Tracktion Software

ErBen · Post by **ErBen** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:11 am

I bought the WF upgrade on 25th on JRR. For some freaking weird (but oh so Tracktion-typical reason) license codes have to be generated... manually! In 2020! Yes ma'am.
I was already so damn disappointed by WF8, I swore to avoid Tracktion in the future, but seeing all the reviews about WF11 improved stability, I thought well, OK maybe they got their shit together finally, and this can work.
So I bit my words and spent the cash.
5 f**king days later, I get a code to upgrade from WF10 (I have WF8, as I explicitly told them...) and when I type it they tell me the code has been used already.
So yeah, Tracktion really crossed their T for WF11, and became WTF11...
And no, I don't blame JRR: having a vendor that requests to manually generate keys must be hell for them too. I highly doubt they recoup their manpower losses from the upgrade cost.
Anyway, maybe sometime in 2025 I'll get a code that works and see WF11 in all its glorious stability.

GuitarPlayerinNYC · Post by **GuitarPlayerinNYC** » Sat May 30, 2020 7:58 am

Try Tracktion support for the helluva it.

Personally, I hate JRR. They advertised a free Steven Slates drum kit. I was sent a code, and after 5 days off trying, I wrote them. They said it was a mistake, sorry. They continued to advertise it for a month.

dupont · Post by **dupont** » Sat May 30, 2020 10:53 am

improved stability ? audio engine crashes everytime

ErBen · Post by **ErBen** » Sat May 30, 2020 11:57 am

dupont wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 10:53 am improved stability ? audio engine crashes everytime

Huh... Seems I was bamboozled. Again. Shame on me, I guess !

spoontechnique · Post by **spoontechnique** » Sat May 30, 2020 2:43 pm

Sounds like a JRR issue. If it isn't, Tracktion are a small team and I'd advise a degree of patience. They'll do you right and fix it, just give them the chance.

Peter Widdicombe · Post by **Peter Widdicombe** » Sat May 30, 2020 3:07 pm

Agree. I've upgraded 4 times, and never really had an issue (other than sometimes figuring out WHERE the software is in the site, but that's improved) - but I've always purchased through the Tracktion site directly.

No codes to play with, just require a quick online connection to set the registration status (which presumably does the code thing under the covers). Offline registration is presumably quirkier.

ErBen · Post by **ErBen** » Sat May 30, 2020 3:20 pm

spoontechnique wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 2:43 pm Sounds like a JRR issue. If it isn't, Tracktion are a small team and I'd advise a degree of patience. They'll do you right and fix it, just give them the chance.

When you're a small team, the first priority is to automate the shit out of everything you can. Particularly anything that causes friction in sales.

jabe · Post by **jabe** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:20 pm

I don't know what JRR is, but why buy from a third party when you can buy direct and get occasional large discounts?

GuitarPlayerinNYC · Post by **GuitarPlayerinNYC** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:21 pm

ErBen wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 3:20 pm
spoontechnique wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 2:43 pm Sounds like a JRR issue. If it isn't, Tracktion are a small team and I'd advise a degree of patience. They'll do you right and fix it, just give them the chance.
When you're a small team, the first priority is to automate the shit out of everything you can. Particularly anything that causes friction in sales.

Based on what I've read about JRR, they're a REALLY small team. Like literally a coupla people that deal as resellers. The EU customers seemed mostly happy with them. I just thought advertising something for free, then claiming it was a mistake, but leaving the freebie up for a month really shady.

Tracktion is "small" in that they don't seem to be HUGE, like Ableton, but I've had dealings with their sales support team pre-virus time, and they always got back to me literally the same, or next day, and the lead dev is always on these boards.

If you paid via PayPal or a credit card, you can recoup your $, then deal with Tracktion yourself. I'd be willing to bet they'd give you the sale price, due to the screwup. Worth a shot, anyway.

GuitarPlayerinNYC · Post by **GuitarPlayerinNYC** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:30 pm

jabe wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:20 pm I don't know what JRR is, but why buy from a third party when you can buy direct and get large discounts?

JRR is a 3rd party reseller like Plugin Boutique. Sometimes, you actually get better deals from a reseller, than from the actual company. I got a Sonivox orchestral bundle for about $25 from Plugin, where Sonivox was selling it at full retail- around $500. There's 2 companies I now refuse to deal with directly- Sonivox and Air Music. They never respond to emails.

I got Ozone 9 Elements for free from Sweetwater, while Izotope was selling it at full retail- ~$149.

ErBen · Post by **ErBen** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:32 pm

jabe wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:20 pm I don't know what JRR is, but why buy from a third party when you can buy direct and get large discounts?

You're posting here since 2008 and you don't know JRRShop.com ? Really ? I'm not criticizing, I'm just very surprised. It's one of the biggest online shop around for plugins and gear (mostly plugins). They even have a special discount code for KVR users (forum).
Anyway yeah, it was MUCH cheaper on JRR: the update price (around $35) was valid for any paid previous Waveform version (mine is 8 ) instead of Tracktion's original scheme to have different upgrade prices depending on your version.
Now don't tell me that getting it cheaper justifies putting up with silly manual licensing. They set the promotion price, not me, not JRR.
They win in the end, as they still got something, vs nothing from me if they had kept their pricing discrimination.

ErBen · Post by **ErBen** » Sat May 30, 2020 4:41 pm

GuitarPlayerinNYC wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:21 pm If you paid via PayPal or a credit card, you can recoup your $, then deal with Tracktion yourself. I'd be willing to bet they'd give you the sale price, due to the screwup. Worth a shot, anyway.

Never had any issue with JRR, and Uncle E was always helpful to me. I don't know about this freebie screwup though.
As for charging back, no, it would penalize JRR (who are trying to help, I've had several e-mail exchanges with them on the subject), and I actually do want to try WF11.
WF8 is sitting on my disk unused since years, and I took the Ultimate pack with DAW Essentials, Biotek, and Collective (is this still a thing?).
I'm hoping WF11 will give me a chance to use all this.
Any day now...

jabe · Post by **jabe** » Sun May 31, 2020 12:09 am

ErBen wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:32 pm
jabe wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:20 pm I don't know what JRR is, but why buy from a third party when you can buy direct and get large discounts?
You're posting here since 2008 and you don't know JRRShop.com ? Really ? I'm not criticizing, I'm just very surprised. It's one of the biggest online shop around for plugins and gear (mostly plugins). They even have a special discount code for KVR users (forum).
Anyway yeah, it was MUCH cheaper on JRR: the update price (around $35) was valid for any paid previous Waveform version (mine is 8 ) instead of Tracktion's original scheme to have different upgrade prices depending on your version.
Now don't tell me that getting it cheaper justifies putting up with silly manual licensing. They set the promotion price, not me, not JRR.
They win in the end, as they still got something, vs nothing from me if they had kept their pricing discrimination.

Well, thank you, that's informative. I haven't bought many plug-ins at all. I bought Melodyne soon after it came out, and upgraded to the studio version shortly afterwards, and I've been buying the Computer Music and MusicTech magazines since they came out, with the former in particular providing so many free ones that I haven't needed to buy many. I've bought DAW Essentials and GPO4/5. I've never really been one for synthesizers. But this may change because I'm contemplating creating library music, and may get more experimental.

I was very much under the impression that Tracktion updates were the same price from any starting point until the last one or two releases. I have posted on here in previous years that if people objected - as some did - to what they felt was an annual subscription then they could miss some versions out and then jump a version or two later for the same update fee. The first several annual updates after the rescue from Mackie were around $30 and it was only with the arrival of Collective that the basic price and the update prices increased.

fromwithin · Post by **fromwithin** » Sun May 31, 2020 7:51 pm

You're posting here since 2008 and you don't know JRRShop.com ?

I've been around since a lot longer than that and I've never heard of it. And from your report, I'm glad I never tried to buy anything from them either.

mladi · Post by **mladi** » Sun May 31, 2020 8:03 pm

fromwithin wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 7:51 pm
You're posting here since 2008 and you don't know JRRShop.com ?
I've been around since a lot longer than that and I've never heard of it. And from your report, I'm glad I never tried to buy anything from them either.

OP actually reported it wasn't JRR fault so your conclusion makes no sense at all.

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

The upgrade code process is such a joke...