Imitone -- wow! Most embarassing post I ever started

[interactopia]

BlackWinny — The standalone application adapts a microphone into a MIDI controller on your computer's OS. A VST would convert an audio signal into a MIDI signal within a DAW. They serve different uses and (more importantly) different types of users.


fluffy_little_something — Headsets can be great, as long as there's breath shielding and no active noise cancellation. (Noise cancelling DSPs often block sustained vocals!) I've also had good results with desktop mics and cardioids, with the latter being ideal for live performance. imitone doesn't care too much about mic quality as long as your voice comes in loud and clear. This is pretty much always the case for high notes; for deep notes, tracking can improve when the mic is closer to your mouth.


Regarding VST: With 0.9, imitone's note interpretation is beginning to look respectable, and I'm comfortable stepping away from tech dev for a while. After NAMM (next weekend) I'll be transitioning to portwork; plugin support for imitone will be one of my top priorities. While I can't give a firm schedule yet, my tentative goal is to be putting plugins into alpha in February.

Fair warning: it's likely that plugins will be part of a higher price tier in the long run. Existing pre-orders at the basic tier will be upgraded at no cost when that happens.

[GreyLion]

Just a grumpy bump of a semi-necro. I had a brief Twitter exchange with Evan that ended last year on July 6, with me promising to publicly apologize if he got a stable Imitone V1 out the door within a year. You'll note his disingenuous replies here.

No apologies from me, I guess.

I don't particularly mind being scammed a bit, but he scammed our community, and walked away with over $100K. And that annoys me, a lot. The promise of a VST is what really got people like us on board, I think. Note his post above this one. By all available evidence, he repeatedly promises the port and then never even attempts it.

Ah, well. Onward into the future.

[murnau]

Even for people want to order it nowdays there is a nice little info on his site saying "VST/AU support coming soon"..

[deastman]

I actually don't care that much about VST support. As long as I can get MIDI into my DAW somehow, I'm fine with that. However, I paid more to get the advanced version, and we haven't even seen a stable V1 of the basic version after all this time. I don't feel scammed, because it isn't like he never released anything at all. What I mostly feel is disappointed and disillusioned with the whole project. Not only will I never trust Evan ever again, but thanks to him I will approach all future Kickstarter campaigns with a much greater dose of skepticism.

[No_Use]

I'm also one who got on board mainly for the VST version and disappointed it's still non-existent.

On the somewhat positive side though, Beta 0.9.1 was posted just some days ago so development is not abondoned (albeit slow) and a few posts further down of that announcement thread Evan says "VST is on its way, though".

https://imitone.com/munity/viewtopic.php?id=711

[Russell Grand]

Is it stable? Kick it, devs......

I've heard of the cpu, but anything requiring 15-25 as the above read, can go down to 7-8, as this is "based" on things that involve windows(additional already installed features that msconfig and graphics can reduce)

and I mean, if it's not locked into a dll, it might be reduced even to great standards! Unless it really is locked in -somewhere that can't be toggled .

Huh?

[Russell Grand]

Just a grumpy bump of a semi-necro. I had a brief Twitter exchange with Evan that ended last year on July 6, with me promising to publicly apologize if he got a stable Imitone V1 out the door within a year. You'll note his disingenuous replies here.

No apologies from me, I guess.

I don't particularly mind being scammed a bit, but he scammed our community, and walked away with over $100K. And that annoys me, a lot. The promise of a VST is what really got people like us on board, I think. Note his post above this one. By all available evidence, he repeatedly promises the port and then never even attempts it.

Ah, well. Onward into the future.

He's obviously still working on the VST version, so no one got "scammed".
Saying that he scammed the entire community when it's evident that he didn't is disingenuous.

[GreyLion]

He's obviously still working on the VST version, so no one got "scammed".
Saying that he scammed the entire community when it's evident that he didn't is disingenuous.

Sure. Three years onward, with no V1, though the initial KS in 2014 indicated that he just needed to do some tidying up to get there. Multiple assurances that he's working on VST imminently, for how long? More than a year?

It's a scam by any measure I have, until he actually does what he was paid to do. When that happens, it will no longer have been a scam. So far, it's all broken promises and ignored deadlines. Incremental improvements a la Achilles and the Tortoise. Keep holding your breath.

Incidentally, I'd love to have a completed tool like this, which is why I invested way back then. I'd love for him to succeed. So far, indications are that this is, at best, a part time hobby that has funded his coolness image and lifestyle. It's also already ended his career as a dev, I suspect. Who would hire him or give him money now, even if he finally does release a good V1 and VST?

[Russell Grand]

Sure. Three years onward, with no V1, though the initial KS in 2014 indicated that he just needed to do some tidying up to get there. Multiple assurances that he's working on VST imminently, for how long? More than a year?

It's a scam by any measure I have, until he actually does what he was paid to do. When that happens, it will no longer have been a scam. So far, it's all broken promises and ignored deadlines. Incremental improvements a la Achilles and the Tortoise. Keep holding your breath.

Incidentally, I'd love to have a completed tool like this, which is why I invested way back then. I'd love for him to succeed. So far, indications are that this is, at best, a part time hobby that has funded his coolness image and lifestyle. It's also already ended his career as a dev, I suspect. Who would hire him or give him money now, even if he finally does release a good V1 and VST?

I take your point. Calling it a scam implies that that was the intention behind it all along. I don't see that as the case, but I do agree that 3 years and still no finished product is ridiculous. I suppose I would just personally not call him a scammer and call him a greedy procrastinator.

[GreyLion]

I take your point. Calling it a scam implies that that was the intention behind it all along. I don't see that as the case, but I do agree that 3 years and still no finished product is ridiculous. I suppose I would just personally not call him a scammer and call him a greedy procrastinator.

That works for me!... If you read upthread, you'll see lots of amazing guidance and advice from the community here for him. Which he totally ignored behaviorally. I'm willing to accept that it may not have begun as a deliberate scam. I'm willing to believe that he still thinks he's just a quirky genius with an agonizingly long process. But he still took the money. Twice, actually, if you look at his first failed KS, too. And made it just a little harder for any of our actual hard-working devs to KS anything in the future. Which also annoys me. Guess I'm easily annoyed...

[ThomasHelzle]

Got an email today:

A new version of imitone (via Kickstarter) is available.

Version 0.9.2 builds on our 0.9.1 update, which introduced built-in instruments to imitone. In this update, we've cleaned up imitone's user interface, improved its look and feel and made a number of small changes to help users get set up. We've also introduced a 64-bit Windows build, improving performance by 15%. This work sets us up for our next big project: Developing AU and VST plugins.

New features in 0.9.2 include a pitch bend range button and a "flow doodle" that shows the current setup and any problems imitone detects. Lastly, we fixed a major problem with missing information error and feedback messages — as always, don't hesitate to send those our way!

Seems to work well so far.

Cheers,

Tom

[fluffy_little_something]

It is pretty difficult to use in my view.
First, there is still quite some lag, which makes timing difficult. It is slightly better when using ASIO, but Asio4All seems to cause problems when using it for two different applications (Imitone and DAW) at the same time.

The other problem is probably my voice, I am usually off, so the result is abysmal.

[tonedef71]

Got an email today:

The imitone VST3 alpha is now available for Windows.
This is a very preliminary, but fully-functional plugin that can be used inside any VST3-compatible Windows music app.

In the future we will be introducing VST2 and AudioUnit plugins and incorporating the imitone look and feel.

(This is not an update to the imitone app.)

[ThomasHelzle]

Interesting - I didn't get that mail.
So there's actually hope that after all those years I can finally use it - awesome!
Let us know how it works for you.

Cheers,

Tom

[zadillo]

Hrmm, I didn’t get this email either. The previous emails have been from the Kickstarter