Pro-53 + Windows 10

Hello sorry for reviving this one but what is to say that this won't happend to FM8 anytime soon?

Another thread on kvr talking about NI pursuing Reaktor in priority to their other synths got me thinking..

Thanks!

 

Yeah, it's an old thread, but I have to revive it to add my opinion.
In some way it's funny, that my still working Prophet 5 Rev 2 survived it's virtual sucessor. Bought Pro52 many years ago as kind of a backup
for reharsal, updated to Pro 53. But unfortunately, NI does not support it any longer. It was one of your best synth recreations and is your legacy. SHAME ON YOU. We need and want a 64bit version! I'd even pay for it. Or should Arturia get my bucks?

 

Have found myself using Pro-52 a lot again after not paying much attention to it for several years. It is a great product and it would be nice to see NI resurrect it. I have a Win 10 machine now and Pro-53 will not run on it.

 

Not sure what you're doing wrong, Pro-53 runs just fine over here on W10.

 

I've just gone through a long process of "migrating" my old Komplete 5 installation from Win 7 to Win 10, and can confirm that everything will eventually work on Windows 10, including Pro-53.

In my case I installed everything from scratch from the Komplete 5 DVDs (actually ISOs downloaded from NI). After initial installation, NOTHING works. However, to get any package to work, you have to go to:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/update-manager/

and enter the name of the package you are looking for e.g. "Pro-53". You should see a list of all updates.

I selected the latest update "PRO-53 3.0.5 Win Update", downloaded it and manually installed it.

It works absolutely fine, as does every single other component of Komplete 5, including Kontakt 3, Massive, FM8, and so on.

I'm reasonably sure that even if you bought Pro-53 as a standalone product, the above should work for you.

 

Glad it works for you. I originally owned Pro 52. Upgraded to Pro 53 when it was released. Got a new serial number from NI which worked at the time to register in Service Center and all was well. Updated through 3.0.4. The that machine died. I described earlier in this thread (p.1) what I had to go through to get to 3.0.2 again on my new computer.

I was thinking, when I later replied to someone else's post, that I had only gotten Pro52 to work - hence my erroneous subsequent comment that Pro 53 wouldn't run at all. What I should have said was that nothing after Pro 53 3.0.2 would work - at least for me. Service Center still asks me to update to 3.0.4 (yes, you can still run Service Center). When I run that recommended update - which I had working fine on my old computer - it asks me to run Service Center (of course it doesn't "know" about Native Access) to activate although 3.0.2 is activated. Service Center says everything is registered. But when I then try to run Pro 53 3.0.4, it asks me to activate in Service Center or run in demo mode. So I click on activate in Service Center and again it says I have nothing to activate. Native Access says I have a full license for Pro 53. But it will only run in demo mode. I tried your link to 3.0.5 (which oddly Service Center doesn't show - it only shows a 3.0.4 update). Same problem. So I have to go through my odd setup process again and stop with 3.0.2.

Native Instruments unhelpfully tells me they no longer support the product and would not give me any clue to get it to 3.0.4 or 3.0.5. Which again raises the question - what happens to us when old computers die, as they all will, and Native Instruments no longer supports a product that was installed on the dead machine? So far it's only caused me this issue with Pro 53, but given their lack of continued updates on some other product (FM7?), I wonder if support will end for them, too, including activation on a replacement computer. Pretty unhappy with that thought.

 

smoddelm: sorry you're going through this, yes these things are a huge pain, and I received the exact same response from NI Support, that not only are these products not supported on Win 10, but they won't even work on Win 10. This latter assertion I have proven to be completely wrong, as have others.

For your own specific case, it is quite far removed from what I went through so I can't say that I have been in your situation and made it work. That said, I can suggest one thing which you may not have tried already which may help here. Have you downloaded and installed the latest Service Center? Native Access is useless for this sort of thing, and for some bizarre reason each time I installed a component from Komplete 5, it installed the version of Service Center which comes with Komplete 5, which I think is 1.2.1.2.

As I write this, I've just noticed that when I tried to check the version of Service Center I have installed, when I fire up the application it tries to connect to the internet. I pressed cancel, and was presented with three options: "Try connecting to the Internet again", "Use a proxy server to connect to the internet", and "Offline Mode - Continue without connecting to the internet. Please note: the registration process requires the export of an activation request file which must then be sent to NI via a computer that is online." Clicking this will then present you with a list of products that have not yet been activated, and you can select each one, then on the next page enter the serial number, then click the Export button. That will then generate an ActivationRequestFile.html file, which you can then open up in a web browser, it will show a list of instructions and at the bottom it will have a Send button. It's an extremely long shot, but pressing that button may help you solve your problem (I haven't tried it as I'm already registered.)

Otherwise, I would advise you to download and install the latest version of Service Center via the link I posted on my original post:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/update-manager/

If you ever go back and reinstall any other component, at least one which requires Service Center activation, it seems to overwrite the latest version with a version that comes with your software installation media, which is a confusing pain. But this may also help you.

(As an aside, for some bizarre reason each time I installed any of the individual Komplete 5 components, it also installs a program called "Service Center Setup.exe" or something like that under each instrument's directory in C:\program files (x86)\Native Instruments, so you should delete that as well at least to free up useless space being taken up.)

Beyond this, I can't think of anything else. Good luck and I really hope you manage to get Pro-53 up and running.

 

The original Version 3.02 of Pro-53 seems to work OK in Win 10 (version with 3-5-5 digit serial number). Needed to find my original installation file. But it didn't install the def.p5a, mystery, and ControlMap.txt files. So I had to trick it by renaming the v3.02 folder. installing version 3.05 (which launches but will only run in demo mode but has all those files), then replace the pro-53.exe and pro-53.dll files in the application and VSTPlugins folders, respectively. Seems to work now! Phew! What a lot of palaver it is to reinstall old plugins!!!

...and before EvilDragon berates me unhelpfully, the answer is because I have a rush of inspiration/nostalgia and want to render some old songs that I didn't save as audio only back in the day. NI (and Princeton Digital/Eventide and Steinberg and Microsoft and probably others) don't seem to get how much time and emotion are invested in old creations that as non-professionals, we don't necessarily have fully archived in future-proof formats. (what is futureproof anyway???) So the only way to be able to play those old tunes is to get the plugins working (probably in an obsolete version of Cubase or Logic) and then try to render them down to audio stems or something.

After all the thousands of bucks I have spent on these apps over the years it is All. So. Very. Frus. Trating!!!

Anyway this one's fixed for now. Now to try to get get Massive working!

 

I guess actually I should be more concerned about how "future-proof" a lot of my programs are. There ought to be a non-profit trust set up to "hold the keys" to all software that requires activation. In the event the developer goes away, the trust would then have the right to activate the software for anyone showing reasonable evidence of owning a license, or maybe just for everyone since a defunct developer is not going to get any license fees at that point anyway.

 

I'd never do that!

As mentioned, Pro-53 last version ever released works just fine here in W10 64-bit... Has anyone tried to run the installer in W7 compatibility mode, perhaps?

 

I have the same problem with Pro53, used to work fine, didn't use it for a while, and now it says it's not activated even though Service Center says it is.

Did anyone figure this out? I tried removing the serial no. and reapplying it, no change. Feels like eg. a permissions issue so that it can't access the activation info from a file or registry (hunch).

 

Found the installers here (will edit if it works): https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/update-manager/?q=pro&t=updates

 

(Windows) OK, I fixed it, but I'm not sure of the exact order of events. I uninstalled v3.05 using the uninstall .exe in the Pro 53.exe folder (that nicely took out the serial, system id and activation keys from the registry, which matched Service Center and should have worked). Then reinstalled 3.05.

That alone didn't do it, it still showed as already activated in Service Center. However when I ran SC the next time, I noticed that Komplete 4 was now showing as not activated on the opening screen! The serial no was already there, I just clicked 'Activate' and then everything worked.

So it looks like the issue may not be with Pro53 activation directly, but actually because it's part of Komplete and maybe that activation check was failing somehow. I note that the free NI Phasis is never showing as activated in Service Center even though it is in Native Access, maybe that is related or a red herring. Anyway, 3.05 activation can be made to work it seems ...

 

That's because all the newer NI products use a different serial number scheme which SC doesn't understand (because it contains letters and SC only expects numbers). You will see this for all newer NI products.

 

Makes sense.

 

This is how I solved the problem under Windows 10.

When the Pro-53 crash or won't open under the Windows 10, it seems that the activation hasn't been done properly, that's the reason in my case. Now, it works well with Windows10, indeed.

Solution:

1. Uninstall Pro-53
2. Delete the serial key from the registry - IMPORTANT! (Follow info here: https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/being-asked-to-activate-pro-53.117135/
3. Install Pro-53 from CD or original installer
4. Open Service Center and activate it - IMPORTANT! Do NOT try to activate it from Native Access!
5. Update Pro-53 to the latest version.

That's it.

 

I just had a problem where Pro-53 would not activate. I followed the steps detailed by Toners and Pro-53 now works.

 

It happened again, after copying my Win10 partition to my new PC. Except now I see Service Center was discontinued, and will no longer activate eg. my Komplete 4 (which I needed for Pro-53 last time). Any ideas/hacks?

Seems like NI should have made Pro53 free as abandonware - if you can't buy or activate it anyway, what's the harm? It shouldn't just be disabled altogether, I have mixes that rely on it (as well as loving the sound).