stray wrote:Is there anyway using the Microstation editor software to rearrange the presets?
...
Reason being is that then i can setup the first 10 or so patches of every category are the ones i use most often/my favourite sounds
Are you looking to rearrange programs or combis?
Rearranging programs is a bad idea because it will mess up any Combis that use those programs. For example, let's say there is a Combi that uses the first Keyboard sound as one of its elements, a sound that is normally acoustic piano. Now if you decide you want your first Keyboard patch to be organ, when you pick that combi, it will use the organ patch that you moved there instead of using piano. (And unfortunately, when you move programs around, whether on the unit itself or in the editor, it does not warn you about this.)
The solution is to leave all the programs in their places, and copy your favorites into the empty slots of your USER area for quick access. Then all the Combis are left intact, and you can simply go to the USER category and have instant one-button access to your favorite 16 sounds in any order you want, numbered 1 through 16. Better yet, you can create your own Combis... because because you can create 8 pages of them (128 empty custom combi locations) whereas there are only 32 locations for your own programs (unless you want to erase some of the ones that are there). And a Combi can contain nothing but a single program if you want. But that's a little more complicated. So for the sake of simplicity, here's the program method.
Let's say you want the 2nd sound of the String category (002:Arco Str) to be Sound #1 in your USER Category.
Make sure the PROG button is lit.
Click on the CATEGORY field to get the pop-up menu, and select the USER category.
Locate the program slot where you want your sound to end up. In this case, we want it to go into the first location, which is displayed as D096 INIT PROG. Write that down. (Note that I am assuming that your USER category is correctly empty, with nothing but INIT PROGs.)
We got the information we came for, so hit Cancel.
Now let's go get the sound we want. Click on the CATEGORY field to get the pop-up menu, and select the Strings category.
Click on the sound you want to copy (in this case, the second sound, A070 Arco Str), and hit OK.
Click on the UTILITY button to get the pop-up menu, and select WRITE PROGRAM...
In the left panel, under where it says "1. Select Category" change the pop down from Strings to USER.
Look at the number you wrote down, in this case D096.
At the bottom of that panel, where it says "4. Choose Destination" change the pop-down menu from A to D (because the first character of D096 is D).
Click in the field immediately under the D (it probably says 070 Marimba).
Hit the Up Arrow key on your keyboard until that field gets to 096 INIT PROG (completing the entry of the D096 number we wrote down as our destination location).
Hit OK, and on the "Are You Sure" dialog, hit OK again.
And then be thankful you only have to do this 15 more times for your other 15 sounds.
I'm new to the Microstation myself, I'm not an expert, but as far as I can tell, this is the way to do it. I did this on a Mac, but the PC software is probably identical. (You can also go through a similar process on the Microstation itself, if you don't want to connect to the computer.)
and when at a gig it is easy/quick to go to jump my fave sounds, rather than trying to remember preset numbers etc etc.
