I have developed a Python-based tool for bulk editing Digitone sound names and tags.
You can find the tool here:
Background
Given the large number of sounds available on Digitone, and the fact that the factory tag associations don’t seem accurate (as brought up here), I needed an easy way to re-tag sounds to make tag-based filtering more reliable and useful.
Since Overbridge or Transfer don’t provide any functionality for managing sounds on the computer, I decided to develop my own tool. I used this as an opportunity to learn Python which was fun!
I hope other Digitone users find this tool helpful as well.
Acknowledgment
My work has benefited immensely from the libdigitone project, and builds on the research and findings of its author.
Seems interesting as digitone is a task to reorganise presets…
but wouldn’t it be difficult to retag and edit presets without being able to hear them
if it’s done in an offline type way?
Sure. I’m new to Python, especially the packaging and distribution aspects. Have to do some reading to figure out what the most modern and simple option is.
Correct, still the most time consuming part of tagging will be trying each sound and deciding which tags apply, and this tool cannot eliminate that.
That said, I find it much easier to have a spreadsheet open on another screen as I go through the list of sounds and update things there, rather than going into the menus for each sound. You can make incremental changes to the CSV file in multiple tagging sessions, and when you are finished with a bank, you can apply your changes all at once.
However, there are a number of usage scenarios I can think of that don’t really require hearing the sounds.
Here are a few examples:
Printing a catalog of your sounds and using it as a reference
Renaming all sounds in a Sound Pack to add a prefix for easy identification
Correcting obvious tagging errors in Sound Packs before installing them (e.g. I have seen sounds in packs that have the MINE tag)
Here is what I could easily create in Google Sheets with data exported from the tool. I understand that this is not for everyone, but it may help some users better manage and take advantage of their presets.
I haven’t used it myself in while, but it should work fine. It’s actually flexible enough to work even if the SysEx data format changes and patch message size changes.
In fact, it even worked for Analog Four MKII SysEx files. Seems Elektron is using the same general structure for metadata part of the patches. In that case it may work for their other machines as well.
sounds good but i just can’t get it installed…
i managed to install python but this pip thing i dont understand how to install this. or how to install anything…looks like i need to know how to code…
so…any chance for an installer?
This is as close as I could get to an “installer” experience. I was new to Python development, but I researched and compared all options, and this is what I landed on.
You don’t need any coding knowledge, but installing and getting these tools to work may require being more technically savvy than the average user.
What operating system are you on? You should get the “pip” command as part of your Python installation. Please see my comments on Python installation and make sure you can use “pip” or “pip3” before you move on to the step to install “pipx”.
If you face issues getting your “pip” command to work, please search for guidance on the Web. There is a lot more out there than I can provide here.
I would like to help so you can use the tool. But there is only so much technical know-how I can get across. The instructions assume some basic familiarity.
Answering the questions from those who are trying to help you will make the process smoother. For example, you haven’t yet stated which operating system you are using. But it appears you are using Windows.
Unless stated otherwise, any commands listed in the instructions are supposed to be executed in the operating systems command-prompt/terminal. On Windows, that would be cmd.exe. On Mac, it would be the terminal.
You should not run any applications that came with the Python installation. All commands I mentioned earlier should be typed and executed in the command prompt.
Please revisit the documentation and the additional tips I provided above with this in mind.
If the “pip” command is not working in your command prompt, then follow official instructions like the following:
I understand that the process can be frustrating, but I’m sure with some patience you can get it to work. Just break the process into smaller chunks, and tackle each before moving on to the next step.
The first step I would suggest is to make sure you can run Python and PIP commands from the Windows Command Prompt.
A simple way to verify this is to attempt running the following commands in the command prompt: py --version
… and … py -m pip --version
allright, got it, but when exporting get this error
L:\SOUND\digitools>digitools export bank_a.syx
Error: ‘charmap’ codec can’t encode character ‘\u25cf’ in position 41: character maps to < undefined>
Please simply run the following command just as verification that the program’s working: digitools -h
That should just print out some instructions and list the supported commands.
If that works fine, then try the following command: digitools print bank_a.syx
Assuming the file path is correct, this should list the sounds contained in bank_a.syx.
If that also works fine, then try the export command. The command you included in your message is not correct. Please refer to the instructions to see the correct command format. You need to specify to file names/paths. The first is the SysEx file to read the sounds from, and the second one is for the CSV file to write the results to.
I have included an example in the instructions on GitHub.
