Vaz Modular

[elassi]

I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

... and pay teh VAT.

[wagtunes]

I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

... and pay teh VAT.

Yes, I would.

I would pay almost anything for a great modular synth. They are my biggest weakness.

[EvilDragon]

AFAIK, VAZ is coded in Delphi, which seems to be particularly hard/ardurous/complex to compile in 64-bit, depending on how things were coded and which libraries were used (prime example: FL Studio took how long to become 64-bit?). So, while I would also wish for it to go there, it's probably more realistic to just see it as 32-bit for life.


Thankfully I don't notice any performance or stability hit with Reaper's built-in bridge.

[elassi]

Thankfully I don't notice any performance or stability hit with Reaper's built-in bridge.

[Numanoid]

Is Vaz products discontinued for good, or how long does the dev plan not to sell them?

[wagtunes]

Is Vaz products discontinued for good, or how long does the dev plan not to sell them?

The only answer I can give you is the response I got from Martin when I emailed him on 12/29/2014.

He had this to say in response to the malicious exe message I was getting from Chrome on trying to download the demo.

Hi Steven,

Dealing with anti-virus claiming software is viral/malicious is a game of whack-a-mole where some of the holes have cages over them... but as there is also a problem with the 1st Jan change to UK/EU VAT law making selling through Paypal unviable I don't see any point in spending any time on this. If the "machine" wants old software dead so be it.

Martin

So take what you want from that. I don't think he's planning on selling Vaz again unless the VAT laws change.

[ZeePok]

 
So why doesn't he switch to that minimum donation system like AJL?

@Wagtunes: I thought you were going to email him again ...?
 

[wagtunes]

 
So why doesn't he switch to that minimum donation system like AJL?

@Wagtunes: I thought you were going to email him again ...?
 

You know, I was going to but he just seemed so annoyed the first time I wrote I decided to just drop the whole thing. I seriously doubt that anything I could say would suddenly make him start selling this thing again.

[Daags]

... but he just seemed so annoyed the first time I wrote ...

hmm. I wonder why that is.

[wagtunes]

... but he just seemed so annoyed the first time I wrote ...

hmm. I wonder why that is.

I think it would be obvious. He's disgusted with the new VAT laws which have essentially, in his opinion, put him out of business.

I can pretty much understand how he feels.

[zerocrossing]

... but he just seemed so annoyed the first time I wrote ...

hmm. I wonder why that is.

It's an age old story. The kind of personality it takes to run and be the face of a business is rarely the one that can do the coding. I met Bob Moog once during a Q&A after the Theremin movie, and a person asked, "Will you ever do a MIDI theremin (this was during the Big Brier days)?" and he launched into one of the most curmudgeonly tirades you'll ever hear about the evils of MIDI and how samples were squeezing the life out of music. (Ironically a few years later they actually did a MIDI theremin). If you want a textbook example of this, head on over to any Poly-Ana thread. I think the realities of running a business can make a creative engineer type bitter.

However, every interaction I've ever had with Martin has been pleasant and the software's quality speaks for itself, but when I made the request for a more modern preset browser and UI, the response was basically, "No, not ever." My guess is that, based on the original high price, the dev thought he'd do better financially than he ended up doing. Sad really, because I bought it when it was expensive and I thought it was well worth it, especially at that time. I'm sure it's easy to get a bit bummed out when all your blood sweat and tears ends up barely funding your cable bill. If you look at the audio software companies that do really well, you can see that they are really set up like a company. NI, Tone2, U-He, etc, are all seemingly constantly working on new products and paid updates. Martin has a single instrument that he truncated down into 3 instruments by removing functionality. He probably makes a good living doing something else so there is little impetus to keep dealing with things like VAT changes.

I've been a fan of Vaz modular and I'll go on using it for as long as it works. I recommend it, but if Martin doesn't want to deal with selling it, then so be it. There are other software modulars now and while there are a few features, like VST hosting, that I haven't seen in the competition, there's other options for people using software who want to dig into modular synthesis. Of course, you can also buy some hardware, as the modular hardware business seems to be doing pretty well.

[Numanoid]

If you look at the audio software companies that do really well, you can see that they are really set up like a company. NI, Tone2, U-He, etc, are all seemingly constantly working on new products s

But that's what you got to do in other line of businesses, in farming you can't just reap one harvest and keep selling that for the rest of your life.

Except Lennar Digital, most dev's can't expect to make a product and be able to pension themselves off afterwards, living on the sales of that for the rest of their career.

[whyterabbyt]

most dev's can't expect

strawman that they do.

[djscorb]

I learnt how to use a synth back around 2000 on a version of VAZ. I loved it and was hoping for years that it would make it to Mac. Maybe if it had, Martin could have made a better return on it.

It sounds so great, getting that analog chewiness years ahead of the competition. Sad to hear it will probably die out now entirely

Cheers

Scorb

[Numanoid]

hoping for years that it would make it to Mac. Maybe if it had, Martin could have made a better return on it.

32 bit plugs for MAC wouldn't be much use in Logic now.