Complaints Department

[ketone]

Build quality seems to be an issue that seriously needs to be delt with an promptly.

 

All of my close I freinds who have purchased electronic instruments in the past 2 years, have had at least one device fail, often on numerous occasions.

 

The most recent failures have been a Focusrite Compounder. This device shipped with only one channel functioning.This device was sent back and another was delivered ,after 2 days the power supply failed. After receiving another unit. it to failed-something to do with the outputs.This device was sent back, after which it was decided to buy a LA Audio Tubescence Tube Compressor.......all is sweet now.

 

A few months back my mates new Novation SupaNova arrived, after 3 days it crapped itself. Another unit was shipped an all has been cool so far.

 

A Kawai K5000 was purchased, the headfone output an the main outs for some reason only played in mono. This unit was sent back ,no probs with ne device.

 

Kurzweil K2000 Rack mounts- I convinced 2 mates to buy one each as a main sampler. Both were shipped the same day. After a week, one units logic board died and required replacement. Seems ok to this day as far as I know. The other device lasted about six months and the FX chip failed.

 

My Kurzweil K2500S suffered a recurring prollem where the front panel switches would fail after several months of button pushing. Failure rate -4-5 times same problem. hmmm.

 

So as u can see ,my report clearly shows (in my part of the world at least) that we can expect to have a faulty device shipped nearly everytime we purchase more than one bit of gear at a time.

 

Situations are often made more intolerable when distributors of these devices refuse to exchange the device for a completely different one. Often is the case where the distributor leaves us in limbo while they take a look at the unit and repair it and send it back at their convienience. Matters like this ,I believe should be rectified immediately. If a new device is shipped and it too fails ,there is something definately something to be concerened about.

 

Im praying my Allen&Heath GS3000 32/8 and my E-MU E4XT Ultra ships in a fault free state and remains trouble free :-)

 

ketone

[makaipesteredmystic.com]

Touche`....

I making my living getting PCs to work with other computer platforms(mainly midrange systems)and peripherals.

I suppose Ive become a bit cynical.

 

 

D Makai

[THE MIX FIX]

Not that is of any consolation, but I remember a guy I knew who worked in an consumer electronics distribution warehouse/wholesale outlet saying that approximately 20% of ALL electronics shipped are defective.

 

So it's not just you guys.

 

If you get your gear to work first time, everytime, you are just one of the "lucky" 80%.

 

MAYBE someday quality control, and shipping procedures will be better, but if you believe that, I have some swamp land in Florida (like the stuff I sold to Craig http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif ) and the deed to a bridge I'd like to sell you.

 

http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

 

------------------

Bob.

[Guest]

Got ProTools 24Mix. Sent in the registration. Got back the free mix pack that requires a FLOPPY-based registration verification.

 

Called Digidesign. Said, "Uh, like who in their right mind bothers to order a G4 with a *^&*ing floppy these days?"

 

Answer: "You if you wanna run this software." Click... They were that rude. (and I didn't really say *^&*ing. Really there was no excuse) Woah, who hired that guy? The Digidesign crew have been nothing but polite since day one over there. Who hired this phone support guy?

 

Why not just create a friggin' dongle for the thing and really revert to the stone age?

 

Borrowed a super disk and got the plug-ins working. What a pain. They work great though.

 

Does it have to be this much of a hassle? Real pirates will hack their way past that lame-ass stuff in no time. Legitimate users get hosed. Not cool.

[Anderton]

Originally posted by bfury@romp.com:

Does it have to be this much of a hassle? Real pirates will hack their way past that lame-ass stuff in no time. Legitimate users get hosed. Not cool.

 

 

That's the exact problem - copy protection's main inconvenience is to legitimate users. Yet non-copyprotected software seems to be ripped off more. I agree the floppy-based protection seems anachronistic, but I'm sure it's because you can't write to a CD. I don't see why Digi doesn't at least let you use the software for a couple weeks while you do the challenge/response routine. That way you can use the software immediately, and before the time is up, issue the response to unlock it.

[Guest]

I'll just note that Autodesk, the main player in the drafting field, allows you to use it software Autocad for 30 days before you have to put in a registration code. This is a program that lists for 3500$... Of course, the last time I needed to register a new copy, it took about 30-45 minutes for the reply email with the registration code to show up....

[geireffect.net.au]

Installing pulsar 2 (mac).

took 2 days of frustration until I discovered they put an alias to a wrong version of pulsar on the desktop http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/mad.gif

 

plus a few hundred other bugs

 

another favorite: Ensoniq ASR-10 "ERROR 127 REBOOT?" ( you had no choice but to give it the 1 finger salute...

[Guest]

> I also saw what happened when Passport dropped the copy protection on Master Tracks Pro and Alchemy; it was one of the main factors in killing the company.<

 

I disagree. Passport failed because of lame customer service and even worse tech support. Did you happen to see my article on www.prorec.com? One of the points I made is that copy protection has not hurt Cakewalk, PG Music, or Microsoft; they are the leaders in their respective fields! I'll add that copy protection can even lead to fewer sales, since I am not the only person who refuses to buy protected software.

 

--Ethan

 

 

[This message has been edited by ethan@ethanwiner.com (edited 06-12-2000).]

[Anderton]

Originally posted by ethan@ethanwiner.com:

> I also saw what happened when Passport dropped the copy protection on Master Tracks Pro and Alchemy; it was one of the main factors in killing the company.<

 

I disagree. Passport failed because of lame customer service and even worse tech support. Did you happen to see my article on www.prorec.com? One of the points I made is that copy protection has not hurt Cakewalk, PG Music, or Microsoft; they are the leaders in their respective fields! I'll add that copy protection can even lead to fewer sales, since I am not the only person who refuses to buy protected software.

 

--Ethan

 

The Passport thing is a chicken-and-egg question - once the revenue started drying up, the first thing to go is tech support, customer education, etc. The biggest problem with Alchemy was that it had an admittedly small potential market, and they needed to sell copies to make it worth producing. I can tell you of a sampler company that shall go nameless that used Alchemy for sound design, and had 20 pirated copies on various desktops. I've known some of the people who were involved in Passport, and all I can say is, there was a direct, immediate correlation between a huge drop sales with the removal of copy protection. You are right, there were other problems, but if your sales evaporates more or less overnight, you aren't going to fix the other problems.

 

Has taking off copy protection not hurt Cakewalk? They know they've lost sales to copying. Their strategy is to keep the update stream flowing, so people with copied software are always one step behind the "latest and greatest." More power to them! But don't say the lack of copy protection hasn't hurt Cakewalk; it simply hasn't killed them.

 

As to Microsoft, a significant amount of their revenue comes from having their OS on just about every Intel-based machine that leaves a factory. Compaq can't exactly rip off a few million copies of Windows without being noticed .

 

This doesn't mean that copy protection doesn't suck, that I haven't been mightily inconvenienced by it, or that I embrace it. As noted, only honest users are inconvenienced by copy protection. But there is no doubt that piracy can make the difference between life and death with marginal companies. When Bo Tomyln's DX7 patches started showing up on disks that were passed out for free by music stores when they sold a DX7, the handwriting was on the wall for his ability to produce patches. Ditto the DPM disks I did for Peavey: after the first shipment was sold, that was it. People assumed that once they were out there, they could be copied, traded, whatever. Did I ever spend the time to do another set of disks? Hell no.

 

Your attitude is revealed by saying "you refuse to BUY copy-protected software." See, you BUY software, so YOU'RE not the problem! And as a BUYER of software, copy protection ticks you off, as it should, because you're having to deal with the problems caused by people other than you. I don't have an answer; if everyone was like you, we wouldn't have a problem. But piracy does hurt companies, even if it only means that they don't have the extra bucks to hire additional tech support people. I don't have an answer. I wish I did (even more so when I'm in the middle of a hot editing session and Wavelab wants me to go find the CD and reauthorize it). Grrrr....

[Anderton]

Originally posted by geir@effect.net.au:

Installing pulsar 2 (mac).

took 2 days of frustration until I discovered they put an alias to a wrong version of pulsar on the desktop

 

Once you got it installed, how did it work for you? I'm about to try it with Windows.

[Guest]

Craig,

 

Thanks for the insightful reply. I just have one or two points to address.

 

> Has taking off copy protection not hurt Cakewalk? They know they've lost sales to copying. Their strategy is to keep the update stream flowing, so people with copied software are always one step behind the "latest and greatest."<

 

Another BIG factor in Cakewalk's favor is they price their products reasonably. I think that most folks want to do the right thing, and will buy programs if they can afford them. The real growth today is at the low end, now that $3000 buys what cost half a million only ten years ago! But too many companies can't see that, and still ask $600 for a single plug-in.

 

> Your attitude is revealed by saying "you refuse to BUY copy-protected software." See, you BUY software, so YOU'RE not the problem! ... But piracy does hurt companies, even if it only means that they don't have the extra bucks to hire additional tech support people.<

 

Yes, I buy software. But most folks who pirate software wouldn't have bought it anyway. That's why I dispute that piracy is as harmful as Steinberg et al. claim. If you get a chance, read my Copy Protection article on www.prorec.com. One of the company reps I interviewed is Todd Souvignier, Marketing Director of Arboretum Systems (Hyperprism, Ray Gun), and he made the point, "[We] got rid of the key disks and dongles in one fell swoop last fall. Surprise! Our product sales actually increased. Not only that, our tech support calls were cut by two-thirds, and our cost of product manufacture was cut in half."

 

--Ethan

[geireffect.net.au]

Originally posted by Anderton:

Once you got it installed, how did it work for you? I'm about to try it with Windows.

 

sorry about the late reply, but you i've had a few 72 hour lock up's in the studio...

 

works ok...BUT...

inmyhumbleknownothingfarmeropinion, VERY good sounding converters, about the synths...i personally prefer hardware to s-ware synths,

the moog softsynth sucks (no attack) , peavey was the only other company that managed to come up with something as "tight"

version 2 has very low latency, ergo sum:

for someone that wants it all in one turnkey solution, yeah pretty good, but it aint protools mix+, and it is a jack of all trades but master of none, but then again the price is more than pretty good.

if you want to get some more details,just post me, and i'll spill the beans.

(have to go, I am typing this with 1 hand, putting my daughter to sleep with the other one...)

respect

geir

[dave.astonbeer.com]

No documentation for Sound Diver software for the POD..... the "Electronic Manual" sucks !!!!

[jso6mailcity.com]

If not for the 1/4 price of an assembled PC clone against a G4 what about the PLUG and PRAY concept of Windows.

A FATAL ERROR OCCURREd at %%%^^22222EQMAG.com

ILLegal error at $$4556tt.0006677 (GRRR..)

just run setup.exe, follow the procedure and wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, I guess I have to reset.

 

Let's kill the computer music & recording thing and go back to tapes, keep it there, that way a million pirateers will not have access to the bootleg Eminem?*** concert(F***) last week from Napster

Better yet, let's ban recording and keep music as a performing art so if you want to hear an artist, we go to his shows and pay him/her the fees for the musicians and the engineers. That way music will always be special and never one to be unimportant or overlooked.

Man!!! the evil that technology does?!!!

[Anderton]

Here's my computer complaint: I must have downloaded about 50 Megabytes in updates over the last couple of weeks (at 28.8, but that's another story). These 10-19 MB downloads are fine for the DSL-ready, but for dial up folks, they're a pain in the butt. I'd rather SUBSCRIBE to an update service, like pay $75 for the next five major updates to a product, which would be sent to me on CD-ROM. Hey -- wouldn't this also help reduce piracy?

[Alndln]

I agree that copy protection hurts legitimate users most,but I often wonder why some company's seem to go out of their way to leave themselves open to it,for instance,I went to the local Guitar center and in the middle of the room they had a stack of Waves demo CD's that not only had demos of all their plugins(mac/Pc)but the full versions with the option to register!Now the Pirates don't even have to download anything,they just pick up their entire product line for free.Steinberg also amazes me in that if you have cracking talents all you have to do is download an updated version and go to work.This I feel is more of an insult to legitimate users.

[Guest]

I guess I'm a little tired of all the complaining about various bands/types of music I see on this board and others of it's ilk. I think we can all learn a lot about production/hooks etc from music like N' Sync or whoever. Also the Beatles and Sinatra and the Jackson 5 were all 'teeny bopper' music at one time.

[Pro Jules]

Plug in delays on Live drums makes pro tools session a dread bummer as it totaly monkeys around with the phase relationships that were recorded.

Jules

[trick fall]

My two gripes are: sucky headphones and my Marshall JTM series amplifier (the lower end tube models) I urge anyone to never buy one of these Marshalls, they sound great, but they constantly crap out and I know I'm not the only one with this problem, these amps were not spec'd properly. Also I have gone through about four pairs of headphones in the last year, usually in the 80 to 120 dollar range, various models and such.

[Anderton]

Another complaint: why don't more programs have remappable keyboard equivalents (Microsoft is very good about this, music companies aren't)? If you switch from one sequencer to another, you should be able to use the same keyboard equivalents you've been using for years.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Anderton:

Another complaint: why don't more programs have remappable keyboard equivalents (Microsoft is very good about this, music companies aren't)?B]

 

Hi Craig,

 

I don't know about the PC but Cubase VST for Mac has this facility where you can assign whatever keys (or key combinations) to do all things possible. I have mapped my F1-F12 keys (and a lot of others) to do a number of useful things. One nice consequence is that as my working habits change so does my key commands (but only if I so wish)!

 

Best regards,

 

Mats Nermark