X-Presets - User Manual

X-Presets Max for Live Collection is a collection of three Devices to store and recall Presets from Ableton Live Instruments & Effects as well as VST or AU Plugins.

Overview

In the X-Presets Collection you’ll find three Max for Live Devices.

X-Presets Audio Device
X-Presets Midi Device
X-Presets Track Device

How to set up the X-Presets Track Device

With the X-Presets Track you can store the Mixer Settings of an Track in Ableton Live.

no mapping is needed. just drag & drop it inside a track and you’re ready to go to create your presets.

It’s also possible to exclude parameters, like volume, panorama, panning or the sends from recalling individually.

How to set up X-Presets Midi & Audio Device?

The X-Presets Midi & Audio Device has to be placed inside an Rack to get them to work.

If you drag & drop the X-Presets Audio or Midi Device into a Track, you will be prompted to drag & drop the Device inside an Rack.

the X-Preset Audio Device can be placed inside an:

Audio FX Rack
Instrument Rack (in this case the Midi FX will not be stored)

the X-Preset Midi Device can be placed inside an:

Midi FX Rack
Instrument Rack (if a X-Preset Midi Device is placed inside an Instrument Rack you can store Midi Devices, as well as Audio Devices.)

VST & AU Effects

There are some exceptions with VST, VST3, AU and AUv3 Plugins. The case that only the visible Parameters are stored and Ableton can handle only up to 128 visible Parameters, it is in the nature of things, that not every 3rd Party Plugin is working.

Here you find an Instruction from the Ableton Database on how to populate Audio Plugin Parameters:

populate Audio Plugin Parameters (Ableton Database)

So, on big Plugins like for example NI Massive, Arturia Pigments or U-HE Synths it’s not possible to store all Parameters. Of course, if you know what you’re doing, that’s fine.

It works without problems, if you don’t want to export your preset files, but you have to know, that this could couse troubles to recover your presets.

Ableton Racks

If you Place an Ableton Rack inside the Chain beind any X-Preset Device, only the Macro Parameters will be stored.

The Parameters of the VST / AU or any other Device inside a Rack will not be stored within the X-Preset Device.

Connect the Devices

If you group the X-Preset Devices they behave like one Device. This means, if you switch, preselect or select a preset, if you store, overwrite or renumber the presets this will happen in all the other Devices inside a group.

Assign to a Group

Remote Control the X-Preset Devices

Here you can select between the control souces:

off
program change (receives program change messages over midi)
clip name (switches the presets over the clip name)

switch presets via program change messages

the X-Presets Midi Device can only controlled from the same Track the Device is inside.
the X-Preset Audio Device has an Midi Input and you route any Midi Track to it.

switch presets via clip names

if you control the X-Preset Devices by Clip Names, even from any track in Live, makes it possible to bring this to your grid controller, like the launchpad or Ableton Push.

If you name the clip x-pre [preset nr] and a following number, it will switch to that preset.

Select “Clip Name” you have now the option to switch between:

this track - the Device is controlled by the track where the it is hosted.
selected track - you can select any track where the device is controlled from by the clip names.

Refresh

the refresh Button is there to look up again for changes inside the chain manually.

Renumber

if you click to renumber you can renumber all presets from preset 1 and up.

For example, if you have stored a preset in Nr. 2 and a preset in Nr. 6 and you click on renumber, the presets will be renumbered to preset 1 and preset 2.

Name your Presets

How to import and export Preset Files?

Please read the following part about import and export Preset Files to transfer your Presets into a new Ableton Live Project.

Keep the Name of the Original Device

If you plan to export the presets into a JSON File, it’s better you keep the original Device Name. If you Recall the Presets by drag & drop the JSON File to the Device, the Device looks to the Names inside the chain.

Don’t care about the names could bring you in troubles when loading the presets.

Export Preset Files

to export the preset files, you have to click on “export file” in the settings of the X-Preset Device. Please give the file a proper Name to have an idea what’s inside the FX chain.

Import Preset Files

to import the Presets, just drag & drop the *.json File onto the GUI of the X-Preset Device. If the chain fits the file you can import the Presets.

If the File dosen’t match your chain from this device, all FX / Instruments that should be there are shown inside the x-Preset Device, so you can recreate your chain & import the presets.