the net. They were done simply because there was interest in it, many users have Komplete Kontrol and want to have it working with as many plugins as possible in this dedicated controller.
I doubt there are any legal issues, not seriously and in the real world. We’ve paid for these plugins fair and square, we’re just opening them up in a certain state that’s pre configured to our DAW of choice. They are useless to anyone who doesn’t own them in the first place
You are right. I’m not talking about the end-user here. I’m talking about the developer who supplies a utility to get info from inside a file and convert it to something else. We, as end-users, can always do whatever we want with the purchased files, no doubt about that. Anyway, what I can do about this, is to get in contact with some manufacturers. I thought to do it in the past, but was just too busy with my actual projects outside of my hobby (music). IF their response is positive I will certainly get into sharing. Otherwise, we have to find this 16 year old mate
I’m not really following you there, I mean, as far as I’m concerned we’ve just performed lots of clicks with a recorder, something I think they should have done already given how much rebranding of the same thing goes on. But I’m sure you’re more ontop of it than I am. Let me know how it goes.
There’s also a thriving ecosystem for instrument plugin presets being translated into the PluginGuru Unify plugin host preset format. Very similar idea.
Not sure since I cannot check what exactly is written there. Sure, there are utilities for e.g. to get a wav to mp3, no problem with that. BUT what would happen if one begins to convert famous songs and place them over the net? It would be a problem for sure. Somehow I think the same goes with our case here. Would Spectrasonics feel comfortable with a dude uploading 20gb of vstPresets? I don’t know, I really have to ask these companies before I do something I might regret
No, once it’s for personal use and at the same time the formats are widely available. This is not the case with the vstPreset files, which store data in many different ways, basically whichever way the manufacturer decides. At the end of the day, is all about how one uses these files, if he/she uses them in a way not allowed by the agreement with the developer. All these things however are theoritical, I just have to get in contact and most probably my worries will be of no real ground. But I need to be sure.
I do think the same, but note that though it sounds perfectly logical this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s legal unfortunately. In the past, I made a conversion utility for industrial purposes (getting files for one device and making it work to another device). I ran into big trouble, and at the end we had to abandon the project. Since that day, I’m just more careful.
As a side note, I can always privately share whatever I like, as long as I’m convinced it will be for strictly personal use, with no commercial second thought involved.
I think it might be copyright problematic to share proprietary presets.
Probably not as much in spirit (because the presets would presumably be useless without the plugin), but more by strict copyright law.
For example the hypothetical case of a cracked version of a plugin not having presets could create the awkward problem of shared factory presets actually making a difference.
Sharing utility scripts and programs to perform one’s own conversion would probably copyright safer. That would be more analogous to ripping a CD I purchased legally, so I can play it in my iPod (to use an old school analogy).
Guys I think we’re getting into things that aren’t relevant or could not be known anyway, if you’re seriously worried then speak to a legal aid, I’m sure it will be fine, it costs tens of thousands to take legal action, you’re reformatting a preset they made, you’ve bought, and are not making any money from. I wouldn’t think it’d be viable
Just came across this guys; https://flexi-deck.com/store/plugin-launchers/mp-midi/mp-midi-plugin-preset-launcher#demo i think it does the same thing we;re talkig about. btw does anyone else have an mpmidi and is there a super group forum or something like that somewhere/
