Recovering and reproducing Native Instruments FM7 Sounds in FM8

I have hell lots of old Ableton Live Sets, that really rock - sadly they were made up mostly by Native Instruments FM7 and Absynth 3. Problem: when you open up your old Sets, Ableton does not find the right Instrument to use, since FM8 and Absynth 3 are not backwards compatible (at least when it comes to loading the settings via program change MIDI messages).

See the posting about Absynth for hans-on updating old settings, this posting deals with the FM7 and FM8.

FM7 and FM8 sounds still don't sound 100% the same (see the Discussion in the Native Instruments Forum) but  you should definitely try how your presets sound in FM8, since the FM engine has been improved a lot. For similar results, there are some pointers on how to come quite close:

In most cases the FM7 presets come closer to the original if you switch off the "high resolution mode". If it still sounds a bit to harsh, sharp or noisy try reducing brightness using the FM8 easy edit section...

Recovering/ updating your songs and sequences from FM7 to FM8 is possible - browsing through the presets in FM8 (there is a part in the library where you can switch to the FM7 Presets) i found the sound I was searching for after about 15minutes of listening through all programs (though it sounded less lo-fi than intended). Before you freak out by having to listen through all the presets and finding your original sounds, i made a list of all the mappings. 

Mapping of FM7 Program Settings to FM8

Sources: synthmania and more...

*LIBRARY 1-32*

1 Exciting

2 Six-String

3 BEF+HPF Pad

4 Industrial Bells

5 Wurlitzerich

6 Chord Pad

7 Sparkle

8 MW Boost

9 Tronflute

10 Warm Atmos

11 Stand alone

12 GrowlBrass

13 Punchy Percsynth

14 Eurosynth

15 Spacepark

16 Glassy E-Piano

17 D'n'B

18 Club Registers

19 DX-Intro

20 Chugg in time

21 Glass Strings

22 Soft Strings

23 Native Percussion

24 Warm FM Brass

25 Darkness Soundtrack

26 Minimal Rhythm

27 Science Friction

28 Stereo Bells

29 Andromedar

30 Axe

31 Sync Monster

32 * Ayuasca *

*LIBRARY 33-64*

33 Ice Galaxy

34 Atmo Sweep

35 Feedpad

36 S.N.A.F.U.

37 Detune Pad

38 Big Swell

39 Juchhe'

40 Pleides

41 Glasshouse

42 A&D Pad

43 Motions MW

44 Phasing Pad

45 Saw Pad

46 Wave Choir

47 Hopping Brass

48 Mr.Kyrie

49 VLF

50 Majesty

51 Crystal

52 Aura

53 Didgeridoos on Dope

54 Saw Ensemble

55 I Quantus

56 Harmonic Union

57 Once upon a time...

58 Darknessynth

59 Solaris

60 Zivago

61 30sc Filter Sweep

62 Harmonic Flyght

63 Vibrations

64 Vocospace