IK Obi
Kreative
And the beat goes on ....
[Eminem voice]Ta dun dun dun dun dun dun [/Eminem Voice]
vintagevibe
A support person did contact me after Obi contacted him. My Hotmail account was hacked a couple of years ago and was sending out spam and apparently IK got some and blocked my address. Anyway... I'm a huge fan of their products but I've had some really bad support experiences with them in the past. But this is a new day so I'm being positive about it.
Thanks for being positive about it! We really do our best to help in every way we can.
cclarry
You know what I think would be REALLY refreshing?
For a company Rep to NOT be political...but just say...
Ya know....you have a valid point...I'll mention that
at the next meeting...
Or some such thing...
Not get all defensive and break out the "Corporate Sword"
and talk about all the things they are GOING to do...rather then
what they SHOULD do, or SHOULD have done...
I would be completely IMPRESSED if a company rep just admitted....yeah...
we just can't do everything right now...sorry about that...
As WRONG as that answer is...AT LEAST IT'S HONEST...
and THAT I can respect...I may not like it...but I'll sure as shootin' respect
it!
Those things should go without saying. Its my job to report what the users are saying, I include it in my daily reports and we have meetings just to discuss these things. We have conversations daily just to talk about it, different forums and where we are and aren't welcome. We talk about how we can improve products from users suggestions. Even if you don't believe me, don't want me around, think I'm just here to spam - my job is the interaction of IK with social media. The forum aspect is a HUGE bonus for me because I love forums.
I MUST speak politically, especially on forums because the users are known to take my words, twist them, re arrange them and over analyze them. I have no other choice. I'm criticized if I do and criticised if I don't. One day people love me and the next they hate me. All I can do is try my best to help, like I did with VintageVibe.
In that case I'd like to convey a story to you. My first experience with IK was the free sampletank. I got it several years ago when I was just starting to want something better than the EDIROL VSC that came with Music Creator 4 (based on Sonar 4). I didn't care for it at all. I didn't like the interface, it was clunky and non-intuitive (honestly, I still feel the same way about ST). but the piano was better than anything else I had, so I used it (I later bought Gigastudio - but that's a fiasco for another story!).
then some time in the future from that point, Musicians Friend started the "Stupid Deal of the Day." At some point they were reducing their inventory of IK ST Expansion kits. Each Expansion kit did not require the full version of ST (which I still did not have), they each came with a free version of ST to use with them. They were only $20 each and I picked up about 3 of them, I think. Some strings, I don't remember the 2nd one and some drums.
The drums were what I was really after because at the time I didn't have a drum program and sonar's answer to that was Session Drummer (original) for Sonar 4. So the only drum sounds I really had were in the Edirol VSC (GM Softsynth). The drums I got were mostly audio loops and since I didn't have a sequencer like Fruity Loops or Ableton, I wasn't able to use the drum loops effectively. I was really after something that I could use Session drummer 1 (which if you don't know or don't remember was basically just a shell for a "sequencer" of MIDI loops, but no synth output itself). The program DID have, however, some drum hits which could be used in this manner. You can set them up in Sampletank and trigger them with MIDI.
The problem, however, was that there was not a note map included with the expansion kit instructions. mostly it should have been GM mapped, but not necessarily. and in fact I was finding that it wasn't completely GM mapped - there were some hits which did not correspond. So I contact IK support and asked them to provide a note map for the drum hits.
I really wish I still had the email exchange I had with this support person from IK. He was rude, unhelpful and in the end (after about 4 or 5 emails back and forth) he eventually told me to map it out myself because the expansion pack was not made for the individual hits anyway - and I should use the loops instead.
Based on that conversation with that support person I had decided I would never buy another IK product!
I did reluctantly accept the free IK products that came with later versions of sonar (amplitube), but refused to purchase anything directly.
I eventually gave in and went for the recent "group buy" where I purchased ARC and got CSR & SampleMoog for free. I have been very happy with those purchases, but I still have not had to contact support at all since that day I was told by support to "map it myself."
I still have reservations about the company all based on the rude support person who talked to me like I was a child crying about something I didn't need. If I do have to contact support, I will be very apprehensive about it and very biased and likely will EXPECT them to belittle and berate me because of the "perceived problem" I think I have.
If you want feedback from customers - take this to the meeting: "clean up the way your people interact with customers or you will not get repeat customers and you will not get the BEST advertising available - word of mouth." Customer "SERVICE" should be exactly that - SERVICE. I cannot stress enough that people want to be valued for the money they are investing in your company and not looked down on for having a problem.