Hi Obi,

When I saw you engaging in debate with your customers in other threads I thought to myself

"not very classy"

I restrained myself from remarking that I thought you were undermining your credibility as a representative of the company because it wasn't much of my business.

The fact that I feel that your company has developed adversarial policies doesn't necessitate your becoming an adversary.

A debate between a customer rep and his customer usually exemplifies a companies inability to manage it's affairs or it's employees effectively.

Customer reps make good listeners.

Either the company thinks you are serving them well or you are off the chain, free styling, and alienating customers all on your own volition. 

It doesn't look so good either way.

Please tell your boss I have explained this clearly.

I submit that it will be far more effective for you gather valuable info here and take it back so as to debate the merits of this customer's perception privately, with your colleagues, where you have the complete freedom to insult my intelligence without my bearing witness to it.



:-)

best regards,
mike

? What are you referring to? I just answered questions on the Custom Shop, I wasn't picking a fight here. You guys are always more than welcome to voice your concerns on the IK forums or via our contact form. http://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-us/

I don't know Obi. 

How much for that Master Bus processor, 120 credits? - So roughly $100.
Competitors like NI's Solid Mix Bus comp and Cytomic The Glue are the exact same price. I give you that it's more affordable than SSL's own or Waves Bundle.


As far as sounding superior, that's highly subjective. Personally, I feel that SSL's Duende bundle is the only one which sounds consistently better than the others. 

The Custom shop is not that bad, as far as I can see (after installing), it gives you an option to log into the shop from what was originally (and still very much looks like) the shell. 
From here you restore your gear which gives you 64 bit (if required) versions to load into the shell as well as individual 64 bit versions of the gear that you already own, that can be inserted into the fx bin without the shell or any need of the custom shop. 

If you want to purchase more gear from within the shop then it is only a click or to away.

Seems to be very well implemented in my opinion. 

Oddmeister


The Custom shop is not that bad, as far as I can see (after installing), it gives you an option to log into the shop from what was originally (and still very much looks like) the shell. 
From here you restore your gear which gives you 64 bit (if required) versions to load into the shell as well as individual 64 bit versions of the gear that you already own, that can be inserted into the fx bin without the shell or any need of the custom shop. 

If you want to purchase more gear from within the shop then it is only a click or to away.

Seems to be very well implemented in my opinion. 

Not from a non-internet music computer

     @Obi


You are nice guy Obi but what are you all thinking on IK?
I'm not a user but I just wonder what the big fuzz was about this CUSTOM SHOP? I though that is nothing special just use it as dongle software, like "NI Service Center" or "Steinberg Key" but no?  I couldn't believe what I was actually reading on your website?
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trcs/




As far as I understand you not only use the CUSTOM SHOP for download and installation its actually the PLUGIN in the DAW? You then LOAD all your plugins thru CUSTOM SHOP  . And not just that you need to be online on the Internet all the time during working with the DAW?

Who is that on a PC setup or actually on MAC setup too during Mixing and working? Even serious MAC user kill the internet during sessions.
I have my DAW connected to the internet for updates and service but not during working & sessions. Man, you need to ask the users or PRO-users how workflow are.

WOW! I'm glad I'm not a IK user for sure.

NI Guitar RIG was the worst idea ever, and people angry as hell, when NI include all those FX plugins, "need to use GUITAR RIG" to be able to open and use them. After almost "French revolution"  NI have made them now as plugins instead biggest request ever by all users. 





CUSTOM SHOP are by far worse Idea that you have come up with at IK Multimedia.
So you plugins suddenly get useless. Not as how they sound but no one can or will want to use it thru CUSTOM SHOP and need to have Internet to be able to use it. As for now I think I will never ever demo your products as long you have this horrible system dealing with your plugins? It doesn't matter to me if you get two free plugins if I install CUSTOM SHOP. 


Best Regards
Freddie

Oddmeister


The Custom shop is not that bad, as far as I can see (after installing), it gives you an option to log into the shop from what was originally (and still very much looks like) the shell. 
From here you restore your gear which gives you 64 bit (if required) versions to load into the shell as well as individual 64 bit versions of the gear that you already own, that can be inserted into the fx bin without the shell or any need of the custom shop. 

If you want to purchase more gear from within the shop then it is only a click or to away.

Seems to be very well implemented in my opinion. 

The Custom Shop also needs to be be running for you to be able to run products in demo mode. IMHO, that's not exactly the best idea. In fact, coupled w/ the 72 hours-only trial period, it's arguably one of the worst in the business.

Fair point Aries.

But you can ensure that your anti virus software is enabled when you go online to install the custom shop and then disable it after you have installed. 

IK multimedia are long time players in the music software and plugin market and are well aware how the majority of music producers / customers use their DAW's and are probably not considered a risk. 

However if you can't physically or wirelessly get an internet connection to your DAW then this provides another challenge.

But personally I think that IK Multimedia have provided a good, transparent online service (which most commercial) software developers require for purchasing registering and updating  their products.

I'm not trying to provoke an argument, just stating that Ik's process is no different or more difficult/risky than any other major developer who requires online registration. (Native instruments, propellerhead, fxpansion to name but a few) for their products.

Personally I prefer the custom shop, as it doesn't generate new individual registration codes for all of your gear via the IK authorisation manager. That is a PITA every time a fresh install is required :-( 

You can use individual plug-ins from the CS. You do not have to load the CS plug-in to use any of the individual plugs.

You can use the IK plugs with the internet shut off. You only need the internet to activate or download.

I don't see what the problem is with CS. I would think it was an easier way of making sure their software was not stolen.

If your going to complain about IK, complain about their gestapo forum. Imagine having a forum and you can't converse with other forum members about problems with IK software. Sure, you can contact support and get a ticket and feel like Charlie Bucket for a while but then going to the forum and seeing if anyone else can help, noooooo..... I would have had to wait weeks for them to contact me when I had an issue with ARC 2 but I came to this forum and posted my issue and was back up and running in an hour.

IK software - great
IK support - not so great

We are working on getting our tech support to post on the forums more, but is a move we are still working on. We have stated from the beginning that the forum was not intended for support issues. We didn't want pages of issues when we can work 1 on 1 with a person and their system. Thanks for the support on the Custom Shop, you are correct about not needing to be online to use T-Racks. Only to browse, download, authorize and demo new gear.