Online mode and command-line updater

The online/offline mode can be modified directly from the main Zen UI, using the “online” button in the lower right part. When offline, Zen doesn’t connect to the main server, but can still run searches on the local database.
The Zen plugin has its own built-in updater, in charge of downloading new presets and tags updates from the server. However, in some cases you might want to run a special configuration, where your Zen plugin is not connected to the internet. In this case you can still run the ServerUpdater command-line process to deal with all the online synchronization activities. If you set up Zen so that the Zen folder is located on a shared drive, you can even run Zen on a computer with no internet access, while having another computer (online) handling the connection with the online database.

Zen configuration

The first time you run Zen (either standalone, or as a plugin in a vst host) it will prompt you to go to the config page to enable some synths. You can also click the “scan” link to automatically find supported synths in your VST plugins folder.

On this page, you can also setup some configuration parameters from the zen.properties files:

• User Key: you will get one the first time you purchase presets through Zen.
• Designer Key: if you are a preset designer and you want to share your presets, you need a designer key. Contact me and I will give you one.
• Autosort tags: if you want the tags to be automatically sorted by number of matches.
• Check for updates: if you want Zen to periodically check if a new version is available. It only checks when Zen is running.
• UI refresh rate: to configure the frequency at which Zen will refresh the current search results.
• Bandwidth usage: use this slider to configure how aggressive Zen can be with network usage.

If your synths list is empty the first time you run Zen, it is because you are offline. Even though Zen can run offline as described above, it still needs to go online, at least once the first time, in order to retrieve the latest list of tags and synths for your OS.

Downloading presets

As soon as you enable some synths in the configuration panel, Zen will start downloading presets for this synth (provided, of course, you haven’t configured Zen in offline mode). Downloaded presets will appear in the right-hand column.

Searching for presets

Presets are categorized with tags. Every preset can have one or more tags, from several categories. When you click on a tag, the presets list at the right is filtered to display only the presets with this tag. The number of items next to each tag is also updated.

Adding more tags provides additional filtering.

In addition, it is also possible to filter for presets that DON’T have a given tag, by using shift-click, or right-click, on the tag.

Tags are multilevel, but with no real parent/child relationship (e.g, any level2 tag can be applied, regardless of the level1 tags). In other words, if you have:
- a rhodes sounds tagged as “Piano” + “Electric”
- a strat sound tagged as “Guitar” + “Electric”
The level2 “electric” tag is actually the same tag for both sounds. Searching for “electric” only will return both presets.

The down/up pointing arrows at the left of the list titles are used to expand/contract the tags list. Clicking the down arrow expands the list, so that all tags (including the one with no matching presets) are displayed. Clicking the up arrow contracts the list, showing only the relevant tags.

User tags

The “Tags” list is used for additional tags that can be applied to the presets. The are 2 different tag types:

• User tags are fully managed (e.g, created, deleted, and applied to presets) by the user. They can be used, for instance, to define your own groups of presets – maybe to easily find all the presets for a given project.
• System tags are managed by Zen – you can’t edit them, and Zen is responsible for assigning them to presets. Such tags are:
  • The “NEW” tag, for all the newly downloaded presets that you haven’t yet listened to
  • The “Last imported” tag, for all the presets that you have imported into Zen during the last import session

You can create new tags using the “+” button, and edit tags by double-clicking on them. To delete a tag, just change its name to an empty text. User-created tags stay local to your installation, but are also sent to the server for analysis – so that frequently created tags can be turned into public tags at some point.

Icon tags

Some tags are represented with icons, and work just like the tags in the lists: click on the icon to add to the search, right-click (or shift-click) to search for items without the tag, and ctrl-click (or additionally, drag/drop a preset into the tag) to tag a preset. The color-coding of the icon should match the logic of the tags list as well.

The trashcan icon is used to hide presets that you don’t like. Click on the trash icon to see its contents.
The heart icon is used to tag presets as “favorites”, so you can easily build and retrieve a list of your preferred presets.

Listening to presets

To listen to a preset , just click on it. Zen will automatically create the associated plugin (it will prompt for the path to the plugin dll the first time you try to load a preset for this synth).

After selecting a preset, the preset tags are highlighted.

You can also double-click a preset to open the window for the vsti, for additional editing.

In the example above, a filter on the preset author and plugin was applied, and preset “HS Ace Ripper” was selected. The “Lead” and “Mono” tags are highlighted because they are part of this preset classification.

Tagging presets

You can modify a preset tags by ctrl-clicking on any tag in the lists (except for the plugin tags, for obvious reasons). Presets displayed with a dot next to them are considered untagged, and stay so until a tag from the “instruments” category is assigned to them.

Zen remembers the tags you have applied to presets, and automatically publishes them to the server when you turn Zen online. The other Zen users thus get these tags too, either in realtime, or the next time they get online. I trust you to be responsible when tagging presets – if you are not…. well, I will undo your changes, ban your IP, and possibly limit this feature to trusted users only.

Rating presets

Zen features a collaborative 5-stars rating system. Click on a star to set your ratings. If you have set a rating for a preset, this is the one Zen displays, and uses for sorting presets. Otherwise it uses an average from ratings submitted by all other users.
Your own ratings are displayed with filled stars, while server ratings are using outlined stars – as in the 2 bottom presets in the picture to the left.

Loading a fxb file

For plugins that rely on the host features to load and save banks, you can send the contents of a fxb bank, by selecting a preset for this synth, and then dragging a fxb file into the preset (in the presets results list)

Importing presets

You can import and tag your own presets into Zen in 2 different ways:

• Either by dragging a .fxp file into Zen presets list



• Or opening a vsti window (double-click on a preset), using the vsti UI to load a new preset, and clicking on the “Import” button in Zen

Auto-import

Sometimes you will want to import all the presets loaded in a given vsti. The easiest way to do that is to use Zen autoimport mode:

• Open the window of the vsti by double-clicking a preset
• Double-click the “Import” button (it will start flashing)
• In the vsti window, browse through the presets you want to import. Every time a new preset is selected, it will be automatically imported into Zen. You can select presets in the vsti, either using the vsti editor features, or by using the left/right arrow keys on the vsti window top bar.
• When you are done importing presets, double-click the “Import” button again to disable autoimport mode.

Publishing presets

Importing presets only transfers them into your local Zen database. If you have a designer key, you can publish a preset by selecting it, and clicking the “Upload” button.

Selecting multiple presets

You can use shift-click / ctrl-click to select multiple presets. When multiple presets are selected, the tag operations are applied to all the presets in the list.

Deleting presets

If you imported a preset and changed your mind, you can remove it from Zen by using shift-rightclick on the preset name. You can only delete local presets. Once a preset has been published, you cannot delete it any more.You can, however, apply the “hidden” tag to it, so that it doesn’t show up in search results.

Presets color codes

Different color codes are used to differentiate presets:

• Grey presets are public presets, that have been published by somebody else than you
• Green presets are local presets, that you have imported, but not published.
• Purple presets are public presets that you have imported and published.

Control sliders

Zen features 8 sliders, giving quick access to the most important parameters of the currently selected vsti. Right-clicking on a slider enables “learn” mode, in which:

• Sending a midi control change will assign a midi controller to the slider
• Sending a vst parameter change will redefine the slider mapping for this vsti

You can double-click a slider to display the VST parameter number assigned to it.

Virtual banks

Zen has 128 presets slots that can be used to store presets. Moving through these slots can be automated by sending midi program changes (0 to 127). It is perfect for live usage, where 1 single midi command will load a new vsti, with the desired preset. With this feature, you can actually switch vsti’s in the middle of a track.

To assign a preset to a bank slot, simply drag the preset (from the search results list) onto the bank slot. You can scroll the slots list using the mouse wheel.

Adding new plugins

Zen can manage any vsti, in addition to the ones it already has presets for. To add a new vsti, simply drag its dll (or, if you are on a Mac, it’s .vst bundle) into the plugins list. It will automatically add this plugin to the list of available ones, and import the first preset. You can then import the remaining presets as explained above.

If you have a designer key, this plugin will become available in the list of public plugins when you upload the first preset.