Is Operator worth it or is FM8 as good?

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:06 pm

glitchrock-buddha wrote:Operator is definitely easier and more fun to program. Fm8 is significantly lighter on CPU and I would say is also the nicer sounding of the two. Fm8 also has extra features like great effects and a cool arp and morphing and other stuff. I probably use them equally.

Can someone weigh in on this?

FM8 for me seems to operate incredibly slowly (especially in relation to Operator), switching through presets seems to take a really long time. Is anyone else having this issue?

BTW: MacBook, Leopard 10.5.6, Live 7, and updated the newest update of FM8

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:38 pm

contakt321 wrote:
glitchrock-buddha wrote:Operator is definitely easier and more fun to program. Fm8 is significantly lighter on CPU and I would say is also the nicer sounding of the two. Fm8 also has extra features like great effects and a cool arp and morphing and other stuff. I probably use them equally.
Can someone weigh in on this?

FM8 for me seems to operate incredibly slowly (especially in relation to Operator), switching through presets seems to take a really long time. Is anyone else having this issue?

BTW: MacBook, Leopard 10.5.6, Live 7, and updated the newest update of FM8

Not having issues with FM8 and presets similar setup, macbook pro etc.
You brought up a reason I'd forgotten about that makes third party instruments and FX more fun for me to use in Live, the clunky preset handling Live does on it's own presets. With third party stuff you can set it up to be a push of a button, in Live it's back to the browsers and mousing.... blah! Sad part is it was better before, some update introduced presets as browser specific if I recall correctly.

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:42 pm

Thanks for the feedback Machines.

It's driving me nuts, trying to scroll through the presets my cpu freezes for a second, then it scrolls.

Anyone else have this experience?

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:02 pm

contakt321 wrote:Thanks for the feedback Machines.

It's driving me nuts, trying to scroll through the presets my cpu freezes for a second, then it scrolls.

Anyone else have this experience?

This isn't normal, but one cool thing about living on the east coast is NI phone support is open late. I recommend phone over email anytime you can as email is easier to have them misdiagnose which results in another 2-3 days before a reply ad nauseam. Sounds like the presets might be in the wrong place or some permissions issue.

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:45 pm

contakt321 wrote:Thanks for the feedback Machines.

It's driving me nuts, trying to scroll through the presets my cpu freezes for a second, then it scrolls.

Anyone else have this experience?

oh, hold on. I think I know what's going on. There are two ways to go through presets. One is in the Browser view ('instruments' or whatever), and the other is in the folder view. If you're going through the folders, it can be quite slow if the folder is very large, like the factory folders are. FM8 builds a database for it's sounds and it's much quicker to go through them with the browser. The folder view is better for if you're loading something not in the database in a folder somewhere on your hard drive.

So ya, I've had this problem, but it doesn't happen with the regular browser.

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:57 pm

contakt321 wrote:
glitchrock-buddha wrote:Operator is definitely easier and more fun to program. Fm8 is significantly lighter on CPU and I would say is also the nicer sounding of the two. Fm8 also has extra features like great effects and a cool arp and morphing and other stuff. I probably use them equally.
Can someone weigh in on this?

FM8 for me seems to operate incredibly slowly (especially in relation to Operator), switching through presets seems to take a really long time. Is anyone else having this issue?

BTW: MacBook, Leopard 10.5.6, Live 7, and updated the newest update of FM8

Start up FM8 as a standalone and rebuild your database from the options/browser page. Close FM8 when the rebuild's done and reboot. Done.

ew

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:32 am

ewistrand wrote: Start up FM8 as a standalone and rebuild your database from the options/browser page. Close FM8 when the rebuild's done and reboot. Done.

ew

Hmm, I did this, still seems the same.

In the view that shows all of the patches (called Browser) I get the pinwheel when I try to scroll. When I just click the up and down arrows in the window to changes patches, it's quick.

Is this normal?

Sorry, I know this is OT. Thank you everyone for weighing in.

Contra · Post by **Contra** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:42 am

i got both, but ima have to go with FM8

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:08 am

contakt321 wrote:
ewistrand wrote: Start up FM8 as a standalone and rebuild your database from the options/browser page. Close FM8 when the rebuild's done and reboot. Done.

ew
Hmm, I did this, still seems the same.

In the view that shows all of the patches (called Browser) I get the pinwheel when I try to scroll. When I just click the up and down arrows in the window to changes patches, it's quick.

Is this normal?

Sorry, I know this is OT. Thank you everyone for weighing in.

If you've got the pinwheel, it's still rebuilding.

ew

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:25 am

After I rebuild and restart I still get the pinwheel in the browser mode, sorry for the lack of clarity.

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:36 am

You shouldn't be- that's my point. Start it up in standalone, and do the rebuild again. Let it run as a standalone for a fair amount of time; say ten minutes or so. See if that fixes it.

By the way, you are using the current version, I presume (1.0.3)?

ew

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:51 pm

ewistrand wrote:You shouldn't be- that's my point. Start it up in standalone, and do the rebuild again. Let it run as a standalone for a fair amount of time; say ten minutes or so. See if that fixes it.

By the way, you are using the current version, I presume (1.0.3)?

ew

Thank you, this worked. I truly appreciate the help. Strangely, I didn't see this on the NI forums at all. Maybe its only in the manual which I skimmed but didn't read. I guess thats why its RTFM not STFM.

Cheers!

Azure Feast · Post by **Azure Feast** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:59 am

I just found a good workable solution as alternative to FM8 arpeggiator.

See this thread:

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=113137

Marc for Azure Feast.

www.AzureFeast.com

Is Operator worth it or is FM8 as good?

An alternative solution for FM8 Arpeggiator....