Announcing Poly-Ana 1.13. Receptor compatible!

[eduardo_b]

I've dealt with AQ personally too, totally great guy. But he's like Jeckyl and Hyde on the forum sometimes. That thread was anything but nice and helpful.

I think the bi-polar-like (if I can call it that) personality is an issue in that it leads him to make assertions that cannot be taken seriously by reasonable people. I'm sure the hundreds of hours he's put into Poly-Ana make seeing cracked versions within a day or two quite frustrating for him. Nonetheless, those who aren't buying the synth may be turned off by the interface or other aspects of the product (or developer). I think we are expecting rational discourse when he is simply unable to accept the warezing of his pride and joy. I feel bad for him, but cannot condone his accusations. And, to be clear, I've never personally dealt with him.

[bduffy]

I've dealt with AQ personally too, totally great guy. But he's like Jeckyl and Hyde on the forum sometimes. That thread was anything but nice and helpful.

I think the bi-polar-like (if I can call it that) personality is an issue in that it leads him to make assertions that cannot be taken seriously by reasonable people. I'm sure the hundreds of hours he's put into Poly-Ana make seeing cracked versions within a day or two quite frustrating for him. Nonetheless, those who aren't buying the synth may be turned off by the interface or other aspects of the product (or developer). I think we are expecting rational discourse when he is simply unable to accept the warezing of his pride and joy. I feel bad for him, but cannot condone his accusations. And, to be clear, I've never personally dealt with him.

I feel awful for him about the warez-ing. But to turn around and accuse this place of the shit he was, man, that was horrible. Serious bridge-burning stuff there.

[zerocrossing]

I agree. Imagine if you were a studio owner in or near a bad neighborhood and you got broken into and the gear you worked hard for, or even still owe money on, was taken. Could you have a crazy reaction? Of course you could! Put up a beware of dog sign when you have no dog? Yell insults at every thugish looking kid around?

You bet. Cracking is stealing. Plain and simple. My guess is that Admiral Quality isn't more than a single guy pouring his heart and sweat into an instrument. I've been a bit critical of Poly-Ana because it seemed so CPU hungry it was nearly unuseable to me and the presets (I no longer have time for preset design so I rely on the instrument manufacturers and 3rd parties for that) were boring. His last post about having more presets and less CPU put me in the "must buy" box. I was all set to buy Arturia's CS80v but a quick demo of it showed me that it's still buggy has hell so Poly-Ana wins.

So, I didn't see the thread, but to all those who are saying, "I'd never buy something from that crazy person" it's you who are missing out. Maybe the guy who owns Native Instruments is 10x crazier but you'd never know. Who cares? All that matters is that he produces the instrument he promised (check) and supports it well (check).

Mark

One more thing I'd like to add is that I can understand Mike from AQ's frustration, and I am not claiming that the source of the frustration is unreal. He has put a lot of work into his synth and he has put integrity into the quality of the sound and the variety of features, which is extensive for a VA, so discovering that a crack exists is, I'm sure infuriating (though far from unique).

But he has let frustration spill over into reckless abandon and pointed fingers at the wrong entities, which is something that needs to be rectified or people will be wary of doing business with him as they will have doubts about being able to trust his judgment.

[bduffy]

Yeah, but remember: he's saying you, me, this site and everyone here is a warez user. Some might rightly care about that.

[Watto]

So, I didn't see the thread, but to all those who are saying, "I'd never buy something from that crazy person" it's you who are missing out. Maybe the guy who owns Native Instruments is 10x crazier but you'd never know. Who cares? All that matters is that he produces the instrument he promised (check) and supports it well (check).

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

If a NI developer claimed that, there'd be worldwide condemnation. As it happens, AQ is small fry anyway, but it's a shame he's damaged his own product in this way.

[bduffy]

So, I didn't see the thread, but to all those who are saying, "I'd never buy something from that crazy person" it's you who are missing out. Maybe the guy who owns Native Instruments is 10x crazier but you'd never know. Who cares? All that matters is that he produces the instrument he promised (check) and supports it well (check).

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

If a NI developer claimed that, there'd be worldwide condemnation. As it happens, AQ is small fry anyway, but it's a shame he's damaged his own product in this way.

That's just one issue!

[A.M. Gold]

I'd say the code-bomb threat is idle but it's more the unprofessionalism of making threats to people on a forum where, for all he knows, not a single member he was accusing ever got fifty miles from any cracked version of his synth. People first rushed to the defense of Muse because the accusation was so unreasonable, then they started defending KVR, and then people started feeling personally implicated in a grand scheme to pirate his software. The whole thing was just completely beyond decorum.

Ben has a right, IMO, to seriously question whether AQ can operate here in the future, since allegations of criminal collusion/intent/conspiracy are absolutely legal issues and consequently have to be taken seriously by people in corporate situations. Circulating allegations like this can be more than just an insult to Ben, since it strikes at the heart of his business, which is the legitimate platform of a very popular forum for the discussion and promotion of legally traded software.

[Watto]

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

That's just one issue!

Sure, but to me it's the most worrying as a potential buyer. You can write the rest off as AQ forgetting to take his morning medication, although even then I'd expect an apology to Ben before throwing this guy any cash.

[bduffy]

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

That's just one issue!

Sure, but to me it's the most worrying as a potential buyer. You can write the rest off as AQ forgetting to take his morning medication, although even then I'd expect an apology to Ben before throwing this guy any cash.

Personally, I think that is a total hoax. But I agree - how can you take a chance on anything like that going wrong? At that price (which was promised to increase, no less!)?

[Watto]

I love his views on pricing

[H-man]

I like Mike (AQ), as a dev he's as devoted to Poly-ana as one could get ...even calls the synth her/she (a play on the 'ana' thing no doubt).

I feel for the fact that he has to take the GUI thing in the neck so often when he clearly busted his guts trying to do the whole 3D render thing. The incessant criticism of the GUI seems so much like a bandwagon thing for trolls drawn by the fact that he clearly put so much effort into it.

I think everyone is tired of the "oh I wouldn't ever use that synth cause the GUI is soooooo ugly....."

Yeah okay fine guy, been done to death already, thanks for 'chiming in' tho… Like there are not 20 half-baked crappy GUIs for every one beautiful one out there.

I'm a hobby musician, I own a Poly-ana license, I really like the synth and sound design on it all the time. AQ has been very supportive and polite and as I type this it seems that my PC is still running ok and despite the irate nature of the statements (made pretty much under provocation by wyterabbyt) I don't expect it to up and turn into a pumpkin any time soon.

I think AQ surely likes to be outspoken and certainly comes on strong. The warez thing obviously kills him and were we in his shoes maybe we'd feel the same way too.

I'm not going to go into why I think AQ was 'drawn' into one of his characteristic rages (check the typos …the guy is pissed off) and like all Poly-ana license holders, I seriously wish he could find the clarity to just turn the computer off sometimes but I think what happened there was tantamount to taunting a caged bear.

I really don't want to undervalue anyone's contribution here but this is a community, and one that craves entertainment. I think that the mods let'em run, intervene late, lock it and leave it as another feature on the KVR landscape.

It's half the reason for coming here …right?

[eduardo_b]

I've dealt with AQ personally too, totally great guy. But he's like Jeckyl and Hyde on the forum sometimes. That thread was anything but nice and helpful.

...I think we are expecting rational discourse when he is simply unable to accept the warezing of his pride and joy....

I feel awful for him about the warez-ing. But to turn around and accuse this place of the shit he was, man, that was horrible. Serious bridge-burning stuff there.

Not new behavior, though, is it. He may have raised the level of accusations, but otherwise it's more of the same.

[eduardo_b]

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

If a NI developer claimed that, there'd be worldwide condemnation. As it happens, AQ is small fry anyway, but it's a shame he's damaged his own product in this way.

If he did what he said he has, he would be selling software that anti-virus programs would identify as a trojan or worm, making his product in violation of laws regarding these matters, and he would be liable for lawsuits from customers both for having included such code in the product they paid for and for any damage that may have occurred as a result. A defense of protecting his software would have no legal standing.

Of course, there's no reason to believe he has actually done what he says he has, but it would certainly put off a lot of potential buyers if they knew of his assertion.

[zerocrossing]

At that price? $129? Uh... that's pretty damn cheap. What is it? 1/20th the cost of a similarly featured hardware synth? I know that you don't "own" it, you only pay for a license to use it, and it's not something that is as easily sold, but come on. You can say anything about Poly-ana but it's price isn't an issue.

Yeah, an apology is surely in order, but judging by previous interactions he's had with people I'm going to give him a pass. Lots of stuff can spew out after a few nights of no sleep. Honestly, people say booze and drugs are bad but if I were king I'd make driving a car on less than 4 hours sleep illegal. I once had to leave a final critique of a film I made because I could not stop laughing at my own film. I'm sure I seemed close to insanity. Guess what? I bet that if you did a poll you'd find that more than 90% of KVR users have at some point used cracked software. I bet 70% of KVR users still have some on their hard drives. The truth is it's too easy.

Once, I saw ol' A.Q. handle what seemed like a retarded person who kept hijacking Poly-ana threads to complain about some bug. AQ was SUPER patient with the guy who obviously was doing the "I want some free software and I learned that if you walk into a retail place and start screaming people give you stuff for free to shut you up." I've seen it a hundred times. Frankly I'd tell the guy to f off if it were my business, but he was super patient and offered the guy a full refund. I think he did it multiple times. Perhaps that was his crazy move, but really I thought it showed a lot of integrity.

Anyway, if someone found a way to put a "logic bomb" in software that would keep it from being tampered with, I'm actually all for it if it didn't effect me or legal users of the software. Sounds like something Jack Bower would have Chloe do to thwart terrorists. Recently a business that I know really well had its servers (as well as thousands of other companies) were hacked into and it seriously had the potential of bringing the business down. That meant the potential of at least 50 or so employees that I'm would be out of jobs. I'm friends with a lot of those people. What if I were to tell you that a large group of your good friends were jobless due to hackers/pirates? I say all's fair in love and war baby. People put dangerous dogs in their business' and homes at night to keep out thieves. Why is this any different?

The issue isn't that the guy is nuts, but that he claims to have put malicious code into his plugin. That would worry me enough to not even condsider anything he puts out

That's just one issue!

Sure, but to me it's the most worrying as a potential buyer. You can write the rest off as AQ forgetting to take his morning medication, although even then I'd expect an apology to Ben before throwing this guy any cash.

Personally, I think that is a total hoax. But I agree - how can you take a chance on anything like that going wrong? At that price (which was promised to increase, no less!)?

[Meffy]

I think that the mods let'em run, intervene late, lock it and leave it as another feature on the KVR landscape.

When the latest AQ blow-up started I was in bed asleep, and would be for hours. Now, if you'd like to pay me to get up in the wee hours of the morning on the off chance someone might fly off the handle and a thread might need to be locked, feel free. As it is, mods get paid nothing and we do this on our own schedules, when we happen to be awake and not doing other things -- such as working at an actual job so we can afford to buy a few of these cool plug-ins now and then.

Think about this, too: in retrospect it's easy to say "Such-and-such thread started going to hell in a handbasket at post #419," but try doing that while the thread's accumulating new posts at a rate of three a minute. Consider also that threads sometimes swerve back into more reasoned, civil discussion even after major spells of slappyfighting. To lock a thread that might hold promise is to end the possibility that people might think "Wait a minute, why am I taking this belligerent approach? [LBJ] Come, let us reason together. [/LBJ]"

Add to this that when mods intervene early, cries of "Censorship! Jackbooted thuggery! Help, help, I'm being repressed!" are heard from every quarter. :-}

I try to moderate lightly when possible because KVR has traditionally been a fairly rough and wild place, and it wouldn't do to turn it into My Safe Music Playplace. Moderating always involves walking a line between being too lenient and too authoritarian. I think most KVRfolk prefer things be allowed to run their course unless they turn really (rules-bustin') ugly. If err I must, which I sometimes do, I prefer to err on the side of leniency. That's how life is.

Anyway, back (I hope) to discussion of the synth and/or its Receptor compatibility.