Sound Mill X3 - Migration Procedure

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Migration Steps

By following the sequence below, the actual migration work steps could be completed in about 60 minutes by someone with a good working knowledge of Windows regarding installing programs, creating folders and copying files with Windows Explorer. Time will vary if you have a large number of Sound Lists to migrate.

• Decide if you want to keep V2 installed and Run V2 and X3 Side by Side (see section below).
• To migrate a Sound List, the first step is open it and save it with the latest release of V2 (V.r 2.29). If you don't have 2.29 installed, the installer is on the Old Versions Download page.

1. V2 Customers should review and fully understand the Sound Mill X3 - Upgrade Decision Criteria. The Upgrade Administrative procedure is on that page.
2. BEFORE YOU UNINSTALL V2 , perform these steps.
• For every Sound List that you want to carry forward to X3, open the file with V2 and click File > Save . This will ensure the file has all the latest V2 adjustments. Make sure you have the latest release of V2 installed (V.r 2.29) for this step.
• Perform the steps in the Preparation tasks section below. You can skip this step if you plan to Run V2 and X3 Side by Side.
3. Download the Sound Mill X3 Migration Tool. Unzip the files to a temporary folder (anywhere). You can delete the folder after migration is complete.
4. Uninstall Sound Mill V2. Skip this step if you plan to Run V2 and X3 Side by Side.
5. Download and install Sound Mill X3 from the Sound Mill Download page.
6. Start Sound Mill X3 . Activate it, then close the program. After this step, both versions (V2, X3) will have their own program settings file and a separate User Documents folders. The V2 User Documents folder remains " Sound Mill ". The X3 folder is " Sound Mill X3 ".
7. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your V2 User Documents folder and copy the V2 Sound Lists to the X3 User Documents folder. (Don't move them, copy them so that you retain an unaltered copy of all your V2 work).
8. With Sound Mill X3 closed, perform Program Settings Migration (via one click in X3 Migration Tool).
9. Now Migrate V2 Sound Lists if desired. Perform Sound List Migration for every V2 Sound List that you copied to the X3 User Documents folder. This is done via drag and drop of the Sound List into the X3 Migration Tool. This cleans up some old DirectX stuff and preps the file for X3.
10. Now you can start Sound Mill X3 . For any Sound Lists files you migrated, click File > Open (or drag and drop it) and run Tools > Sound List Validation Check to look for any detected errors.
11. Skip this step if you do not use the Output Groups feature in your Sound Lists.
    Output Groups and Devices setup has changed slightly in X3 and is reset when you first open X3. Customers using the Output Groups feature will need to reconfigure the Groups and Devices. See the Groups and Devices Setup section below .
12. Fini. Migration is complete. We hope you enjoy Sound Mill X3 . If you are done with the X3 Migration Tool, you can delete that folder.

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Preparation Tasks

You can skip these Tasks if you plan to Run V2 and X3 Side by Side.

Before you uninstall V2, it would be prudent to perform these tasks in the event that you encounter any migration problems.

• Save a Sound List Design Report - For any key Sound Lists you could save a Design Report (from Tools menu) in case it can't be migrated and you need to re-create it. If you have a lot of Sound Lists, you could always skip this step. Then if your having problems Revert Back to V2 (as described below) to save reports.
• Save Screen Shots of Your Current V2 Settings - The V2 Program Settings should migrate ok with the Migration Tool but as a precaution, you could save screen shots of all the V2 Options tabs. Start V2, open the Options dialog and take a screen shot (Ctrl+Print Screen) of every tab. Paste the screen shot into WordPad or another rich text editor, then save it.
  
  Also make a note of any settings that are checked in the Behavior menus of the Sound List Editor , Automator and Easy Player.

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Running V2 and X3 Side by Side

Yes, you could run V2 and X3 Side by Side on the same computer and they won't interfere with each other, but this was not a design objective and is NOT a supported configuration. 'Not a supported configuration' means we will not do any further development to enhance this installation scenario. That said, it seems to work fine in our testing. And there are a couple "Things to know" listed below. We only did limited testing of this so there may be a hidden gotcha we did not uncover.

This is actually a good way to try out X3 to see if you like it. If you decide at some point that it doesn't meet your needs, you can just uninstall X3 and continue with V2 as usual. And if you decide at some point that you no longer need V2, you can uninstall it at any time.

How to do this

• Keep V2 installed and just install X3.
• Both versions: 1) Are installed in separate "Program Files" folders; 2) have their own program settings file and 3) have separate User Documents folders. The V2 User Documents folder remains " Sound Mill ". The X3 folder is " Sound Mill X3 ".
• Keep the V2 and X3 Sound List files separated in their respective User Documents folders or you'll become confused about which file was created with which program version.

Things to know

• The X3 installer defaults is to locate the program in a "Program Files/... / Sound Mill X3 " folder. You can change the destination if you want, but DO NOT place it in the same folder with the V2 program.
• The Sound List file extension (".SLT") gets associated to Sound Mill X3 when it is installed. That means when you double click on an SLT file in Windows Explorer, it will start Sound Mill X3 and not Sound Mill V2. This is not a problem but something to be aware of.
• A Sound List created with X3 cannot be opened by V2. It will probably just throw an error exception.
• Both versions must reside on the same computer because they will share the same activation code.
• If you uncover another issue, please report it to Support. We may be able to offer a work-around.
• You can have X3 and V2 open (running) at the same time. This may be helpful while you are migrating Sound Lists to X3.

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Changes to Output Groups and Devices Setup

Customers who do not use Output Groups can ignore this section.

Output Groups setup has changed slightly but the functional result is the same. You can also now use compressed formats for Outputs (MP3 and WMV) thereby saving a lot of disk space. The new Windows Audio driver replaces the DirectX driver for Outputs. This section summarizes the setup changes.

• Select the Audio Driver - In the Play Modifiers panel, you will need to set the Audio Driver to Windows Audio driver for each Sound Item that will use an Output Group. You also need to check the Apply Output Group checkbox. You can use Tools > Mass Updates to change many Sound Items at once. (see this Help page for more info )
• Devices and Output Groups Setup - The V2 Devices were based on the DirectX devices. So when you migrate, the Device definitions will be reset automatically for the new driver. This Device reset will likely require some edits to the existing Output Groups. We recommend you just do an Output Groups > Reset , then reconfigure the groups according to the new Device definitions. (see this Help page for more info )
• FYI, a few menus related to Output Groups and Devices were removed as no longer applicable.

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Procedure to Revert Back to V2

If you are not happy with X3 for whatever reason and want to revert back to V2, it is a simple process:

1. Uninstall Sound Mill X3 .
2. Delete any Sound Lists you saved with X3. You can't open these with V2. These should all be in the " Sound Mill X3 "User Documents folder.
3. Reinstall Sound Mill V2 and start the program. You may need to reactivate. (your V2 settings should still be intact)

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FAQ - Migration Frequently Asked Questions

Question: I got an error opening a V2 Sound List with X3. What is wrong?

Answer: V2 Sound Lists need to be migrated to open them with X3.
- You first Open it and Save it with the latest version V2.29.
- Then migrate it with the X3 Migration Tool.
If you did those tasks and X3 still can't open it, it may be one of the files that is unable to be migrated. Sound List Migration is not guarenteed.

Question: Is Sound List migration to X3 guarenteed?

Answer: All of the Sound Lists we tested for migration were successfully migrated to X3. That said, migration cannot be 100% guarentee. It is somewhat at the mercy of the .Net deserializer (see next question). We apoligize in advance if you find a file that will not migrate.

Even if the Migration Tool says the file was successfully migrated, you won't know until you actually try to open it with Sound Mill X3 . If a file fails migration, X3 will throw an error similar to this when you try to open it.
"There are too many changes. File may be corrupted,..."

Question: Why is migration required?

Answer: Warning, Tech Gorp Ahead: V2 Settings and Sound Lists saved to files contain references to DirectX objects. In X3, the DirectX structure definitions have been removed. So when X3 opens a V2 file, it cannot resolve the DirectX objects contained in the file. The .Net deserializer gets confused and it is pre-programmed by Microsoft to give up after it finds a certian number of reference errors that it can't resolve. It then fails to reconstitute the file and throws an error message. The Migration Tool sets the DirectX objects to a null value, effectively removing the object content but not the reference.

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October 25, 2023