Where does everything live?

Projects, patterns, presets, pools, and the SD card — the machine's invisible filing system, and the one copy rule that explains every save-related surprise.

Tonverk · 9 min read

Every Tonverk beginner meets the same two fears. Fear one: did I just change that sound in every pattern that uses it? Fear two: if I power off right now, what dies? The panel answers neither — there is no file-browser view of your work, no "unsaved changes" dot. The storage model is the machine's most invisible system, and the manual scatters it across §5 and §9. This piece puts it in one place.

The whole model is three places and one rule. The places: the SD card (permanent files), the active project (your entire working world), and the pattern (where your actual music data sits). The rule, stated by the manual itself: loading always copies, never links. A preset loaded into a pattern "becomes an independent copy… not linked to the original on the SD card" (§9). Every save-related surprise on this machine is that rule, seen from an angle you didn't expect.

The card

The SD card is the only permanent home anything has (§5.1). It holds your saved projects (as files in USER/PROJECTS), your preset library (USER/PRESETS, browsed by category and tags), instruments (the multi-sample collections that Multi Player and Subtracks play), the raw samples and wavetables, and the global settings (§5.1, §9.1). Everything on the card survives everything: power-off, project switches, your worst session. The included card is 64 GB, exFAT (§5.1).

The active project

The active project is your whole working world: 128 patterns in eight banks (§5.2.3), up to 16 songs (§5.2.2), the project settings — and the two pools, the project's references into the card's audio: up to 1023 samples and 127 wavetables (§5.2.6). When you switch on, Tonverk "boots to the active working state, the active project" (§5.2.1). Two operations treat this world as a unit: LOAD replaces it — the manual's own warning is to save first (§9.1.1) — and RELOAD reverts it to its last saved state, which makes RELOAD your project-wide undo (§9.1.1).

Where data lives

§5 →§5.2 →§9 →§9.1 →

Click any box to see what is stored there and when it is written. The one rule that explains everything: loading always copies, never links.

SD CARD (files)⇄ LOAD copies from the card into the pattern — edits never write back

ACTIVE PROJECT (working state)⤷ SAVE PRESET / SAVE PROJECT writes a copy to the card

ONE PATTERN

PRESET COPIES§9 →§5.2 →

Independent copies of the presets loaded on the pattern's tracks — editing them never touches the card originals. Strictly one per audio/MIDI track (12); the manual also prints 16, our newest documented erratum.

◦ Lives in the working state — written to the card when you save the project

ERRATUM

§5.2.3 says a pattern contains up to 12 presets (one for each audio or MIDI track); §9 says up to 16 (one for each track). §9's own strict preset definition — a sample plus the SRC/FLTR/AMP/FX/MOD page settings — fits only tracks 1–12, since send FX and mix tracks have no SRC machine, and §9.1.3's KIT DATA clear touches preset data for tracks 1–8 only. Read 12 as the strict count; §9's 16 loosely counts every track's stored state (§5.3.7 also calls send-FX track state a “preset” for copy purposes).

▶ Load a preset to the active track

One pattern

The manual calls patterns "the primary data container" (§5.2.3), and the list of what one carries explains most day-to-day surprises (§9): the preset copies for its tracks, all sequencer data — trigs and parameter locks for all 16 tracks — the TRIG page defaults plus BPM, length, swing, and time signature, the routing settings, and the track levels (§9.3). Read that list again slowly: tempo is pattern data. Routing is pattern data. Your mix levels are pattern data. Switch patterns and all of it switches with them.

The copy rule

Now the rule that answers fear number one. When you load a preset onto a track, the pattern receives "an independent copy of the preset on the SD card. It is not linked to the original" (§9). The consequences, spelled out: edit fearlessly — the card original is untouchable from the parameter pages (§9.3: "any changes made will be stored as part of the active pattern"). The same preset in five patterns is five copies — improving one improves one. And when a copy grows into something worth keeping, FILE → PRESET → SAVE AS graduates it back to the card as a new file (§9.1.4). Instruments go one step further: EXPORT bundles an instrument with all its samples into a portable package (§9.1.5).

EXPERIMENT

Prove the copy rule

Goal: Watch two copies of one preset diverge.

Load the same preset onto track 1 in two different patterns (press [PRESET], pick one; switch pattern with [PTN] + a [TRIG] key; load it again).
In the first pattern, do something drastic — open FLTR PAGE 1 and pull FREQ way down.
Switch to the second pattern and play track 1: untouched. Two independent copies, one ancestor on the card.
Decide the darker one is worth keeping: FILE menu ([FUNC] + [PRESET]) → PRESET → SAVE AS, name it, tag it. Now the card has a second file — the original still safe.

Try it on the twin →▶ Load a preset to the active track ▶ Save the active track's sound as a preset §9.1 THE FILE MENU

The safety nets

And fear number two — what can you get back? Three nets, at three scales. Per pattern, seconds ago: memorize the active pattern to a temporary slot and recall it at will — [FUNC] + [KEYBOARD C#] to memorize, [FUNC] + [KEYBOARD D#] to recall, as printed on the panel (§3.1; §19 prints the two keys swapped — documented erratum #1, trust the panel). Per pattern, since last save: CLEAR operations — whole pattern, kit data (the presets of tracks 1–8), or sequence data — are not permanent "until the pattern is saved to the same slot it was loaded from" (§9.1.3). Per project: RELOAD rewinds the entire world to its last save (§9.1.1).

EXPERIMENT

Walk the safety nets

Goal: Break a pattern on purpose and get it back twice.

Memorize the active pattern: [FUNC] + [KEYBOARD C#] (panel print: Memorize).
Now wreck it — clear a track's sequence, twist parameters, regret everything.
Recall: [FUNC] + [KEYBOARD D#]. The pattern returns from the temporary slot.
Bigger rewind: FILE menu → PROJECT → RELOAD returns the whole project to its last saved state (§9.1.1) — every pattern, pool, and setting at once.

▶ Temporarily memorize the active pattern ▶ Recall the memorized pattern state §9.1 THE FILE MENU

The fine print

[FUNC] + [SETTINGS] saves the project from anywhere — no need to visit the FILE menu (§9.1.1, §19).
CLEAR comes in three grains (§9.1.3): WHOLE PATTERN, KIT DATA (presets of tracks 1–8, sequence untouched), SEQUENCE DATA (the inverse). All three are reversible until you save over them.
TRACK LEVEL is pattern data (§9.3) — nudging a track's level in one pattern changes nothing anywhere else.
A MIDI-machine preset contains no samples — it is pure settings (§9).
Instruments exist only for the Multi Player and Subtracks machines; the FILE menu's INSTRUMENT options appear only when such a track is active (§9.1.5).
Projects and presets have exact homes on the card: USER/PROJECTS and USER/PRESETS (§9.1.4) — useful to know when you back up the card to a computer.

The takeaway: the card keeps files; the project is your world; everything in between is a copy. Saving the project photographs the world; saving a preset sends one sound home to the card. And with this piece, the scoping series is complete — Why Subtracks? answered what is shared inside a track, The routing philosophy answered what travels with a pattern's console, and this article answered what survives on the card. Three articles, one question: who owns what, and for how long.