B&P Upgrade Price?!
3 messages in this thread
To Blue Ribbon Soundworks:
Sadly, your reply to my message about the hefty $99 upgrade price has, as
I expected, has been made into a discussion about a new manual (as if I
can't read the old one), a tap tool (which my Add-On series has), A Groove
Quantize tool, and the vague desription of improoved score editing. In
other words, I'm not just getting the upgrade to the program, but the price
is mainly due to a new manual and the Media Madness tool. OK. You're right!
A new manual is worth more in the cost of an upgrade. Therefore I will ask
some specific questions that I have requested over the phone to you in the
past.
(1) Does the AmigoPhone tool from the Internal Sound Kit still crash if
you load more instruments than memory allows? (2) Do you have a separate
player that can play from a CLI (without opening any output window) a
Bars&Pipes file using the Amiga's internal voices when an AmigoPhone tool
has been attached, so that I can run this player with another application
without the huge memory overhead of addressing a runtime B&P through AREXX
or converting the B&P Pro file to SMUS and depending on another program to
support this file format. (3) Does the transport still cause Bars&Pipes Pro
to clog when passing much pitch-bend data through it. (B&P slows to a crawl
and even the escape key doesn't unclog the transport efficiently – a
problem that Dr.T's sequencer breezes through without notice). I've also
had problems with the transport when using the NOTE MAPPER tool on the
input pipeline that forced me to go back to doing 'serious' sequencing with
Dr.T's sequencer. (The NOTE MAPPER is in the Pro Studio Kit).
Can you answer all 3 of the above questions and provide a V2.0 demo to make
a quality assurace test concerning the transport. I do not have an $1000+
accelerator on my Amiga, and I never needed one with Dr.T.
Thanks, Patrick Beaudine
Purchaser of $500.00+ of your products
Patrick-
I sympathize with your pain/anger. As a fairly faithful upgrader of *all*
products which I find worth the commitment, I stopped counting long ago how
much in total I spend on a product, or comparing my expenditure to that of
others who take a different path. Wanna know how much I "spent" for
Lattice/SAS C?
I think that viewing the use of software as a *service* (as I believe
Melissa was suggesting) is a fairer approach. Have you "gotten your money's
worth" out of *using* the tools you've gotten along the way? If so (I
presume yes), upgrading to 2.0 is really a separate decision, which you
must evaluate on the basis of what else it will give you. (For various
reasons, BTW, I did *not* purchase many add-on kits, so I have worked
*without* niceties such as tap tempo for lo these many months!)
Another thought: it could be that there are some out there who will decide
to stay with 1.x Bars and Pipes Pro, or at least to wait a while. Why don't
you decide what *you'd* like to pay as an upgrade and try selling your
tools for the difference between that and $99? It's a thought, anyway! (And
don't try me, I've already ordered my upgrade…)
Good luck-
Bob
– (!) –
Dear Patrick,
First of all, thank you for purchasing so many of our products. I
appreciate your comments and observations. I would be happy to send you a
copy of Bars&Pipes Professional 2.0 when we release it. If you wouldn't
mind, please EMail me your address so that I can place an order on your
behalf.
Bars&Pipes Professional is FAR MORE than just an improved manual, notation
and some Tools. If its any indication, compare the size of the original
Bars&Pipes Professional release disk, which was 75% full, to the size of
Bars&Pipes Professional 2.0: It consumes over 95% of TWO disks.
I could list for you all of Bars&Pipes Professional's improvements, but
since you've received the Quarter Notes, you are already aware of them.
I don't wish to comment directly about Dr. T's, however, any software that
does not make extensive use of menus and a graphical user-interface will
always be less processor-intensive. The 68000 processor is many years old.
Since then, we've seen the 68020, 68030 and now the 68040. We write for
the current computing standards. No one expects you to purchase an
accellerator, however, don't expect your computer to run like on that has
one.
As far as I know, the AmigoPhone is extremely solid. Please understand
that every computing environment is different and there could be
circumstances which cause the AmigoPhone to respond in the way you've
indicated. In Bars&Pipes Professional 2.0, we've included a new Tool
called the SamplePhone, which I think you'll appreciate.
While we don't have the specific file player you've requested, we do
provide the Media Madness Player. This player, which does not have memory
overhead, is ARexx-controllable and con not only play music, but can play
Toaster transitions, SunRize effects, ANIM files and more.
I would appreciate your providing any further detail on any pitch bend or
Note Mapper problems you may be having, so that we can analyze your
situation.
-Melissa