KVR Audio

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:45 am

Demo Limitations

* Save functions have been disabled.
* Import/Export functions have been disabled.
* Audio recording has been disabled.
* Sound is interrupted every few seconds.
* Plugin must be restarted after 20 minutes.

I know this is one of the old time neverending useless guy rants, but really, looking over that list, does it in any way appear that the developer is actually interested in attracting me as a customer? Just went to try a demo, then just had to shake my head at the asswipery on display. A nice touch would have been to add "Every two minutes, plugin will publish your credit card number on several IRC channels, then make random phone calls to Russia from your home."

Really, don't even bother putting a demo out.

(I've edited the list slightly from how it appears on the actual website to mask the company's identity.)

No name · Post by **No name** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:01 am

What about that waves guitar thingy? Don't you have to buy the dongle in order to use the demo?

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:10 am

I think you're right. I saw someone on another forum recently suggest to someone else that they should go out of their way to get a dongle just to try out a demo of an EQ plugin.

But I'm not so caught up in copy protection mechanisms, it just seems pointless to me to have a demo and then say "There will be at least five different things that will piss you off with this next experience. We just didn't think four was enough."

experimental.crow · Post by **experimental.crow** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:26 am

shamann wrote:
Demo Limitations

* Save functions have been disabled.
* Import/Export functions have been disabled.
* Audio recording has been disabled.
* Sound is interrupted every few seconds.
* Plugin must be restarted after 20 minutes.
I know this is one of the old time neverending useless guy rants, but really, looking over that list, does it in any way appear that the developer is actually interested in attracting me as a customer? Just went to try a demo, then just had to shake my head at the asswipery on display. A nice touch would have been to add "Every two minutes, plugin will publish your credit card number on several IRC channels, then make random phone calls to Russia from your home."

Really, don't even bother putting a demo out.

(I've edited the list slightly from how it appears on the actual website to mask the company's identity.)

what ?...
no annoying noise burst ?...

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:31 am

normal wrote:what ?...
no annoying noise burst ?...

They must have felt charitable. The frequent dropouts were fairly irritating, but not evil like noisebursts.

ouroboros · Post by **ouroboros** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:33 am

ross g · Post by **ross g** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:04 am

i just bought a synth after trying the demo..i tried to ask as many questions on kvr prior to purchase, but some stuff is so subjective, and it's very difficult to ask qeustions about "sound"....one of my biggest concerns, the pure sound quality of the raw waves the synth engine spits out, was impossible to judge because every patch had FX, modulations, etc, and since the demo shuts off after 10 min, it was impossible to get to the point i could listen to them clearly...i bought it, and i'm a bit dissappointed by the "raw sound", i most likely would have bought it anyway(tough call), but i'd like to have had more time to pull the presets apart...what if they gave me an hour ...or two days? i would have been better able to dig in and check her out fully, just don't allow save functions, hmm? 10 min, it's almost like the presets (with gobs of fx, why these synths do that i'll never know) are supposed to sell you the synth right off, even if the synth's main selling point might really be the programming flexability, but i may never know, the presets might turn me off....

rg

cyanogen · Post by **cyanogen** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:22 am

One of the most intrusive demos is for Syntheway Strings. The beep is so loud (even louder than the vst itself) and happens so often that I couldn't even tell if I liked the string sounds or not.

kritikon · Post by **kritikon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:45 am

What was that compressor plugin demo that was out a wee while ago? Focusrite or someone like that - only a handful of presets and most of the knobs wouldn't respond to tweaking! What *&%$ing use is a compressor demo that you can't change settings on? And demos that you need to buy an iLok thingy to even load

. As if iLok doesn't put me off enough already, you can't even try the demo without buying a dongle...just plain weird marketing (or lack of it)...

eduardo_b · Post by **eduardo_b** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:21 am

shamann wrote:
normal wrote:what ?...
no annoying noise burst ?...
They must have felt charitable. The frequent dropouts were fairly irritating, but not evil like noisebursts.

I recently had some e-mail correspondence with a developer in which I noted that a dropout every 20 seconds made it virtually impossible to get a feel for how wav files would morph, and his response was that this was rather standard for most demos -- which it's not. I suggested every minute or two would be sufficient to make a serious buyer actually purchase the synth, but he thought a minute was long enough to use the synth for music without purchasing. And there's the problem. I'm not buying on the basis of a demo that I can't get enough time between dropouts with to actually hear what the plug-in can do. He lost a sale because the demo wasn't really.

Landphil · Post by **Landphil** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:02 am

I still chuckle thinking about the first Jamstix demo and the response it got here. Now THAT was an annoying noise burst

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:18 am

i hate demos i cant save patches in
i dont mind that i cant reopen them until ive registered but i get great stuff when i play with a demo spend a 1000 bucks and cant find even one of my great sounds ever again

Steven West · Post by **Steven West** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:31 am

I don't want to promote 'warez' here, but I think they do a better service than 99% of the demos out there. Sure, it's nice to fool around with something and say 'neat'... But will it conflict with anything Importing, or Saving? Will it crash if you ReWire it to something? Will it have a really useless and buggy recording feature?

And not that 'warez' are trustworthy either - but do give a better indication of how everything does fit together and work amongst things like editors, suites, samples, etc.

So I agree Shamann, I think it is time for MANY developers to rethink their demo strategy somehow? Allow for a full function Run Time demo that deletes itself and all ones done on it in 5 days if reg.# hasn't been entered by then. Or, allow saving as propretary extensions into a folder such as '.WAVD' being samples for instance. When the reg# is entered, a .exe is triggered to make all .WAVD extensions .WAV

But big and small developers are losing MILLIONS to warez due to the fact their demo's are so limited and/or annoying... Like going to a car dealer and just being allowed to sit in the drivers seat for 2 minutes to allow you to make up your mind if you want to buy it or not?

Would a developer buy a car like that?
Should we have to buy software like that?

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:55 am

While warez DOES take away from sales, it's not from the demo restrictions. If someone tried warez to "demo" a product, then they will later delete the warez and buy or don't buy. Anyone who was planning on spending the money would do so if they liked the warez version. If they don't buy, and don't delete the warez, they weren't going to pay anyways.

It's true that some software really needs to rethink the demo restrictions. Let's face it, warez won't change, and will be there no matter what. Why punish those who are legit because of those who aren't?

Koolkeys

robenestobenz · Post by **robenestobenz** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 3:01 am

I like time limited stuff. What did I try recently??.. oh yeah, Anarchy software's SwarmSynth. 30 day fully-functional trial, unusual synth. Even 5 days would be enough for me to make a decision and feel more satisfied with it than if I'd interpolated my experience through bursts of noise.