Skip to main content

​
Load an instrument preset

Select an instrument track and press ⌥S for Load Sound…, or ⇧⌘T for New Instrument Track… to get a new track. Press ⇥ until the Presets tab shows, then pick a preset. Each highlighted preset plays its preview.

​
Swap presets during playback

While the song plays, open the Presets tab of Load Sound… (⌥S). Each preset you highlight takes over the selected track in time with the song. Return keeps it, Esc puts the track’s own sound back.

​
Save an instrument preset

Select an instrument track that sounds the way you want to keep. Run Command Palette → Save Instrument Preset and enter a name.

​
Manage presets in the Sample Library

Open the Sample Library with ⌘Y and choose a scope under Instrument Presets. Select a preset to hear it, ⌘D to favorite it, drag it onto a collection to file it, or onto an instrument track in the arrangement to load it there.

​
Play a pattern instead

In the Sample Library, right-click presets and choose Choose Preview Pattern…. Select a pattern to hear it, then click Use or press Return. On a preset collection, the same command gives every preset in it the pattern.

​
Play every preset in the octave you wrote

Select presets in the Sample Library, or none to check the whole scope. Run Command Palette → Clean Up: Measure Preset Octaves… and click Start. Untick what you want to keep, then click Apply to N Presets.

​
Good to know

  • An instrument preset is the track’s sound, not its mix. Volume, pan, sends, routing, ducking and the track color belong to the song, and loading a preset leaves them as they are. See Contents below.
  • Every instrument preset has a short recorded preview. It plays the preset’s pattern when it has one. Otherwise a synth plays a chord and a line, a drum kit a beat, a one-shot its note on every beat.
  • During playback the Presets tab plays the presets themselves, not their previews. The notes that are sounding carry over, like swapping samples during playback. A swap is saved only on Return, as one step to undo.
  • Synth presets often sound in another octave than their keys say. A bass whose oscillators sit two octaves down plays C1 when you press C3. Every preset has an Octave that moves the notes on their way into the instrument; the sound and your clips stay as they are.
  • Saved instrument presets show up on every Mac you sign in to (iCloud). Presets from Serum, Vital, Diva and Zebra3: Import Presets.
  • Loading is one step to undo. With ⇧⌘T, one ⌘Z removes the new track too. The track takes the preset’s name.
  • A missing instrument leaves the track alone. Gridshift says which instrument is not installed on this Mac.
  • A save or autosave during a swap keeps the sound the track had before. Esc restores the track exactly as it was.
  • Previews are recorded when you save, or when you drop a preset file on the arrangement, so they are ready the first time you look. They use the preset’s own instrument and effects, and sync with the presets, so your other Macs do not record them again.
  • Imported or older presets get their preview later. The first time you rest on one while the song is stopped, or all at once with Render Missing Instrument Preset Previews from the main window’s Command Palette.
  • Save Instrument Preset keeps the track’s MIDI clip as the preview pattern. It takes the selected clip on the track, or the first one, and stores it as a pattern in your library named after the preset.
  • A pattern preview fits the sound. A bass sounds like a bass line, and a pad gets room to swell. A preview plays at most the first 8 beats of a pattern; the pattern stays in your library and syncs, so your other Macs record the same preview.
  • Choose Preview Pattern… shows your patterns with the full search, tags and collections. Double-click also picks one. Esc or Cancel goes back to where you were. Remove Preview Pattern goes back to the standard preview, or to the collection’s pattern.
  • A collection’s pattern does not override a preset’s own. You can also drag a pattern onto a preset collection in the sidebar.
  • A pattern collection can play through a preset. Right-click it and choose Choose Preview Sound…, then pick a preset, or drag a preset onto the pattern collection in the sidebar. The first pattern you play loads the preset, which takes a moment for a large synth; every pattern after it plays at once. Clear Preview Sound goes back to the file’s own sound.
  • Sampler presets keep their own copy of the sample. It keeps playing after you delete the sample from the Sample Library, after the Trash is emptied, and on a Mac whose library never had it. That copy syncs and uses your iCloud storage, even with Sync samples off; two presets of the same sample share one copy.
  • Loading a sampler preset gives the track its own copy of the sample. The preset’s sampler settings, root note, envelope, loop and filter, win over those the library remembers for that sample.
  • The library sidebar’s Instrument Presets section holds All Presets, Unsorted, Favorites and your preset collections. Drag onto Unsorted to take presets out of every collection.
  • Tags go in the library’s inspector. With several presets selected, a tag goes on all of them.
  • Dropping presets between tracks, or several at once, makes new tracks. Each gets a new instrument track at the drop point.
  • The preset context menu has Load on Selected Track, New Instrument Track, Move to Collection, Choose Preview Pattern… and Show in Finder.
  • One action makes at most 16 instrument tracks, because each runs its own copy of its instrument. With more selected, New Instrument Tracks is greyed out and a drag onto the arrangement is refused with a message.
  • A preset collection is a folder inside your Presets folder, so the Finder and your other Macs show it too. Right-click it to rename or delete it. Deleting it moves its presets to Unsorted.
  • ⌫ moves presets to the library’s Trash, with samples and patterns: Organize Samples.
  • Octave clean-up: with nothing selected it checks what the sidebar shows: all presets, a collection or your favorites. Measuring takes about half a second per preset: each preset plays three notes in the background, and the lowest note heard is the root. It pauses while the song plays, and Stop ends it early.
  • The clean-up ticks only presets that sound an octave or more off. Presets that play as written, have no clear note (a noise, a drum kit, an effect), or already have an Octave are left alone. Apply to N Presets names how many it changes, and applying records the preview again in the new octave.
  • The library’s inspector shows the Octave and what was measured. Change the value there by hand, or set it back to 0.
  • A track takes the preset’s Octave when it loads. Changing it in the library later leaves those tracks as they are. A track’s own Octave row in the Inspector changes that track only. Saving a track as a preset keeps its Octave.
Last modified on October 22, 2026