OB-Xa Factory Presets on the PolyBrute (First Half) Free (Pay what you can)

[Yohonis]

Hi Everyone,

I've programmed half of the Oberheim OB-Xa factory presets (48 of them so far) into the PolyBrute.  (At least, as close as I could get them using virtual instruments and other video demos as a guide).  Since I do not have access to a real OB-Xa, I relied heavily on the Arturia OP-Xa V to create these.  You can download the project file from my Gumroad site.  Here's the link:

https://synthtaxi.gumroad.com/l/OBXaPolyBrute

Here's a link to the first demo on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChNhRvape0b/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I'll work on programming the rest of the OB-Xa factory presets and share them when they're ready.

I hope you like them!

Cheers,

John

[modalmixture]

Looking forward to checking this out! Would you be able to provide these as a bank instead of a project? I generally prefer to import new patches as a bank for easier organization. Someone else on this forum was having a similar hesitation....

[Yohonis]

I'm happy to give it a try if you can give me some suggestions on the best workflow to export a bank of sounds.  I've found that Arturia has two definitions of what a 'bank' is.

Here's what I've tried in the past.  If there's something I'm missing I would love to have a faster method and I'm definitely open to suggestions.  I'm really hoping there is a simple workaround that I'm missing here.  Please save me if there is 

I've found the PolyBrute Connect software to be a bit awkward unless I use projects.  When I try to create presets/banks for sharing, I have three options:  Export single presets, export entire "user banks" which I have to define (see below), or export a project.

If I export single presets, a bank of 96 presets would require manually exporting the separate presets one at a time.

If I export a "user bank", I need to first define the bank.  When I say I have to 'define a bank' I mean that the PolyBrute Connect software has this odd workflow where a user bank is a collection of presets of any number.  Ie. I'm not talking about a "bank of 96 presets", eight of which add up to a project.  I'm referring to how Arturia defines any user created patches as belonging to the 'User bank' as opposed to the factory bank.  There can be more than one user bank, with no limit to the number of patches that are defined within it.  (At least that's how I'm understanding Arturia's approach...or misunderstanding it.)

In order to define a 'user bank', I have to manually click on each preset from a project, select save as, in the popup dialogue I have to select what 'user bank' I want to save it in.  If I make a mistake in this step and accidentally add a preset to one of my 'user banks', I don't know how to remove it.  The only workaround when I accidentally define a preset as belonging to the wrong 'user bank' is to create a new 'user bank' and start from scratch. (Sorry for the long-winded explanation and way too many quote marks ...)

If I use project files instead, I am able to batch drag and drop banks, individual presets, or several presets at-once from any other projects or from the polybrute hardware.  It is much faster, I can make mistakes and correct them, and I can do it all without even having to load anything into the PolyBrute hardware.  When loading a project, I import it into PBC (which does not automatically load it into the hardware so it won't overwrite anything you don't want overwritten).  Once loaded in PBC, I can drag-and-drop whatever presets I want over to the hardware, or just individually click on them to have them temporarily load into the hardware to hear what they sound like.

If you have a suggestion on how I can easily export a bank I'd be happy to give it a go and offer it in that format instead.

Cheers!

-John

[modalmixture]

The nice thing about the Banks is they can all be accessible at the same time within Connect, alongside your other factory, user, and imported banks, without having to switch between projects. When auditioning sounds, it can be nice to search and audition across all banks without worrying about what project you're in.

I think of projects as being more useful for changing out the hardware presets all at once e.g. for different gigs. But when importing new sounds, I often don't want to put them on the hardware, I just want them added to Connect and available alongside my other banks.

The way I have done it with my sound collections is to create a new bank and save each preset to that bank. By default the presets are saved to the User bank, but if you choose Save As, you can type in a new bank and it will create it. Once created, you can go through each patch and save it to the new bank. Yes, this takes more time than drag and drop, but I think it's easier for others to import in the end. If you accidentally save to the wrong bank, you can just do Save As... again.

Once you have all the patches you want in the right bank, you just export that bank and distribute the .pbx file.

Here's a free soundbank I created using that approach:
https://lwsteely.wixsite.com/modeswitching/product-page/pb-sfx-bizarre-sound-design-for-the-polybrute

[Yohonis]

Alright gotcha.  Thanks.  It makes sense for me to do it if it's preferred for some folks.  I wonder if some people also find the project format useful like I do, or if I just scrap including that format altogether.  Thanks for your feedback, I'll find some time to include the pbx format and update that here too.
Cheers,
-John

[Yohonis]

Ok, I added a bank file to the downloadable content on my Gumroad page as listed in the original post in this thread.  I hope this helps.  I couldn't for the life of me see how to edit the bank title as it shows up in PBConnect...  So mine will import to PBConnect as "User".  @modalmixture How did you customize your bank title?
Cheers,
-John

[modalmixture]

I think you can just type in a new bank name in the preset Save As screen and it will create it if it doesn't exist. I'll confirm when I get home.
Looking forward to checking out the sounds!

[Yohonis]

That did the trick.  Thanks!  I kinda wish there was more than one place where we can edit the User Bank name for presets.  I also found that the software acts funny in this case.  When I use that Save As button and create a new User Bank name in my preset, the preset doesn't get saved to the hardware... But it does get saved to the computer.  Thanks again