Cockos, Reaper, and Justin Frankel

[MIDI Life Crisis]

OK, I've messed with the software in question. Compared to DP it's like driving a tricycle versus a Maserati. Unintuitive, boring GUI. I'll be sticking with DP - but if I may be crass for a moment - not that anyone gives a cold rat's ass.

As for all this other stuff, where's the pissing monkey emoticon when you need him? Oh yeah, over at that the other site... Crankwads.com? No... Dumbshits.com...? No.... Gearfucks? Yeah, that's it. Gearfucks.com. Sisters under the skin.

Had enough ladies?

[Shooshie]

If DP is MOTU's "printer," what is their ink? Upgrade fees?

That's a good question, and one that I've been thinking about quite a bit.

What about educational pricing? A lot can be done with this to expand user base. Does MOTU offer this? If so, there's one area where prices could be adjusted considerably without disturbing their pro pricing.

Phil

That's brilliant, Phil. Staring us right in the face, and I hadn't even thought of it. Almost everyone does this. Adobe offers AMAZING discounts for students. My son got the entire CS3 suite for about $300 -- legitimate licenses and everything -- from an educational site a few years ago. That's ALL the CS3 software. Of course, Adobe knows that he's out of school now, so if/when he upgrades, they're going to want the rest of the bucks. Of course, he's got a great job and can afford it now, but he could not when he was in college, and I would not let him get a cracked version, even though he considered it. He had entire courses that depended on CS3, but did not want to take out the several thousands of dollars in loans that it would have taken to get the full-priced versions. Educational pricing was the answer.

This is a suggestion we could go with to MOTU right now.

Shooshie

[James Steele]

I don't want to characterize anybody as principled or not-principled. I think everyone participating here are principled people. We don't all see things the same way. It's sort of why we agree to have elections so we can settle disputes without disputes escalating to violence.

As someone who runs a forum, I'm in a unique position where I have an opportunity to "make a statement" in a manner which might be *noticed* more so than one individual's post on a subject. I don't pretend that MOTUNATION is hugely influential, but if a discussion starts somewhere on some board with "I heard that jerk who runs MOTUNATION blocked the names Cockos and Reaper from the site," that after they have their laugh and ridicule me, maybe some party to or observer of that conversation asks "Why?" My hope is simply that more people discuss the issue of how Cockos is building Reaper's popularity and are they causing more damage than good by what I can only interpret as their willingness to have their DAW pirated (by virtue of the lack of the most feeble attempt at CP) in order to gain market share.

This has been building up inside me for months now. We were originally discussing how Frankel is one to watch and that he's changing things. It may be inevitable. But I didn't want to watch. I wanted to take sides-- even if I'm on the losing team. I want to be on the record. It frustrated me to just "sit by and watch." In a sense that's what SOS is doing. They have no opinion-- right or wrong-- on the issue of how Cockos is growing Reaper's user base. They're selling magazines to them, and a pirate's money is just as good as a registered user's. I don't expect courageous journalism in a music mag, like an SOS feature entitled "Reaper: The new model or unsustainable spoiler?"

Anyway, so few people don't want to "take sides." It's risky. And it's not necessary-- it can be avoided almost indefinitely unless you're a DAW developer who has a harder time selling a good product at a fair price because a (for now) lesser product is being handed out for free on a "trial basis" (wink, wink) on every street corner.

So, as of yesterday (?), I "came out." I officially TOOK SIDES. I think Cockos' policy is unfair and call on them to compete fairly and require a serial number when the 30 day demo is done. Until then, I will block the name of their company and their product. I recognize the likely futility of this gesture and embrace it. I'd rather go on record as belonging to the losing team, than not be on record at all.

That said, it's my intention to leave this as the last word on the topic and close it. It's a privilege I reserve for myself as board owner.