Just had a chance to play around with NI FM-8 (Final RTM version) at my friend's house (he's a NI official beta tester). All I can say is WOW.

Blows away every imaginable VSTi available atm. Night and day (literally and visually) difference from FM-7. Words cannot really describe the sounds its capable of generating. It has a built in arp/sequencer, customizable scale, and all kinds of freaky stuff.

The soundbanks (out of the box) are mind blowing and ready to use without tweaking. Inspiration tools on the tap. You can just hold one key and trip to the sound morphing and changing and constantly evolving. Extremely powerful and also has ability to be rather simple (tho a bit limited). You can switch between "advanced" and "newbie" layout, giving you more or less of control over parameters.

You also have morph function, sort of reminescent of Sequential Prophet VS joystick or Roland V-Synth time trip pad or Korg Z1 pad. GUI is also extremely well designed and looks reminescent of Virus Ti Polar - extremely cool looking!!!

Interesting tidbit (albeit somewhat unofficial). According to some source, apparently the software "calls home" upon start up to authenticate. This is done to prevent piracy. Its also rumored to have a scan/report/disable feature for any cracked/illegal NI plug-ins. This is a bit murky at the moment but the way it was explained, apparently software has ability to detect "warezed" versions of NI plug ins and disable them. So, if you're running some *cough* evaluation that never expires *cough* versions of NI software and plan to get a legal version of FM-8 it may disable your warez plug ins.

Hopefully you're not that type of bad person who runs illegal software and plan to buy a legal copy of FM-8, in which case you'll be definitely happy. It's probably one of the best (if not the best) VSTi I ever had a pleasure of playing with. I could definitely make tracks on the fly and get inspiration for others without much tweaking. Some patches are down-right prog/trance oriented, while other evolving sounds are most likely geared towards studio/film production. Some patches are down right HAUNTING and Eerie!

Overall, I'd rate it 9/10 (nine for cheeky copy right protection and potential "spying" ability). Get ready, this one will be a scorcher.

Can't wait

Oh, and p.s little gotcha: apparently FM-8 RTM contained some bugs which were not eliminated until after the "Gold image" was pressed and therefore included on the released image. You'll need to patch it right out of the box but it's no biggy.

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hehe thanks for the review.

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Entice

i'm waiting for NI to ship me all the new updates. according to them they will release the new products on october the 13th.

hmm sounds tempting to purchase lol

Sound clips of it in action for anyone who's interested:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=fm8_us

quote:

Originally posted by emc^2 ...apparently software has ability to detect "warezed" versions of NI plug ins and disable them. So, if you're running some *cough* evaluation that never expires *cough* versions of NI software and plan to get a legal version of FM-8 it may disable your warez plug ins.

For real? You're saying it actually checks and modifies other software on your machine?

Christ, haven't these companies learned anything from Sony's Rootkit debacle? Computers are the private property of their owners, and their property rights aren't negated by a clickwrap license. I've got no problem with any copy protection schemes within a piece of software but once they start operating outside of it then they're on very contentious legal and moral ground.

If what you say is true and accurate then NI has gone even further down the road of treating its paying customers like criminals. I won't continue to give money to a company that takes such an attitude. And somehow I get the feeling that this idea was concoted by some functionally-illiterate Director Of Product Enhancements (DOPE) who's never spent a second actually working on the product itself.

Phoning home to disable itself: stupid but fine. Phoning home to cripple other software, even software from the same company: not cool.

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Yea. That's pretty bad. I was hearing some rumors that Cubase SX3/Nuendo 3 could have been a lot faster without the needs for a USB key authorization.

Anyway. If this is indeed true... it's very un-user friendly and a bit paranoid. It's also very dumb.

A lot. A LOT. If not most professional studio computers are not connected to the internet so there isn't a risk of their systems being infected. Even my buddy's home studio computer isn't connected to the internet. So if it has to phone-home to authenticate itself. Are you hosed?

Let us know more EMC^2 if you buy it.

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quote:

Originally posted by DJFreaq That's pretty bad. I was hearing some rumors that Cubase SX3/Nuendo 3 could have been a lot faster without the needs for a USB key authorization.

Many applications are slowed down by their security checks. The thing with Cubase and Nuendo (according to the "crackers") is that it's insane how many checks they have in the code and that it slows down the app more than 50 %. And one might say: Cubase and Nuendo SX 3 have been cracked anyway, so why does Steinberg even bother spending so much (and slowing down the app) on security in the software? It's always claimed that "THIS time it's really uncrackable" and it's always cracked anyway (or dongle emulated)...

Btw: The "funny story" with an older version of Cubase (VST5 or SX1 maybe) was that Steinberg had a lot of bugs in their version, but a lot of these were fixed by the crackers in the cracked version. So I actually found myself in a situation where I had bought a legit copy of the software, but indeed was using the cracked copy of the same version. It was running more stable. Crazy world... I know it might not have been legal, but I didn't have any moral or ethical issues as long as I'd paid for a copy.

I can understand that software developers feel a need of protecting themselves, but really... I think the Cubase SX 3 example really shows that if someone wants to crack the software - it WILL eventually get cracked.

And I totally agree with you and DigiNut about the FM8 protection. I think it's WAY beyond the line to have an application (bought legally) check for warez on your computer. I sincerely hope that spyware and anti-virus programs will treat this like spyware and thus put pressure on NI to change the behaviour.

I don't get it anyway: How many people will actually pay for the FM8 but use other applications illegally? I think most persons are either freeriders or good, paying customers. Or maybe there are some out there using warez for a month or two, before they go and buy the software - but is that really so bad for the developers?

And on a different note, if software crackers are able to crack high end security and encryption algorithms, they are obviously also able to modify the FM8 so the "check for warez"-behaviour is bypassed. This kind of security check in an application almost screams "please crack me" to all the crackers out there. Think this is a wrong move by NI.

Regards

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- Pumping the bits using:
My beloved MacBook Pro, Logic Pro X, UAD hardware and software and tons of plug-ins...

I think some people don't have a lot of money, so they get cracked software until they can afford the real stuff. That seems a moral option to me, if you spending all your money on the industry anyway, I figure your already doing the best you can. I also agree with diginut, if this is true (and it still is a big if) that would be really crap I'm still saving for the Komplete 4 package and I was really glad when I heard about it, now I'm having second thoughts

Yeah make the software cheaper or accept piracy, they wouldnt sell anymore legal versions anyway with these kind of piracy protections because the warez people cant afford it anyway

*btw my software is all legal


*well some of it

I just discovered FM7...always thought it's too hard to program damnit I feel like "Where FM7 all my life's been?" and now it's almost time to get FM8 I should start saving up money for it :-/

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The thing about disabling software, I believe at this time it is suposedly capable of killing only NI warez, not other vendors'. However, if this trend catches on, you'd see a lot more music soft companies jump on board to have a unified approach to warez'd software.

I was also dumbfounded by this "feature", as most of the studio computers will not be connected to the internet - so, does that mean that NI are willing to lose business of those "few non-connected" customers, than give it away for free to thousands, willing to download illegal version.

This is all unconfirmed and unofficial at this time but based on what I've seen so far, at the very least this is what it is capable of doing if you plan to run the automated update built into the software.

Basically, here's what I saw:

Upon startup, the software tries to connect to NI website and check for updates. As part of that process (I presume, based on given info), it may have a list of plugins running on your system and at that time it may report them or have them disabled, based on what NI choses to do on their end. Sort of like when XP updates are now pulled to your system, XP update site does a "Genuine XP" validation - you must install XP tool to check to make sure you have a legal copy of XP, otherwise you don't get updates.

I think this "update" feature can be disabled tho, I just don't see NI being soooooooooo strict with its software, considering that warez are known to bring in more business than lost. Sure, few will continue running illegal copies, but most folks who are given a prospect of free updates, plus features like soundbanks or extra goodies may find it worth their investment to buy a legal copy.

Personally, I ran a warezed copy of every major DAW application, before deciding wich one I would want to buy. Simply because the trial ware was either limited or did not give me enough time to convince myself which program would work best for me. After I test drove all apps and determined which one was better, I went out and bought the legal copy and got rid of the warezed versions.

I'll try to get more info about this "feature" though over the next few days and report back.

___________________

quote:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

--Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)