Tutorial 5: Snapshots, the Basics

About This Tutorial

This tutorial will explain to you the basics of creating and using snapshots. You should have
completed the first three tutorials before continuing with this one. Before you begin though,
ask your self the question, “Why use snapshots?”
Lesson 1: About Snapshots
The definition of snapshot is, “an isolated observation” – and this fits well with both the
purpose of and just how LiveProfessor uses snapshots. You might think of snapshots as having
your own personal audio engineer who knows and understands your particular setup and who
can – at your command – recall a particular configuration setup for you. With snapshots, you
can do the very same thing.
Lesson 2: An Example
Take an EQ for example – you have just spent the better part of an hour EQ’ing your favourite
guitars – one for acoustic steel and one for nylon – and everything is just perfect. So you save
each setting as a preset in your EQ plugin for instant recall later. So, to use that preset, you load
the plugin and load that preset for the guitar you are using at time.
Convenient, Yes! – But also inconvenient at the same time. The problem here is that presets are
local to the plugin you are using at that time and each plugin you use will have their own
particular way of managing their presets. Something must be done to make the management of
plugins more global. This is where snapshots come in to play.
Lesson 3: Using Snapshots
With snapshots, you can take “an isolated observation” of that particular plugin preset, give it a
name, and then recall it later. As you will see – you can do this either manually or automatically.
But there is so much more you can do with snapshots as well. As the saying goes, “this is just
the tip of the iceberg” – so to speak.
Manual: “For use in LiveProfessor, a snapshot is where you can save the entire state of a plugin
for later recall. Snapshots can be used as simple presets or as for changing settings during a
show. Snapshots only save plugin parameters – and therefore, do not save the audio or midi
patch, gain or the on/off bypass state of a plugin. Each plugin in LiveProfessor can have its own
set of snapshots.” (page 8)
So, let us see just how you can use snapshots in LiveProfessor.
Section A: Open the previous project and re-save project
In this section of the tutorial, you will open the Tutorial 3 project and re-save it as Tutorial 5.
Launch LiveProfessor.
1. Go to Project and select Open project.
2. Select the Tutorial 3 project and click Open.
3. Select Save as...
4. New filename: Tutorial 5.
5. Click Save.
 Tutorial 5: Snapshots, the Basics
6. Section A is now completed.
Section B: Creating snapshots
In this tutorial you will create two snapshots using the SWFP plugin.
1. Expand the Snapshots panel.

2. Select Create.
Observation: The New snapshot dialog appears with the default name of Snapshot 1.
3. Rename the snapshot to Off – and select OK.

Observation: The new snapshot will be listed in the Snapshots panel. Ask yourself why you
renamed this snapshot to Off?
4. Select the Play/Stop button.
Observation: The wave file is heard.
5. Select Create.
6. Rename the snapshot to On – and select OK.
Observation: As before, the new snapshot will be listed in the Snapshots panel.

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7. Disable the Play/Stop button.

8. Save the project.
9. Section B is now completed.
Lesson 4: The Three Principles of Effective Snapshot Management
The principles of understanding effective snapshot management are, first, understanding just
what a particular plugin can do – or is capable of doing, second, knowing this, just what is it that
you want that particular plugin to do, and third, create a snapshot to perform that particular
task.
The purpose then of the snapshots that you created here in this tutorial are to be able to recall
the Off and On state of the Play/Stop button of the SWFP plugin.
Section C: Testing the snapshots
In this section of the tutorial you will test the On & Off snapshots to see how they behave – and
to verify the purpose for which they were intended.
1. Enable the Play/Stop button.
2. Double-click on the Off snapshot.
Observation: The Play/Stop button is disabled – which is the exact same thing as selecting the
Play/Stop button.
3. Double-click on the On snapshot.
Observation: The Play/Stop button is enabled – which is the exact same thing as selecting the
Play/Stop button.

4. Double-click on the Off snapshot.

5. Section C is now completed.
Section D Saving the Project and Closing LiveProfessor
You will now save this project and exit LiveProfessor.
1. Save the project.
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2. Exit LiveProfessor.
3. Section D is now completed.
Summary
Though this tutorial has shown you a very simple method of using snapshots, I sincerely hope
that you are getting even a small picture of just what the possibilities are of using snapshots
with LiveProfessor. You need to put this to some practicable use and think about all of the
possibilities for using snapshots for yourself. As you have seen for yourself, you can
enable/disabled various plugin functions – but you can do a whole lot more. It will be helpful
for you to remember that what you did with the SWFP plugin – you can do with other plugins as
well.
In this tutorial then, you have learned the basic of snapshots and the three principles of
effective plugin management, which are:
§ Understanding just what a particular plugin can do – or is capable of doing,
§ That knowing this, just what is it that you want that particular plugin to do, and,
§ Create a snapshot to perform that particular task.
In closing
Remember, understanding what the plugin can do, knowing what you want the plugin to do,
and then creating a snapshot to perform that function – are the principles to effective plugin
management.
As you will see in a subsequent tutorial, the use of snapshots is particularly effective when it
comes to using Cues. Cues are an extremely powerful feature set of LiveProfessor and will assist
you in understanding just how important snapshots are – especially for use in a live
performance environment – which is just what LiveProfessor is designed to do.

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