I will once again reiterate that neither of you have any definitive insight into the workings of the company, their financials or resources. I don't really think you understand what logic is cclarry. You seem to think it means "supporting a product even at the possible risk of going out of business" because it's the "right thing to do." How would you feel about this if, instead of diverting their time and resources to a profit making venture, they had plowed everything into a 64-bit Sampletank at a time when doing so was a huge risk, and 100 people lost their jobs as a result? Again this is all hypothetical and I have no more objective insight into the facts surrounding their decision than you do, but at least I'm acknowledging the possibility instead of running off at the mouth with a bunch of caustic vitriol based upon a scenario I have no proof of.
 
Of course they were going to continue to sell Sampletank 2 in the meantime. It was a product they'd invested heavily in. And if people were happy with buying a quality 32-bit sample workstation (as many people continue to work quite happily in 32-bit even to this day) on sale, then what does that have to do with you?
 
"They managed to "squeeze out" the resources for updated to Amplitube (their BIGGEST seller) and
T-Racks (their second BIGGEST seller) during that time, and free of charge.  But they didn't have 
the "resources" to update SampleTank (3rd on the list) because of their financial situation???"
 
Again, you're mistaking yourself for someone who has access to the kind of internal facts and figures which would qualify you to make such statements with confidence. How do you know that sales of Amplitube and T-Racks  were looking decidedly healthier than Sampletank, and thus a decision was made to divert finite resources, in a time of great financial risk and uncertainty, into one product and not another?
 
"YET they had the resources to push out iApps galore, and iGadgets galor"
 
Perhaps because a decision was made to divert scarce resources, at a time of economic uncertainty (when businesses were folding all around them), into a product line which was 100x more likely to profit than an upgrade to Sampletank.
 
You keep saying that "they need us, the consumer," but that's a double edged sword. We the consumer need talented software engineers who have studied for years in order to develop the skills to create the tools with which we make music.
 
 
 
 

The Consumer does NOT need the company - PERIOD in ANY CASE.

There are ample "alternatives" so that is an "I own a company and bow down to me" attitude,
plain and simple, which may explain why you almost went out of business.

THESE are facts.  Not speculation.

I WAS a Software Engineer, as well as a Mechanical Engineer for 20 years.  I've saved many millions of 
dollars for the companies that I worked for.  I'm not the "guy on the street" who knows
nothing about it.

I think your opinion is "severely skewed" being a business owner...but that's just my "opinion".


And you have yours..and you are completely entitled to it.

The bottom line is THIS:
 
REGARDLESS of their "Financial Situation" they should not have left their product unsupported
for 5 years and left their "already paid customers" out in the cold with no support.  PERIOD.  

THAT is the WHOLE POINT.

cclarry

I ask that you at least "listen" to what I have to say, and consider it "logically",
 

Oh come on now! ;<)

No it isn't an "I own a company so bow down to me" attitude. I'm talking in general, not just IK. It's a two way street. We need them and they need us. Sure there are alternatives to Sampletank but that didn't stop people from choosing it over the alternatives. And as soon as someone makes an argument starting with "regardless of their financial situation they should have..." I know it's not firmly anchored in reality.
 
"which may explain why you almost went out of business." - My business nearly went under because I was providing a service in an area of Manhattan largely occupied by professionals who work in finance, and almost half of my clients either lost their jobs or were so afraid of losing their jobs that they immediately cut back on their living expenses. I had to lose a few employees. Of course I had the usual BS from people like you who told me that I had some kind of moral obligation to keep those employees on despite the fact that I couldn't afford to.

In almost every case, If a software company did NOT keep it's product serviced,
people would leave it behind.

In this particular case, a great many did.  Many for Kontakt.  And many for other Samplers.

As I stated, you have your opinion, and you are entitled to it.

Other companies have buckled down, continued to provide excellent customer service and support,
and sailed "through the rough seas" of financial difficulty and come out at the shore on the other
end a better company.

You, in your assertions, which also are "pure speculation" btw...believe that a company has every right 
to abandon it's product, and support thereof, due to "financial hardship".  Simply not logical and
definitely not good for the Company.

Sharke, I see you did not heed the warning. I can't pretend to know with 100% certainty what larry thinks, but based on his comments it seems clear that he equates "logic" with "being right" which anyone who understands logic knows are two different things. Not necessarily mutually exclusive but completely spereate things. He is never going to address a single word you say directly with anything other than psychobabble and illogical rhetoric. I recently did a job with a guy that reasoned exactly like him except he was insisting anyone who did not believe his conspiracy theories had any merit. He went on for 12 hours about how Sandy Hook never happend and men live in the middle of the earth. The more anyone spoke to him the crazier he sounded. He simply ignored or created a strawman argument based on th same circular rant..all day long. I won't bother warning you again that you are wasting your time.

Larry, your point has been made over and over again. I agree with you now and I agreed with you before but you are starting grind on my nerves. Just let it go man. You've done all a person can do to express yourself and your views.
 
Please give it a rest, you're lowering the tone.

I would point out that something like the letter Steve Slate recently sent is free, and can do a lot to smooth relations over with customers.
 
Clear communication can overcome a lot of difficulties.  I know that when I was a waiter MANY years ago, if I talked with my customers, and told them things were behind they would "usually" cut me some slack.
 
For those that haven't seen it
 
 

Dear FG-X and VCC Slate Customer,
This is one of the hardest emails I've ever had to write. The reason for this, is because I really love what I do. But one of the main reasons I love what I do is because I get to make products that make people happy. But clearly, there are a lot of you out there who are quite unhappy, due to the missed deadlines of our VCC and FG-X updates.

First, and this goes without saying, I feel terrible about this. I never intended for this to happen, and I read all the negative comments, and it breaks my heart. Because I failed you guys.

This company means the world to me, and I have always strived to make mindful decisions that would ensure that it remains healthy. But unfortunately, despite the fact that I am often seen around Hollywood Blvd wearing a cape, I have no super powers and am just a mere mortal who makes mortal mistakes. And clearly, I've made mistakes this past year. Let me tell you about them.

As many of you know, we work a long time on our products. Two years ago when AAX was announced, we were just beginning the development of some pretty intense new products, which are all as of this email, unreleased. Two of them you know about, the Virtual Mix Rack, and the Virtual Microphone System. Both of these were new and exciting products that required a lot of effort from the entire team, and so we began to start the R&D. And then, we get hit with AAX.

We were not prepared, nor did we have a big enough team to simultaneously develop big new products while updating old products. My first mistake was realizing that fact too late. What should have happened is a pause in all production to hire more developers to help with our new 64bit AAX framework, pause all new development, and then proceed with full force on all of our legacy updates. Instead, I became fearful. This fear was derived from the fact that we are one of the newer games in town as compared to our competition, and I felt like new product development was crucial enough that we had to keep some part of the team on it while another part worked on the framework and updates. This compromised the productivity of both teams since neither side had enough manpower.

When the framework was complete, we had to decide where to start. So let's just get this out of the way and say it was an obvious choice with VBC and VTM. VBC was written INTO the new framework. Converting it to AAX would be the easiest and more straight forward. Than came the VTM. This was in our old framework and had an insanely complex algorithm, but several of our very talented team members were able to get the port done in the Winter. And now we are left with the VCC and FG-X. Oh boy. Here it goes.

I think it's fair to say that the algorithms, meaning the audio processes, of the VCC and FG-X are some of the best out there for what they aim to do. Well, at least I hope you think that since you bought at least one of them. These were the very first two plugins that Fabrice and I worked on and we're proud of them. But as great as these algorithms sound, the way the code was written back then had a bit to be desired. Ok, they had a lot to be desired. Alright fine, they're a mess.

There was no way we could use the same code for these plugins in our new framework, because we owe it to you, the customer, to improve them. With a cleaner code, they would be bug free, and use dramatically less CPU. Furthermore, there are aspects of our new framework that the VCC and FG-X code is not 1:1 compatible with so it would have taken just as long to convert the old code into the new framework. So the choice was obvious. We started last year to rewrite FG-X and VCC with fresh code, new features, and new algorithms. But again, going back to my first points, the team was overloaded. There were members bouncing back and forth to all the projects one week it was VMR, then VTM AAX update, then VBC bug fixing.. it was insane. And to top it all off, we parted ways with two of our team members in the Spring, making a bad situation even worse.

I do NOT expect sympathy from you. I do NOT consider any of this an excuse. I will stand here in front of you and say we messed up. But rather than drown in our sorrows, I'm going to tell you what we are doing to make things better.

First and foremost, with the exception of the few members finalizing VMR, the entire rest of the team is focused on FG-X and VCC. We will do NO OTHER DEVELOPMENT ON ANY PRODUCT until these two AAX updates are done. Second, we are hiring hiring hiring. We are going to put ourself in a position to be able to execute faster, more efficiently, and we'll be able to meet deadlines and schedules.

So some of you are saying "Enough of the drama, when the hell are we getting our plugins?". And just in case you didn't hate me enough already I can't give a date YET. Because unlike last time, I will not give you a date until I'm ready to put my life on the line because I'm so sure we'll make it. But what I am going to do is make you a promise: You will have an inside look at the productivity of these two projects with weekly emails of information. And I also promise that as soon as I have the confidence to give you a release date that I know is a reality, I will state it in one of these weekly updates.

Last, I'll say that we are working on a possible temporary solution that could get you guys up and running in Pro Tools 11 while we finalize VCC 2.0 and FG-X 2.0. And to end on a positive note, these 2.0 updates will be amazing. Please keep that in mind. With the VCC, it's goiong to be simpler, have new options, and include a new console emulation that I predict will be your new favorite and most used console emulation yet. The FG-X will have a new metering algorithm but that will likely get overshadowed by the new FG-LEVEL algo. This new algo has been over three years in the making and utilizes a brand new loudness process that is so ridiculously transparent that you'll think it's defying the laws of physics.

Ok, so that's all I have for you today, but you'll be hearing from me again soon. I know this is not the email you really want, but I hope you'd agree it's better than silence. You can email me at slate@stevenslate.com. It might take me a bit to get back to you because it's so busy here, but I promise I will. Have a great weekend,

Steven Slate 
 

 
 

Kroneborge
I would point out that something like the letter Steve Slate recently sent is free, and can do a lot to smooth relations over with customers.
 
Clear communication can overcome a lot of difficulties.  I know that when I was a waiter MANY years ago, if I talked with my customers, and told them things were behind they would "usually" cut me some slack.
 
For those that haven't seen it
 
 

Dear FG-X and VCC Slate Customer,
This is one of the hardest emails I've ever had to write. The reason for this, is because I really love what I do. But one of the main reasons I love what I do is because I get to make products that make people happy. But clearly, there are a lot of you out there who are quite unhappy, due to the missed deadlines of our VCC and FG-X updates.

First, and this goes without saying, I feel terrible about this. I never intended for this to happen, and I read all the negative comments, and it breaks my heart. Because I failed you guys.

This company means the world to me, and I have always strived to make mindful decisions that would ensure that it remains healthy. But unfortunately, despite the fact that I am often seen around Hollywood Blvd wearing a cape, I have no super powers and am just a mere mortal who makes mortal mistakes. And clearly, I've made mistakes this past year. Let me tell you about them.

As many of you know, we work a long time on our products. Two years ago when AAX was announced, we were just beginning the development of some pretty intense new products, which are all as of this email, unreleased. Two of them you know about, the Virtual Mix Rack, and the Virtual Microphone System. Both of these were new and exciting products that required a lot of effort from the entire team, and so we began to start the R&D. And then, we get hit with AAX.

We were not prepared, nor did we have a big enough team to simultaneously develop big new products while updating old products. My first mistake was realizing that fact too late. What should have happened is a pause in all production to hire more developers to help with our new 64bit AAX framework, pause all new development, and then proceed with full force on all of our legacy updates. Instead, I became fearful. This fear was derived from the fact that we are one of the newer games in town as compared to our competition, and I felt like new product development was crucial enough that we had to keep some part of the team on it while another part worked on the framework and updates. This compromised the productivity of both teams since neither side had enough manpower.

When the framework was complete, we had to decide where to start. So let's just get this out of the way and say it was an obvious choice with VBC and VTM. VBC was written INTO the new framework. Converting it to AAX would be the easiest and more straight forward. Than came the VTM. This was in our old framework and had an insanely complex algorithm, but several of our very talented team members were able to get the port done in the Winter. And now we are left with the VCC and FG-X. Oh boy. Here it goes.

I think it's fair to say that the algorithms, meaning the audio processes, of the VCC and FG-X are some of the best out there for what they aim to do. Well, at least I hope you think that since you bought at least one of them. These were the very first two plugins that Fabrice and I worked on and we're proud of them. But as great as these algorithms sound, the way the code was written back then had a bit to be desired. Ok, they had a lot to be desired. Alright fine, they're a mess.

There was no way we could use the same code for these plugins in our new framework, because we owe it to you, the customer, to improve them. With a cleaner code, they would be bug free, and use dramatically less CPU. Furthermore, there are aspects of our new framework that the VCC and FG-X code is not 1:1 compatible with so it would have taken just as long to convert the old code into the new framework. So the choice was obvious. We started last year to rewrite FG-X and VCC with fresh code, new features, and new algorithms. But again, going back to my first points, the team was overloaded. There were members bouncing back and forth to all the projects one week it was VMR, then VTM AAX update, then VBC bug fixing.. it was insane. And to top it all off, we parted ways with two of our team members in the Spring, making a bad situation even worse.

I do NOT expect sympathy from you. I do NOT consider any of this an excuse. I will stand here in front of you and say we messed up. But rather than drown in our sorrows, I'm going to tell you what we are doing to make things better.

First and foremost, with the exception of the few members finalizing VMR, the entire rest of the team is focused on FG-X and VCC. We will do NO OTHER DEVELOPMENT ON ANY PRODUCT until these two AAX updates are done. Second, we are hiring hiring hiring. We are going to put ourself in a position to be able to execute faster, more efficiently, and we'll be able to meet deadlines and schedules.

So some of you are saying "Enough of the drama, when the hell are we getting our plugins?". And just in case you didn't hate me enough already I can't give a date YET. Because unlike last time, I will not give you a date until I'm ready to put my life on the line because I'm so sure we'll make it. But what I am going to do is make you a promise: You will have an inside look at the productivity of these two projects with weekly emails of information. And I also promise that as soon as I have the confidence to give you a release date that I know is a reality, I will state it in one of these weekly updates.

Last, I'll say that we are working on a possible temporary solution that could get you guys up and running in Pro Tools 11 while we finalize VCC 2.0 and FG-X 2.0. And to end on a positive note, these 2.0 updates will be amazing. Please keep that in mind. With the VCC, it's goiong to be simpler, have new options, and include a new console emulation that I predict will be your new favorite and most used console emulation yet. The FG-X will have a new metering algorithm but that will likely get overshadowed by the new FG-LEVEL algo. This new algo has been over three years in the making and utilizes a brand new loudness process that is so ridiculously transparent that you'll think it's defying the laws of physics.

Ok, so that's all I have for you today, but you'll be hearing from me again soon. I know this is not the email you really want, but I hope you'd agree it's better than silence. You can email me at slate@stevenslate.com. It might take me a bit to get back to you because it's so busy here, but I promise I will. Have a great weekend,

Steven Slate 
 

 
 

Now this is a company that understands the nessessity of customers and their loyalty to a company that gives them information. Probably not the info that they like , but none the less info that shows respect for the customer.
This is how it should work.

I am 100 percent certain that cclarry does not have an MBA or even a BA in business.....he is an armchair quarterback who has never played football in his life.