Sonic Reality

Rycast · Post by **Rycast** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:21 am

It... it did?!

I wish I'd learned this earlier!

I got SS2 working fine, because I got an e-mail with the serial numbers and stuff if I remember right... but all I got for Studiophonik was the three zipped files from my eSoundz.com "My Downloads Member's Area," which contain just weird files that I assumed to be samples. Where and how do I get the engine?... Do I need to go to IK's site? I guess I'll contact support like you said.

Thank you for the reply Squids!

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:27 am

Yeah, it said that it came with SampleTank 2.5 engine on the page but I think at that time the serial had to be emailed to you or something. Now we have serial delivery in the user area but we didn't back then I don't think. Anyway, don't contact IK about it. They won't know anything regarding this. Allen will have to just verify your participation in that Group Buy and see what's what but he'll get you sorted. It's a shame you didn't contact him earlier but I can see how you were confused if you didn't know it CAME with SampleTank. If you'd been waiting all this time just to USE the sounds you bought? Whew!!!! No wonder. That's no good. We'll make it up to you though even though it may not have been our fault exactly.

ynot · Post by **ynot** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:22 am

Squids wrote:Yeah, it said that it came with SampleTank 2.5 engine on the page but I think at that time the serial had to be emailed to you or something. Now we have serial delivery in the user area but we didn't back then I don't think. Anyway, don't contact IK about it. They won't know anything regarding this. Allen will have to just verify your participation in that Group Buy and see what's what but he'll get you sorted. It's a shame you didn't contact him earlier but I can see how you were confused if you didn't know it CAME with SampleTank. If you'd been waiting all this time just to USE the sounds you bought? Whew!!!! No wonder. That's no good. We'll make it up to you though even though it may not have been our fault exactly.

Are you sure about this Squids?The way I remember it we got the Prelude and a free plugin from IK's BOGOF,of which of course SampleTank could be chosen.Those who chose a different plugin thinking they'd get StudioPhonik upon it's release (???) are stuck with samples & no player,at least I am.

NorthSouth · Post by **NorthSouth** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:46 am

Correct, here's the email:

*Dear Esoundz Customer,

We want to thank you for participating in the Studiophonik Prelude Group Buy! We are pleased to tell you that we've reached the lowest price of $199! Your card has been charged and you can expect the Studiophonik Prelude sound downloads to be in your ESOUNDZ member's area this Friday. You'll get the priviledge of being the first in the world to hear, have and create music with the long anticipated sounds of Studiophonik. On top of that, we decided to give EVERYONE who joined the group buy a free upgrade to the future release of the the full Studiophonik plug-in when it comes out in Q1 of next year. If possible, we'll even try to get you all the sounds of the full plug-in FIRST before anyone else has it (could even be this year!). These are one of the perks of participating in an esoundz exclusive group buy.

In the meantime, we have your IK plug-in of choice ready for download right now! Your serial number is:

**************

Follow these instructions on how to download your FREE IK Plug-in of choice from this group buy and enjoy!

go to www.ikmultimedia.com Once there click on "Product Registration". When you get to the "Product Registration" page follow all instructions there.

From everyone at esoundz.com we want to thank you again for making another group buy at esoundz a big success and a lot of fun! Oh and we forgot to mention. We've extended it for ONE MORE WEEK! Keep it going. If the group reaches over 300 people then we'll give you even more sounds in advance of release. Over another 1.5 gigs added on! GOOD LUCK!!!! Extended deadline is Monday, October 6, 2008.*

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:09 pm

ynot wrote:
Squids wrote:Yeah, it said that it came with SampleTank 2.5 engine on the page but I think at that time the serial had to be emailed to you or something. Now we have serial delivery in the user area but we didn't back then I don't think. Anyway, don't contact IK about it. They won't know anything regarding this. Allen will have to just verify your participation in that Group Buy and see what's what but he'll get you sorted. It's a shame you didn't contact him earlier but I can see how you were confused if you didn't know it CAME with SampleTank. If you'd been waiting all this time just to USE the sounds you bought? Whew!!!! No wonder. That's no good. We'll make it up to you though even though it may not have been our fault exactly.
Are you sure about this Squids?The way I remember it we got the Prelude and a free plugin from IK's BOGOF,of which of course SampleTank could be chosen.Those who chose a different plugin thinking they'd get StudioPhonik upon it's release (???) are stuck with samples & no player,at least I am.

I am positive we offered the SampleTank engine so people could play the sounds then (actually SampleTank 2.5 L with extra sounds) OR their choice of IK effect plug-in if they already had SampleTank. There's no way we would have suggested that you get the sounds if you don't have or choose SampleTank and do nothing with them until the full Studiophonik collection is released! That doesn't make any sense. But of course if anyone did that I can understand the frustration then. It's different than someone who is anxious for the additional sounds which I've said are coming but are extremely late... but I've said you guys have MOST of the sounds already so it's not like you're missing crucial pieces these are just extras on top of the great deal everyone already got in the first place.

The Prelude was supposed to be your chance to get a bulk of the sounds from this Studiophonik since many had been anticipating it for a while. We already had those sounds done and thought people should be able to get this since we do have it. On top of that we said as a bonus you could upgrade to the full Studiophonik for free when it's released. I didn't realize it would take this long but we knew you all at least had most of the sounds and got a great deal in the first place. Patience waiting for the free extras in that context seemed reasonable. But of course anyone who was waiting all this time just to use these sounds at all... that's completely different! I don't know how anyone who was thinking that could wait so long and not call support and ask what they're supposed to do in that situation. The obvious answer was that they were supposed to either already own SampleTank (which most of you do in our company forum) or CHOOSE SampleTank when we did the group buy.

It's odd that we could have made the SampleTank engine a REQUIRED part of the group buy but then everyone who had it already would have felt like they were paying for something they didn't need so that's why we made the option to get something else instead... but it seems that extra flexibility is what caused some people to choose an option that could leave them with sounds they couldn't use for so long. I didn't realize that is what some of you did. I can't imagine many did that though but whoever did just contact Allen and we'll get it straightened out so you CAN play the sounds you purchased!

So, we'll take care of anyone in that situation. For everyone else who have been patiently waiting for the "rest" of Studiophonik we'll do something special for you to make up for the delay. The full library will be completed in the next couple of weeks and while it won't be available through IK for a little bit longer than that we'll make it available to you first plus something extra on top as a token of our appreciation for your understanding. This was handled poorly by us so we'll do our best to make it up to you.

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:20 pm

NorthSouth wrote:Correct, here's the email:

*Dear Esoundz Customer,

We want to thank you for participating in the Studiophonik Prelude Group Buy! We are pleased to tell you that we've reached the lowest price of $199! Your card has been charged and you can expect the Studiophonik Prelude sound downloads to be in your ESOUNDZ member's area this Friday. You'll get the priviledge of being the first in the world to hear, have and create music with the long anticipated sounds of Studiophonik. On top of that, we decided to give EVERYONE who joined the group buy a free upgrade to the future release of the the full Studiophonik plug-in when it comes out in Q1 of next year. If possible, we'll even try to get you all the sounds of the full plug-in FIRST before anyone else has it (could even be this year!). These are one of the perks of participating in an esoundz exclusive group buy.

In the meantime, we have your IK plug-in of choice ready for download right now! Your serial number is:

**************

Follow these instructions on how to download your FREE IK Plug-in of choice from this group buy and enjoy!

go to www.ikmultimedia.com Once there click on "Product Registration". When you get to the "Product Registration" page follow all instructions there.

From everyone at esoundz.com we want to thank you again for making another group buy at esoundz a big success and a lot of fun! Oh and we forgot to mention. We've extended it for ONE MORE WEEK! Keep it going. If the group reaches over 300 people then we'll give you even more sounds in advance of release. Over another 1.5 gigs added on! GOOD LUCK!!!! Extended deadline is Monday, October 6, 2008.*

Right. The "On top of that, we decided to give EVERYONE who joined the group buy a free upgrade" part was supposed to be the cherry on top and it turned out to be, for some people, the crucial missing ingredient to be able to use the sounds. Again, we would have never allowed anyone to even do that if we were able to require them somehow to have SampleTank. With sounds there is no way to do that like IK can when they do crossgrades (where it requires a previous product to have been registered). We made it flexible to choose between SampleTank 2.5 L (if you didn't have SampleTank already) or IK effects like AmpliTube Metal, Hendrix etc.

Again, I never would have thought someone would opt to get something other than SampleTank if they didn't already have it if the group buy was mainly for SampleTank sounds! Even if they thought they had to wait until Q1 of 2009 (and of course this is Q3 so even longer) that still surprises me that anyone would sit on the sounds without the ability to use them!!!

I realize it is confusing and apparently even I was confused in this thread because I didn't realize until now that some people just didn't even have SampleTank all this time! But, again, if that's the case we apologize double. We'll do our best to make it up to you if that's you. Next time anyone is under the impression we'd expect you to sit with sounds that can't be played please contact support so we can fix that.

zedd · Post by **zedd** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:33 pm

Squids wrote:I am positive we offered the SampleTank engine so people could play the sounds then (actually SampleTank 2.5 L with extra sounds) OR their choice of IK effect plug-in if they already had SampleTank.

Yes... that's true. I think this was VERY clear to anyone who was following the Group Buy thread. I suppose someone who wasn't paying close attention to that thread could have gotten confused and made a mistake... but I'm also surprised that they didn't say anything sooner.

Mike777 · Post by **Mike777** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:28 pm

True, I also bought the Group Buy and I can attest it was clear that the buyer had the choice of selecting Sampletank or another product. If you didn't have Sampletank or the engine then you could NOT play the Studiophonik library. I chose Sonic Synth, not Sampletank, because I was ok with waiting because we were told back then (in 2008) that Studiophonik should be released in a few months, around Jan or Feb 2009. So I was ok with waiting.

But Studiophonik never came in early 2009 and we were told it was still coming but no firm date was ever announced so now I was getting very frustrated, as I had no way to play the library files, but had expected to able to by JULY 2009! So I PM'd Squids and he quickly got me the Sampletank engine (and some extras).

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:21 pm

We really should have made the SampleTank engine a required part of the GB as opposed to an option. We really did the option as a courtesy to people who already had SampleTank and didn't need it again. But I never would have thought anyone would buy these sounds and NOT get SampleTank and even consider waiting until Q1 (let alone through to Q3 now still) to use them. But, there were hundreds of people in that group buy so some people clearly did that. It's not hard to correct though so just contact Allen. We obviously want you to be able to play the sounds!

I am going to try to get the rest of the sounds ready as soon as possible to so we can close the book on this. IK didn't want to release this as its own plug-in, they want to release it as a library for SampleTank that comes with SampleTank engine. That's not officially announced yet but I've said many times that this is what the future of SPK is going to be. There will also be further enhancements in the future so it really is an ongoing value to this deal. No question the way we handled it was sloppy and confusing. If I could go back in time I'd do it differently with what we know now. But I can't. Our main concern is just that all of our customers are happy though. So, for that it is necessary to contact support because each person's details are different.

As I said though we're going to do something special for EVERYONE who joined that group buy. I will let you know what that is some time toward the end of next week.

Mike777 · Post by **Mike777** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:59 pm

I forget to say in my case that Squids was very helpful to get me the engine asap. He just didn't know some of us were waiting. All I had to do was let him know, so half my fault for not sending a simple email for some help. I'm very impressed with customer service here!

Rycast · Post by **Rycast** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:07 am

Well, I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who got a different freebie plug-in because they were planning to just wait for the full version of Studiophonik. The only reason I decided to do that was because I had heard great things about Sonik Synth 2, and because I had already been wanting Studiophonik. So I figured I'd get Sonik Synth 2 and have it to use, and then get Studiophonik shortly thereafter. Getting SampleTank 2.5 and its sounds along with the ability to immediately use the Studiophonik sounds just wasn't as appealing to me as getting Sonik Synth 2 immediately and being able to use Studiophonik as well after a little while.

Anyway, I'll contact Allen ASAP! I wish I had figured this out sooner. I tried to explain my situation earlier in the thread, but I guess I wasn't very clear.

But no worries, it's all water under the bridge. Thank you Squids!

I'll feel much better once I can finally try out these sounds.

zedd · Post by **zedd** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:35 am

_R__Y__A__N_ wrote:So I figured I'd get Sonik Synth 2 and have it to use, and then get Studiophonik shortly thereafter.

Just curious... couldn't you have just added the Studiophonik sounds into a folder within the Sonik Synth Library and then accessed all the Studiophonik sounds using Sonik Synth?

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:16 pm

Sonik Synth is a closed ROMPler - it will only load and play its own sounds.

Squids · Post by **Squids** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:18 am

I think most people either already had SampleTank or knew they needed to get it. I'd never expect anyone to buy the sounds and wait just to be able to use them. Next time we do a SampleTank sound group buy (if we do one) and we offer the engine I think we'll make it a requirement (even if you own it already) just so we avoid a mess like this. Even if it is just a handful of people out of hundreds I still would not want this to happen again. Also, I have to say that my overly excited generosity by offering the free upgrade to the full product backfired as well since it's many many months later than I thought and not being released as its own plug-in (so it then permanently needs the SampleTank engine to play itself, not just temporarily). But, we're not in charge of that stuff. We just do the sounds. That's the only thing we have control over on the Sonic Reality side. I'm really sorry about the confusion and the wait though. But like I said, we'll make it up to you. The rest of the sounds will be ready in the next couple of weeks (ok, I am not asking you to hold your breath but for those that want any kind of update on it... we're committed to getting wrapped up as soon as possible and IK is going to release it officially as soon as we've got it done). It's very complicated creating sounds like this for SampleTank and at some point it won't be as complicated to create sounds for SampleTank (and that's all I can say on that subject without revealing anything forthcoming).

dachilles · Post by **dachilles** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:25 pm

Forthcoming? Absolutely NOTHING has been forthcoming!

You said you were finishing up your end of the sound for IK a month or more ago. Yet now you say how difficult it is and you are still working on them.

LOL this is truely absurd.

. How long ago was the group buy? How long ago was Studiophonik announced ?

How many other drums; endless drums, have been released since this group buy was announced?

I am done with esoundz

Sonic Reality

KVR Audio

Can We Start the Hype Now?????? StudioPhonik!!!!!!!!!!!!