ForumsSoftware ← Current design of "MIDI Programs" is a nightmare

Could we please get an improved number scheme for the "MIDI Programs" folder?

That the user must implement a personal alphabetical scheme for using program change numbers is actually quite nuts.

For starters there's a program "0" that is selected when you send PGM 1. So to get the "1" of the presets in "MIDI Program" you must send PGM 2.

So why not use a number prefix you might ask? Sure, that would work if Aalto respected natural number ordering, which it doesn't unfortunately. So track 10 will steal slot 3 from preset "2" and shift all the other numbers upwards. So will presets with prefixes 11 and 12 and 13…

This means, unless you sort everything again in a nifty system when you send your carefully crafted program changes, you're not getting the sound you got last time. And all you did was saving a preset to the MIDI Program folder.

Why not give presets, in this folder at least, program numbers?

And why exactly is there a program "0"? Can't the offset be put into the code?

Yes, yes, I know this feature is not the best. It is just a stand-in that allows the job to be done, until I have time to make a good UI for associating patches with numbers. So far there have always been more critical things to do, and unfortunately it's just me writing the software.

Thanks for the feedback, though. If it's any consolation I have to use it for my own shows as well. I'll definitely change this for Aalto 2, which is the next update or very nearly so.

Well, thanks for contemplating improving this.

However, I must say the sound and the possibilities with this is above anything else.

Aalto is great fun to use. A little more difficult than some other synths, but there's often a reward taking those unknown paths.