Stop opening plugin after plugin to find a sound.
Presetter puts every preset from every plugin you own into Ableton Live's browser. Filter by the kind of sound you're after, hit play to hear it, drag it in. No plugin windows.
Closed beta. Mac, Live 12. Free while it's a beta.
Questions: support@presetter.audio
What it is
You own thousands of presets and use the same forty. Finding the rest means opening Serum, scrolling, closing it, opening Omnisphere, scrolling, closing it, opening Kontakt and waiting.
Presetter reads every preset on your Mac once and writes them into a folder Live's browser understands. From then on you look for sounds in Live, not in plugin windows: filter by Pad, Bass, Keys. Hit a preset to hear it. Drag it in and the plugin opens on that sound, ready to tweak.
Nothing new to learn and nothing new to buy. It's the sounds you already paid for, in one list.
How it works
You run it once. It takes a while. After that you don't open it again until you buy a new plugin.
Install Presetter.
Mac, with Ableton Live 12 or newer.
It finds your plugins.
Presetter scans your Mac for instruments and effects. If macOS asks for access to your Documents folder, say yes: some plugins keep their presets there.
Pick the ones you want and name the pack.
The name is what you'll see in Live's browser.
Hit generate and go make a coffee.
Presetter writes every preset from those plugins into the pack folder, with each maker's own categories carried over as Live tags and a short preview rendered for every sound. A big collection takes half an hour or more. Let it run.
Drag the folder into Places in Live's browser.
That's it. Filter, listen, drag in. When you add a plugin later, regenerate the pack and Live picks up the changes on its own.
Presetter writes a new folder. Your plugins and their original presets aren't touched.
Small on purpose.
A lot of music software installs a pile of stuff you didn't ask for. Presetter is one app that writes one folder.
- Not a plugin. Nothing runs inside Live and nothing runs in the background.
- No account. No subscription. A license key, and that's it.
- Your presets stay on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is shared.
- The output is one folder. Delete it and it's like Presetter was never here.
- Your plugins and their original presets aren't touched.
- Direct download, signed and notarized for macOS.
macOS 11 or newer, Intel or Apple silicon. Ableton Live 12 or newer. VST3 plugins, installed and licensed on the same Mac. Windows is planned, not yet.
Plugins
Each of these has been run through Presetter and checked in Live.
- Xfer Records
- Serum, Serum 2
- Spectrasonics
- Omnisphere, Keyscape
- Native Instruments
- Kontakt, Massive, Massive X, FM8, Battery 4, Guitar Rig
- Effects: Driver, Replika XT, Raum, Phasis, Flair, Freak, Choral, Bite, Dirt
- Arturia
- Pigments, V Collection
- Valhalla DSP
- VintageVerb, Supermassive, SpaceModulator
Plus anything NKS-ready.
NKS is Native Instruments' preset standard, and a couple of hundred developers use it. If a plugin is NKS-ready, Presetter reads its presets.
u-he Diva, u-he Zebra, u-he Hive, UVI Falcon, Rob Papen, Heavyocity, Output, and more.
Missing one? Say so on the beta form. Requests decide what gets built next.
Price
One-time purchase. No subscription.
Free while it's a beta. Beta testers get the launch price when it ships.
Think that's wrong, either way? Say so on the form or email us. We're two people and we read everything.
Join the beta listFAQ
- Does it copy or share presets?
- No. It reads preset files already on your Mac and writes them into a folder on the same Mac. Previews are rendered from your own licensed plugins. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is redistributed.
- Do I still need the plugins?
- Yes. A preset is a list of settings; the plugin makes the sound. Presets for a plugin you don't have won't load.
- Where do the tags come from?
- From the plugin makers. Serum says Pads, Omnisphere says Pads + Strings, Kontakt says Synth Pad. Presetter reads each maker's categories and maps them onto Live 12's tags, so everything filters the same way.
- What happens when I load one?
- The plugin loads in your device chain with the preset selected and its macros mapped. Tweak it from Live, or open the plugin if you want to go deeper.
- Is it a plugin? Will it slow Live down?
- No and no. It's a standalone Mac app you run to build or update the pack. Nothing runs inside Live.
- Which versions of Live?
- Live 12 and newer. The tag filtering uses browser features that arrived in 12.
- Windows?
- Not yet. It's planned. Get on the list and we'll tell you.
- Effects too?
- Yes. Effect presets get indexed, tagged and previewed like instruments.
- My plugin isn't on the list.
- If it's NKS-ready, it works. If it isn't, tell us on the form. Requests set the order we build in.
- What if a plugin changes its preset format?
- Run Presetter again. We keep the adapters current as vendors change things, and a license includes updates for a year.
- Do I need Komplete Kontrol or other NI software?
- No. Presetter reads the preset files directly.
- How does the beta work?
- It's running now, Mac only, closed. We pick testers from the list to cover different plugin collections, so say what you own. Beta builds come with a free license key that expires when the beta ends.
- Refunds?
- All sales are final. The pack stays on your Mac whether or not the app does, so there's nothing to give back. Check the plugin list before you buy.
Why this exists
Because one of us got sick of it.
Late nights, same routine. Open a plugin, scroll through its presets, close it, open the next one, forget what the good one was called. Thousands of sounds, all paid for, and the only way to hear any of them was one window at a time. Live's browser had tags and previews for Ableton's own sounds and nothing for anyone else's.
So he went looking for something that fixed it. Nothing did. He started hacking on it, got carried away, and at some point it stopped being a hack and became the way he finds sounds. That's Presetter.
It's in closed beta now with producers in the US and Germany. If something's broken, or there's a plugin that belongs on the list, email us.
support@presetter.audioJoin the beta list
Leave an email and the plugins you own. We pick testers by plugin collection, so be specific. Mac and Live 12 only for now, and free while it's a beta.
Or just email us: support@presetter.audio