Sample Modleing's Soprano Sax ("Ms. SaxS.")

[williemyers]

all you guys who use wind controllers (you *KNOW* who you are!! ), might want to take a look at this? It's Sample Modeling's new Soprano Sax running on their new engine, "SWAM". The Mac version went live today, I believe.
http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/products_mssaxs.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mhschmieder]

It's surprising that emails weren't sent to loyal customers.

I'll write them an email when I get home, to provide a valid serial number for the 10% discount.

Very interested in how the SWAM engine pans out, given how disastrous most non-Kontakt engines have been these past few years. Hope it's stable!

[williemyers]

Hope it's stable!

rock solid...

[Shooshie]

I should like this, but I'm a soprano saxophonist. I mean, that's my primary instrument on which I've performed countless concerts. It is so hard for me to like that sound, which is not really a natural soprano sound, though it's one that people tend to associate with the instrument because of pop players who use lots of soundboard EQ. Not that this should affect anyone's enjoyment of it other than my own; one can never be satisfied with "someone else's sound" on his own instrument.

It sure makes those high notes sound easy. Took me about twenty thousand hours of practice to get that kind of high-range facility. That guy just dashed it off like it was nothing. Sheesh! What's the world coming to??? Get off my lawn, you kids!

Shooshie

[mhschmieder]

I'm sure having a hard time ordering this product!

I desperately want to pay in euros due to the impending crash (probably less than three days out, at this point). The US Dollar amount is WAY too high, given current realities!

Unfortunately, the Share-it site switches BACK to US Dollars as soon as I login, and if I try to avoid my login and just re-enter my data, it never provides a button to press to go forward with the order.

Worse still, if I login to my Share-it account directly, it shows the order completed and charged, even though I never completed or authorized the final billing or even gave any bank info or even logged into PayPal! So I canceled the order from the Share-it account management page.

I am terrified of completing this order at this point, as I haven't a clue what is going on and how to be confident that the right amount will be charged and in the correct (i.e. euros) currency).

[Giorgio Tommasini]

mhschmieder,

though rather scared by this prediction of the impending euro crash, we'd still like to reassure you about the following facts:

1) thorough information concerning the existence of a 10% discount for Samplemodeling customers, and on the procedure to obtain this discount was published in our "news" page. We also sent newsletters to all our customers - except those who did not accept to receive them. However, delivery of newsletters may take some time. For that reason we described everything on our homepage as well.

2) we do not deal with payments, but rather use Share-It, an American company, as our transaction provider. Why you were unable to pay in Euro is an important question that needs to be addressed to Share-it. So far, none of our American customers experienced problems with "forced" payment in USD. We actually recommend to pay in Euro, since other currencies (GBP and USD) are subject to some additional fees (please visit our FAQ for further details).

3) there is absolutely no reason to fear that any money charge will be applied if you did not enter the requested data and you did not eventually approve the payment.

Sincerely,

Giorgio Tommasini & Peter Siedlaczek

Samplemodeling.com

[DigitalTube]

I'm sure having a hard time ordering this product!

I desperately want to pay in euros due to the impending crash (probably less than three days out, at this point). The US Dollar amount is WAY too high, given current realities!

Unfortunately, the Share-it site switches BACK to US Dollars as soon as I login, and if I try to avoid my login and just re-enter my data, it never provides a button to press to go forward with the order.

Worse still, if I login to my Share-it account directly, it shows the order completed and charged, even though I never completed or authorized the final billing or even gave any bank info or even logged into PayPal! So I canceled the order from the Share-it account management page.

I am terrified of completing this order at this point, as I haven't a clue what is going on and how to be confident that the right amount will be charged and in the correct (i.e. euros) currency).

I'd suggest you switch it to pay in Euros, and also using Paypal,(you don't need a Paypal account)
You'll save money that way, Share-it sucks in my opinion and doesn't give you the proper exchange rate, I'd suggest this to anyone buying Samplemodeling software.

[DigitalTube]

all you guys who use wind controllers (you *KNOW* who you are!! ), might want to take a look at this? It's Sample Modeling's new Soprano Sax running on their new engine, "SWAM". The Mac version went live today, I believe.
http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/products_mssaxs.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sample modeling instruments are really awesome, and very playable on keyboards too, now if i could only find a good breath controller I'd be happy! lol
Someone should build a breath controller that includes everything so it could be plugged into any keyboard with just MIDI, keyboards with breath controller input are becoming rare these days.

[mhschmieder]

Since I followed the instructions to the "T", perhaps it would be good to recommend which browser is considered the best on the Mac for purposes of this transaction.

I switched back to Safari as my main browser a year ago because it was the only browser that was reliably working for me when dealing with on-line payments, since many vendors ONLY test on Safari when it comes to the Mac.

Perhaps if I try Firefox or Opera for this transaction, my selection of Euros will not get changed during the transaction and I will still have some options before finalizing the payment. This is probably safe to try now that I have confirmed cancellation of the earlier failed transaction.

I do not recall off-hand which other vendors use Share-it as their payment provider. My perception is that something is cached in the system and being reused from a previous visit to Share-it's transaction management system, but I could find nowhere to edit any user account setting other than the password.

The only other vendor I remember recently having payment problems with was G-Force, for the impOSCar 2 update, but I think that was related to it being flagged as a computer-oriented vs. music-oriented purchase and thus raising alarms at the US bank side of the transaction, since they like to protect consumers against potential fraud and often block such transactions until and/or unless the consumer directly contacts them to authorize.

[DigitalTube]

I used Safari 5.1.2, filled in all the Info(name etc) then selected to pay with Paypal, and Euros, then just proceeded to pay in Euros with Paypal, worked fine.
Maybe try deleting your "cookies" in Safari, and another thing if you don't use Paypal, Share-it might flag it, and not allow credit payment, i had to call the credit card company, first time i ordered from Samplemodeling, that's another reason why I prefer Paypal, last transition Paypal also gave me the correct exchange; i'm usually not a big fan of Paypal, but prefer it over Share-it, if i were Samplemodeling i'd just cut out the middleman and set up payments direct without using that Share -it thing..

[mhschmieder]

I switched to Firefox. Problem solved.

In Safari, the "Next" button never appeared, unless allowing all the "bad defaults" to stay in place.

As a rule, I don't allow cookies in ANY browser (except on a case-by-case basis), but HAVE to in Safari as it doesn't work with many sites otherwise. It's one of the reasons I detest Safari, but I had to switch back anyway when I got the new computer a year ago as I could barely get any on-line vendor sites to work anywhere else.

To minimize risk of a screw-up, I pretended I was a new customer rather than logging in. This allowed me to avoid PayPal as the payment service, which I prefer to avoid when there's already another third-party involved, as it sometimes can negate the choice of currency and/or add additional service or currency transfer fees.

The downside is that I can't balance my bank ledger for a long time when using my checking account to buy things in a foreign currency, as the final transfer fee isn't known right away and as the bank also takes a few days to show the foreign exchange fee (usually around 1%).

I am downloading the installer now; it should be done in a few minutes. I have a soar throat though, so won't be using Ms. Sax S. with the Yamaha WX-5 right away; I'll only be trying it on keyboards today.

[mhschmieder]

Oh, and my apologies also as SampleModeling seem to think I was blaming them; I think this is one of those "lost in translation" moments. All of my frustration is leveled at Share-it, which I have always found to be a somewhat indirect process. But I understand why SampleModeling (and other vendors) choose to use that and other similar services, so there was no intent at any anger directed towards one of my favourite vendors. I simply documented my problems hoping it would make it easier for others to respond if they had stumbled similarly but gotten past the problems.

[Shooshie]

Listening again, I'm softening. I just may have to click the button on this one. It WOULD be nice to have a killer virtual soprano for my WX-5. Wallander's is pretty decent once you EQ it and get the sound you want. But this one seems to have more control…

We'll see.

Shooshie

[David Polich]

C'mon Shooshie, give in - you know you want it...

[mhschmieder]

I'm dying to get over this throat congestion so I can try this on my WX-5!