ST3 and ST4 conflict!?!?!

[zedd]

I just loaded up an older project that was saved with ST3 long before I bought ST4 to join the Group Buy and installed it last month...

The result was more than a surprise. ST3 can no longer locate the instruments that were loaded into that project.

It loads ST3 (as it is supposed to) but ST4 icons are inside the GUI directory of ST3 (and everything else is locked) with an error message saying:

----Part 1 loading issues
--------Failed to load instrument...
----Part 2 loading issues
--------Failed to load instrument...

To make matters worse the dialog box with the error display is not wide enough to show me the names of the instruments I used, and I don't know how I can find out what exactly they were if ST3 can no longer load them.

BUT WHY can ST3 not load it's instrument library properly anymore!? Nothing has changed about it. It is still on the same drive with the same samples and instruments folders, and ST3 is still an available instrument for me to load in my DAW.

WTF!?!?!

ST4 should not have messed with ST3's ability to continue opening up in projects as it always did. What has happened here?

And while I am on this, I had a similar issue with Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE where I installed it and was delighted by the Standalone and dedicted GUI version of Miroslav. But I decided to also install it in ST4 so that I could occasionally use Miroslav instruments in ST4, and that totally BROKE the Standalone and dedicated GUI version of Miroslav. No instruments would show up and it was entirely useless.

Since I prefer Miroslav in it's own dedicated GUI, I unistalled it from ST4 to get it back again. Why is ST4 messing with these other products?

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There must be a simple solution to getting ST3 to work properly again so that my older songs will open correctly and find the instruments I used. I hope someone can help...

Thanks in advance,

zedd

[DarkStar]

ST4 does not interfere with ST3.

And you can scroll the error message to see the rest of the name (thre scroll bar is hard to see here - very dark grey on dark grey background).

Just to check:
-- what is the full path to your ST3 library?
-- and to your Miroslav library?
-- what path is in ST3's Preference Settings?
-- what path is in Miroslav's Preference Settings?

To use the Miroslav library in ST4, all you need to do is add its disk path to the list in ST4's Sound Content. (ST4 has an "ST3 engine") built into it.)

[zedd]

ST4 does not interfere with ST3.

The weird thing is that none of the ST3 content is available in ST3. It loads ST3 but has all the different versions of ST4 in the sidebar, and everything else is locked... but it's still ST3.

And you can scroll the error message to see the rest of the name (thre scroll bar is hard to see here - very dark grey on dark grey background).

Ahhhh!!!! Right you are. Well that helps! I was able to identify the instruments and just load them into an instance of ST4, which is probably what I will do in all future cases.

The truth is that I hardly used ST3 at all, so in the few instances where I will open projects where I did use ST3, I can just manually rebuild the instrument assignments in ST4 which is where I'd rather be using them anyway.

But now I have another issue... my DAW faders are not controlling the mix volumes of the ST4 instruments. It has always done so in ST1, ST2, and ST3, so I'm sure this is not supposed to be happening.

I tried it again in another instance of ST4 and it is the same deal... my DAW cannot control the instrument volumes, and I sure don't want to have to do that within the ST4 mixing window each time I need to make an adjustment... Hmmmmmmmmmm...

Just to check:
-- what is the full path to your ST3 library?
-- and to your Miroslav library?
-- what path is in ST3's Preference Settings?
-- what path is in Miroslav's Preference Settings?

--Hard Drive X > ST3 > Samples (and ST4 Library is on the same drive in a ST4 folder)
--Hard Drive Y > Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE
--Hard Drive X > ST4 > Samples (and so I changed it back to ST3... but (see below))
--Hard Drive X > ST4 > Samples (Also... so Miroslav is fu$#%^&*ked again).

So now both ST3 and Miroslav updated their disk paths to look in ST4/Samples despite my not doing this or authorizing this.

And this has created the EXACT same problem I had with Miroslav before. It is EMPTY. I can point the Miroslav disk path back to the proper location and it will NOT rebuild Miroslav, so the interface remains empty and there is no way to rebuild.

Exact same thing with ST3. I pointed it back to the ST3/Samples folder and it refuses to rebuild, even though the samples are all in there... so now ST3 is empty and there are no instruments available to load.

Sheesh.

I know how this is supposed to work... but something about ST4 changed the directories in these other products, and now will not allow those products to rescan themselves.

This is so frustrating, and has caused me a couple hours of troubleshooting when I was really in the mood to make music.

To use the Miroslav library in ST4, all you need to do is add its disk path to the list in ST4's Sound Content. (ST4 has an "ST3 engine") built into it.)

Actually that is what I did... but it created the same conflict I am experiencing now.

ST4 seems to want to take control of everything at the expense of all other products (including the fader controls in my DAW).

[DarkStar]

Right, I think that I can see the problem.

ST3 and MP2 should be using the same library path in their Preference Settings. And the MP2 files and folders should be in sub-folders in the main ST3 library. That folder should NOT be the "Instruments" or"Samples" folders, rather it should be the folder that contains those 2 (and others, such as "Effects presets", "Patterns")

ST4's Sound Content should have 2 paths
(a) to the ST4 library ("L:/IK Multimedia/SampleTank 4" in my screenshot)
(b) to the ST3 (including MP2) library ("L:/IK Multimedia/SampleTank 3" in my screenshot)



Also, have a look at this FAQ, for more info on the folder organisation:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/faq/index.php?id=1239

As for the Volume control, this was hard-wired into ST3 (and ST2). In ST4 you just need to assign the MIDI CC#7 controller to the Volume control.

[DarkStar]

PS It does seem weird that setting a disk path to the ST3 library in ST4, sets that path for ST3 too. But maybe ST4, having found ST3 sounds on that path, does it to save you the trouble.

[zedd]

.
Thanks Dark Star!

I will look into this again later, as I am all trouble-shooted out right now and working on my song with ST2 instruments in place of the ST3 ones I was using.

My copy of MP2CE is on a different hard drive because I didn't have enough room on the SampleTank drive... but apparently it still got corrupted with my latest installs of other ST products I got in the GB. I was happy to just use Miroslav separately, but clearly this may become an issue every time I install a new library.

I don't have ST3 and ST4 together in an IKM folder like you have. Not sure that would make a difference, but I can try that.

Everything is fine in ST4, it's just the other products that are messed up.

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Not hardwiring the volume control in ST4 is just idiotic to me. Why would we want to assign each instrument to volume CC each time? Is that a DAW assignment or something within ST4?? This seems like a blatant oversight and a terrible design feature. I don't like it at all, and I am fast on track to not using ST4 very much just like I didn't use ST3 except once in a blue moon. I love the FX, but the maddening preset/product/filter structure really just makes me want to avoid using it, especially with this new volume issue.