Poor Support

[chrisp]

Several times in the last few months I have emailed MOTU about Version 2 and have basically been fobbed off with 'We don't have any information about that at this time.' This was shown at Namm in January and it's now October and there is still no sign of it. Well I've had enough. I bought this product 2 years ago, in good faith, thinking it would be supported properly and it clearly isn't being. There have been no useful upgrades. I don't see why MOTU cannot keep the people that are buying their products informed, at the very least. I feel that their heel-dragging has stopped other developers from bothering to produce any really good native MachFive libraries. And there are still so many issues with UVI Extract and the way it interfaces with M5, that half of what you actually need to import simply doesn't work. Personally, I can't wait any longer and I'm off to Giga land. Good luck with the wait.

[Spikey Horse]

yes I packed my samples in an old hankerkief and crossed the border to Kontakt2 land a couple of months ago.

Never looked back.

[sdfalk]

For those of us without extra money to burn..goodbye and goodluck.
I certainly see your point of view, (I've had a good look at Kontakt)
but being in the financial doghouse at the moment MachFive is it for me right now.
Which isn't that bad really.
It's stable and works well in DP.

[billf]

Several times in the last few months I have emailed MOTU about Version 2 and have basically been fobbed off with 'We don't have any information about that at this time.' This was shown at Namm in January and it's now October and there is still no sign of it. Well I've had enough. I bought this product 2 years ago, in good faith, thinking it would be supported properly and it clearly isn't being. There have been no useful upgrades. I don't see why MOTU cannot keep the people that are buying their products informed, at the very least. I feel that their heel-dragging has stopped other developers from bothering to produce any really good native MachFive libraries. And there are still so many issues with UVI Extract and the way it interfaces with M5, that half of what you actually need to import simply doesn't work. Personally, I can't wait any longer and I'm off to Giga land. Good luck with the wait.

Most of the time when folks rag on about MOTU, I tend to think it's unfair. But in this case I agree with you. The MachFive situation is really one area that I have been totally disappointed with MOTU.

Although MachFive has all the makings of a killer sampler, the longer it stays in this v1.x state, the harder it's going to be for folks to stay with it. The version 2 situation is seemingly a mess, and the library support has also been underwhelming.

[russhughes]

Several times in the last few months I have emailed MOTU about Version 2 and have basically been fobbed off with 'We don't have any information about that at this time.' This was shown at Namm in January and it's now October and there is still no sign of it. Well I've had enough. I bought this product 2 years ago, in good faith, thinking it would be supported properly and it clearly isn't being. There have been no useful upgrades. I don't see why MOTU cannot keep the people that are buying their products informed, at the very least. I feel that their heel-dragging has stopped other developers from bothering to produce any really good native MachFive libraries. And there are still so many issues with UVI Extract and the way it interfaces with M5, that half of what you actually need to import simply doesn't work. Personally, I can't wait any longer and I'm off to Giga land. Good luck with the wait.

Whilst I can understand your point and I have many discussions like this in the DUC (Digidesign) Forum, one pertinent question. Does it do what they said it would when you purchased it? If it does then why complain and/or change?

I think MOTU were very unwise to make an announcement and then allow such a gap between that and delivery, which leads me to believe much of the original v2.0 info was what MOTU would like it to do, now they are stuggling to implement it... has anyone seen a working version of v2.0 anywhere? I suspect not and if they have then what's the delay. I emailed them recently and asked for news and got an email saying they didn't have a release date, I replied and said 'how does October 9th sound?' they didn't reply!

As to library support, I'm building a fantastic library from all sorts of other libraries because you can load libraries from most popular other ones like Akai and Giga. If it loads eveyone elses libraries then why waste time developing their own... that would be daft and bearing in mind their v2.0 announcement and failings any more daft moments would really cause us to question their sanity.

Anyway that's my long way of saying:
* Don't ever buy a product based on what it may do one day.
* Don't annoy customers by over promising and under delivering!
* There are some great Giga/Akai libraries that remove the need to wait for MOTU to get their act together.

IMHO

[billf]

Several times in the last few months I have emailed MOTU about Version 2 and have basically been fobbed off with 'We don't have any information about that at this time.' This was shown at Namm in January and it's now October and there is still no sign of it. Well I've had enough. I bought this product 2 years ago, in good faith, thinking it would be supported properly and it clearly isn't being. There have been no useful upgrades. I don't see why MOTU cannot keep the people that are buying their products informed, at the very least. I feel that their heel-dragging has stopped other developers from bothering to produce any really good native MachFive libraries. And there are still so many issues with UVI Extract and the way it interfaces with M5, that half of what you actually need to import simply doesn't work. Personally, I can't wait any longer and I'm off to Giga land. Good luck with the wait.

Whilst I can understand your point and I have many discussions like this in the DUC (Digidesign) Forum, one pertinent question. Does it do what they said it would when you purchased it? If it does then why complain and/or change?

I think MOTU were very unwise to make an announcement and then allow such a gap between that and delivery, which leads me to believe much of the original v2.0 info was what MOTU would like it to do, now they are stuggling to implement it... has anyone seen a working version of v2.0 anywhere? I suspect not and if they have then what's the delay. I emailed them recently and asked for news and got an email saying they didn't have a release date, I replied and said 'how does October 9th sound?' they didn't reply!

As to library support, I'm building a fantastic library from all sorts of other libraries because you can load libraries from most popular other ones like Akai and Giga. If it loads eveyone elses libraries then why waste time developing their own... that would be daft and bearing in mind their v2.0 announcement and failings any more daft moments would really cause us to question their sanity.

Anyway that's my long way of saying:
* Don't ever buy a product based on what it may do one day.
* Don't annoy customers by over promising and under delivering!
* There are some great Giga/Akai libraries that remove the need to wait for MOTU to get their act together.

IMHO

Russ, what Giga libraries have you put into M5? Did you have to do any tweaking?

[russhughes]

Russ, what Giga libraries have you put into M5? Did you have to do any tweaking?

It depends what you want...

Not a single tweak needed on the ones tried, easy peezy lemon sqeezy.

[chrispick]

Russ, what Giga libraries have you put into M5? Did you have to do any tweaking?

It depends what you want...

Not a single tweak needed on the ones tried, easy peezy lemon sqeezy.

I run a few VSL library and Big Fish Audio Giga samples (among sundry others) via M5. The Big Fish Orchestral samples were essentially plug-and-play; couldn't be simpler to deal with. The VSLs loaded and converted fine, but all of the key-switching and articulation stuff remained separated. So, I went in and created specific subfolders for the articulations. Not an efficient solution, but one that allows me to use their great orchestral sounds (which I mix in with EW Gold) with some effort.

[dynamix]

Feels like a BETA vs VHS situation.

In terms of video image, Sony's BETA was a better format.

But they were late and VHS stuck.

Same problem with Macs and PCs I suppose.

[russhughes]

Feels like a BETA vs VHS situation.

In terms of video image, Sony's BETA was a better format.

But they were late and VHS stuck.

Same problem with Macs and PCs I suppose.

Sorry am I missing something here? I'm not sure if you meant to post this here, or if I need to up my medication - I Just can't get it?

[dynamix]

Sorry, a little cryptic I guess.

VHS vs BETA was a classic case of a superior technololgy being released a little too late. In regards to television home video recorders, Sony BETAMAX was a much better tape and player format, and gave better picture quality than VHS. But VHS came first and Sony could never get it fully off the ground. As an aside, it only lasted in the end as a professional format, but they never caught the consumer market.

In terms of its GUI, I like Mach Five much better than Kontakt, in many ways, its much more intuitive... But Kontakt came first and everybody seems to have gravitated to that. As good as Mach Five is, or will be, even in version 2, MOTU, as Sony was, is too late...

They are wise in making it a free update. Its their penance. They need our forgiveness. If they didn't, we'd all jump ship and the product would be totally forgotten. How many people are really using it???

Only half of my Sample Cell disks transfered properly through UVI extract. The problem was never addressed. My favourite sounds are lost, unless I spend hours upon hours building new patches from the samples.

I want to buy the Garritan Orchestral Strings. I'm told it's a lot of work to set up in Mach Five and it will never work as it should in GIGA.

Russ, I'd be curious if you would share with us, some of the many GIGA libraries that work so well for you in Mach Five. You could save us all a lot of trouble sharing that. Just make a list. Maybe it could be a tips sticky.

I think many of us DP users who get a job now and then, but by no means are full professionals, are feeling a little pinched by this whole Mach Five thing. Why should we need another Sampler? Especially when Mach Five is supposed to be updated, any moment? Oh, but now I've got a client who needs a certain sound and oh, wouldn't it be great to use that certain library for the project, but ohhhhh it won't work in Mach Five.

Yes, I think MOTU needs to make penance for leading us all into this awkward situation. You could buy Kontakt and Mach Five will be updated and doing all you need, next week. Who knows.

If I do decide to blow more money and buy Kontakt, I probably would abandon Mach Five completely. Its a silly righteous, principle sort of thing, but I'm starting to feel like I've been taken for a ride. It feels more painful when I'm offered jobs and my palette of colours is cut in half by my samplers limitations.

Erik

[billf]

Only half of my Sample Cell disks transfered properly through UVI extract. The problem was never addressed. My favourite sounds are lost, unless I spend hours upon hours building new patches from the samples.

I had the same problem with the EXS stuff and some of my Kurzweil k2000 libraries. UVI extract has been so-so in my experience. More than anything else, if MachFive v 2.0 has a much better import capability, I will be happy.

Russ, I'd be curious if you would share with us, some of the many GIGA libraries that work so well for you in Mach Five. You could save us all a lot of trouble sharing that. Just make a list. Maybe it could be a tips sticky.

I was attempting to ask the same question upthread, but not as eloquently. So I'd second this request.

I think many of us DP users who get a job now and then, but by no means are full professionals, are feeling a little pinched by this whole Mach Five thing. Why should we need another Sampler? Especially when Mach Five is supposed to be updated, any moment? Oh, but now I've got a client who needs a certain sound and oh, wouldn't it be great to use that certain library for the project, but ohhhhh it won't work in Mach Five.

Well that's part of the promise of MachFive, it's supposed to be a universal sampler. What's missing are the libraries that will import easily (and by easily I mean with little or no tweaking).

[dynamix]

Russ, I'd be curious if you would share with us, some of the many GIGA libraries that work so well for you in Mach Five. You could save us all a lot of trouble sharing that. Just make a list. Maybe it could be a tips sticky.

I was attempting to ask the same question upthread, but not as eloquently. So I'd second this request.

I think you'll see Mach Five II before you see that list.

Erik

[russhughes]

Russ, I'd be curious if you would share with us, some of the many GIGA libraries that work so well for you in Mach Five. You could save us all a lot of trouble sharing that. Just make a list. Maybe it could be a tips sticky.

I was attempting to ask the same question upthread, but not as eloquently. So I'd second this request.

I think you'll see Mach Five II before you see that list.

Erik

I think I also have a life outside this forum!

Tell me what you want and I'll send you a disc with the stuff on.
Russ

[billf]

Tell me what you want and I'll send you a disc with the stuff on.
Russ

Quite amusing.

So I take it that the real answer is that Giga libraries, like the Kurzweil/Akai/EXS libraries I've tried, don't seamlessly import into MachFive, otherwise someone would be able to provide some sort of reference.