Groove Blox Live Virtual Instrument - 30 day demo now available for download

[coops2]

Not planning on bashing anyone but even having watched the video I fail to see the point of the VST Mike.

Why would I choose to use loops in your VST when most hosts offer better facilities. In Reaper, Live, Acid etc I can shift the time or pitch of audio yet if I put it in your VST changing its speed changes its pitch. If I was to change the speed of one of your bass loops then it is out of tune with the rest if my track?

Also you say that the start points may need to be tweaked manually. If I am buying a set of samples designed to work together then they should work together without me messing about with looping points.

Also, you say that I have to manually start the loops in time with each other, why don't they sync? Surely the starting and stopping of the layers should be quantized so that everything else statys in time.

The new website is a big improvement but it still looks home made rather than the professional quality of say Sonic Couture or Puremagnetik.

Your idea has some merit but it is things like this that make it seem unfinished and slightly amateur. You mentioned some comparisons with Stylus RMX earlier in the thread but Spectrasonics don't ask you to set the loop start points of their samples yourself, everything quantizes correctly etc.

[Ryan99]

On my part, if I can make some comments about your marketing.. I bought a couple of your products in the last months. I tried Prizm and I found the sounds to be interesting.

When I bought some other products after that, there was a promotion that you made with the free inclusion of the "Drillz" product that was coming soon. That was many, many weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for that free product with no sign that I will get this anytime soon.

Meanwhile, you launched the Groove Blox, without any mention about the promised Drillz product.

While I like what I tried of your products so far, this last part is very bad customer service.

[Karmacomposer]

On my part, if I can make some comments about your marketing.. I bought a couple of your products in the last months. I tried Prizm and I found the sounds to be interesting.

When I bought some other products after that, there was a promotion that you made with the free inclusion of the "Drillz" product that was coming soon. That was many, many weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for that free product with no sign that I will get this anytime soon.

Meanwhile, you launched the Groove Blox, without any mention about the promised Drillz product.

While I like what I tried of your products so far, this last part is very bad customer service.

Ryan,

I understand. Fact is, I had a LOT of sounds recorded for DRILLZ and after reviewing them, some butthead was talking in most of it, so there just was not enough quality sounds to release a full product (it was recorded at a local machine shop and processing center for metallic garbage - some dude was loud as hell and he must have been very far away because we - we being my best friend and I - never saw him, but there's his damn voice in almost everything).

Therefore, I will be re-recording in a controlled environment various mechanical sounds. There are about 10 or 11 great sounds from the original DRILLZ recording session that are useable, but I want a bit more substantial product before I release it.

Rest assured, the people that bought into that free offer will indeed get it for free when it is released.

As far as an ETA, I am a one-man show, so as soon as I record it, edit it and then master it, I will wrap it up into a useable sample set product (no DrillZ synth, i'm afraid, just an wave file sample-set with one shots and some loops).

Mike

[Santini]

I actually lost the free update in a server crash at my ISP - one of the reasons I had to switch servers. I cannot find them here either. I will look again and if I find them, I will upload them (I assume you are talking about the xmas 'gift' so long ago).

Yep, I did record male vocalists and advertised it - and lo and behold forgot all about it. The female is already there, just have to make sure all the parts of it were included or not.

Since I am done with GrooveBlox, I can take a little time to make sure the vocals part of PRIZM is as advertised. Sorry for forgetting.

Mike

Mike, glad to have jogged your memory and hear that those advertised sounds will finally see the light of day.

Do you have an ETA for this? And by that, I mean an actual timeframe?

For many of us that bought PRIZM back in 2009 (and at prices higher than the fire-sale numbers you tend to sell it for now), this will have been quite the wait.

I'll be honest with you Mike, your "I forgot" response isn't what I expected to hear.

You have to understand that it really sucks to know that I paid good money for an unfinished, and until I asked about a missing feature, a practically abandoned product as well.

If I'd waited a few years later, I could've gotten the "complete" PRIZM, bundled together with whatever products you've made since then (along with whatever else you've been promising)--all at a cheaper price than what I'd paid for it.

You ask why your products don't sell. Apart from GUI and website aesthetics that have been pointed out in this thread, I really think it's this:

Your products aren't finished.

The impression I get based on reading threads about your products is that they're incomplete and/or don't work as advertised.

In my personal experience, we have PRIZM; for others it could be SuperCore; and more recently, you have the Ableton timing issues pointed out for GrooveBlox in this thread.

It's like you just take the money and run on to the next thing.

As a past paying customer, that really grinds my gears. I don't like feeling I've been ripped off.

That being said, my advice to you before you release or even announce your next product is to finish and support the ones we've already paid you money for.

If you can't do that, I'd like a refund for PRIZM, please.

[braj]

I personally think small developers are better off making one product and perfecting it constantly over time. It is way easier to support and if one product continually grows better and better by listening to and implementing the requests of your customers, you will find a loyal and growing base of people who become essentially your sales force via word of mouth. It seems you are doing exactly the opposite of that.

[audington]

I don't want to come across as kicking a man when he's down, and I am always more patient and understanding of small devs that don't have the resources that a big company has (and has real life and a family to deal with, to boot!), but SantiniKVR summed-up perfectly what I have been unable to when it comes to your products not setting the world on fire.

For me it was Supercore. I bought Supercore and Monstrous in a bundle quite some time ago. Monstrous is great and is what sold it to me, I seemed to think I paid a little bit more than Monstrous in a special deal to get Supercore included with it, and I took a chance. At the time Supercore was advertised on the website as having a soundbank built for it which would be delivered soon but in the meantime you could load other sounds into it (or something similar). I took a risk and bought it, but never installed it as I wanted to wait for the inbuilt sounds. I am a preset tweaker at heart, I can build my own sounds but prefer to spend my time writing music rather than designing sounds. It's the same reason I never bother with beta versions of software - I just cannot afford the personal time to be updating software every time I can steal a few hours to spend some time in my home studio - I just want to buy a piece of software, install it, and have it work properly.

A year or two after I had bought them I visited the website again (I think I was looking at Prizm when you were doing a sale on it) and remembered I had Supercore - but the website still said the soundbank was forthcoming. I had forgotten I even owned Supercore until then, and at that point gave up on it for good. It still remains on my hard drive downloaded but not installed.

I'm not even sure where it stands right now, I remember reading somewhere a while back that it seems that there won't ever be a Supercore specific soundbank and that it is just a player for other sounds, and now looking at your new website (which is MUCH better, by the way) Supercore doesn't appear to be listed as a product whatsoever.

I'm not edging for any kind of refund or compensation for Supercore - in my eyes Monstrous is fantastic and is worth what I paid for it - but I really do think that anyone else who bought Supercore and had the same experience I had will certainly scrutinize your releases more than they normally would which lessens the chance of things getting purchased out of passion or on impulse.

For instance, Klang is a nice looking product, the price is good, and I don't particularly need that sort of library right now, but I can't help feeling that I might have picked it up anyway when you were initially hyping it if I had more confidence.

Your early descriptions of Grooveblox Live really sparked my interest. However, because I decided to 'wait and see' rather than jump on it I have ended up not wanting Grooveblox Live as I had been expecting something similar to de la Mancha's Slix plugin with the randomized slicing replaced with MIDI input, but it doesn't seem that's what it is - in GBL's current form it doesn't seem to offer anything more than I could set up in my DAW in more than a couple of minutes. I have only watched the video you posted - I haven't tried the demo - so I may be wrong, but it seems that several people on here have offered advice about GBL that in my opinion would have made it a better product. Maybe you should have a few trusted guys that you can use as beta testers for future products and listen to their feedback regarding features.

Your website and GUIs which had previously been seen as the weak link by many have been addressed and are now a lot better. In my personal opinion you would really benefit from *really* polishing any future products before they are released (before they are hyped, even) and perhaps even getting some beta testers that you trust to try your ideas out on. Good luck Mike, I really mean that.

[Karmacomposer]

I am sorry you all feel that way.

SuperCore was a true let down for me as well. I PAID FOR and used a untested module and suffered because of its idiosyncracies which none of you liked. Also, Synthedit is also partially to blame. My fault for using it. I dunno, to me it made sense. Obviously, only to me did it make sense.

That is why I took it down. I was going to put it as freeware, but the tech support would be a nightmare. That is also why I gave up creating a soundset for it - because, believe it or not, it is more work creating a soundset for that module system than creating the synth itself. I learned a valuable lesson about trying to use a copy protected proprietary system - don't do it! That is why all of my future products (if there will be any more - this backlash is quickly making up my mind to quit the business for good) will use open-ended wave or soundfont loaders.

Tell you what. Anyone that bought SuperCore and has not been able to use it or is highly disappointed for whatever reason, choose any one of my synths or soundsets as a replacement and I will get it to you, no questions asked.

Bit late for a refund on PRIZM. The female vocalist was done eons ago, but I can have the male vocalist finished within 60 days. He sounds a lot like the lead singer from Creed, by the way.

Mike

[darsho]

(1) The market is THAT bad due to a global crappy economy or

(2) I am either the WORST predictor of what people want or

(3) I have been blacklisted or am hated here - or my products simply don't matter

I would really appreciate some HONEST feedback from all KVR members. I would also value feedback on my prices. Are they too high? Too low? What should I adjust?

Hi, you ask for some feedback, sure willing to give some.

Some week ago when you posted the Loops in the iPad section of the forum, I went by your page and watched a couple of vids there. I really enjoyed watching the vids, I like to watch videos about all kind of music equipment much better than watching anything on TV.

Would I buy any of you products ?
No.

I have far too much software stuff already and only recently de-installed many bought products so I can focus on only a smaller number of software. (Komplete, RP Synths, Nomad & TB Effects & Reaper and a couple more).
There is so much stuff available in all cateories already that I think it will be hard to sell a larger number of software products if it ain't DIVA or something from NI, if you know what I mean.

I also must say, while I liked your vids, the page and the GUI didn't look too professional, in my very personal and subjective opinion.
I also thought to myself, I already have about 5 products for each category that I can do the same things with or similar things, why buy something new.
Also when I read on one of your products that you have 32bit VST for Win only, my alarm bell rang and says 'possibly it is Synthedit'. While I know all the arguments for and again Synthedit, I simply never buy anything that is made on that platform, I remember too well the problems with several instances until Synthedit was updated some years ago. Commercially the platform is simply dead for me since then.

Personally, I lately found myself investing in hardware, as I figured I already have everything I need in software and more. I think the software market is pretty saturated with products.
And they come very cheap nowadays. Even top plugins from well-known preffesional developers often ost well belwo a hundred bucks, so it's hard to decide to buy something from a small developer.

For example if I ever buy a nother softsynth (I know you don't make em) or such, I want a preset list that is searchable by tags and totally integrated in Maschine so I can access it from Maschine witout using the computer.
I go for comfort nowadays when I buy prodcuts and they must fit in to what I already have.

I am currently waiting for the Minitaur, thinking about a Tetra and will build me xoxboxes with one of my production partners.
So while you have all my sympathies for your efforts and admiration for having the skills to make plugins (be it with whatever toolkit), I am not buying from you, sorry

However, I wish you good luck and success !

[Karmacomposer]

(1) The market is THAT bad due to a global crappy economy or

(2) I am either the WORST predictor of what people want or

(3) I have been blacklisted or am hated here - or my products simply don't matter

I would really appreciate some HONEST feedback from all KVR members. I would also value feedback on my prices. Are they too high? Too low? What should I adjust?

Hi, you ask for some feedback, sure willing to give some.

Some week ago when you posted the Loops in the iPad section of the forum, I went by your page and watched a couple of vids there. I really enjoyed watching the vids, I like to watch videos about all kind of music equipment much better than watching anything on TV.

Would I buy any of you products ?
No.

I have far too much software stuff already and only recently de-installed many bought products so I can focus on only a smaller number of software. (Komplete, RP Synths, Nomad & TB Effects & Reaper and a couple more).
There is so much stuff available in all cateories already that I think it will be hard to sell a larger number of software products if it ain't DIVA or something from NI, if you know what I mean.

I also must say, while I liked your vids, the page and the GUI didn't look too professional, in my very personal and subjective opinion.
I also thought to myself, I already have about 5 products for each category that I can do the same things with or similar things, why buy something new.
Also when I read on one of your products that you have 32bit VST for Win only, my alarm bell rang and says 'possibly it is Synthedit'. While I know all the arguments for and again Synthedit, I simply never buy anything that is made on that platform, I remember too well the problems with several instances until Synthedit was updated some years ago. Commercially the platform is simply dead for me since then.

Personally, I lately found myself investing in hardware, as I figured I already have everything I need in software and more. I think the software market is pretty saturated with products.
And they come very cheap nowadays. Even top plugins from well-known preffesional developers often ost well belwo a hundred bucks, so it's hard to decide to buy something from a small developer.

For example if I ever buy a nother softsynth (I know you don't make em) or such, I want a preset list that is searchable by tags and totally integrated in Maschine so I can access it from Maschine witout using the computer.
I go for comfort nowadays when I buy prodcuts and they must fit in to what I already have.

I am currently waiting for the Minitaur, thinking about a Tetra and will build me xoxboxes with one of my production partners.
So while you have all my sympathies for your efforts and admiration for having the skills to make plugins (be it with whatever toolkit), I am not buying from you, sorry

However, I wish you good luck and success !

Darsho,

That is by far the most intelligent and enlightening post in this entire thread.

Thank you for your honesty.

Mike

[JavaJ]

Mike, my personal suggestion is to make some RMX/REX/WAV/Apple Loops packs and sell them for dirt cheap like esoundz/Zero-G/Nine-Volt Audio.
I am always looking for add-on's to my collection and those are easy to integrate into what I already have without having to deal with a new synth.
Just a suggestion.

[satchnut]

...
I was very excited about Wusik for a little while but after William's last rant against his customers I permanently uninstalled all Wusik from my computer
...

Are you still here, Cordelia? I know I'm gonna regret this, but could you or someone post a link to this rant? I own an array of Wusik softs, and though I don't plan on uninstalling them, I still like to know of these things.

Sorry about the thread hijack