IK Multimedia T-racks Tape Machine Collection

[jens]

Yes, it is totally obvious that they did the math (or at least think they did it) that tells them they will gain more by shoving their annoying marketing antics down the throat of every customer than they lose by pissing everyone off with it...
Peter has the unfortunate role of having to attempt defending what can't reasonably be defended. I bet he hates his job now and then (but then again: who doesn't)

[kidslow]

Everything IK does it to facilitates easy 'sales and marketing'. Its their business model so that's up to them. Personally I find it it is really annoying (even more so with Amplitude) but you either have to learn to live with it or stop using IK stuff, I suspect only the latter will influence them to change their ways.

Despite owning quite a few TRacks modules I simply uninstalled and switched to other solutions. Pretty much the same thing with Amplitude, still installed (I have MAX) but using it less and less now MAX is less than 50% of what's shown as available!

Would be easier to blame the decline in sales on externalities like COVID-19, rather than searching within and mending the user-unfriendly aspects of their product, so a drop in sales wouldn't even do it. I assume IK has a UX team and somebody inside the company is advocating for these changes being requested to their installer. Perhaps not. Maybe complaining here will get results. Probably not. We know it's not falling on deaf ears, so IK gets a + there, but Peter didn't respond to me, so apparently he's not the advocate we're looking for. I guess Enrico and Gary (and whoever is actually in charge of the installer component) accept that the benefits of the setup today outweigh the costs. I'm ok with the ones I have installed, but disinclines me from wanting to continue acquiring IK plugins. Just saying.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Just to clarify, IK is not blaming anything on anything or anybody. We have any information about the current situation on our web site. We're still working and are happy to be able to continue to provide tools for musicians to adjust their workflow during this time and tools that musicians continue to use in their daily workflow if it wasn't changed.

Comments about installation and UX etc are relayed to the team. Thanks for your input.

Any questions about the T-RackS Tape Machines?

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Peter always gives the same response. Great job you do Peter.

Thank you. I am glad that I am consistently able to relay the facts about these topics to explain these things.

[jamcat]

See, thanks, Arc isn't mentioned at all on that page, even in terms of a future update (The page incorrectly says "Below you will find a list of currently compatible products, a schedule for upcoming updates, and which products require further research." BUT there's only current stuff below, and no schedule for upcoming updates and which products require further research)

Peter -- will Arc be updated to be Cataloina compatible, and when?

Notice that Peter mentioned only that IK is working on "Catalina compatibility for ARC System," not "ARC System 2." I think it's obvious what's going on here. Get your wallets out, Mac users.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Note that the post you quoted mentioned Cataloina so the conspiracy continues!!

But seriously, we'll have more news about this soon, ARC System is the name of the product line like just like T-RackS or AmpliTube, etc. We worked hard on all lines of software that were macOS compatible long before Catalina was even available and continue to work on compatibility where necessary and by whatever means necessary to bring each different product line up to Apple's new standards (which were set long after any of these products were available or updated).

Unless you purchased a new Mac, you were under no obligation to update macOS on any existing setup on which ARC System (whatever version) was installed.

[revvy]

Peter always gives the same response. Great job you do Peter.

Thank you. I am glad that I am consistently able to relay the facts about these topics to explain these things.

When IK eventually remove this BS system I look forward to your professional spin Mr Spin Doctor.

If the IK devs were the public face of the company rather than the marketeers, I think it would be quite a beloved company, their products are often great.

[jamcat]

OK, Peter.

Conspiracy or not, since ARC 2.5 is still currently being sold, and new Macs have been shipping with Catalina for a while now, will ARC System 3 be a free upgrade for users who purchased ARC 2.5 after a certain date?

[pixel85]

A bit OT:
Damn those Tapes are amazing! Totally worth to kill my CPU with those plugins
It's the first tape emulation plugin that can upgrade the sound, not downgrade it with weak saturation and useless artefacts. I don't have experience with real reel2reel (no regrets ) but now I understand why others were saying that tape emulations are nothing like the real thing. I suppose that IKM emulation is a good one because every time I'm using it, the sound is getting better - so I see the point to use tape for the first time.
It works with Techno/Trance, now I tried to do new master of old Synthwave track and 80 + 24 did the almost whole job to bring it to next level.
I'm really surprised that those plugins seem to be under the radar but well... hidden gem let it be


*Post written days after first plugin usage so this is not the effect of a dopamine shot caused by the purchase of a new shiny toy

[donato]

I was reading about the positive reviews about this plug and considering buying, but then saw you have to download like their whole catalog to get the product, and also the same thing for updates??? Is this true? That would be a dealbreaker for sure.

[jinotsuh]

Yes it's true.
Never really bothered me.
But that's just me, YMMV (and obviously does)

[DarkStar]

I was reading about the positive reviews about this plug and considering buying, but then saw you have to download like their whole catalog to get the product, and also the same thing for updates??? Is this true? That would be a dealbreaker for sure.

Yes, T-RackS is a single download. Why a deal-breaker? inconvenient, perhaps Just delete the others, or hide them (permanently) in your DAW. It's just disk space.

Having said that, I'm not keen on it either.

[paolostylo]

The current installation process was created based on user feedback and facilitates easy demoing as well as offline authorization. However, I relay suggestions from those who do not want to install all plugins in the suite and/or who do not have or wish to use their DAW's plugin manager or similar to keep them off their plugin list.

Peter, I frankly find it hard to believe that *any* customer has asked that all the plugins in the suite be installed on their system regardless of whether they are licensed or wanted. A pick list with choices on install seems to be far more user-friendly. The way you do it now seems dictated by the marketing department rather than the user experience team.

For anyone who is curious, my method to avoid the huge tracts of IK cruft on install (Mac) is to open the .pkg file using Pacifist and manually pull out just the plugins I want installed where I want them placed. I also install all the pak files that go into /Library/Application Support/IK Multimedia and the Presets into ~/Documents/IK Multimedia/.../Presets/ .... but this process is overly burdensome. It is however wholly in my control, and I have not encountered any problems with licenses doing it this way. Would be nice if the installer made this less manually intensive.

Peter...............
Everybody knows how annoying it is and sorry to bring this old story up again:
Someone wants to install only one IK plugin (for example White 2A) but is forced to install your entire T-RackS catalogue...
Now you have a new install-software called Product Manager...
And still there is no way to choose only the plugin(s) that I want to be installed on my harddrive...
Sorry, don't say something about "it's for better demoing reasons"...
And like kidslow said before: it's absolutely hard to believe that any or most of the customers want all of the plugins to be installed on their system...
But with this new Product Manager you had the chance to make things better but didn't...
The point is: you do not hear your customers and that is really a pity...

[kidslow]

Peter...............
Everybody knows how annoying it is and sorry to bring this old story up again:
Someone wants to install only one IK plugin (for example White 2A) but is forced to install your entire T-RackS catalogue...
Now you have a new install-software called Product Manager...
And still there is no way to choose only the plugin(s) that I want to be installed on my harddrive...
Sorry, don't say something about "it's for better demoing reasons"...
And like kidslow said before: it's absolutely hard to believe that any or most of the customers want all of the plugins to be installed on their system...
But with this new Product Manager you had the chance to make things better but didn't...
The point is: you do not hear your customers and that is really a pity...

I went through the process with their new Product Manager once, and not only did it not make things better it may have made them worse, in that you have no other way to authenticate and thus *must* install all their products simply to authenticate any new product. My previously authenticated plugins still work and I haven't actually tried to install anything anew and there may be a work-around, but the point remains that the company released a replacement product 100% directly targeted at the user experience of product installation and 100% did not take into the design any feedback from users, at least those of us here on kvr complaining about the burdensome installation.

I personally have decided that IK Multimedia does not have the best interests of their customers in mind and I will not buy any more of their products. None of them are so unique nor special that they cannot be replaced.

[acousticglue]

I personally have no idwa why people continually harp on this single thing. Stop being stupid and delete the files associated. If you don't know how then throw your computer in the trash and stop using this forum to talk about it