What do you wish you knew when you first started using the OT?

[sabana]

Importing my entire sampling collection was pointless as less is definately more on the OT.

[garfield]

I wish I had known that recording buffers arent saved automatically…so I had to train myself to always save a sample to flex before editing

[Supercolor_T-120]

Early on I got in the habit of always saving all my parts before saving my project because I couldn’t remember whether saving the project saved the parts in their current state or their last saved state (if you have unsaved changes in your part when you save your project, they will still be flagged as unsaved) and I didn’t want to break up the flow of working on whatever I was working on to check the manual. So three or four years later I still can’t remember if I need to save the parts before I save a project or if saving the project is enough, even though I’ve checked the manual a couple of times and seen the question answered on here a few times.

I wish I’d just checked the manual about it those first few times when I was still learning the basics so I’d have it properly memorized and maybe save myself a few keypresses.

[randy909]

I wish I would have ignored parts for a while at first. I would have just created a new bank each session and made a new project when I ran out of banks. I would always have part 1 assigned. I would still have been surprised when my changes to pattern 2 showed up in pattern 1 but it would have been easier to reason through if I was only ever using one part. It took a while to get used to. I still have to check part assignment a lot to make sure I’m not going to wreck my other patterns. I really need to start using a template…

[marccc]

i am stll struggling with this. are allparts saved when saving the project?

[forest]

@Clancy

OK I tested and this is what I worked out:

When you power down - your parts (all of them) will be as you left them.

When you change to another project and change back again - your parts will be as you left them.

When you start actively saving projects and parts things get a little more complicated.

If you actively SAVE your project you then have TWO states in stored in OT memory:
1- The SAVED project. (Which is like a snapshot of how your project was when you saved it, including parts)
2- The CURRENT state of your project, which includes any changes made after the save.

If you then also actively SAVE YOUR PARTS you will have THREE states stored in OT memory:
1- The SAVED PROJECT, including the parts
2- The SAVED PARTS, which can be different to the parts saved with the project
3- The CURRENT STATE of the project, including any changes to the parts since the last save

Any time you actively RELOAD using PROJECT > RELOAD or PART > RELOAD (which is different to just turning power on, or changing projects) you will OVERWRITE the CURRENT STATE of your project or part with the saved version.

Counterintuitively, saving parts actually makes your parts both safer AND more vulnerable. This is because the key combination (FUNCTION + CUE) to RELOAD a previously saved part, and overwrite your current part settings, is very easy to make by accident. This can’t happen if you have never saved the part (You just see “SAVE PART FIRST!” message and your part stays intact).

Merlin’s guide details a nice ‘back to base’ creative use for this quick parts reload function, and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just that it can be more or less useful depending on how you use the OT. Reloading a project, on the other hand, requires a menu dive. I find it useful as a snapshot backup, but of course I still get into saving parts because it’s good to have them recallable independently from the project.

Another backup method, which is easier to keep track of, is saving renamed versions of your project as you go.

But in answer to your original question - YES, saving a project saves the parts.

There are still loads of ways to mess up (!) but YES, saving a project saves the parts

from another thread