Version 1.8 System Software Update for Receptor 1 users ?

[xsys]

Have anybody OS 1.8 in Receptor rev.C already installed? Its looks like silence after the storm here;-) Or resignation?

You were expecting someone to actually go for this?

The minimum cost would be $199 plus shipping a Receptor to/from Muse (about $150)...so, about $350 to upgrade my Receptor 1 to an OS that is still incompatible with most current plugins (and very difficult to work with in terms of maintenance). Why?

[Balda]

Have anybody OS 1.8 in Receptor rev.C already installed? Its looks like silence after the storm here;-) Or resignation?

You were expecting someone to actually go for this?

The minimum cost would be $199 plus shipping a Receptor to/from Muse (about $150)...so, about $350 to upgrade my Receptor 1 to an OS that is still incompatible with most current plugins (and very difficult to work with in terms of maintenance). Why?

Maybe we can put money together and buy one for all people from this forum

[Ciey]

Hi, when this options for international customers will be available?
I was waiting for 1.8 version to check if it will fix my Receptor hanging notes problem I have after OS re-installation. Today I received information there are no more Receptor support in the UK
To be honest I invested couple thousand dollars and have no more money to spend for upgrades. The current situation is I cannot use Receptor out of studio because of problems I have from the very beginning.

[johnrule]

I decided to take advantage of the TigerDirect.com offer for a 1 Terabyte (1TB) SATA drive for $39 to install in my Receptor 1 as an experiment. I say "as an experiment" because according to Muse (and this thread), installing a SATA drive in a Receptor 1 is not going to work.

Well, guess what? It works...this also means I can upgrade to an SSD in the future.

So Muse, what is with the excuse that you 'cannot get SATA to work with the Receptor 1 motherboard' and therefore cannot provide a field update to OS 1.8? Personally, I think you just wanted to force us to pay for the upgrade (which was an insulting offer by the way), and I am glad that I did not fall for it. You did mention that there was some indication of failure after "50 boots" (or some such nonsense) so I may be eating-crow in a month or two...but I doubt it.

This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever been subjected to, and the whole thing was handled horribly! In my opinion, Muse is totally lacking in integrity for failing to fulfill promises made for an upgrade, and for (seemingly) purposeful misinformation. Regardless, I have increased the value of my own Receptor 1 and improved the functionality without their help and despite their failings.

I still believe that Muse owes Receptor 1 owners a field upgrade to OS 1.8. This should be in the form of a shipped hard drive for a nominal cost (ex. I just purchased a 1TB drive for $39, so no $199 charge for a 250 gig drive). If you really wanted to win me back as a customer you would actually do this at your expense...this was your faux pas, not mine.

This isn't just about the OS 1.8 upgrade, it's also about software installers and general compatibility issues that could have been provided in OS 1.7 (ex. Pianoteq 3.x) but are now (purposely IMO) only accessible in OS 1.8. I personally don't need your installer for Pianoteq now, but it would make it easier for others to upgrade. Honestly, for myself, I would like to see Windows drivers for your PCI card released so that I can be liberated from your closed platform totally.

Using Linux and Wine is working marginally (overall), and even current Receptor 2 owners are starting to see-the-light in terms of not being able to upgrade their software. Why don't you just admit it and release your VST Host for multiple platforms? Your software on any hardware is where the value would be, not on a closed and proprietary platform like your current model...it's a dead end system rife with problems.

If you want my notes for doing a SATA upgrade please PM me...my notes for the Pianoteq 3.6.1 upgrade have been posted.

JR

[projektio]

I decided to take advantage of the TigerDirect.com offer for a 1 Terabyte (1TB) SATA drive for $39 to install in my Receptor 1 as an experiment. I say "as an experiment" because according to Muse (and this thread), installing a SATA drive in a Receptor 1 is not going to work.

Well, guess what? It works...this also means I can upgrade to an SSD in the future.

So Muse, what is with the excuse that you 'cannot get SATA to work with the Receptor 1 motherboard' and therefore cannot provide a field update to OS 1.8? Personally, I think you just wanted to force us to pay for the upgrade (which was an insulting offer by the way), and I am glad that I did not fall for it. You did mention that there was some indication of failure after "50 boots" (or some such nonsense) so I may be eating-crow in a month or two...but I doubt it.

This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever been subjected to, and the whole thing was handled horribly! In my opinion, Muse is totally lacking in integrity for failing to fulfill promises made for an upgrade, and for (seemingly) purposeful misinformation. Regardless, I have increased the value of my own Receptor 1 and improved the functionality without their help and despite their failings.

I still believe that Muse owes Receptor 1 owners a field upgrade to OS 1.8. This should be in the form of a shipped hard drive for a nominal cost (ex. I just purchased a 1TB drive for $39, so no $199 charge for a 250 gig drive). If you really wanted to win me back as a customer you would actually do this at your expense...this was your faux pas, not mine.

This isn't just about the OS 1.8 upgrade, it's also about software installers and general compatibility issues that could have been provided in OS 1.7 (ex. Pianoteq 3.x) but are now (purposely IMO) only accessible in OS 1.8. I personally don't need your installer for Pianoteq now, but it would make it easier for others to upgrade. Honestly, for myself, I would like to see Windows drivers for your PCI card released so that I can be liberated from your closed platform totally.

Using Linux and Wine is working marginally (overall), and even current Receptor 2 owners are starting to see-the-light in terms of not being able to upgrade their software. Why don't you just admit it and release your VST Host for multiple platforms? Your software on any hardware is where the value would be, not on a closed and proprietary platform like your current model...it's a dead end system rife with problems.

If you want my notes for doing a SATA upgrade please PM me...my notes for the Pianoteq 3.6.1 upgrade have been posted.

JR

Wow. I would normally throw a +1 after it, but that wouldn't show how much I agree with you John. Well said.

I personally would happily pay a maximum of $199 for an upgraded HDD with OS 1.8 on it. Just like everyone else, I've dumped a lot of money into this unit already ($3,000 in total so far) and felt exactly as you did, that they "claimed" hardware was preventing an OS 1.8 upgrade for Receptor 1 users.

It makes perfect sense. How the hell else can they stay in business if they don't constantly have a stream of money coming in? New unit sales are all well and good, but golly, if giving an OS upgrade away equals no money, and forcing users to physically upgrade the unit equals cash-in-hand, which would you go with as a business? You hit the nail on the proverbial head man.

I'm to the point that I think I'll dump this thing on eBay and get as much for it as I can. Building a custom rackmount computer would serve my needs immediately!

projektio

[keysmia]

Hi I am going through he same thing. I paid $3,000.00 with Komplete installed and wanted to put a larger drive in my unit. After several e-mails with one rep at Muse a 750 gig drive was going to be sent to me but then the rep said I might be able to put a 1 TB drive in but I would have to wait. A year later I saw this rep at NAMM He told me to call him after the show. The drive now was not going to work and I was told to upgrade. Then I wanted to install Ivory one and was brushed off the phone and asked to write a ticket on pluggoramma. Another year later and I still can't install Ivory one and am getting the same responses with no information. I hate to think that Jordan Rudess would go through this. Not happy about this. Can I install a SATA drive in rev C? Anyone know how to install Ivory one on REV C?

[keydcuk]

The same way the HDD was able to be replaced easily, I've been trying to get the answer to see if I could upgrade to the highest AMD TURION processor to get more speed instead of going through a crazy motherboard replacement to try to do a homemade receptor 2 upgrade??? I thought I could keep it as an old rev C but with the best TURION possible which I think this would make it 3Ghz processor?

[buscemi]

I decided to take advantage of the TigerDirect.com offer for a 1 Terabyte (1TB) SATA drive for $39 to install in my Receptor 1 as an experiment. I say "as an experiment" because according to Muse (and this thread), installing a SATA drive in a Receptor 1 is not going to work.

Well, guess what? It works...this also means I can upgrade to an SSD in the future.

So Muse, what is with the excuse that you 'cannot get SATA to work with the Receptor 1 motherboard' and therefore cannot provide a field update to OS 1.8? Personally, I think you just wanted to force us to pay for the upgrade (which was an insulting offer by the way), and I am glad that I did not fall for it. You did mention that there was some indication of failure after "50 boots" (or some such nonsense) so I may be eating-crow in a month or two...but I doubt it.

This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever been subjected to, and the whole thing was handled horribly! In my opinion, Muse is totally lacking in integrity for failing to fulfill promises made for an upgrade, and for (seemingly) purposeful misinformation. Regardless, I have increased the value of my own Receptor 1 and improved the functionality without their help and despite their failings.

I still believe that Muse owes Receptor 1 owners a field upgrade to OS 1.8. This should be in the form of a shipped hard drive for a nominal cost (ex. I just purchased a 1TB drive for $39, so no $199 charge for a 250 gig drive). If you really wanted to win me back as a customer you would actually do this at your expense...this was your faux pas, not mine.

This isn't just about the OS 1.8 upgrade, it's also about software installers and general compatibility issues that could have been provided in OS 1.7 (ex. Pianoteq 3.x) but are now (purposely IMO) only accessible in OS 1.8. I personally don't need your installer for Pianoteq now, but it would make it easier for others to upgrade. Honestly, for myself, I would like to see Windows drivers for your PCI card released so that I can be liberated from your closed platform totally.

Using Linux and Wine is working marginally (overall), and even current Receptor 2 owners are starting to see-the-light in terms of not being able to upgrade their software. Why don't you just admit it and release your VST Host for multiple platforms? Your software on any hardware is where the value would be, not on a closed and proprietary platform like your current model...it's a dead end system rife with problems.

If you want my notes for doing a SATA upgrade please PM me...my notes for the Pianoteq 3.6.1 upgrade have been posted.

JR

Have you done extensive testing? I was told that the reason they are not doing this is because it isn't stable enough for live use especially - every so often the system will not boot and will just hang (an example of the most prevalent problem). I found this to be absolutely true in practice over months of using Receptor 1 with 1.8 installed on a SATA drive. Just to temper the allusion to nefarious motives by Muse which I don't think are actually the case. People I've talked to were correct in their concern over this particular issue and I saw it happen regularly. In the studio it isn't all that bad an issue but it does get more frustrating than I thought it would be.

[johnrule]

Have you done extensive testing?

Well, "extensive testing" can mean a lot of things. What brand? What are the specs? What conditions? etc. etc. etc.

It works for me in my situation. I have been using a 1TB SATA drive in my Receptor 1 (in my studio) for over a year, and it works great!

I was told that the reason they are not doing this is because it isn't stable enough for live use especially - every so often the system will not boot and will just hang.

Because you have no timing control in the BIOS, you cannot set a start-up delay for the drive, so occasionally you must boot twice...then it works fine. It does not "crash" or "hang" or any of the other urban legends that were going around. There was also the claim that it would "stop working after 50 boots"...that was from somebody at Muse I believe.

Look, it's a PC. You need to make sure of a few things like power distribution, heat dispensation, etc. if you are going to go mucking around and change components. The bigger issue was the motherboard and BIOS; it is circa 2004, so it was hardly compatible with anything from 2008-2009 (back when this issue started). For starters, the BIOS emulates SATA communications over IDE, so you have to throw-the-switch in the BIOS to get a SATA drive to work at all. Next: how much power does the drive use? Do you know what your power supply can handle? How much heat does it generate? etc. etc. etc.

Muse simply wanted to avoid all of that and make us upgrade to new hardware, arguing that we are "musicians and not technicians". I countered that there were some of us out here that know what we are doing and can handle a field install. They basically said no, and we ranted for a bit. Of course, that was the expurgated version

I've actually moved on, so I will just say good luck with your Receptor.

[johnrule]

Have you done extensive testing?

I just remembered...this wasn't the original argument.

The original argument was about updating our stock Receptor 1 IDE drives with a new OS...it eventually evolved into this line of reasoning ( i.e. "you can't use a SATA drive in a Receptor 1, therefore you cannot upgrade to OS 1.8 ).

It's really an old argument anyway, and in hind-sight I (somewhat) agree with Muse. They basically wanted to avoid a can-of-worms, and who can blame them. I mean, look at the responses on this thread alone!

[buscemi]

Yes, you must boot twice which is kind of a drag and not something they'd really want to have constantly happening especially out on the road. I do know about testing and have worked on PCs, been a Linux admin, and worked for an audio software/hardware company across more than a decade so no need to spell it out like I'm an idiot.

Muse found this problem with SATA drives running 1.8 on Receptor 1. Whether they could have fixed this by spending man hours (hence $$) is neither here nor there. I think you are right that you can't blame Muse for not spending time to support this as it was last-generation of their product and would cost more to fix than they'd gain. We can see from this thread that nobody wants to return their units for an official upgrade unless they are touring or otherwise using the units extensively, so to make DIYers happy by wasting $$ isn't really going to be something a company aiming to make a product and profit from that product is willing to do easily.

[johnrule]

Yes, you must boot twice which is kind of a drag and not something they'd really want to have constantly happening especially out on the road.

It's something like one in ten times for me, and then it's fine. In other words, I press the power button and everything starts normally, except for that occasional time when the timing is off (so the BIOS doesn't see the hard drive) and you must reboot. Once it's up and running everything is fine, so I don't see the problem with road use either...although I suppose your life might flash before your eyes thinking something is horribly wrong.

This is why 21st Century musicians should be technicians to some extent...if you are going to use technology for your art, you should learn how to manage it. I don't want Muse managing it for me (or Apple, Microsoft, etc.). I can do updates myself. If I have to go through some "cloud" to do the slightest thing to hardware or software I paid for, forget it. I'm not going to 'rent' technology.

[johnrule]

Muse found this problem with SATA drives running 1.8 on Receptor 1. Whether they could have fixed this by spending man hours (hence $$) is neither here nor there. I think you are right that you can't blame Muse for not spending time to support this as it was last-generation of their product and would cost more to fix than they'd gain. We can see from this thread that nobody wants to return their units for an official upgrade unless they are touring or otherwise using the units extensively, so to make DIYers happy by wasting $$ isn't really going to be something a company aiming to make a product and profit from that product is willing to do easily.

I have to set the record straight on something (no offense "buscemi"):

You really have to read all of the threads (and related threads) to understand exactly what happened...it wasn't that simple. I agree from a business perspective that supporting a field install would be a can-of-worms (albeit do-able), but I still think it was all handled very badly. Promises were made, and then retracted. The excuses that followed were weak (and flawed), and customers were treated (somewhat) like dolts.

In terms of the Receptor 1 being "last-generation", remember that the Receptor 1 was still being sold in 2009...this was technology from 2004. It should not have been in the distribution channel past 2006-2007 IMO. I purchased mine in August of 2008 so I take a bit more umbrage than others. The specifications for the hardware were not published by Muse (and it was not easy to discern), so it was a bit of subterfuge (IMO) to be pushing that hardware as state-of-the-art in 2008-2009.

The points I made in this thread (and other related threads) are all valid and provable. My opinion about Muse as a company, and their treatment of customers, has always been nothing more than that...my opinion. There is truth in what I have stated though, so I leave it to you to decide what happened. If someone wants to dredge all of this up again, I think it is a bad idea. Let's just leave this sleeping dog lie please.

[richwhite9]

The specifications for the hardware were not published by Muse (and it was not easy to discern), so it was a bit of subterfuge (IMO) to be pushing that hardware as state-of-the-art in 2008-2009.

My opinion about Muse as a company, and their treatment of customers, has always been nothing more than that...my opinion. There is truth in what I have stated though, so I leave it to you to decide what happened. If someone wants to dredge all of this up again, I.

There's some truth to what you write but as you know I had no problem finding the specs for the machines on the Muse site and most of the branded parts included on the KVR forums.

On a different topic, didn't the company change hands after this fiasco? The board and staff at the site are .... much different indicating several principles are no longer there.

Used Pro 2s are available for lower prices than the full upgrades. I sense a company dedicated to touring pros and pro studio buyers hoping for a turnaround in the economy....

[johnrule]

There's some truth to what you write but as you know I had no problem finding the specs for the machines on the Muse site and most of the branded parts included on the KVR forums.

In terms of finding that information easily in the forums, I'm wondering if you are referring to my detailed posts (or related posts)? Regardless, the specs for the Receptor 2 are posted clearly (because it is actually a selling point) and the Receptor 1 specs were obfuscated to dump old inventory in 2008-2009 IMO.

What I stated was "the hardware [specs] were not published by Muse" and "it was not easy to discern" (referring to the hardware itself). I had to open my Receptor, remove the cpu fan, remove the heat paste, etc. to get the cpu information for my specific model. Of course, this voids the warranty.

Luckily, I was able to find a 2.6ghz cpu for $35, and 1TB drives are about the same, so I upgraded my 'new' anemic Receptor 1 to something useable on my own (although the motherboard is still pathetic)...it was actually the software upgrading that became the point of contention. Again, you're going to have to do some homework to fully understand...you are digging something up from two years ago.

I did develop something called "The aMusing Replacer" that allows you to utilize the Receptor front panel from Windows or Linux (OSX is possible too). It empowers the user to upgrade any component to higher specs than the top-of-the-line Receptor...but the audio card does not work outside of a modified Linux kernel. That is a real problem, and Muse isn't about to release the driver source. So, after pricing new audio hardware, i7 Intel motherboard, SSD, etc. I decided that it was ridiculous, and I would just buy a tablet in the near future.

It seems like you are a real fan, so good luck and have fun...don't let skeletons-in-the-closet spoil it for you!