Amplitube 4 trashing presets repeatedly

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Not every time, but not super super rarely either, I'll save a preset, and when I reload it, it contains the default settings, not what I saved. This has happened often enough that I'M GETTING REALLY REALLY REALLY ANGRY ABOUT IT.

I'm aware that this isn't enough information to reproduce the problem reliably, which is why I hadn't submitted this to support before, but seriously, this is damaging my happiness, so I did today. This morning I lost a preset I really really liked that I've been working on and refining for quite a while, not by any means for the first time, and it's just too much.

I don't know what to do. Stop using Amplitube, which I really love? Back up all my presets every time I save one? Neither of those are good choices.

Has anyone else run into such a thing? Any solutions?

Really really bummed right now.

(In this case I was running standalone, so there's no host in play. Don't remember for sure if it's happened in Studio One too, but it's happened multiple times standalone.)

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FOLLOWUP: I examined the newly "saved" preset file, and it's mostly empty.

Even more interesting is the fact that the format field in the file's xml is at4m, which appears to be the format for an individual stomp settings file, not a whole preset, which are at4p.

I did the save through the normal Amplitube GUI, nothing fancy, so it seems like something is causing AT to get confused about what it's saving into what file. I had saved several model presets today too.

If I were you, I'd be super careful about saving presets when you've also been saving model settings.

IMPORTANT QUESTION: Does Amplitube save backups of its presets anywhere, so I might be able to recover the one I just lost?

Thanks.

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I have not had this problem ever. I don't know how to help, but I'm willing if you want me to look at anything inside A4.

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Thanks for chiming in.

Today, I saved and loaded both stomp and full presets, ending by saving a full preset, then quitting Amplitube. When I opened that last preset later, it appeared to contain just the default settings. However, when I opened the saved file in an XML editor, it contained ' Format="at4m" '. Examining other full and module presets, that's a module preset; full ones are ' Format="at4p" '.

I found the specific stomp preset I'd saved today whose contents match my full preset, except for the GUID, so the facts are clear, even if the exact steps aren't yet. Some sequences of actions confuse Amplitube, such that it saves a module preset over the full preset you mean to save. Again, this has happened to me multiple times, I just know a bit more about it today.

If you want to test stuff, I'd suggest trying various sequences of saving and loading whole presets and module (stomp) presets, looking for this behavior. If you're looking at AT internals, seems like the "last file" or "current save buffer" pointers are getting confused. Make sure you're testing with presets you don't care about.

If you're NOT testing for this bug, I really would suggest caution, and frequent redundant backups until this gets sorted. Really bummed about the preset I lost. I have some disk scavenging tools that might find it if I'm lucky.

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Yeah, you may want to export the presets you like and store them in a separate folder for safe keeping.

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On my system the following steps reproduce this bug 100% of the time:
1. Start AT4.
2. Load a preset YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT (it's going to get trashed). Make sure it's clearly different from the default preset, so you can tell the difference.
3. Save a stomp model preset.
4. Click the full preset Save button in the top bar.
5. When the confirmation dialog appears, showing the name of the FULL preset you're working with, say OK.

At this point, everything looks ok, but it's not. The contents of the FULL preset file has been replaced by the contents of the STOMP preset you just saved. You don't hear anything different, because you haven't tried to load that full preset file yet. To see the problem...
6. Load a different full preset, then reload the one you were working with. Easiest way to do that is to click the Up arrow in the full presets dropdown, then the Down arrow.

What you see looks like the default preset, not the one you were just working with. (For me, that's the American Clean Tube 1 amp, no stomps or rack fx, not sure if that's always the same on all systems.) Your full preset file has been corrupted.

7. (OPTIONAL) If you have a file compare tool handy, compare the contents of the stomp preset you saved with the full preset you were working with (they're XML), and note the following:
a) The contents of the files are identical, except for the GUID field, which I assume is a unique identifier for each preset.
b) The stomp preset has the file extension "at4m", and the full preset has "at4p", like all other stomp and preset files respectively.
c) However, inside the files, the Format field for both is "at4m". (Obviously, since the files are identical except for their GUIDs.) That's wrong, all other full preset files have 'at3p" in their Format field, same as their file extension.

I suspect that loading that as a full preset gives you something like the defaults because stomp presets have almost no data in common with full presets, so when you load it, nothing gets changed from the default settings.


When I reported this bug, I suggested that "if you interleave saving stomp and entire presets, the stomp will overwrite the whole amp/stomps/rack preset", and that turns out to be exactly true. I'm not sure what IK thought they tested, but the exact sequence of steps I suggested causes the exact problem I reported, every single time, on my system.

Do you see this behavior? If not, can anyone suggest anything that might be causing it on my system and not others?
Last edited by dwozzle on Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Anybody try those steps?

If it seems daunting, the file comparison part is completely optional, just lets you see what actually happened to the preset file.

Just do the other (simple) steps and it'll be obvious whether the bug happened or not, right from the Amplitube UI.

Really curious if this is something idiosyncratic about my install, or if it happens to everyone.

Thanks.

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Another user on the IK forums confirmed this bug, following the steps outline above. I'm on Windows, they're on a Mac, so it appears to affect both platforms.

Not to be overly dramatic, but THIS IS A DATA DESTROYING BUG, SO BE CAREFUL.

Unless you're testing for this, AVOID THE SEQUENCE OF ACTIONS GIVEN ABOVE, OR YOUR PRESET WILL BE CORRUPTED.

I've sent these steps to IK support in the ticket I field a bit ago, so I assume a fix will be available when they've had a chance to work through the problem and test a patch for it.

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Can you send me your preset file as well as a screenshot of whatever is supposed to load? Happy to try and troubleshoot. Although no affiliation to IK.

Hope I can help or clarify things for you,
Kevin

Edit: So looking at this further....

I can tell you that I tried to reproduce the issue and had no success. I am not sure what you are going on about with the file formats either as I don't really seem to see it.

Keep in mind a couple things:

a) XML is basically gibberish. What I mean by that is that XML means different things in each and every program it's used in. You can use XML to render website data or application data in this case. It is an insanely powerful language but you are not going to be able to interrupt every single line of IK's code.

So take this example:
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I can assume that AmpA corresponds to amp A inside the program and _MesaDualRectifier is the tag for the dual rectifier amp so knowing these things I can actually program presets without using the program.

b) Here's where the format is displayed for me
Image


Long story short, can you attach the XML file?

-Kevin
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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Hi Kevin, I appreciate you stepping in here.

Longer story even shorter, did you try the exact steps I provided? Never mind the XML file comparison part, just load a preset (one you don't care about), save a stomp preset, then click the Save button in the top bar and save your full preset.

To quote myself:
At this point, everything looks ok, but it's not. The contents of the FULL preset file has been replaced by the contents of the STOMP preset you just saved. You don't hear anything different, because you haven't tried to load that full preset file yet. To see the problem...
6. Load a different full preset, then reload the one you were working with. Easiest way to do that is to click the Up arrow in the full presets dropdown, then the Down arrow.

What you see looks like the default preset, not the one you were just working with. (For me, that's the American Clean Tube 1 amp, no stomps or rack fx, not sure if that's always the same on all systems.) Your full preset file has been corrupted.
Did you follow those steps?
If you did, did something different happen?

It's not a question of what originally was or is currently in my particular full preset or stomp files, so there's no point in sending them, and there's no need for screen shots. Just do as I've said, a normal natural sequence of actions, and your full preset file gets replaced by the contents of the stomp preset. When you load it again, you get the default preset, because AT is trying to load a full preset, but that's not what the file contains any more.


Just for the record, I'm a programmer professionally, and I'm well aware of what XML is and what it can be used for. I've written many programs that read and write XML. That's why I have an XML-aware file comparison tool, and can see the innards of what happened to the file. Saying it's "gibberish" is inaccurate and misleading, and you're not really saying that, in spite of using that word.

You don't need to pay attention to any of that stuff. Just follow the steps, and watch what happens in the Amplitube UI.

I was just trying to get across a simple fact: 99% of your FULL preset file has been replaced by the contents of the STOMP preset you last saved. It won't load as a full preset, because it doesn't contain that type of data any more, so you get the defaults.

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Ive seen this kind of thing before. Its usually because someone has dev tools and weird dlls on their machine.

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Hmmm, so because I have the tools to see the problem in detail, that causes the bug? NOT.

FWIW, I don't do VST development, my programming tools have nothing to do with music stuff. The Mac guy on the IK forums who reproduced it isn't a programmer at all, AFAIK.

Did you actually try those steps? Be careful not to trash a preset you care about, and follow the instructions carefully (they're simple). You can ignore the XML and file format stuff, just do the steps in Amplitube, exactly as described, and see what you see.

More people confirming the problem, or not, would be super helpful.

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As I stated I followed your steps and do not have the bug you are having.

As for XML I am also a professional developer. I just didn't really see a ton of relevance to the XML reference to file type.

The reason I asked for the XML file is that I wanted to see if the preset is still their or if it has actually over written the code. If it's just a coding error you might be able to revive your presets by editing the XML directly.

Just wondering since you didn't state you've done this. But have you wiped all the traces of amplitube and then tried doing a reinstall? If the DLLs are bad this should clear them.
Win 7 | Dual Xeon x5680 | 48 GB RAM | Saffire Pro 40 | Yamaha HS50 monitors |Cubase 8.5 Pro|
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Kevin DiGennaro

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OK Kevin, here you go, and apologies if I seemed short with you.

I'm not sure what you expect to see in the files, other than what I've said, but I've attached a zip with both:
- 'Cleanish but fat 2 ERASE.at4p' was originally a full preset, but is now corrupted
- 'ERASE.at4m' is the 7-band stomp EQ preset I saved right before saving the included full preset, and whose contents the full preset file now contains (except for the GUID field)

Both files have 'ERASE' in their names because I worked with copies I didn't care about when testing this.

Far as screen shots go, don't think they'd tell you anything. Just try loading 'Cleanish but fat 2 ERASE.at4p' as a full Amplitube preset, and I'm sure you'll get the same result I did -- you see the default preset, because it's not a valid full preset any more. I guess I could figure out how to take a video of me doing this, but I'm not sure I'd be allowed to upload something that big.

Let me know if this answers your questions.

And not to be rude, please make sure you followed my steps correctly. Besides you, the only other person I know of who did that reported the same problem.
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I seem to have the bug also. If I do "save as" and use the same preset name it does not happen.

There were also a few other little quirks where a patch didn't save and left the asterisk next to the patch name showing that the original had changed but clicking save did not remove the asterisk when it should have.

Long story short use the "save as" function until they fix it.



To theEmbark use a different patch than the default. Load a pedal and right click the pedal to save the pedal settings with a name. Then clickt he save button next to the preset browser to save the patch. After you leave the patch and come back it should load the Amplitube default patch. Let us know what you see.

I use windows 7.

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