News from Mackie on international upgrade path inc. plugs!

[Bosqoue!]

I wrote a mail and asked if Mackie had any plans to make an international upgrade path that would include the plugins. Here's what i got in return:

Unfortunately, there are no plans to offer the upgrade path at this time. The
best place to monitor any updates or changes is the Tracktion website or your
my.mackie account. If you have any other questions, let me know. Take care.

Eric Forkner
Mackie Technical Support
800-898-3211 / 800-258-6883
www.mackie.com

This is of course sad news for alle the non-US customers bu at least it's not "wer'e sorting somthing out but we can't say anything about when it's going to happen"...

I think i'll buy the 20$ online upgrade now....

[larsby]

I got a mail from Mackie stating that T1 is bundled with Spike, but you can upgrade for free without the plugs.

[haydxn]

well they've already stated that there'll be some kind of 'upgrade' rebate like the US has for international users by buying the box - that's an upgrade including the plugins. also, you don't lose out by getting the $20 online upgrade either.

[Graeme]

The phrase "incredibly parochial" comes to mind. What a strange way to win customer support.

[headquest]

well they've already stated that there'll be some kind of 'upgrade' rebate like the US has for international users by buying the box - that's an upgrade including the plugins.

If they "already stated that", then they have now directly contradicted that in the quote given above.

I'm not sure if that was the point you were trying to make (I suspect not ) but you seem to have just shown that Mackie are now contradicting their previous promise

[haydxn]

they have indeed stated that there will be a similar rebate offer for international users. i wouldn't be surprised if the meaning behind the quote above relates to a download upgrade - much like the one we DO have - including the plugins. if that's so (as i presumed it is) then it's not a contradiction, but it is indeed unclear

[Lunch Money]

sure hope it's just a mis-statement.

[audiobot202]

It shouldn't be this hard to attain a piece of software.

[headquest]

On the other hand it is very easy to get a cracked illegal version of T2 via download... (according to an ex-student of mine who got his copy this way before T2 was even officially released - i.e. the crackers used the demo)

I suspect that Mackie's poor handling of sales/marketing/distribution/international market is one reason why there are now cracks of T2 doing the rounds, while to the best of my knowledge, there were never T1 cracks. In the case of T1 (a bit like eXT, too) people respected Jules and his $80 download charge, which was both affordable and fair. Mackie have lost some of that respect, as is clear from the many threads on the subject. Hence the crackers move in...

... so in the end, Mackie (and Jules, of course) are the losers here. Now that there is a big demand for cracked copies of Tractkiion it is on the crackers radar, and will probably remain there. That's a really bad thing

[ModuLR]

Hmmm.. let's think about this another way..

1) The fact that Mackie is involved with Tracktion is much more likely the reason it would be a desireable crack. What group wouldn't want to be the first to crack a perceived Mackie product as opposed to a Raw Materials Product (a company few have heard of...).

2) T1 did get cracked.

3) Crackers don't move in because companies lose respect. People crack software purely for ego. It's to be on the forefront, and flex your skills as a hack. They don't give a shiz if the price was fair or not.. and odds are they are more concerned with executable offsets and reverse engineering some offshot encryption algo than the software itself.

4) Honestly, there is very little software that isn't on crack radar... Considering the point of most groups is to release as much as possible.

[Karbon L. Forms]

The T2 cracks not perfect. Big J put some other shit in there.

And Mods is right. They were onto T1 from the beginning.

Yip. Everything gets cracked. I'm considering a suggestion to my boss that we don't spend too much money on copy protection cos it's gonna get broken.

Sad but true.

[headquest]

That is sad, yes. And I didn't know that T1 was cracked (tbh, I don't pay much attention to that sort of thing).

I can see what you both mean about crackers doing it for their ego/to prove it can be done, which is really sad. I almost fell sorry for the losers - haven't they got anything productive to do?

I imagine that demand at least partly comes into it though. OK so they can crack e.g. T1 to prove its possible, but I very much doubt many people acquired the software that way. I think most Tracktion users are more decent than that!

But I'm thinking that if people are finding it really difficult to get T2 (for whatever reason, and I'm not having a go at Mackie in particular, because in the retail I know from experience how hard it is to establish a new product through retail channels) then downloading the crack becomes more attractive.

In the case of the ex-student I know he is now off studying at Uni and simply can't afford the $240 UK street price. Obviously companies shouldn't set their prices on the basis of students - - but stuff like educational discounts would help. And in the context of this thread, if UK customers could buy the boxed version for T2 for the same $140 US street price, that would clearly make lots of difference.

[larsby]

Im currently on a quest to buy T2.
This is however really difficult.
I cannot buy it from mackie, they point to the locals.
Locals in Sweden are Luthmans, but they are a distributor, so I cant talk to them. I have to talk to a music store that has deals woth Luthmans.
Luthmans are known for a lot of things, but accurate information especially regarding releases and dates are not one of them.
So in order to get information on when I can get a boxed tracktion 2 i have to call my local musicshop, they call luthmans and they call mackie.
So before I get an answer its gone 2 weeks.
The asnwer I got was, buy spike, you will get tracktion bundled there, "Is a great deal!!!"
so in return I ask if its t1 or t2, and if its t2 is it with the bundled plugs.
Still waiting for an answer 3 weeks now.
Mailed mackie, got an answer a few days ago.
stating that it was bundled with t1 but I get the download version of t2, which is no good to me at all.
Still waiting to get that answer from the musicstore so I can tell them to finally order T2 boxed for me.

So Im trying to get a copy of a music program, that was released some months ago, and I am yet to get a order placed.

This is not the way to do buisniss, tease with functionality strips, and still not have proper ways of getting the product out to costumers.

If it wasent my big respect for Jules and Beno, and the great work I se them do, I would get the warez version of the plugs and T2.
Mackie has to shape up on this matter, they have to take a look at the gaming industry and look on how they conduct releases. Hell, the lost sales due to piracy would probably cover the cost of setting up a full download service.

Anyway, I am a bit pissed about not getting T2 when it finally arrives, and it finally arrives in Sweden.
Hope you can bear with my rants.

[Guckli]

Same story here further down south. I'm making do with Tracktion 1 NFR for now. Makes me wonder if they really want my money...

[audiobot202]

The negativity is beginning again and who can really blame anyone for this? It's been a few months now since release and still there is no easy way to get hold of the box overseas.
It's quite maddening really.