> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gridshift.studio/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Import Presets

> Turns Serum, Vital, Diva and Zebra3 preset files into instrument presets that play in the same synth. Drop the files on the arrangement, or a whole bank on the Sample Library.

## Drop presets on the arrangement

Drag one or a few Serum, Vital, Diva or Zebra3 preset files onto the arrangement. One file dropped on an instrument track loads there. Anywhere else, or several files, and each gets a new instrument track at the drop point.

## Import a whole bank into the library

In the [Sample Library](/library/sample-library.md), drop preset files or folders onto the preset list or a collection. Or click **+** (Import Instrument Presets) in the toolbar. Check what the dialog found and click **Import**.

## Good to know

* **Preset import needs the synth installed on this Mac.** Each file becomes an [instrument preset](/sounds/instrument-presets.md) that plays in the same synth. See **Preset files** below.
* **An imported preset keeps its name.** The synth's own tags (Serum's tags, Vital's style, Zebra3's categories) and the names of the folders it came from become its library tags.
* **More than 16 files dropped on the arrangement make no tracks.** They go into the library instead, and the main window says so, and says it again if none made it in.
* **A folder can mix presets from several synths.** Each synth starts once. If one of them is not installed, only its presets stay out, and the dialog says how many.
* **Presets are not imported twice.** Dropping a file you imported before reuses that preset, and brings it back out of the Trash if it was there.

> **Details**
>
> * **Serum 1 presets (`.fxp`) import the same way.** Serum 2 converts them on the way in.
> * **Effect presets are not imported**, Serum FX ones included: they are not instruments. `.h2p` files for other u-he synths, such as Hive, are not imported yet.
> * **The first import starts the synth** and can take a few seconds. Later ones are quick. While files convert, the main window shows how many are done.
> * **Several dropped files make tracks in the order you dragged them.**
> * **Failed files are listed in one message at the end.**
> * **Where a library drop lands.** On a collection, or on the list while it shows one, the presets are filed there. Anywhere else they go to **Unsorted**. **Favorites** and the **Trash** take no files.
> * **Import Instrument Presets… is also in the library's Command Palette.** The toolbar **+** appears in an Instrument Presets scope. It is shown as unavailable when none of the four synths is installed.
> * **The import dialog shows what it found first.** How many presets will be imported, how many are already in your library, and which files stay out and why. **Cancel** leaves it.
> * **Stop finishes the current preset.** The ones already imported stay.
> * **An import pauses while the song plays**, keeps running when you close the window, and a second import joins the running one.
> * **The final report lists what came in and what failed**, with the reason. Ones you imported before and trashed stay in the Trash, and the report offers **Put Them Back**.
> * **A preset that crashed its synth is skipped** in later imports until that synth is updated, and the dialog counts it among the files left out.
> * **Command Palette → Insert Files from Disk takes Serum presets too**, each on a new track at the cursor, alongside audio, MIDI and ReCycle files.

> **Preset files**
>
> | Synth | Files |
> | - | - |
> | **Serum 2** | `.SerumPreset`, and Serum 1 `.fxp`, which Serum 2 converts |
> | **Vital** | `.vital` |
> | **Diva** and **Zebra3** by u-he | `.h2p` |


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