Patch management - renaming folders and "save as"?

Hi there!

I’m trying to better manage my patches on the Super 6. This might be an unpopular opinion but I find the absence of a screen makes it difficult to recall what exactly I am working on and which patch is stored where (did I save that to bank a1 or a2?). I’ve also tried Sunny Synths patch editor and I find it more confusing than working directly on my S6 (it’s also somewhat buggy and the window resizing doesn’t play nice with Mac OS).

First question: Has anyone tried renaming the patch folders (a1, a2, b1, b2, etc)?

I’d like to name them something along the lines of “a1 - ProjectName” “a2 - BandName”, etc. Even if I don’t have the names handy when I take the synth out to band practice, I could at least dedicate entire banks to it. I know it would also be possible to store all of this in a notebook or a spreadsheet (which I will end up losing or not keeping up to date).

Second question: Is there a way to “save as” or compare the current patch to one in a different bank without losing the current patch?

Example: I am working on a patch on Bank A2-P5. Can I momentarily select Bank D1-P2 to hear what’s on it before I overwrite it with what I was working on in Bank A2-P5? From what I am reading in the manual it seems like I can only compare with what was on A2-P5 before I started editing. On my Moog Sub 37 I can do this and it helps a ton with managing my patches on the fly (it also has a small screen and I can even name my patches <3)

The possibility to work the way I describe above would help a lot. I often end up using the default patches as a starting point to create new sounds. They end up very different from the starting point but I also don’t want to overwrite the patch from where I started, especially if I am using it for another song/project/band/whatever.

Any help/thoughts/good practices would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

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You must follow the naming convention for the patch bank folders (a1, a2, b1, b2, etc.), but you can easily compare the last edited patch to any other patch.

To stick with your example: After editing patch 5 in bank A2, simply load patch 2 in bank D1 by pressing button D twice and then button 2. To return to the patch you just edited, press button 2 again. It’s LED starts flashing, indicating that you’re in edit or compare mode. To save the edited patch to the last selected location, simply press and hold button 2 for about three seconds. The LEDs of buttons 1-8 and A-H will flash once to indicate that the edited patch has been stored to patch location 2 in bank D1.

Hi there,

Thanks for the quick response. Too bad for the naming convention.

I’ve just tried the compare method you are describing and it doesn’t work like I am expecting it to.

Let’s say I’ve nicknamed P5A2 “Petunia” and I edit Petunia into something that sounds more like “Waterfall”. I want to save Waterfall to a new location (P2D1) in order to keep both Petunia and Waterfall.

So I check what is on P2D1 before I delete it. If I select P2D1 and it turns out it is safe to overwrite, I hold 2, the lights flash and now Petunia (P5A2) has been replaced by Waterfall. P2D1 remains unchanged. Is this the intended behavior?

Is the design philosophy of the S6 to have the user start on a patch that can be overwritten to in the first place?

I’d much rather replace P2D1 with Waterfall and keep Petunia on P5A2. The absence of a screen/librarian makes it very difficult to know what I am doing, which is fine if I am just using this as a toy… but is not so great for a mission-critical sound-design patch.

You forgot one step here: After you loaded patch P2D1 to preview it, you need to press patch select button 2 again to return to the sound you last edited (the one you nicknamed “Waterfall”). Then you press and hold patch select button for 3 seconds after which the edited patch will be saved to P2D1.

No. After you have edited a sound, you can preview/load as many patches as you like to decide which one can be overwritten. As soon as you press the currently active patch select button again, its LED starts flashing and you’ll return to the sound you last edited.

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Thanks for both the question and the answer! I had never quite figured this out properly till now. Makes saving a patch a lot less stressful.

I must be doing something wrong.

Even when I follow your instructions seemingly perfectly, your description does not match what actually happens.

I also tried using the most recent manual’s procedure (p. 20 - Comparing an Edited With a Stored Patch) and it doesn’t really work as the manual describes either. In this case, I am just seemingly overwriting the patch I am comparing with and I lose the edited patch I was trying to save.

I’ll try to take a video later when I have some time. Not only is this hard to remember, but I can’t say I would call it “intuitive” or straightforward either. Like I said, I must be doing something wrong.