stratman_dup1 Posted January 30, 2001 Share Posted January 30, 2001 O.K. folks, get ready for a Fostex customer support rant. I recently purchased a VF-16 and have done some tracking on it and have so far been very pleased with the results. The VF-16 results anyway, some of my mic placement decisions have left a little to be desired. So my problem isn't with the unit but with Fostex itself. I am beginning to see how customer support is going to be AFTER you buy the unit. It has recently been announced that they are going to upgrade the OS. O.K. Great, only there is only one upgrade being done out of many which could improve feature set and ease of use. Now, add to that the ONLY way for current VF-16 owners to get the upgrade is to SEND THEIR UNIT BACK TO FOSTEX!!! Sorry if you in the middle of a project you need to make cash, guess you're just SOL!!! Lose the project or never get an upgrade. There is no download available (according to Harmony Central file size is only 388 KB) , No plans to make a download availabe!!!! And even if their were a download available the only way to import it would be with an SCSI equipped zip disk. Too bad if you don't own one and have no other nead for one, you just have to buy one IF we decide to make this option available to you in the first place. This comes straight from Fostex Tech Support btw. What kinda happy HORSES**T is this anyway. I tell ya what, Fostex shure as HELL ain't going to be getting much word of mouth sales this way. Signed TICKED THE F**K OFF. sorry for the rant but if you didn't notice, I'm REALLY po'd about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted January 30, 2001 Share Posted January 30, 2001 I think that if Fostex could deal with the upgrade solely by posting it online, they would. Who wants the hassle of accepting, then shipping back, all those units - unless they charge a lot for the upgrade and regard it as a profit center? My guess is that some of the mods might require a hardware update in order to function. If you bought the unit from a local dealer with whom you have a good relationship, you could probably wrangle a loaner. The only other option I can think of is having them do the update while you're on vacation... This isn't to defend Fostex, based on your post it's hard to know the particulars of the situation, and maybe there's more to this than meets the eye. But at least they make an upgrade available, right? Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted January 30, 2001 Share Posted January 30, 2001 Sheeeeesh.... Yamaha has had 3 OS upgrades to the AW4416 since its release just 4 months ago, and they both mailed CD's to registered owners AND made them available for download. That would be a major oversight on Fostex's part if they had to do all upgrades via hardware... geez. Sorry to hear that. --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted January 30, 2001 Author Share Posted January 30, 2001 Originally posted by Lee Flier: Sheeeeesh.... Yamaha has had 3 OS upgrades to the AW4416 since its release just 4 months ago, and they both mailed CD's to registered owners AND made them available for download. That would be a major oversight on Fostex's part if they had to do all upgrades via hardware... geez. Sorry to hear that. --Lee Yeah, it's not too swift of them. Heck, a buddy of mine has a 1680 and all he has to do to upgrade OS is download a midi file!! Oh, Craig, there is one other option (maybe) that in my ranting I forgot to mention which is SLIGHTLY easier to swallow. You can s-mail them a blank zip disk and they will put file on it and s-mail back to you. So that pretty much kills the HARDWARE possabilities. I say maybe because others at the VF-16 site have more recently been told that the only way to get upgrade is to s-mail the unit back to them. And even if this is true, that means I have to go buy a dedicated piece of hardware to serve no other purpose than to upgrade OS. If I had that kind of cash to spend I'd have gotten the new Yamaha unit in the first place!! One of the main selling points of the VF-16 is the comparitively lower price. But did I really save anything if i have to go buy MORE gear that will serve absolutely no purpose other than to upgrade. I do appreciate the fact that Fostex actually is coming out with an upgrade, I had doubts that they would. But good lord they could have done it in a much more customer friendly way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted January 30, 2001 Author Share Posted January 30, 2001 Wow, I think I need to use the spelling checker just a little more often. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted January 30, 2001 Share Posted January 30, 2001 >>You can s-mail them a blank zip disk and they will put file on it and s-mail back to you. So that pretty much kills the HARDWARE possabilities.<< Then it sure seems they could do it on CD...although I guess finding a SCSI CD drive would be about as hard as finding a SCSI ZIP drive. I like the idea of updating via Standard MIDI File, assuming there are MIDI ports. Alesis does this for the M20 recorders and it works just fine. Given the 388K file size, this seems like it would make a lot of sense. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted January 30, 2001 Share Posted January 30, 2001 Hey Stratman: Sorry to hear about the update issues. Just a thought, but do you know ANYONE with a SCSI ZIP drive you could borrow to do the upgrade? Maybe a local mom and pop computer store could be pursuaded to let you use on in their store for a few minutes and $10 or something... If not, you might want to get one anyway. Yeah, I know cash is often short and all, but couldn't you also use it to back up files? Or does the Fostex have a CD drive for that? Sheeesh, and we Yamaha owners thought WE had it bad! Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html email: pokeefe777@msn.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted January 31, 2001 Author Share Posted January 31, 2001 Well, that's the funny thing Phil, the update is to make the VF-16 compatible to CD-R for backup purposes only. so even if you get the update you can only back up to CD-R, not transfer update files from it. Right now you can only back up to Zip and Jazz drives formatted by VF-16. They say you can back up to an outboard hard disk via SCSI but most people over at VF-16 user group seem to be having trouble with this. Some people have pulled it off though. Seems to me this would be the way to go, but you'd still have to have a zip disk for upgrade purposes. Yes, I could use a zip disk for backup purposes but this would be much more complicated than backing up to CD-R or hard drive due to the file sizes involved. I would have to backup to multiple zip disks for one song in many cases. And those darn zip disks aren't too cheap either!! I did find out today a buddy of mine has a zip disk I can borrow so that's a big load off my mind but not everybody does so I still think this is something Fostex NEEDS to rectify. Phil W. This message has been edited by Stratman on 01-31-2001 at 11:12 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 23, 2001 Share Posted February 23, 2001 The last time I sent something to Fostex [an X-28 4-Trac], It took 18 WEEKS to get it back!!! All this for a minor repair of the heads. I like their products, but I will NEVER send anything else to them. By the way, Fostex does not use 'factory authorized repair' facilities. ALL authorized repairs MUST be performed at the factory.What a joke! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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