Latest version of HISE breaks existing presets....

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus @Christoph-Hart Yeah there's a bug here that is making plugin parameters and macros together unusable unless you want macros to also be plugin parameters.

[Lindon]

@David-Healey so yes I'm using Macros in the offending project, and like you I DONT want them a plugin params...

[Oli Ullmann]

@David-Healey @Lindon @dannytaurus
Macros are new to me, but I now use them as modulators. So far, I haven't had the problems you've had with this approach. Maybe this approach is something for you. It has the advantage that I can use the macros within the new modulation system.

1. I create a MacroModulator in the GlobalModulatorContainer.
2. In the MacroModulator, I select Macro 1 as the target.
3. I select the MacroModulator as the processorId and MacroValue as the parameterId.
4. To be able to modulate the macro itself, I assign the matrixTargetId.

The user can assign the macros in the finished plug-in as modulators.

[Lindon]

@Oli-Ullmann Sadly - see below I don't think this is flexible enough or fits with my current approach to using macros...

@David-Healey
I might be OK with this solution as I don't actual use or include Macro controls in my interface, so as usual (when will I ever learn?) I'm doing it a bit different to most people....here's an explanation:

First there's a set of Macro Modulation Sources: every one of them is an LFO:

I "just" define these as macros like this in the code:

	const NUM_MACROS = 6;
	reg mpos;
	
	Engine.setFrontendMacros(["LFO1", "LFO2", "LFO3", "LFO4", "LFO5", "LFO6"]);

Each LFO gets a UI to manage the LFO itself..only:

..and the user can thus freely assign/unassign them to any UI widget they like, by right clicking on a widget, here the Voice 1 Pan control:

When they are assigned the UI control looks like this (using LAF):

Its pretty simple but it seems to be upsetting HISE post April 6th....meanwhile when I get some space I will build a recent version of HISE and try your fix....

[Oli Ullmann]

@Lindon
If I understand correctly, your project would actually be very easy to implement with the new modulation system, and you wouldn't even need macros anymore. However, you would have to rebuild your project, of course... It would take some work, but it would make it super easy to add new modulators in future updates, if you wanted to.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding something. :-)

[David Healey]

@Lindon Yeah I'm not using macro modulators in mine. I'm just using the macro knob's as a way to make one knob on the ui control multiple modulator parameters without me having to script it.

[Lindon]

@David-Healey said in Latest version of HISE breaks existing presets....:

@Lindon Yeah I'm not using macro modulators in mine. I'm just using the macro knob's as a way to make one knob on the ui control multiple modulator parameters without me having to script it.

so pretty much the exact opposite of what I'm doing then....that should be enough of a set of test cases to test if any fix was completed.

[Christoph Hart]

Hmm, it appears that there is a pretty big matrix of all combinations of macros / matrix modulation / plugin parameters to be tested manually.

The commit in question was perhaps the worst thing I did in 2025 but there's no way back now so we have to somehow find a method to fix all cases and add some regression checks going forward.

[Lindon]

@Christoph-Hart wel as I say I can send you my project to use for testing - and if not then I can surely test using it...

[Lindon]

@Christoph-Hart So how are we going? Is this fixed by any chance? Im stuck on an April 2025 release until it is....

[David Healey]

@Lindon Not fixed yet as far as I can tell.

[Lindon]

@David-Healey bummer...

[Lindon]

@Christoph-Hart said in Latest version of HISE breaks existing presets....:

Hmm, it appears that there is a pretty big matrix of all combinations of macros / matrix modulation / plugin parameters to be tested manually.

The commit in question was perhaps the worst thing I did in 2025 but there's no way back now so we have to somehow find a method to fix all cases and add some regression checks going forward.

So still looking for this to get fixed, any chance?

[Lindon]

@Lindon Ok well all that new documentation looks really lovely, but until this is fixed I cant move to any recent version of HISE to avail myself of all its Claude based wonder.... I have to stay on a pre-april 2025 version of HISE to support one of the major projects in the catalogue.

What can I do to help get this kick started?

[JulesV]

Honestly, I experienced the same problem. Presets and saved settings from older projects don't load in the DAW Project with plugins compiled using the current HISE.

I think HISE's backward compatibility has been broken since this new modulation system was added. I have to stay on the January 2025 commit for now.

[Christoph Hart]

Guys I really need more to work with. Just stating "it breaks older presets" or "it seems to be upsetting HISE" gives me absolutely no idea what to look out for. I get it has something to do with macro modulation and plugin parameters, but it's a shot in the dark until I get more context.

• what does break
• ideally a snippet, if not a DETAILED list to reproduce the setup
• what does break mean? crash? values not restored? weird couplings between UI elements?

Ensuring backwards compatibility is the number one priority of all bug reports, so I'm on it as soon as I get enough info.

[David Healey]

@Christoph-Hart I think this one https://forum.hise.audio/topic/14165/latest-version-of-hise-breaks-existing-presets/26?_=1777890110567

[Christoph Hart]

@David-Healey yes I saw that - the reason for this is that HISE registers all macros as plugin parameters in the backend by default which then loop back to update their value.

It should not affect exported plugins though, but it's definitely a weird glitch that I'll look into. Is this a regression? The backend macro -> plugin parameter connection is ancient (about as old as HISE).

[David Healey]

@Christoph-Hart said in Latest version of HISE breaks existing presets....:

Is this a regression?

Yes it didn't happen in earlier versions. It came in this commit I believe.

[Christoph Hart]

The code that sends the macro value as plugin parameter is already in HISE 4.1.0.

What changed in that commit is that HISE registers a plugin parameter at index 0 for the UI control (basically what the compiled plugin is doing) so before that value was sent out to nirvana (or the DAW if HISE runs as a plugin), but now it loops back to the first UI component that is defined as plugin parameter.

HISE_MACROS_ARE_PLUGIN_PARAMETERS=1

This solves the problem my registering the 8 macro controls as plugin parameters, so changing the first macro just changes the first plugin parameter (=macro) => no op.

So the proper fix would be:

if USE_BACKEND && HISE_MACROS_ARE_PLUGIN_PARAMETERS==0 => don't send the macro value as plugin parameter

if USE_BACKEND && HISE_MACROS_ARE_PLUGIN_PARAMETERS==1 => send it

Note that the compiled plugin is completely unaffected by this. All it would break is the behaviour of HISE to send out macro values as plugin parameter without that flag.