I'm experimenting with vstplugin~ -- very impressive work.

As a test, I created a simple Helm (free softsynth) patch and saved it into the user bank.

In pd, when I "open Helm 1" --> [vstplugin~] and then "program_list Helm" to the same vstplugin~ object, it lists all of the factory patches, but not User.

Is there an additional parameter to pass in?

hjh

Hm... Alternate hypothesis... Maybe it's using cached data about available programs. Will try refreshing that list next time I'm on that machine.

hjh

@ddw_music You are using Mac OS I remember.
I think you are on the right path with the cache.
Did you see the workaround for the gatekeeper https://git.iem.at/pd/vstplugin/blob/develop/README.md from Mac OS 10.15 onwards?
David.

@whale-av For this test, I was using Windows (my main machine is Linux, though).

I eventually found the home/.vstplugin~/cache.ini file, and it does contain not only the list of plugins, but also the list of programs. Cleared that, rescanned, and it picked up the new items right away.

I'll check again for a command to make it clear the cache. Students won't like it if the story is "after you save a preset in the VST, you have to find this hidden folder and delete a file, and rescan. Possibly I just overlooked it.

Christof did some bang-up work on this object btw... Software integration usually brings headaches, but vstplugin~ was able to find and use Helm cleanly. When the hardest part of it is figuring out which commands to use (vs dealing with random crashes or garbled output or whatever), that's a good place to be.

hjh

Hey, sorry for being late to the party. Maybe the next time just ping me

The "programs" in the cache file are really just (read-only) factory presets. You can choose them with "program_set".

What you're looking for are the "preset" methods, i.e. "preset_save" and "preset_load". Those are for storing and recalling user presets. The presets are saved in standardized locations, so you can simply do [preset_save foo( and [preset_load foo(. They will automatically show up in [vstpresetbrowser].

The "program_read" and "program_write" methods are more low-level and allow to save/read presets using custom file paths.

Finally, there's "program_data_set" and "program_data_get", which lets you work with the raw plugin state as a list of bytes, e.g. to build your own preset management.

Actually, the section [pd presets] in the help file mentions "preset_save" and "preset_load" first, so I'm surprised you didn't consider them. Maybe you still have an older version? The documentation has certainly improved (but it is still far from perfect).

BTW, you can use [preset_list( to output all user presets for the given plugin. program_list only lists built-in factory presets

The whole situation is complicated by the fact that many plugins have their own preset management, which is often only accessible via the plugin GUI.

I would suggest to always use [preset_save( + [preset_load( instead, because it allows to load/save presets programmatically via Pd messages and it's the same for all plugins.