Muse Research

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 2:26 am

Hi there,

Got a bit of a concerning response from Support this morning when asking for price on a replacement part for one of my Receptor 2's:

======== Ticket Summary ========
Subject : front panel / fascia replacement cost
Ticket ID : 8562
Tracking URL: http://www.plugorama.com/hd.php?id=8562
Created On : Thursday 21st April, 2016 04:01 PM
Last Update : Monday 25th April, 2016 12:31 PM
Status : Open
Message :

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately we are not accepting repairs at this time. Muse support will be ending this week sadly.

Best,
Nick

======== END ========

Support ending? WTF

hopkihc · Post by **hopkihc** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 2:43 pm

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:47 pm

Anyone else hearing anything concerning this??

qgates0128 · Post by **qgates0128** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:01 am

I received the same message because i believe my HDD has failed. are they going to make the software readily available for us to fix our own problems?

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:13 am

That opens a whole discussion about the open source component of the Receptor software. IF support ends, surely they can make the HDD images available to at least provide an OS on the working hardware?
Anyway, crossing fingers it's a temporary thing for the company, as I've been a long time supporter of the device and their support when I've had to resort to it.

Fishoow · Post by **Fishoow** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:56 am

I do not understand launching a VIP2 and then closing shop less than a year later. I would also like to 2nd hopkic's response.
Lastly I would like to make a plea to the community at large; please help me decide if I should cut the loss of my most concerted investment which has only given me one good gig in two years due to instability issues or hold on to it in case I learn how to program in Linux or have enough money to pay my Script-savvy government worker friend every time there's something I need to fix on this thing. By the way, I would really rather be making music.

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:11 am

Fishoow wrote:I do not understand launching a VIP2 and then closing shop less than a year later. I would also like to 2nd hopkic's response.
Lastly I would like to make a plea to the community at large; please help me decide if I should cut the loss of my most concerted investment which has only given me one good gig in two years due to instability issues or hold on to it in case I learn how to program in Linux or have enough money to pay my Script-savvy government worker friend every time there's something I need to fix on this thing. By the way, I would really rather be making music.

What sort of issues are you experiencing with your unit? And what version etc?
I can say that apart from the usual glitch my three have been almost rock solid, and my first one now being close to 10 years old is still running fine, albeit with it's third hard drive which even comparing to a PC is a good effort. Feel free to PM me directly - more than happy to help, and IF Muse have gone belly up then I'm all for putting together a more community based support forum for the legion of users around the globe. I'm reasonably linux savvy so if there's stuff "under the hood" that needs looking at, again happy to assist. And agree - wasting time on getting things working isn't what music is all about - hence why I still also use some good ol' rack mount hardware synths, despite some of my younger peers going all virtual.

Cheers

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:19 am

qgates0128 wrote:I received the same message because i believe my HDD has failed. are they going to make the software readily available for us to fix our own problems?

not sure how bad your possible HDD failure is, but have you tried the built in "expert" tools?
Holding the setup button when booting (for a while!) should bring the LCD screen to something like support tools, or expert mode (don't have one in front of me to check) and one of the handy tools is Diagnostic Self-Tests where it'll check network, disk, fans, etc etc and for the odd time I've had to use it it's been a godsend.

Give that a go first, if not - what size/type of drive do you have? My Australian support guru has a set of images and I'm sure for a nominal fee plus the cost of the drive could ship it to you? If it's a 750gb SATA I'm happy to clone one of mine and send, minus all the expensive plugins of course

Fishoow · Post by **Fishoow** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:12 am

emcee wrote: Feel free to PM me directly - more than happy to help, and IF Muse have gone belly up then I'm all for putting together a more community based support forum for the legion of users around the globe.

Cheers

Thanks Emcee, you're officially on notice!
With some occasional non-boot, restart, random TAG rearrangement, and slow MIDI response times out of the way, I am constantly reworking my setup so that it truly does what I want. I'm OK honing my prowess on this thing but just got a little worried that it might be in vain. I'm not really into the waiting game when I need to get busy making hay. I'll join in for community support though I may be the weakest link.

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:17 am

Subscribed to this thread. Very interested in what's going on. People who know and have correspondence with Muse - don't forget to post here.

/C

emcee · Post by **emcee** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:35 am

Fishoow wrote:
emcee wrote: Feel free to PM me directly - more than happy to help, and IF Muse have gone belly up then I'm all for putting together a more community based support forum for the legion of users around the globe.

Cheers
Thanks Emcee, you're officially on notice!
With some occasional non-boot, restart, random TAG rearrangement, and slow MIDI response times out of the way, I am constantly reworking my setup so that it truly does what I want. I'm OK honing my prowess on this thing but just got a little worried that it might be in vain. I'm not really into the waiting game when I need to get busy making hay. I'll join in for community support though I may be the weakest link.

all good For me - when playing live, my Receptors are mostly used as live instruments hanging off my Novation controller. The hardware synths that boot straight away all the time every time are delegated the sequenced parts, and I did purchase one of those SM-Pro V-Station units recently that I carry in the car to gigs if in the worst case the Receptor just doesn't want to perform that night. It cost me A$189 shipped and doesn't come close to the Receptor in power, but if it's that or silence, I'll take it any day. A lot cheaper than a full backup Receptor, and does a few things that the Receptor can't - but it is a fiddly beast.

http://gearstation.com.au/products/sm-v ... are-player

nathankingcole · Post by **nathankingcole** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:52 pm

Something that is somewhat reassuring is that Muse is still posting on their Facebook page about big name artists using Receptors on stage. It would be nice to get some direct input from Muse, since they created this forum and have been fairly responsive in the past. I can understand wanting to stay above the fray and not give energy to the trolling that has happened of late, but reaching out to the base of non superstars would be a good gesture.
My Receptor is by far my biggest musical instrument investment,and it had been worth the time and money. When I using it successfully in performance I feel like I have superhuman powers! I was able to do a lot with a laptop and Ableton Live in the past, but it was never as easy as plugging in my keyboard hitting the start button, loading up my live tag and go...
Not to say that there have not been issues-plenty of snags along the way, but Muse has always been responsive on helping me get things working. I know I am gushing a bit, but there has been a lot of criticism and negativity (much of it valid), and not nearly as much appreciation for this amazing tool. I haven't seen any other "non-laptop on stage" devices with the sophistication and flexibility of the Receptor interface, control options, and power.

johnrule · Post by **johnrule** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:02 pm

emcee wrote:IF support ends, surely they can make the HDD images available to at least provide an OS on the working hardware?

I doubt it. They were adamant about NOT doing that in the past, so I can't imagine they would have a change of heart in the near future. Please prove me wrong

looneytunes · Post by **looneytunes** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:25 pm

Hi Everyone,

People that frequent here know that I have had fairly close ties to Muse Research. Chris Halaby, Gregory Simpson, Michael Ost, and Bryan Lanser were the heart of Muse Research. From the ashes of Be (inc), Emu, Opcode, and Passport (Master Tracks Pro), they took their collective wisdom (bucking conventional HW instruments technology) to design the Receptor. Receptor could claim alot of 'firsts' in a musical appliance - including it's commercial offering of a realtime linux kernel for audio, with support of generic windows vsts, support for gigs of sample libraries in a musical instrument, ethernet synchronization to DAWs, etc.

There has been little response from the Muse ownership to the closure questions and speculation on this board. I can say (unauthorized) that Muse is no more. All of the principals have left Muse Research, and the remaining support team have been given notice of termination by the end of this week. There will be no form of official support continuing.

Bryan Lanser (evangelist/designer/marketer/engineer/musician) has a big heart - not only has he been a proud developer and eternal evangelist of Muses' creations, he has always been a 'customer first' businessman. Bryan is reviewing options for continued support (independently from the demised Muse). It isn't clear what form this will take yet. Bryan is looking into this, not because there is any path to profit here, but simply to extend the life of Receptors and support customer usage. Meanwhile, there is still a community here on the KVRAudio forum - monitoring customer questions. Hopefully this may be helpful - at least until other documentation or service options show-up.

For me personally, I have 3 Receptor2s and 1 Quatro - and they still have some life in them. They do what they do quite well - and I still need to coax them to do other things on a regular basis.

I hope this message helps some of you.
Regards,
Kevin L

PS. Probably HDD images will NOT be posted. Possibilities are for Support Knowledge Bases, Documentation, Pointers to Open Source contributions, things of this nature to be posted.

mark.warman · Post by **mark.warman** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:34 am

"Muse is no more. All of the principals have left Muse Research, and the remaining support team have been given notice of termination by the end of this week. There will be no form of official support continuing."

Thank you for confirming what so many of us loyal Receptor fans have been fearing, Kevin. Let's hope Bryan can put something together to help us keep these great machines working for as long as possible!

Muse Research

KVR Audio

Muse Support ending????