Impact Soundworks

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 10:17 pm

STEAM is the biggest software distribution platform in the world. Right now, it's primarily used for games, but music software is starting to show up there as well. After submitting an application months ago, Shreddage 2 has been accepted as the first virtual instrument on the platform.

Now is a great opportunity for us to make various polish changes and improvements to prepare it for Steam distribution, keeping in mind the average user will probably be less experienced than, say, the average KVR user.

What should we do? Let me know! A few things come to mind:

1. Some included tutorial videos on the very basics of setting up Shreddage
2. A stereo double-tracking mode (so one instance and one midi channel)

xNiMiNx · Post by **xNiMiNx** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:24 am

I hope this ends up being good for business, because i think ISW deserves a fruitful future. That said, i really hate steam.

As for what the typical not-as-kvr-savvy user may need, i think there should be a really basic crash course explaining DAW / VSTi / Kontakt / Midi. I think itll save you a lot of time on tech support, so you can work on the next instruments. Good luck!

warfighter67 · Post by **warfighter67** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:07 pm

xNiMiNx wrote:I hope this ends up being good for business, because i think ISW deserves a fruitful future. That said, i really hate steam.

As for what the typical not-as-kvr-savvy user may need, i think there should be a really basic crash course explaining DAW / VSTi / Kontakt / Midi. I think itll save you a lot of time on tech support, so you can work on the next instruments. Good luck!

y u h8 steam m8? D:

I'm a gamer so I'm biased but I absolutely love Steam. I mean, if you have to contact support, then GG, but it's so nice having all my games in one place.

xNiMiNx · Post by **xNiMiNx** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:23 pm

warfighter67 wrote: y u h8 steam m8? D:

I'm a gamer so I'm biased but I absolutely love Steam. I mean, if you have to contact support, then GG, but it's so nice having all my games in one place.

(Sorry for going a little off topic ISW)

First off, their offline mode is sleazy. Even if you go through the proper steps (given by steam reps) their software still attempts to pass information to their servers. If your firewall isnt set up water tight, some bytes (granted very little data) get through, and suddenly you get 'Sorry, something is wrong with your files, you cannot play offline until you go back online to update!' (ok i dont remember the exact wording, but thats the general idea).

Second, because ALL your games are linked to a single account, its very easy for them to take it ALL away.

In the past, people have purchased games in beta preorder. The problem starts when the company is only selling a keycode for the beta (who even does that???). So, user just gets a few weeks (or days) of a beta, and when the game is fully released, their key doesnt work anymore. Must purchase release version. If you feel you were ripped off, and tell your credit card company to cancel that payment, youll be met by emails from Steam telling you that you need to reinstate that payment, if you dont, they close your account. Goodbye all games! This wasnt just a single user experience.

The final big issue for me is when youre traveling. For example; If you purchase a game in the States, and travel to China for work, do your games work?

The things i mentioned were talked about to death on Civfanatics near the release of Civ5 when they finally announced the game was going to be Steam-only.

BTW, i consider myself a gamer as well. When steam was new, and they just had their games, i really didnt mind the system. Their games were MP so it made sense and I bought some of their earlier stuff. Now they have 3rd party SP games you need to be online to play, or jump through hoops to get into an offline mode. Theres software thats been sold for years that will shut down many services / processes / applications, so you can play games with as little bloat running in the background. Well, i find Steam to be bloatware, especially for games that you can buy without Steam. (Ive never used this type of software, just pointing out that a lot of gamers want as little fluff running for max fps.)

Disclaimer; The last time i touched Steam was around the release i mentioned above. Maybe they got rid of all the 'bad devs', and fixed up their 'offline' mode by now.

Again, im sorry for going a bit off topic Zircon. I said it in my original post, and ill repeat, i wish nothing but the best for ISW.

ELECTRONICHAOS · Post by **ELECTRONICHAOS** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:29 am

Steam is a nice platform... but how exactly is it going to work ?
I hope you didn't sell out your soul to the devil by doing this...
It'd be a sad day if you did.
Either way, that's an interesting move...
there's already quite a few music apps on the Steam market so I'm sure Shreddage will find new customers there!

But... what does this mean exactly if I already own Shreddage 2 ?
Does that mean I can have it in Steam too or will I have to pay for that ? (sounds a little stupid... but if I can download it thru steam the next time around, it'll probably make my life easier.)

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:09 am

Steam will simply be another channel for people to purchase and enjoy the instrument. It will NOT be required for anyone, anywhere! It's totally optional.

The idea will be that when you purchase, there is no extra DRM... it just gives you a serial number to use with Service Center. Nothing more!

ELECTRONICHAOS · Post by **ELECTRONICHAOS** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 12:22 am

Oh... now I feel silly for asking.
I'll go hide beneath a bridge for a while.

Groh · Post by **Groh** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:31 am

Shreddage is already great as it is, but I would like keyswitch for articulations that don't allready have one. Like portamento. I'm sure some users found it handy, but I still have some difficulties to make slides in midi editor (same thing for hammer ons and pull offs) Also, something inside the shreddage instance for vibrato. I May miss something with my DAWs, but I have a hard time to found how to make vibrato (mod wheel) and pitch shift in ableton (I found out in Logic 9, and its not handy) I'm sure it's possible, but an easier way to do it, like a keyswitch, would make the thing easier (at least for me lol). I only use velocities for mutes and sustained note. Keyswitch for everything else.... For some reason, I need the keyswitch for pinch squeels. The articulation is "on" but at 127 (Max) velocity, I get a sustained note, no pinch.
ATM I need to proceed differently to get the same result depending on the DAW I'm using. Its probably a problem on my end, like I dont know how to use my DAWs, but it would be cool if you could add a way to do it all in the shreddage instance to avoid the differences between DAWs. Tutoriels are great, but if, say, FLstudio is used in the video tutorial, but you use a different DAW that use different ways to do things, the tutorial lose some utilities IMO.
Hope it make sense, English is not my best...

Impact Soundworks

KVR Audio

Shreddage 2 is coming to STEAM! What should we add / improve?