Wish Block Library Manager

[bigswifty]

I think I'm coming to realize that blocks are the best way to construct presets in a way that doesn't bog me down in settings - less tweaking and more playing.

Right now I feel like blocks management is pretty archaic. I can only rename them from the FM9 itself. If I import from say, Leon Todd's block library, it just gets dumped into a list with everything else, names as is.

If I could fire up something like the preset manager for blocks, colour tag entries, build a name structure that makes sense for me, and so on, I feel like the process would benefit a lot and creating new patches from the very wonderful blocks feature would be significantly easier.

Some food for thought, Fractal!

 

[skolacki]

+1 Make it a wish.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

I can only rename them from the FM9 itself.

The FM9 has no access to the Block Library, it's only available to Edit and is stored on your computer's drive.

If I import from say, Leon Todd's block library, it just gets dumped into a list with everything else, names as is.

The list is block-type sensitive, based on the currently selected block in the grid.

If you tell Edit to "Show Folder", it'll open the folder on your drive, then you can create a sub-folder and store Leon's blocks inside it. You can even create a sub-directory hierarchy inside that folder and organize them however you want, then drag a particular block into the grid from the desktop.

When Edit starts or you tell it to refresh, it'll scan the library folder and all the sub-folders, so you have two ways of accessing blocks, by the actual type, or by browsing the folders and dragging them in.

If I could fire up something like the preset manager for blocks, colour tag entries, build a name structure that makes sense for me, and so on, I feel like the process would benefit a lot and creating new patches from the very wonderful blocks feature would be significantly easier.

I'm not sure how that would be more flexible than organizing the structure on the disk itself.

 

[bigswifty]

The FM9 has no access to the Block Library, it's only available to Edit and is stored on your computer's drive.


The list is block-type sensitive, based on the currently selected block in the grid.

If you tell Edit to "Show Folder", it'll open the folder on your drive, then you can create a sub-folder and store Leon's blocks inside it. You can even create a sub-directory hierarchy inside that folder and organize them however you want, then drag a particular block into the grid from the desktop.

When Edit starts or you tell it to refresh, it'll scan the library folder and all the sub-folders, so you have two ways of accessing blocks, by the actual type, or by browsing the folders and dragging them in.


I'm not sure how that would be more flexible than organizing the structure on the disk itself.

I'm not sure I follow.. I understand how they currently work, which is why I posted about potential additions to making the system work better.

What I'm suggesting would be exactly like managing the blocks from the disk itself, but the issue with doing that on the disk itself right now, is - for example - Axe-Edit won't recognize renamed items. This is a pain in the ass, since I can batch rename blocks knowing exactly their origin on the disk, but that work won't be reflected in the organization of the blocks within the Fractal system. So, kind of pointless..

The alternative that I can see, is bringing in blocks, one by one, and renaming them one by one. Doable but tedious. Hence the feature request.

 

[unix-guy]

I'm not sure I follow.. I understand how they currently work, which is why I posted about potential additions to making the system work better.

What I'm suggesting would be exactly like managing the blocks from the disk itself, but the issue with doing that on the disk itself right now, is - for example - Axe-Edit won't recognize renamed items. This is a pain in the ass, since I can batch rename blocks knowing exactly their origin on the disk, but that work won't be reflected in the organization of the blocks within the Fractal system. So, kind of pointless..

The alternative that I can see, is bringing in blocks, one by one, and renaming them one by one. Doable but tedious. Hence the feature request.

You said you can only rename them from the FM9... Which isn't really correct. You rename them from the editor, but I get what you mean. I think that comment threw Greg off.

 

[Sergius9]

I gotta agree with bigswifty here... You can only rename in the Editor, but even then, the actual file name does not change. I'd just like to attach the creator's initials at the beginning of the name for my reference. Leon's blocks don't have that. If you change the name in folder, it does not refresh to library, if you rename in editor, it does not change the block file name in folder, so you would have to do it twice, once in editor and in folder to keep things aligned... (OCD struggle is real...)

 

[bigswifty]

I gotta agree with bigswifty here... You can only rename in the Editor, but even then, the actual file name does not change. I'd just like to attach the creator's initials at the beginning of the name for my reference. Leon's blocks don't have that. If you change the name in folder, it does not refresh to library, if you rename in editor, it does not change the block file name in folder, so you would have to do it twice, once in editor and in folder to keep things aligned... (OCD struggle is real...)

This is exactly the reason I posted this I want to keep track of the origin of the blocks, to keep organized and to be able to find things quickly. Adding a prefix is a great way to have them sort by whatever someone's prefix system uses, in this case, creator initials.

It would definitely help define the blocks system as a more viable approach to making tones (not that it isn't already.. but it would be even better).

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

+1, the block library could use a little thoughtful update with some organization tools to make it easier to manage the stuff therein.

Color tagging and filtering by the colors (like in the presets pane) is a good idea.

Sub-folders within the effect folders would be awesome. Maybe do a folder name label for the subdirectory, with indented contents below it in the list, and a little collapse/expand arrow to show/hide the subfolder contents....