You use a Selector preset in situations where multiple, mutually-exclusive presets are needed (typically for the same physical space). In other words, only one of the Selector presets that are grouped together can be active at a given time. Selector presets can be turned on (activated) and turned off (deactivated). To deactivate a Selector preset, you simply select another Selector preset in the list (which, of course, activates that preset). To allow deactivation of all the Selector presets in the list, you must include the No Selection option.
This Selector preset example helps illustrate these concepts. For more details on Selector presets, see About Presets.
You are designing an audio system for a very large church. During the course of any week, the church sanctuary is used in many different ways and, therefore, has many differing audio needs. These different needs include audio for Sunday morning services (organ, choir, speech, full audience), Sunday evening services geared for younger people (rock band, speech, 3/4 audience, balcony closed), Wednesday evening lecture series (speech only, 1/2 audience, balcony closed), Weddings (organ, speech, 1/4 audience typically, balcony closed, sometimes acoustic instruments as well).
Choosing the Appropriate Preset Control
Although you could use Command or Toggle presets for this scenario, why would you? You have a list of audio needs, but only one of them can be active at a time. The Selector preset is designed specifically for this type of situation and makes the process virtually foolproof for the end user (who simply selects the option needed, which automatically deactivates the previous selection). There is no need to worry about which presets have been asserted or activated or what will happen when a selection is made.
For this scenario, you'll need one Preset Selector group that includes four presets: Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, Lecture Series, and Wedding. You've decided to use a DR2 for end user control of the presets.
Halogen Configuration — Hardware Workspace
In this procedure, we configure the DR2.
Halogen Configuration — Processing Workspace
In this procedure, we create the initial Selector Group to hold our presets, create the initial four empty presets, configure the relevant blocks for each scenario and add them to the relevant preset (one preset at a time), and finally link our DR2 to the presets.
note: We assume the Processing Map has already been created and contains the appropriate processing blocks for this scenario. We also assume that the Baseline preset has been configured.
There are several approaches for creating the four presets. You could work on one block at a time, changing its configuration and saving it to the appropriate preset, then changing it and saving it to another preset. Or you could work on one preset at a time, which is what we'll do here.
Confirm that the block parameter values reflect what you saved to the preset.
note: In this step, we are not only testing the preset, we are also testing the control link between the DR2 and the preset Selector group. If you want to test the preset directly, you can select the Active radio button next to the preset in the All Presets dialog box.