Eiosis AirEQ v1.3

[Eiosis]

Thanks bduffy - have you been in the user zone? I'm just trying to see how dev/cust interactions work with new feature requests & support. Usual kind of stuff in other words...like the forums at other companies.

We planned to make more features avalaible on the website, a more complete user zone, with a forum, version history, etc.. I agree that it is very important to have this kind of tools on a website to keep our users informed and to get some feedback, whishes and bug reports from them. I'm working on it !

Yeah, but not for awhile...I forgot my logon!
I know he's working on AirEQ as we speak...

Yes, it is a feature which is missing on the site : a "lost password" link.. Will be also available soon, for sure ! And yes.. I'm working on the update.. and other things.. and.. lol

Fabrice,
Eliosound

[aMUSEd]

Last time I tried the user area all it had was a form to change your details unless I was doing something wrong - it would be nice to be able to do more like dl the latest version etc

[bduffy]

Holy crap! Excited about the next update!

[Bill OC]

Fabrice, as a new and so far very satisfied customer, may I make a suggestion?

One of the main hurdles you have in closing sales seems to be the dongle protection. If you were to clearly and prominently spell out the procedure for replacing a defective dongle (and its authorization), it might ease some potential customers' apprehension about the dongle. For example: "What do I do if my dongle fails?" "How long will I be without AirEQ?" "What happens if your company goes out of business?"

If you address issues like these right up front, you may find less resistance to the dongle, and an increase in sales.

Regards,

Bill OC

[Eiosis]

Fabrice, as a new and so far very satisfied customer, may I make a suggestion?

That is what I wait from Eliosound's customers !
And what we need to constantly improve our products and service.

One of the main hurdles you have in closing sales seems to be the dongle protection. If you were to clearly and prominently spell out the procedure for replacing a defective dongle (and its authorization), it might ease some potential customers' apprehension about the dongle.

I already thought about all these aspects, because choosing the dongle protection implies that we do not report all the responsibility on the customer. Dongle protection is our choice, so we must take care that it has the less possible influence on our customer's work.
As a musician, I personally prefer dongle protection because I found that re-authorizing all my software when re-installing a system is a real pain. Also, if I want to work on another computer, dongle allows me to do it without re-authorizing again all my software.

Anyway, our goal is to make some professionnal products, with professionnal quality and features, which run on every OS and host, with a rather professionnal price, so we must have a professionnal policy !

This includes the dongle policy, and we do not think, as some other companies, that "the dongle is the true value of your software". What you buy from us is the licence to use our software, the dongle is only a way to carry this licence.

About your precise questions, we must give precise answers. I must admit that for the moment I have not been having the time to deeply study all the aspects of how we can process in such cases, but I can give some elements of response :

"What do I do if my dongle fails?"

If your dongle fails and that it is not broken, the replacement must be free of charge. If it is broken, we may charge with a fee that corresponds to the replacement costs. Syncrosoft stores which licence is on which dongle, even in the case of licence transfert. (see Syncrosoft website) The real problem is to know how to process if your dongle carry several licences from different companies. Your question make me think that we must clear up this situation, and eventually find a global process in this case, with other companies.

"How long will I be without AirEQ?"

We ship via FedEx international priority, and a dongle takes about two days to reach any place in the world. Anyway, if you have another dongle, we may find a system to have a zero-downtime policy, like iLok has. Again, a question that must be cleared up.

"What happens if your company goes out of business?"

First of all, we would be the saddest persons in the world !! More seriously, before closing our business, we would do all our possible to be sure that our customers will be able to use our products for life. We could transfer the products to another company for example...


Be sure that these questions will be deeply studied and that our policy regarding dongle and all these questions will be available soon on our website, as for the replacement procedure description and requirements. It seems that even 24 hours a day of work won't be sufficient for me currently , but I'll do my best to get back with precise answers as soon as possible.


Fabrice,
Eliosound

[marcanw]

I know this is a very sensible question for a development team (I owned a development company), but I think a more deep thinking about whether a copy protection worth it, especially with a physical key, would be interesting.
Knowing that even a physical protection is cracked very quickly, you (or the customer) has to pay for it (the copy protection), the management of it for you and especially for the customer is a pain, ...
In the end it makes the cracked version more attractive because the potential customer is sure that he doesn't have to bother with it. For the person who wants to have it for free, he will have it anyway. So it does just bother the person who has paid… I don't think its good.

[Bill OC]

Fabrice, as fellow musician I like your attitude about the dongle only being a copy protection device, not the license itself! (If you must have the dongle, that is. )

Thank you for your detailed and positive response.

My questions were really just examples of the types of questions and concerns many people have about dongles in general. (With the high quality of your product and your helpful attitude, the odds seem good that you'll be in business for a long time. )

Regards,

Bill OC

[cl516]

anyone else been using this lately? how u guys like it?

[JeffSanders]

It saved my ass from buying the Waves SSL bundle. I was able to get a comparable (possibly better) sound with the AirEQ and PSP Mastercomp (just a/b'ing the SSL's stock preset settings with this combo). (Not truly scientific, but enough to convince my ears.) And the AirEQ allows for a really intuitive workflow.

And as mentioned, the cpu usage is unbeatable.

[Eiosis]

It saved my ass from buying the Waves SSL bundle. I was able to get a comparable (possibly better) sound with the AirEQ and PSP Mastercomp (just a/b'ing the SSL's stock preset settings with this combo). (Not truly scientific, but enough to convince my ears.) And the AirEQ allows for a really intuitive workflow.

And as mentioned, the cpu usage is unbeatable.

Thanks for your kind comments !!

Moreover, AirEQ version 1.1 is up on our website now !!
Since the news has not been published yet on KVR, and that there is no real news on our website for the moment, here are the news !!

Eliosound releases AirEQ 1.1 :

Check out this page to download the new version : http://www.eliosound.com/aireqdownload

New Features:

• Direct keyboard entry of the parameter values
• Reset to knob init setting with Ctrl-Click
• Initialize knob init setting with Ctrl-Right Click
• Init settings are permanently saved
• More factory presets, for mixing, mastering and instruments
• More characters allowed in Band Names and Preset Names
• More logical and clearer popups when managing bank renaming
• Keyboard entry can now be validated without enter

Bug Fixes:

• Multiple instances problems under various hosts fixed
• Protools bug when using AirEQ with other plugins in the same track fixed
• OSX installation limitation fixed
• Fine tuning problems with some hosts fixed
• A change in a band name now indicates that the preset were modified

More features are to be done in the next versions, so submit your whishes list now !!

Fabrice,
Eliosound

[K-Slash]

Keep up the good work.

[cl516]

Ha, just in time Fabrice.
I bought mine last night.

[JeffSanders]

Hey Fabrice -

These are not your every day presets! That's a really ingenious new way to think of presets.

I'm impressed with the new options...love this eq.

[Eiosis]

Keep up the good work.

Merci !!
We will do !!

Ha, just in time Fabrice.
I bought mine last night.

Yes ! We at least owe you that ! lol
Don't hesitate to post here your mixing experiences with AirEQ and your whishes about it (or your request for a refund if you finally do not like it ).

Hey Fabrice -
These are not your every day presets! That's a really ingenious new way to think of presets.
I'm impressed with the new options...love this eq.

In fact there is a bunch of presets which are "preshaped" and that initially modify the sound, but the concept of the other presets is totally different. Each band has a name which is representative of its audible effect, like : presence, body, acidity, etc..

Even for me that conceived the presets, it is very useful : it prevents myself from over correcting the sound or to use too much equalization bands, and it allows me to ask myself for the good questions before equalizing.

For mastering, you can take for example two instances of AirEQ, one for the general balance of the song and the other for more precise corrections. Don't think that you will use all the bands of the two instances, but it will be simpler this way. For the first instance, choose the "Mastering I" preset. Is your mix lacks of density ? (mixes always misses density lol) Add some density. Too much brightness ? Pull down the clarity. On the second instance, take the "Mastering II" preset, for corrective equalization. Is your mix sound too "boomy" ? Pull down the band named UnBoom, etc..

Obviously, the presets are not a response to all the situations or for all mastering purposes, but it helps you to keep in mind that equalization needs ear analysing first, and will helps you to make your own presets, suited to your audio material.

The AirEQ's band name system allows you to add another dimension to your work : since equalizing is intrinsically "additive" (each band effect is added to the others), each band could represents one of the sound characteristics. It is more convenient, faster and easier to ask yourself for the right questions before equalizing : what are the principal characteristics of the sound (body, presence, string noise, sub bass, etc...), and what characteristics are missing or are too loud in the sound ?

During the mix, you can also retrieve faster what makes your sound : for example if you equalized an intrument at the beginning of the mixing process, you may want to add more body or more presence to this instrument when all the other instruments are mixed. Whith AirEQ's band names, it can not be easier if you managed it so that each equalization band is named and represents a sound characteristic.

This is also one of the main reasons why I did not implemented a graphical display of the equalization curve in AirEQ : without a curve, you can be focused on the parameters that really characterize the sound, and keep all your listening attention only on the things that need correction, not on the "supposed shape that would be OK".

Fabrice,
Eliosound

[bduffy]

Wow, these presets are really cool...it's so neat to see the name of the sound you're going for! For someone like me, this is really perfect. I'm still struggling to memorize/visualize my Hertz - what a big help and, once again, really demonstrates how AirEQ shines by being musical and unique.

I'm off to add "density" to my mixes!