Creating patchlists for newer or unsupported synthesizers

[miket]

I'm writing to know if there's an easier and convenient mode to create patchlists, in order to recall more efficiently synthesizer patches by name instead of a brutal combination of CC0, 32 and program change.
In the past I used CherryPicker but now I'm not sure if it can still run under Catalina or Monterey. At present I'm a happy owner of Kurzweil K2700, but I'm struggling to recall its patches through CCs and PCs.
I know that Logic Pro has an internal patchlist creation engine and I'm wondering when MotU will decide to implement such a thing in DP.

[stubbsonic]

I'm interested in this subject. I also have a couple Kurzweil keyboards (PC3K & K2661-- which are long in the tooth, and I may one day get a K2700 or newer).

It seems MOTU doesn't invest resources in MIDI hardware compatibility-- but this is a thing that could be crowd-sourced if there are enough people who use both DP & Kurzweils (for example).

Kurzweil usually publishes object lists, and existing .midnam files can be adapted to follow the correct format for DP to read.

Where it would get a little tricky is with user objects on the Kurzweil, --which you could manually enter.

I wonder if Logic's patchlist creation tool creates any file that can be accessed-- and, if necessary, modified to these ends.

[miket]

I'm interested in this subject. I also have a couple Kurzweil keyboards (PC3K & K2661-- which are long in the tooth, and I may one day get a K2700 or newer).
... snip...
I wonder if Logic's patchlist creation tool creates any file that can be accessed-- and, if necessary, modified to these ends.

I don't know if the patchlists generated by Logic Pro are software specific or can be used with other DAWs. On the other hand, I cannot afford to buy logic Pro just to check if patchlists are compatible with DP. By the way, I have two computers running Catalina and Monterey, respectively but they're already outdated for the actual version of Logic Pro.
As I experienced in the past, with CherryPicker the creation of patchlists is somewhat easy, provided that Bank Change and program change values are well known, otherwise it's an endless timewasting miss and hit activity.
I'll try to resurrect CherryPicker again, hoping it can run under Catalina or Monterey.

[stubbsonic]

I don' t know if MainStage (which is $30) can generate patch lists in the same way that Logic Pro can. I have MainStage and looked but couldn't find it.

[monkey man]

... existing .midnam files can be adapted to follow the correct format for DP to read.

This.

Just copy one for a "similar" synth (ROMpler or whatever), open it in Text Edit and see what you can do.

[stubbsonic]

Just copy one for a "similar" synth (ROMpler or whatever), open it in Text Edit and see what you can do.

Since a K2700's patch list can be pretty long, if there is a repetitive series of edit moves that need to happen to the list, sometimes a macro task editor can be useful to speed things up. Apple's Automator CAN work, but is frustrating when it doesn't work as planned. Keyboard Maestro is popular for this kinda thing.

[James Steele]

I haven't had time to look into this. There was a version of Cherry Picker that is available for DL that worked on OS as late as Mojave I think? I haven't had to do it in a while, but I want to investigate a way to create a patchlist with Cherry Picker on an older computer and then figure out how to port it over later.

[miket]

I haven't had time to look into this. There was a version of Cherry Picker that is available for DL that worked on OS as late as Mojave I think? I haven't had to do it in a while, but I want to investigate a way to create a patchlist with Cherry Picker on an older computer and then figure out how to port it over later.

It's the same thing I'm going to do... resurrect an old Macintiosh G4 running OSX 10.4.11, a place where I'm sure CherryPicker will flawlessly run, and dig into creating new midnam files. Then, exporting is a minor problem, because they must be put in the same place where DP wants they are.
The big issue is creating those long list of patchnames in text format, that can be easily pasted into CherryPicker. Usually, I find AcrobatDC quite convenient with its capability of exporting PDF files into .doc, .rtf or .xls ones. Once a PDF is converted into a more manageable format, it's just a matter of patience to convert in a simple text.

[miket]

... existing .midnam files can be adapted to follow the correct format for DP to read.

This.

Just copy one for a "similar" synth (ROMpler or whatever), open it in Text Edit and see what you can do.

HonestlyI find this suggestion completely not applicable, unless I want to go straight to asylum.

[James Steele]

I know that I usually just typed the names of the patches directly into Cherry Picker. I had an elaborate patchlist I created for my EPS-16+ that was made up of multiple banks. The first patch in every bank was a patch change message that triggered a "macro" in the EPS16+ that would change to a particular directory on the attached SCSI drive, and then a subsequent patch change would load an instrument into that slot on the EPS16+.

Once Cherry Picker had done the heavy lifting, I learned that if I added a new instrument to a directory on the SCSI drive (I now use a special SCSI2SD device that allows the EPS16+ to use an SD card for storage), it was actually pretty easy to just edit the file in a text editor and add the additional instrument (patch) that way.

[bayswater]

It’s a long time since I’ve used patchlists, but I remember when I did use them on a K2000 and Proteus 2 to add custom patches, I was able to 1) use a sysex dump to get the names into a file, 2) edit that in a text editor to get rid of all the junk, and get a simple list of names, 3) copy and paste that list directly into the DP patchlists.

As above, I haven’t done this for a long time, and might have forgotten something, but it wasn’t a big deal to make this work.

[monkey man]

... existing .midnam files can be adapted to follow the correct format for DP to read.

This.

Just copy one for a "similar" synth (ROMpler or whatever), open it in Text Edit and see what you can do.

HonestlyI find this suggestion completely not applicable, unless I want to go straight to asylum.

... and yet I managed to create full lists for my Yamaha P-50m, VL-70m, Supernova and INTEGRA-7 this way, so I don't think it's "completely not applicable" FWIMBW.

If it wasn't a solution for the OP's request I'd not have offered it.

It can be a lot of work 'though; the INTEGRA has 5000+ patches onboard IIRC. Depends how badly one wants the lists done.

[stubbsonic]

And, as I mentioned, if formatting requires some clever macro, that is a bit more up front prep, but then more turn-key if other gear or patches are ever needed to be loaded in.

[miket]

A small update, just to let the kind people participating this thread,
This morning I powered up my faithful old hackintosh running Mojave and realised that CherryPicker runs very smoothly and it’s particularly collaborative.
On the other hand, on my MacBook Pro i9 16”, running Monterey, there are no possibilities to run CherryPicker.
I’ll make some other experiments with another hackintosh running Catalina to see if CheeryPicker can run or not.

[stubbsonic]

Glad to hear you could get it running.

We could set up a little thread here to share patch-lists in the .midnam format for various hardware synths. The files are tiny, and easily attached to posts. People could post requests, and others who have that gear, and have either already created a patch list, or have access to an older mac could help out.