Presets

A preset is a complete piano, ready to play: the position of every slider, the piano's character, and the room it's heard in. PianoFlex comes with more than 30 presets, and you can save your own.

Choosing a preset

Click the name next to Preset at the top of the window. A list of presets opens.

• Session Player is first. It's a balanced, even grand piano that suits almost any music.
• The other built-in presets follow in seven groups:
  • Concert & Classical
  • Intimate
  • Uprights & Vintage
  • Pop & Band
  • Jazz, Soul & Gospel
  • Film & Ambient
  • Experimental
• The presets you've saved come last, under "Your presets".

Click a preset to choose it. You can also move through the list with ↑ and ↓, and press Enter to choose. The highlighted preset's description shows under the list, and typing a letter jumps to the next preset that starts with it. Press Esc to close the list without choosing.

Three of the built-in presets play two pianos together: Long Shadows and Ghost Strings add a second, quieter piano an octave below, and Shimmer adds one an octave above. These are layered presets. See Layers.

Changing a preset

You can change any preset: move a slider, choose from the Piano, Style or Space lists, or click Vary or Randomize. As soon as you do:

• a * appears after the preset's name, to show its sound has changed;
• each slider you've moved turns magenta (a slider set along the keyboard shows its shape instead).

To keep your changes, save them as a preset of your own (see below). If you choose another preset before you've saved, PianoFlex asks first, so you don't lose your changes by mistake.

To go back:

• Undo takes back the last bigger change, such as Vary, Randomize or a choice from the Piano, Style or Space list. See The window.
• Reset slider puts the selected slider back where the preset has it.
• Reset sound puts back all the sliders that Vary and Randomize move.
• Reset all puts every slider of the slot you're editing back as the preset has it.

Saving your own preset

1. Click Save preset….
2. Type a name for your preset and press Enter. The name is kept as you type it, spaces and capitals included. The signs \ / : * ? " < > |, which Windows doesn't allow in a file name, are left out, and so are dots or spaces at the end.

Your preset now appears at the end of the list, under "Your presets", in order of name among the others you've saved.

• Your presets are kept in the PianoFlex folder in your Documents, in a folder called presets.
• If two or more slots are sounding when you save, the preset keeps all of them, as a layered preset.
• If you've already saved a preset with that name, PianoFlex asks before replacing it.

Deleting a preset you've saved

Choose the preset, then click Delete preset. PianoFlex asks you first. The built-in presets can't be deleted.

Deleted presets aren't gone for good. They're moved to a folder called deleted, inside the presets folder, so you can get them back from there.

Comparing two presets

Compare… puts your sound side by side with another preset, so you can hear what's different and take the parts you like.

1. Click Compare… and choose the preset to compare with.
2. Press Tab to switch between your sound and the other preset while you play.

The Compare window lists each slider that's different between the two. Each row runs from your setting to the other preset's.

• Drag a row to set that slider anywhere between the two.
• Use All at once to move every row together.
• Tick a row's lock box to keep it where you've set it while you move the others.

When you're done:

• Keep and close keeps the sound as you've set it.
• Put all back returns to your sound as it was before you opened Compare.
• Save as new preset… saves the result as a preset of your own.