Seriously, can MOTU please attach release notes / change logs to their driver releases?
As an end user, it's frustrating for me to find out there is a new driver and not knowing whether the new driver fixes a major problem, adds new functionality, or just adds support for newer hardware that may or may not apply to me.
For example, to this day I still have no idea what the difference is between the new 1.6.6.1 driver and the old 3.65 driver for the PCI-424 systems, apart from the fact that the new one adds support for PCIe 424 cards. The short blurb next to the download is too vague to be of any real help. The "Update notes .pdf" link for both driver versions (back when they were both on the site) links to the SAME PDF FILE that has absolutely NOTHING specific to either driver version. It just says "yay, new Cuemix features, etc." For the record, I compared the Cuemix console in both driver versions and, apart from the changed filenames, there were NO FUNCTIONALITY DIFFERENCES. So much for that.
My personal experience on this issue:
I have a 2408mk3 and a 24I/O connected to a PCI-424 card on an XP system, running the old 3.65 driver, since it is rock-solid. The download page for the 1.6.6.1 driver says the driver is for both PCI and PCIe cards, so I gave it a try, thinking there might be something new or improved. The only "new" thing that started happening was that my system spontaneously rebooted each time I closed Cubase or another ASIO client using the card. I had to go back to the old 3.65 driver and been happy with that so far. If the release notes included some information on this behavior, (such as "be aware it doesnt work well with PCI cards" or something like that), I would've avoided the wasted time and frustration, and most of all, losing respect for the MOTU brand.
Come on, MOTU, please put in release notes or otherwise document the new driver releases, this is just painful. I know how important this is to the clients, because I work at a software company doing their documentation.
How much effort does it take to fire an email off to engineering asking for a high-level changelog for the new drivers? Sure, they may take a day or two to respond (I know how busy they can get), but it will DEFINITELY make your customers more confident in your products in the end. Think about that. Hopefully, someone at MOTU listens!
Regards,
Serge
DRIVER RELEASE NOTES! WAKE UP MOTU!
Moderator: James Steele
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The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
Re: DRIVER RELEASE NOTES! WAKE UP MOTU!
Serge,
I agree on the fixes part, but I think that in doing something like this:
- we don't give a crap about you and your "legacy product"
- we barely tested with that hardware, so we never even knew we broke something
- we know we broke it, but we don't care and that's the end of it
(I'm not real real serious on that stuff, but maybe kinda
)
FWIW- I'm not a fan of "unified" drivers to begin with. They're great if you just bought something and are confident that a good part of the work was for your product, but otherwise, they just leave you wondering whether or not there's any point in updating. ("if it ain't broke..." doesn't always apply as there are sometimes optimizations,etc. involved with updates
)
Take Care,
George
I agree on the fixes part, but I think that in doing something like this:
they'd effectively be admitting:If the release notes included some information on this behavior, (such as "be aware it doesn't work well with PCI cards" or something like that)
- we don't give a crap about you and your "legacy product"
- we barely tested with that hardware, so we never even knew we broke something
- we know we broke it, but we don't care and that's the end of it
(I'm not real real serious on that stuff, but maybe kinda
)FWIW- I'm not a fan of "unified" drivers to begin with. They're great if you just bought something and are confident that a good part of the work was for your product, but otherwise, they just leave you wondering whether or not there's any point in updating. ("if it ain't broke..." doesn't always apply as there are sometimes optimizations,etc. involved with updates
)Take Care,
George