New preset format

The notes for FM8 1.2.0 say:

New and improved features:
New preset format with support for Maschine 1.7 sound browser
64bit compatibility fix for Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"
Various minor fixes​

If there's a new preset format, does this mean that existing Logic projects using FM8 won't load the presets for FM8? In my experience, when a format changes, everything breaks....

?

 

I moved to FM8 1.2.0 but I downgraded it back (luckilly I always keep old, previous versions installers). New preset format was incompatible with almost all my old presets, including those I did myself. The same story with Absynth and Massive - batch conversion succeded only partially, some presets didn't pass.

 

what the hell is this? still didn't do any of the updates, and i think i will not do the updates if there are so much problems.

@ musos: i also would like to know how my cubase projects will behave after updating if there are Absynth or FM8 or Massive instances used with presets loaded in ksd format. Will the updated VSTs still load the old (mostly changed and only temporarily in Cubase saved) presets? Or will they not load them and give me an error message?

 

This is why I never run updates within the first few days.. but uhm.. judging these stories, it looks like the original FM8 was made by Einstein and the recent versions have been trashed by Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

What.. on earth.. has gone wrong.. with NI..?

 

It seems that the new preset format was created to work with Maschine 1.7 (as per the notes in the topic announcing v1.2 of FM8).


CS_TBL wrote:

As usual, NI is more concerned with selling new products (eg Maschine - used to be Kore until it tanked) than maintaining quality of old products.

It's quite obvious that the FM8 v1.2 update doesn't fix any of the long list of problems listed in other topics on these forums.

Well, I'm voting with my credit card. I was thinking of upgrading to Kontakt 5 but there's no way I'm throwing more money into the dark pit of NI.

 

They should be fully compatible. Please send me a Private Message if they're not, you can even put swear words in it if that happens.

When you download the updates for Absynth, FM8 and Massive, you'll also be downloading all the factory presets in the new sound format along with all the additional soundpacks for the synths that come with Komplete 8. Further to that, when you install the update you should have the option to convert all your user presets to the new format.

If anyone has had any problems like rczj, could you let me know (preferably via PM so I don't miss anything).

In the meantime rczj, I'm going to send you a PM and an email about this so we can see if we can get to the bottom of it.

 

*ALSO* - rczj - I couldn't find any records of registered products under your email address on our database (aside from Kore player) so I'll need the email address you used when you purchased the synths, if you can send that to me ASAP I'll get right on this.

Cheers!

 

Quite frankly, I don't feel like even trying this. I don't want to be a beta-tester of any kind and I'd prefer to know with total certainty that this either works or does not. Including swear words may let off a little steam but may not help me undo a whole installation and conversion of all my user presets if there is any incompatibility.

NI should test this thoroughly and then inform users without any doubt whatsoever.

I'll stick with my old version and wait for more info....

 

There's no need to feel like a beta tester, and I apologise if you do.

Old projects will still work after installing FM8 1.2.0. The new version can still read old presets if loaded in a host. The only thing that wouldn't work is opening a project using FM8 1.2.0 on a computer that still runs an older version of FM8.

With regard to rczj's problem in this thread, I'm still waiting to hear back from him to confirm he has registered versions of the synths. I sent him an email and a PM yesterday but he hasn't responded. No one else has contacted me with a similar problem.

 

What exactly is fixed anyway? I'm not going to take all the risks if the only fixes are things like:
- Several Mac bug fixes
- Rare system bug fixed
- Bug fixed that only happened when using Win7/32 using Cakewalk Pro Audio 7 and all values in the FM matrix of FM8 set to '69'.

I mean: Has anything from that very long list I've given been fixed by now? The unison bug? The node that won't go away in the scaling editor? The incredibly stupid mouse range in the mod matrix? Are there any new features, which were also part of that same list?

Or is FM8 a dead stick?

 

This is just a nod to Keir...thanks for hanging in there and listening. Whether you can solve a problem or not, your sincerity and willingness come through. I'm sure most folks here would agree.

Thanks.

 

+1 for dburnz' comments above.

I'm so used to hearing nothing from NI, it's a real pleasure to actually get responses to our posts.

Much appreciated Keir!

 

There are 2 new threads now regarding problems with v1.1:

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148798

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148932

No responses from NI there....
Has anyone had complete success with v1.1?

 

A polar bear, currently living in Belgium, was testing the scaling section in 1.2 and here's what the bear experienced just a moment ago.

1) leftclick - move center node
2) leftclick - add node
3) rightclick - delete new node
== here weird magic happens ==
4) leftclick - mode odd new node

Now, what might be the odds that this (and other bugs) will ever be fixed?

 

I flagged up this scaling bug in the technical issues thread without response. It is really annoying as I've messed up one of my presets trying an idea and now I can't remove the extra nodes. I've had to try and line up six nodes where there should only be two. :-( Can we expect 1.2.1 SOON?

 

My comment 2 or 3 posts above talked about problems with v1.1
Sorry...of course I meant v1.2

 

I usually keep my softwares up to date, but for NI I'll make an exception; v1.2 is a pile of bugs especially in the preset manager. I just created a new preset WITH attributes and despite two database rebuilds the only way I can recover the setting is to type the name in the browser search.

I'm heading back to .KSD land when things worked as expected and if I get any more frustrated I might just take my wallet elsewhere.

Not happy!

 

I'm also not happy, along with many other users.

I have no doubt there are hundreds more users who don't visit these forums and complain, who are just as fed up with NI.

When will NI learn to respect their user base?
Instead, they seem to just focus on releasing more and more new products. I won't spend any more at NI until long-standing bugs with FM8 are fixed, and I DON'T mean waiting for FM9 or some new version that costs money.

NI - learn from Vienna Symphonic Library or Spectrasonics. Both companies release major updates for free, they listen to user feedback and they respond at forums.

 

i installed the 1.2 a few weeks ago and just realized now how much it has messed things up for me.

i batch converted all my presets to the nfm8 format... easy enough. i thought at that point "this isn't so bad".

now i just realized that every time i created a new preset and saved it, it was doing it in the OLD ksd format, not the NEW nfm8 format. looking more closely, i actually can't figure out how to save in the new format at all.

what this means: every time i create a patch i have to convert it before i can use it in another instance? also, it won't show up in your preset browser, since it's the wrong format. what a load of rubbish. why create a format that the program itself doesn't write to? and don't get me started on the duplicate database entries that you CAN'T delete!

very disappointed. if anyone can tell me how to downgrade the previous version i'd appreciate it. last time i tried downgrading, i ended up with an fm8 that wouldn't make any sound at all, so i was forced to upgrade again.


for the record, i am also one of (apparently) many people who are unsatisfied NI customers overall. it's a real shame, considering the great software they make (feature-wise, and functionally WHEN IT WORKS). but i have specifically decided to buy halion instead of kontakt and just not buy battery at all due to my experience with the product reliability and support. to be honest, i feel it is futile to even post here, because hardly anything i have ever asked here gets answered and definitely not in any sort of timely fashion (i think the one thread i got a response from took about a year, no joke). i suppose if you keep making new products and don't care about what people think of the old ones, then that might work for a while, but at some point you're going to run out of musicians that have never heard of NI before.

 

What are you doing, that FM8 can't save in the new format? Are you using it in Kore 2?