Slate's a class act

[Dan Worley]

Yep, I got the email and you guys did too. I'm behind the guy (and his company) all the way.

Class act, as far as I'm concerned.

[Shooshie]

Yep, I got the email and you guys did too. I'm behind the guy (and his company) all the way.

Class act, as far as I'm concerned.

He got it exactly right: I was a hoping to hear that FG/X was ready, and then I at least wanted an expected date, but after reading the whole letter, I wanted to give the guy a medal. Fresh out of medals, so I'll just buy everything in his store.

Hey... wait a minute... Is that what he's trying to get me to do? Nahhh... I'll just get him a couple of medals. "Best plugin guy" and "Best update letter."

Shoosh

[buzzsmith]

Got it, too.

Appreciated it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[James Steele]

What did it say? I didn't get mine.

[James Steele]

I found the text in the comments of a post at Slate Digital's Facebook page. And I agree, Steven has always been a class act, and frankly I feel bad for him and angry at some of the jerks that continue to bust on him over it. I'm using FG-X with 32 Lives for now, and I'm fine with it. He's been a stand-up guy and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

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 slate@stevenslate.com. 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

[corbo-billy]

+ 1 _ As well wait a little more and have updates really well crafted: when one appreciates a product we can be patient .

[mhschmieder]

I don't mind the delays on the Slate products, but I very much mind how it continues to keep Fabrice Gabrels away from his Eiosis brand products, which still have not been ported to 64-bits. I've bought other vocoders in the meantime but nothing comapres as his is based on a very specific model that is my all-time favorite vocoder. The de-esser is still the best for hi-hat etc.

I think he's stated these products will NOT get re-branded as Slate Digital products, but he's been so busy also with new hardware products from Slate. Good for them (and for us), but I sure wish he could train somebody to do something with his legacy products if he hasn't the time himself. Yet I sympathize, because I'm in the same boat in my own job. It's not a criticism really; he's chosen the correct priority given lack of resources.

[James Steele]

Have you tried using the Elosis plugs with 32 Lives?

[mhschmieder]

Jim, thanks, but no; I simply don't have time these days for massive learning curves on intermediary products, and anyways my understanding is that side chain-based products aren't eligible for such treatment, correct?

I'm in learning mode and out of my comfort zone non-stop, due to the nature of my business and role at work, so I rarely have the energy to stay in that mode outside my overworked day job. It may seem lazy to others, but I really very rarely am not in intensive overdrive mode. The list of "problems" to solve (too long to list here, but I keep track of them and only occasionally see solutions or figure one out myself) grows faster than I can keep up with the acceleration of change.

It's no wonder the plug-in developers are struggling these days. I don't do plug-in development, but even my co-workers' involvement with stuff like OSC and MMC has been shocking in the number of moving targets out there at the moment.

And, you see, that also discourages me from putting a lot of energy into intermediary solutions, figuring they're very short-term anyway and that my energies are better applied to stuff that will survive the near-term.

Anyway, your hints may help others who are willing and able to spend the time to see if they can get sidechain-based plugs from Eiosis to work in Mavericks and DP8. If I get to a point of desperation I may finally spend some time on that. But luckily Oxford Suppressor meets my vocal de-easing needs on recent projects. My vocoder projects are personal or otherwise not on a set schedule so I can wait a bit longer before giving one more try with Waldorf and other vocoders.

[James Steele]

Jim, thanks, but no; I simply don't have time these days for massive learning curves on intermediary products, and anyways my understanding is that side chain-based products aren't eligible for such treatment, correct?

I'm in learning mode and out of my comfort zone non-stop, due to the nature of my business and role at work, so I rarely have the energy to stay in that mode outside my overworked day job. It may seem lazy to others, but I really very rarely am not in intensive overdrive mode. The list of "problems" to solve (too long to list here, but I keep track of them and only occasionally see solutions or figure one out myself) grows faster than I can keep up with the acceleration of change.

It's no wonder the plug-in developers are struggling these days. I don't do plug-in development, but even my co-workers' involvement with stuff like OSC and MMC has been shocking in the number of moving targets out there at the moment.

And, you see, that also discourages me from putting a lot of energy into intermediary solutions, figuring they're very short-term anyway and that my energies are better applied to stuff that will survive the near-term.

Anyway, your hints may help others who are willing and able to spend the time to see if they can get sidechain-based plugs from Eiosis to work in Mavericks and DP8. If I get to a point of desperation I may finally spend some time on that. But luckily Oxford Suppressor meets my vocal de-easing needs on recent projects. My vocoder projects are personal or otherwise not on a set schedule so I can wait a bit longer before giving one more try with Waldorf and other vocoders.

Offhand I'm not sure about the side-chaining ability with 32 Lives. Someone else could chime in. As for "massive learning curves on intermediate products" there's hardly any learning curve on 32 Lives. You simply launch the app and a very well designed window comes up where you choose to "Resurrect" any of the 32-bit plugs that populate the dialog and it creates a wrapper plug that is then recognized, scanned and (hopefully) validated the next time you launch DP in 64-bit mode. 32 Lives does what it does in the background and largely transparently. There's no real learning curve to speak of. It's much less complicated than jBridgeM. It's been worthwhile for me just to keep Slate FG-X usable.

As an aside about FG-X: jBridgeM seems to actually reduce the processor drain of FG-X noticeably with its "reduced processor mode" feature. (I might not have the name just right.) That said, I've taken to using 32 Lives anyway, as it's more convenient and likely more stable using just ONE wrapper solution at a time.

[James Steele]

FYI, there is a demo version of 32 Lives available. If I owned any of the plugs you mentioned, I'd try them out and report back. I know you're not inclined to do so, but you *could* try the demo and see if it worked.

http://www.soundradix.com/products/32-lives/download

[mhschmieder]

Cool; thanks for getting me over the intimidation factor. I tried some things similar to the jBridge concept (and it as well) a few years back, as well as the dread R****r, and it scared me away from any more experiments with back door tricks.

[James Steele]

Cool; thanks for getting me over the intimidation factor. I tried some things similar to the jBridge concept (and it as well) a few years back, as well as the dread R****r, and it scared me away from any more experiments with back door tricks.

Well, I understand your apprehension. 32 Lives has come a long way and of the two options (jBridgeM and 32 Lives) it has the most polished and intuitive interface. I know you're very busy, but if things let up you might try the demo. As far as I know, the developer of jBridgeM has not done any updates to the Mac version and seemed more focused on Windows. In that time, 32 Lives has undergone several updates and seems fairly robust.

Of course, the ideal situation is to have a 64-bit compatible plug. Sometimes this will never happen, like with my Focusrite Liquid Mix. The LiquidMix plug-in that the hardware requires has zero chance of becoming 64-bit, but 32 Lives keeps it viable. Native Instruments B4II is also one of those end of life products that lives again with 32 Lives.

[Shooshie]

I've had two more update letters recently (past month). I don't know about you guys, but I'm royally impressed with what Steven Slate is doing. Other companies take the attitude of "mum's the word until you see it on your doorstep." Slate is doing what we've all wanted since the beginning of any kind of software updates, three decades ago: giving us progress reports. Plus, the guy's a bit of a showman, and he knows how to push my buttons. He's got me salivating like Pavlov's dog every time he mentions this new version of FG-X that they're hard at work creating.

Seriously, I sent Slate a short note telling him that I appreciated what he was doing, and that I didn't know where he was finding the time to handle the load he's taken on, PLUS doing all the feedback he's been doing. I added there was no need to respond; I just wanted him to know that he had made me a customer for life, doing exactly what I've wanted every company to do. It wasn't a few hours later that a personal reply came in thanking me for making his day. Now, by any measure, the guy is busy. With the coal poured on the fire, ramping up their efforts to get these updates out, and with him soliciting feedback and even asking people to send in their problematic files for him to try out and find the weaknesses in FG-X, he's probably not sleeping much. Yet he's taken the time to respond to all comers.

I just have to repeat what Dan said in the first post of this thread: Slate's a class act. I want to use him and his company as models for what every CEO and company should be like.

Years ago, there was a plugin maker who went out of business: Elemental Audio. Their plugins had impressed me, and I used their meters for many years, many Macs after the company folded and sold out to Roger Nichols. I never got any of Nichol's upgrades, just the original EA stuff. When I asked the principle of the company why they were quitting, what with such great plugins for sale, he told me that it was piracy that was killing them. I understood, more or less, but I have to say that I lost respect for them, for not sticking it out, advertising, and making it in spite of the pirates.

When I buy from Steven Slate, I get a strong feeling that he's going to be there through thick and thin, and that he's going to come through, regardless of the obstacles that the world throws at him. He's got a winning attitude. That takes confidence and a strong ego to pull off, yet that ego doesn't sweep you under the rug. In fact, he holds his customers in high enough esteem to do all that he's doing to make things better, and to let us in on the excitement as it happens.

Ok, I'm starting to mix metaphors like a groupie or something, so I'll shut up. But I had to reiterate that Slate is doing exactly what I've dreamed of a company doing for a long, long time. That really impresses me.

Shooshie

[mhschmieder]

As a sole developer who has to wear WAY too many hats, I get thrown curveballs more frequently all the time as ecosystem changes happen when I can least afford them, so I really relate to what Slate and company go through as they try to develop highly advanced and complex algorithms while ensuring their stuff is actually going to work on platforms that will no longer sit still and stable for more than a few days anymore.

At first, the transparency approach backfired a bit as some jerks at GS treated it as making excuses. I think by now, it's become clear to all that the crew at Slate have a deep passion for what they do and a dedication to their customers, and know how important it is to maintain that trust by keeping open bi-directional communication.