I'm a happy user of some of Slate's excelent
plug-ins over on the Windows side. Here's his
latest update email regarding AAX, missed release
dates etc. I'm not a customer service expert,
but this does sound honest, and it's nice to see
someone throw himself on his sword as it were and
ask forgiveness from the customer base. What do
you folks think? I've certainly never seen this
sort of candor from a larger company.
Does this seem at all melodramatic, or does it strike you as heart-felt?
Chris
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:07:06 -0700
From: Slate Digital <[email protected]>
Subject: Message From Steven Slate Regarding AAX Updates
Dear FG-X and VCC Slate Customer,
This is one of the hardest emails I've ever had
to write.The reason for this, is because I
really love what I do. But one of the main
reasons I love what I do is because I get to
make products that make people happy. But
clearly, there are a lot of you out there who
are quite unhappy, due to the missed deadlines of our VCC and FG-X updates.
First, and this goes without saying, I feel
terrible about this. I never intended for this
to happen, and I read all the negative comments,
and it breaks my heart. Because I failed you guys.
This company means the world to me, and I have
always strived to make mindful decisions that
would ensure that it remains healthy. But
unfortunately, despite the fact that I am often
seen around Hollywood Blvd wearing a cape, I
have no super powers and am just a mere mortal
who makes mortal mistakes. And clearly, I've
made mistakes this past year. Let me tell you about them.
As many of you know, we work a long time on our
products. Two years ago when AAX was announced,
we were just beginning the development of some
pretty intense new products, which are all as of
this email, unreleased. Two of them you know
about, the Virtual Mix Rack, and the Virtual
Microphone System. Both of these were new and
exciting products that required a lot of effort
from the entire team, and so we began to start
the R&D. And then, we get hit with AAX.
We were not prepared, nor did we have a big
enough team to simultaneously develop big new
products while updating old products.My first
mistake was realizing that fact too late. What
should have happened is a pause in all
production to hire more developers to help with
our new 64bit AAX framework, pause all new
development, and then proceed with full force on
all of our legacy updates. Instead, I became
fearful. This fear was derived from the fact
that we are one of the newer games in town as
compared to our competition, and I felt like new
product development was crucial enough that we
had to keep some part of the team on it while
another part worked on the framework and
updates. This compromised the productivity of
both teams since neither side had enough manpower.
When the framework was complete, we had to
decide where to start. So let's just get this
out of the way and say it was an obvious choice
with VBC and VTM. VBC was written INTO the new
framework. Converting it to AAX would be the
easiest and more straight forward. Than came the
VTM. This was in our old framework and had an
insanely complex algorithm, but several of our
very talented team members were able to get the
port done in the Winter. And now we are left
with the VCC and FG-X. Oh boy.Here it goes.
I think it's fair to say that the algorithms,
meaning the audio processes, of the VCC and FG-X
are some of the best out there for what they aim
to do.Well, at least I hope you think that since
you bought at least one of them. These were the
very first two plugins that Fabrice and I worked
on and we're proud of them. But as great as
these algorithms sound, the way the code was
written back then had a bit to be desired. Ok,
they had a lot to be desired. Alright fine, they're a mess.
There was no way we could use the same code for
these plugins in our new framework, because we
owe it to you, the customer, to improve them.
With a cleaner code, they would be bug free, and
use dramatically less CPU. Furthermore, there
are aspects of our new framework that the VCC
and FG-X code is not 1:1 compatible with so it
would have taken just as long to convert the old
code into the new framework. So the choice was
obvious.We started last year to rewrite FG-X and
VCC with fresh code, new features, and new
algorithms. But again, going back to my first
points, the team was overloaded. There were
members bouncing back and forth to all the
projects... one week it was VMR, then VTM AAX
update, then VBC bug fixing.. it was insane. And
to top it all off, we parted ways with two of
our team members in the Spring, making a bad situation even worse.
I do NOT expect sympathy from you. I do NOT
consider any of this an excuse. I will stand
here in front of you and say we messed up. But
rather than drown in our sorrows, I'm going to
tell you what we are doing to make things better.
First and foremost, with the exception of the
few members finalizing VMR, the entire rest of
the team is focused on FG-X and VCC. We will do
NO OTHER DEVELOPMENT ON ANY PRODUCT until these
two AAX updates are done. Second, we are hiring
hiring hiring. We are going to put ourself in a
position to be able to execute faster, more
efficiently, and we'll be able to meet deadlines and schedules.
So some of you are saying "Enough of the drama,
when the hell are we getting our plugins?". And
just in case you didn't hate me enough already...
I can't give a date YET. Because unlike last
time, I will not give you a date until I'm ready
to put my life on the line because I'm so sure
we'll make it.But what I am going to do is make
you a promise: You will have an inside look at
the productivity of these two projects with
weekly emails of information. And I also promise
that as soon as I have the confidence to give
you a release date that I know is a reality, I
will state it in one of these weekly updates.
Last, I'll say that we are working on a possible
temporary solution that could get you guys up
and running in Pro Tools 11 while we finalize
VCC 2.0 and FG-X 2.0. And to end on a positive
note, these 2.0 updates will be amazing.Please
keep that in mind. With the VCC, it's goiong to
be simpler, have new options, and include a new
console emulation that I predict will be your
new favorite and most used console emulation
yet. The FG-X will have a new metering algorithm
but that will likely get overshadowed by the new
FG-LEVEL algo. This new algo has been over three
years in the making and utilizes a brand new
loudness process that is so ridiculously
transparent that you'll think it's defying the laws of physics.
Ok, so that's all I have for you today, but
you'll be hearing from me again soon. I know
this is not the email you really want, but I
hope you'd agree it's better than silence. You
can email me at [email protected]. It might
take me a bit to get back to you because it's so
busy here, but I promise I will. Have a great weekend,
Steven Slate
8331 Lookout Mountain Ave, Los Angeles, 90046
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