Lennard Apathy Summary For Potential Customers

[PaulsAcademy]

I first heard of Sylenth1 from the Computer User Top 10 video at Youtube. Then I downloaded the demo, and absolutely loved the sound. Then I began the usual investigation that precedes spending $200 on anything, and that is where the trouble began.

Lennard's website opens with conversational blogs posts... from January 2009. I could only ask myself, "what happened to this guy, who seemed to be so friendly with his customers, that he has been gone for more than a year? Is he still alive? Can I trust giving $200 to his automated store?"

Then I come here, and I see thread after thread talking about this, and it took a long time to read and comprehend what's really going on. What a waste of time for me. Yet another black mark on Lennard's reputation. Not because of bad things other say about him, but because of the lack of good things that Lennard does here.

I'll disregard the people who support Lennard no matter what he does. I understand their enthusiasm for Sylenth1, but I cannot respect their support for a bad businessman, bordering on shady business. Especially when a simple, but important bug hasn't been fixed yet (the memory leak).

On the storefront purchase page, the stated benefits of paying $200 for this synth include free presets/soundbanks and updates. That's a stated selling point. It also clearly states that buying Sylenth1 supports R&D for future products. Yet, there obviously aren't any updates, and there is not even a whiff of a hint of future products. Worse, there isn't any explanation for why there aren't any updates. There's no communication at all. Yet there was in 2009. The abrupt end of communication gives the distinct impression that either 1) Lennard is dead or incapacitated, or 2) He just doesn't give a damn any more. It's inexcusable for potential customers to have to go through this much effort to figure all of this out. What about all those potentials who don't even know about KVR, or this forum? The only thing they have to go on is an apparently dead and abandoned website. For them, Sylenth1 is, at best, the finest-sounding roulette wheel in town. That is bad business.

I'll probably still buy Sylenth1. But I only decided to do that after the very recent thread here from people who have recently bought it, and received it. That's the only evidence I have that I won't get stiffed if I pay $200 at Lennard's store. All other considerations aside, this is just plain bad business. It's amateurish, negligent, and irresponsible. Daily responses to these forums are not necessary to maintain decent customer relations. The only thing required is that the developer gives a damn. The abandoned blog on his website (ca. 2009) says, simply, "I just don't give a damn".

It's a shame too, because I've never seen so much potential in a soft synth product, except for Zebra2. And when you look at the way Urs manages his customer relations, he appears to be a competent and trustworthy businessman as well as a talented developer. I have nothing but confidence in U-He products, yet I have nothing but apprehension about Lennard's products. Again, not because of what others say about him, but because of what Lennard himself refuses to DO. And that is Lennard's fault alone. The man is blessed to have a fan base that really wants to see HIM succeed, both professionally and financially. That base would make this man a multi-millionaire if he gave them the chance to do so, and he has squandered that goodwill like George W. Bush squandered the world's goodwill after 911. (People continued to support Bush unconditionally, incidentally...).

So if people want to complain about Lennard's failures here, I say, let them, and leave them alone to do so. At the very least, they were promised updates, and they have every right to expect a known bug fix after all this time. Until Lennard decides to take control of the situation again, he should expect nothing but chaos in these forums. That's a consequence of how he runs his business. Stop blaming people who post legitimate complaints here (as opposed to malicious bitchers), even if they keep complaining. Lennard has given them nothing better to discuss. If it wasn't for those complainers, I would have had no idea what I was getting into as I contemplated spending $200 here.

So to those of you who complained, thank you for informing me. And to those who only whined about "complainers", thanks for wasting my time. And to Lennard, well... thanks for nothing, really.

For my part, that's all I have to say on the subject. Hopefully I've saved the uninitiated from wasting as much time as I have here, just to learn what any competent business would have made obvious from the beginning: If I send them my money, I WILL receive the product (albeit, without the promised updates, bug fix, etc).

All the best,
Paul

[tehlord]

Who are you?

[yellowfever]

Who are you?

and what do you want? Sylenth haters do not belong here

[rob_lee]

FNuck me how long did it take you to type all that

I know people in the other thread think Lennard is dead but really hang in there...Im not privvy to any inside info but i bet he's working on V2....

rOB

[Ingonator]

...and Sylenth1 is still on his personal "Hall of fame":

http://cdn3.libsyn.com/paulsacademy/pau ... 6301928648

[thecontrolcentre]

Sylenth haters do not belong here

I didn't see anything about hating Sylenth from the OP ... in fact he says he's going to buy it, despite his concerns about future development.

[rob_lee]

So he's saying he may purchase it yet it's in his hall of fame

I'll probably still buy Sylenth1. But I only decided to do that after the very recent thread here from people who have recently bought it, and received it.

Lol

[samsam]

There's just something obscene about asking a U.S. citizen to pay for Europe's socialist system, especially when our own Congress is stealing our money to create their own socialist system.

Nah, don't think Paul will be buying Sylenth, it would mean donating more money to Europe's socialist system *chuckle*

[1-2-Many]

I don't understand all these claims that Lennard is uninvolved - he regularly responds in the preset thread(and on his site in adding those .fxp in response to preset requests). In fact the last batch were added March 08, 2010.

I know of no other dev that is so actively involved in granting preset requests, or answering questions about sound design in his synth - much appreciated Lennard.

[djanthonyw]

The thing is these people have ADD when it comes to updates. They expect an update every month...

[audiosabre]

...and Sylenth1 is still on his personal "Hall of fame"

I just had to comment on this 'Hall of fame'. Morphine? Are you kidding me? I've been an Image-Line/FL fanboy for the past decade, but morphine? Have you actually heard it's resynthesis engine? It just sounds poo. Each to their own I guess. I'm not privy to turd polishing. There is alchemy up there, which does what morhpine failed to do. Why the f**k morphine. I can think of at least 100 other synths worthy of a hall of fame: Where is ImpOSCar?

Good luck on bashing Lennard though. Seems like a really ethical thing to do considering the threads of the past. I guess it's cool to bash Lennard these days.

I hate you Lennard. Look, I "fit in", for once in my life I'm just another brick in the wall

John

[Doug1978-OLD]

...
All the best,
Paul

Hi Paul

Sorry, I didn't understand all of your post but if you're able to work with 32-bit, buy Sylenth now - it's brilliant and I don't know of any major 32-bit problems.

However, if you have to work purely with the 64-bit version, wait a few months for the fix.


Ultimately though it's just one synth plug-in, and not worth getting too fret up about if you haven't bought it yet.


Peace
Doug

[Echoes in the Attic]

Paul, you're too caught up in the negative sentiments around here that are out of control. He's not that absent, he does reply to support requests and provide presets etc. He just doesn't talk about the status of future developments and updates. I've been frustrated by the lack of communication about where sylenth1 is heading too, but it's not so bad as you're making it seem. Lennard even said a couple days ago he was working on an update.

Is Minimonsta dead? Is synplant dead?

This stuff is out of hand and getting silly.

[D N A]

For f*** sake, he's not running blog, he's selling good / very good / amazing plugin praised by very good producers. Why do people expect that he'll update his website ? What if his plugin is so amazing that it requires no updates ? Just buy it, use it and have fun. Jeez, people are getting weirder and weirded. Why suddenly every developer needs to have twitter or other crap ??? Releasing amazing product is not enough ?

ps. It's not about you Paul. It's about the people who expect, I dont know, a daily chit chat with developer 24 h / day ? It's really getting boring bashing developer for not communicating with people on some forum.

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