Meldaproduction acquired by Image-Line???

[dmbaer]

What if Vojyech - God forbid - had a serious accident as an example.

Fun fact: one of Vojtech's main pastimes is rock climbing.

[Scotty]

I guess that is one reason we get free updates ... for life.

Fun fact: one of Vojtech's main pastimes is rock climbing.

[ozonepaul]

I hope the documentation will see some improvements

100% agreed!
Melda plugins are amazingly capable tools but in my opinion the documentation is horrible.
I'm a long time CompleteBundle user, so now I'm pretty comfortable using Melda plugins but at the beginning I suffered a lot trying to figure out the different functions of the GUI. The help (F1) and the user guide text is really not user friendly and (in my opinion) pretty badly written. I've learnt everything from Melda youtube tutorial videos, I found the documentations to be useless.

Companies like Bitwig, Sonible etc do a great job as far as how to facilitate the early user experience with extremely easy to use "quick guide"/"GUI tour"/ "GUI info"/"Inspector view" on screen documentation.

Eg. In Bitwig you just press F1 and there is a visually extremely coherent, very short explanation of the different functions. On top, this "info/help/inspector window" functions as normal, so tweaking parameters in this "help/info/inspector window" works as normal, it affects the audio, just like in the normal GUI.

-

pick 1.JPG

When first opening a Sonible plugin it offers a "quick GUI tour". It's super easy to follow, very well written, to the point, everything succinctly stated.

-

pick 2.JPG

Now compare these to Melda's endless text (very often generic, not even specific to the actual plugin):

-

pic 3.JPG

If Image-Line could invest a bit in Melda products, if they could help/provide resources to Vojtec eg. to improve the documentation, create an efficient/easy to follow on-screen GUI quick tour, than I think Melda plugins could become way more popular.

[Tagirijus]

- Or perhaps what Scott wrote about UVI is true for Melda as well, so Melda and Image-Line "will continue to work independently from a product perspective"?

I guess so and see no point for them to change anything crucial. This probably would just scare away their customers.

- Will this "merge" (change of ownership) affect current Melda users as far as free-for-life updates, further product development etc.?

As you also quoted here:

"No, we will not mess with their business or stop the sale of their VST/AU etc, that would be silly. (...) [A]nd both businesses will continue to work independently from a product perspective."

.. so I guess that for the users / customers everything should feel the same. I only guess that products just might get better over time with joint forces. (;

Oh nooooo.... Time to watch pure data and supercollider tutorials again.

Or maybe do not think about it too much and just make music! (;

Melda and UVI introducing subscriptions definitely show that the pressure of subscriptions is gradually creeping up to them.

While AFAIK at Melda at least it's no real subscription, but rather some kind of payment by installments. As much as I hate subscription-models, such a move is totally okay to me, since it still means free lifetime updates in the end.

I read that too.

Glad you wrote this to us and let us know. With that this whole topic gains so much more value . . .

I have always been blown away by their coding efficiency. That framework if transferable would be gold.

I guess this will stay the same. Just a personal feeling, though.

Melda will stay Melda, same with UVI and the others.

I want to state that this guy is official IL support (Hi Hevy! ). So as I wrote above: all mentioned companies will keep on doing great things as they did before.

why haven't Melda communicated this to its users? Does it mean Melda/Image Line are not in sync somehow?

I see no advantage to the user to know that, when things will stay the same for the user in the end. But it's just a guess. Sure, you can feel tricked as a user to not know that suddenly a way bigger company is behind your one-man-show ... but as long as there are still frequent updates and everything still feels the same without big business changes ... I as a user do not care that much anyway.

[al808]

100% agreed!
Melda plugins are amazingly capable tools but in my opinion the documentation is horrible.

Hi ozonepaul, for me the thing is, decades ago, after spending years doing things in Logic in a real convoluted way - and then discovering that they provided a super easy/fast way of doing whatever I was attempting - I finally saw the point of reading the documentation. What I've done ever since is read manuals from cover to cover, not to necessarily remember or even understand everything, but to be made aware of what procedures were made available in the software, the existence of which one can't always guess. And don't getting me started with the trolling/dereliction-of-duty endless repetition aspect of so-called manuals.

[ozonepaul]

100% agreed!
Melda plugins are amazingly capable tools but in my opinion the documentation is horrible.

Hi ozonepaul, for me the thing is, decades ago, after spending years doing things in Logic in a real convoluted way - and then discovering that they provided a super easy/fast way of doing whatever I was attempting - I finally saw the point of reading the documentation. What I've done ever since is read manuals from cover to cover, not to necessarily remember or even understand everything, but to be made aware of what procedures were made available in the software, the existence of which one can't always guess. And don't getting me started with the trolling/dereliction-of-duty endless repetition aspect of so-called manuals.

I'm fine with manuals if it's well put together. Reading eg. the manual of my RME audio interface was one of the best/most educational experience. It was easy to read, very informative, logically put together... it was well worth reading it from cover to cover.
But when it comes to eg. a compressor plugin , I do not feel like I should read what eg. the "attack" or "ratio" knob does... I know it for more than 20 years.

As a clear example here is my problem with Melda's documentation:
See eg. the manual of a Melda compressor
https://www.meldaproduction.com/downloa ... boComp.pdf
than the manual of a Sonible compressor.
https://www.sonible.com/wp-content/uplo ... p2_v10.pdf

In my opinion the wording, the presentation etc is much clearer in the Sonible manual. But there is already a greater problem already at the very beginning: the Melda manual doesn't have a "content page". Non whatsoever. So eg. if I'm looking for something very exact than it takes 4x as long to find an answer in the melda manual as it takes in the sonible manual. + Even Melda's complex instruments like MSoundFactory or MDrummer do not have content pages even though those manuals are way longer than 100 pages. Not having a content page in a manual just doesn't make any sense to me. And that's just one critic.

Sonible's SmartComp content page:

sonible content page.JPG

-

So even though I agree with you that sometimes reading the full manual can be very useful, I do not think it is (or that it should be) always a must. But in all cases, a manual has to be well put together, it has to have a content page at the beginning, it has to follow a product specific logic, it should use clear visual clues etc. In my opinion the quality/ usability of Melda's manuals and F1 help pop-ups are just not up to where it should be. Especially considering the audio quality, the complexity and the creative potential of these Melda plugins.

My 2 cents,

[MeldaProduction]

Hey folks, so , yes, it is true, not to worry - we are working basically independently, but it gives us more resources. So nothing is changing, just getting some opportunities .

[stimresp]

Hey folks, so , yes, it is true, not to worry - we are working basically independently, but it gives us more resources. So nothing is changing, just getting some opportunities .

Congrats Vojtech! I hope the new arrangements work out for you, you deserve the success

[Hevy_IL]

Oh nooooo.... Time to watch pure data and supercollider tutorials again.

Or maybe do not think about it too much and just make music! (;

It's like music to my ears to hear that from a person that I watched skipping through presets for hours to test a synth and rambling about 0.4% more CPU usage on some presets .

(Hi Hevy!

Hi!

And yes, exactly as I said, there is no change forced on anyone.
Melda is Melda, and will stay what we love it for.

Melda and UVI introducing subscriptions definitely show that the pressure of subscriptions is gradually creeping up to them.

While AFAIK at Melda at least it's no real subscription, but rather some kind of payment by installments. As much as I hate subscription-models, such a move is totally okay to me, since it still means free lifetime updates in the end.

There is nothing wrong with subscription as long as you are able to own products if you decide to.
I would rather pay 1000€ to Adobe to own Photoshop than paying monthly.

But rent to own is fully okay with me, I would even prefer to use that for a lot of things.
But it really depends, if I can put it on my tax deduction than obviously not .

Melda (quoted from the website):
Get a permanent licence when done
That's right! When the sum of your payments levels the full MCompleteBundle price at the time you first subscribed you'll get the full permanent licence; no more payments, ever.

UVI:
As far as I can see, everything is also open to be purchased, so there are no issues in my book.
If I only have one contract and do not need all of their stuff for longer than 6 months, why should I pay the full price is they basically offer me to not do so.

FL Studio:
I would even love a rent to own option for the DAW here, but please no subscription with no target you can reach.

[Tagirijus]

It's like music to my ears to hear that from a person that I watched skipping through presets for hours to test a synth and rambling about 0.4% more CPU usage on some presets .

It was more than just 0.4%!

... but seriously: point taken, hehe.

[Hexspa]

Congrats. I'm surprised FL Studio gets 30k daily installs. Not because of the quality but the scale. I guess when you factor in the whole world...

Lifetime updates got you my money and it'll get you my money in the future. lol ok nevermind

[vectorwarrior]

Having gone through a couple of acquisitions myself, I'm more interested in how things change over the longer term. Typically an acquirer doesn't implement changes for a year or two so to not spook existing customers. I'm curious to see what their strategy is in the long term and if they'll make things exclusive to platforms or daws. Hopefully not and it just allows vojtech to push things in ways that weren't possible before, resources were clearly a limiting factor for him so this may be a good move, let's see!

[Held]

Maybe the MixingRevolution will be FL Studio exclusive...

[mevla]

Having gone through a couple of acquisitions myself, I'm more interested in how things change over the longer term. Typically an acquirer doesn't implement changes for a year or two so to not spook existing customers.

I've experienced that too. I was wondering a year later after the acquisition by a very large German company, why experienced key developer and support people were leaving when it all seemed so good being backed by a large company. Two years later it became apparent that development was heading to Germany, as well as software design decisions.

So yes, it's not apparent in the first year or so.

[Svama]

Hey folks, so, yes, it is true, not to worry - we are working basically independently, but it gives us more resources. So nothing is changing, just getting some opportunities.

But what does this mean exactly.
What kind of resources and opportunities?
A collaboration with the guys of cockos would make much more since in my opinion.
Why Imageline?