Is it correct to hear old fxp's as odd if played in the new version?

I'm really not happy about this.  I mentioned it before in another thread, but I've had time to think about it - and breaking existing sounds is totally wrong, especially when you've already used them in performances in DAW projects etc, where you rely on them not changing if you ever rerender the project.

But also from another perspective - sometimes a customised sound is 'perfect'.  You capture a particular magic moment, like taking the perfect snapshot with your camera.  You can never recapture it.

So 3.5 has improved the realism & complexity of the sound.  That's great (really, I appreciate the changes).  But it also changed my 3.0 sounds, and no amount of re-tweaking will recapture that magic.  You can get close, but it just isn't the same.

I'm a long-time synth user - I have many sounds like that, that simply can't be reprogrammed.  I need the same consistency with Pianoteq sounds - I think this is cruicial.  What I find strange is that Modartt already went to some trouble to address these issues - v1 and v2 models are available to be plugged into the new version.  So why did they not include the old 3.0 model in 3.5?

Yes, you can run both versions, but it (apparently) causes problems with some DAWs that can't differentiate between them.  And I also don't want to be running two versions!  Nor do I want to keep track about which sounds needs which version to sound right, especially as the years drag on and dull my memory.

Please Modartt, give use the 3.0 model back.  One solution is to simply have a folder with all the original 3.0 presets, and automatically import all 3.0 user presets into it.  The user can then choose to upgrade his sounds to the 3.5 engine or not.

And don't break our sounds in the future!

Right, but I think he's wrong on this one.

That's fine, but it doesn't work for me that way.  When I get a sound 'just right', it needs to stay that way.  For general playing I enjoy the extra realism of the new model, but for recording/performing the sound can't change.

If that's true, then why are the v1 and v2 models still available?  Obviously others want to keep their existing sounds unmodified.

I've been trying to do that.

Replacing my host is not an option (certainly not because of one plugin).

Then you don't get where I'm coming from.  There is no 'better' sound than the right sound.  Take any famous recording with a prominent piano sound - can you 'improve' the record by changing the piano sound?  Of course not, it would ruin the record.  The sound, the performance is a moment in time, it's part of what makes the record great.  Don't mess with it - that's my point.

Not necessarily, but I was talking about changing only the sound of the piano after the recording (which in reality can only be done with a MIDI performance of a software piano).  Basically what if you could alter the piano sound of a famous recording?  You wouldn't want to do that (except for fun) right?

Now if you changed the piano before the recording, the performance would have been different, as the performer would have played that piano differently to get the feel he wants.

So if all you do is play live, that's fine - but if I render an old DAW project with a MIDI performance for a particular PT sound, and that sound is now recognizably different (due to changes in the PT engine), the performance is no longer correct and ruined.

And my 2nd point is that I treat my own customized PT sounds like other synthesized sounds that I've programmed.  I am very particular about having a sound that feels emotionally right (and is often a sound that was programmed when I was in a particular frame of mind, never to be repeated).  So a significant change in the modelling engine that fundamentally changes the character of the sound (like the 3.5 changes) destroys the 'mood' of that sound that no amount of tweaking will get back.  In 3.5 the timbre of the sound is significantly different, and you can't tweak that away.

So even though the new sound may be more 'realistic', it no longer feels the same.  That's a deal-breaker for me.

I previously used 3.0.  Yes you can use a previous version, but this is very inconvenient and it's easy to forget which sound is right for which version.  Also some DAWs apparently can't differentiate between the different plugins which can cause more problems.

The v1 and v2 models are already available in 3.5 exactly for this reason, so why not 3.0?

ReBased:

Have you tried recreating the preset in the new version? My impression is that the main difference in the sound is in the soundboard, the Direct sound duration (which doesn't drop off as suddenly if you move the slider to the right), and the Quadratic effect (which seems to have more, or louder, high partials now). Have you tried using both standalone versions open at once? You might be able to recreate the sound very fast just using those three sliders...

(and it just occurred to me--be sure to clear out any Freeze parameter settings before you open the old preset...I had a hell of a time figuring out why one of my presets seemed so different, once, when I'd left something checked...)

They're big enough so that all of us can tell the difference, and that's the problem.

You strike me as a guitar/rock kinda guy right?  So I guess you know how long it takes to find the perfect guitar, the perfect sounding amp etc?  When you finally do, you don't want to mess with the electronics and have that change the sound, even a little, right?

You don't mess with a Stradivarius do you?  That's how I treat my electronic sounds when I get them just right, I don't want them to change.  It's not that hard to understand...