How far are you, NI?

Hi NI,

Can you please let us know how far you are with providing updates for Bandstand or if there is now a way to get back our money?

Thank you

 

Hi Zeus,

an update is on the radar. however, this is not something that will happen right away, given the needed updates for products like Kontakt and Battery plus Mactel updates for many products.

we are, however, committed to fixing the basic issues that we have talked about on this forum before, e.g. the long loading times and the blending of sounds in the mix.


Best,
Markus

 

Hi Markus

Thank you for your replay even if (unfortunately) it does not anwser my questions.

 

Since I am unable to use Bandstand in its present state, is there a way I can get a refund and then re-purchase the product if/when it becomes usable? I am frankly appalled that you list the MacTel updates as a higher priority than Bandstand.

 

Hi Steelrain,

believe me the Mactel updates are important - also they have already been announced by NI with a rough timeline.

in any case, it does take more time to do a round Bandstand update then it maybe looked like some weeks ago.

I just checked with our sales manager - it seems that NI is not doing refunds art all. you can check with your local dealer if you did not buy from the NI store. other than that, I posted the link to the registration FAQ in another thread. in case you want to sell e.g. via ebay.

honestly, though, I would hold on to Bandstand! there are lots of things in the pipeline mid to longterm!


Best,
Markus

 

Me too. Thank you very much.

 

Hi Markus,

What is NI's definition of mid and longterm? Can I pass by at the Musikmesse this year and grab the new Bandstand update already. I will be there on the 29th and 30th. Maybe, instead of refunding the money, why you would not give to already registered Bandstand user a 50% discount to buy one other NI Product?

 

Hi Zeus31_ng,

so far we only got feedback from a couple of users on this forum. I also did some research over the holidays on possible ways to go. what needs to happen now is to do a survey and more thoroughly evaluate possible ways to go. finally, this needs to fit into the overall development plan.

this is why I say mid to long term. short term in my mind is within 3 months. I will be at Musikmesse on the Th, 3/30. if you let me know the time you will be there, I would be happy to talk to you more in person.


Best,
Markus

 

Fine, I will never buy another NI product. I will recommend to anyone in earshot that they stay away from NI products. I will take every opportunity in other forums that I frequent to tell this story and warn others from buying NI products. More than a few forum members have complained about Bandstand and the major problems that make it useless for us. It is clear to me now that all you are doing now is obfuscating the problems and misleading us. In the end, this was a relatively inexpensive lesson. I could have ended up spending thousands of dollars on NI products had I not learned the truth about your company in this forum.

 

Hi Steelrain,

I realize that I was more optimistic about the update timeframe in some of my earlier post, however, I also have to face the reality on what is possible within a given time.

We also have to deal with Kontakt 2, Battery 2 and Akoustik Piano updates all of which certainly have priority over the Bandstand update just because these products were released earlier. we are only 2.5 months into the lifetime of Bandstand!

so even if I had an exact plan today, there would still be a couple of months before we could start implementing it. so why not use the extra time to filter out what the issues are for the majority of uers?


Best,
Markus

p.s.: it seems to me that Bandstand as such works without any major bugs but that some users bought it for a different scenario then maybe was perceived during the product design. what then would have helped you to better evaluate the product match for your purposes before you bought it?

 

I personally had higher expectations when I purchased BS and was even a little dissapointed when I could not use my existing midifiles in a live situation. But having said that I'm not going to ask for my money back. I have confidence that NI will come through on this product. Markus If you need any Beta testers on the BS updates in a live situation, I'm more than happy to help out.

Colin

 

Hi Markus,

I will be happy to meet you in Frankfurt. I will be there on the 29th and 30th. We can meet on the 30th. What about 11:00? Let me know.

 

Hi Colin,

thanks for your vote of confidence - Bandstand is my personal baby so rest assured that I will use all your feedback in the bug fixes and future design directions. I also sent your beta test offer to the product manager and the test manager.


Hi Zeus,

30.3. around 11 am sounds good to me! just ask for Markus/ Product Designer for Bandstand at the NI booth.


Best,
Markus

 

Another dissatisfied user here. I just wrote in the PG forum:

"Sad to say Im having a lot memory problems with Bandstand inside BB allthough I have 2 MB RAM. All the time there will be holes in the sound.
I cant use my asio4All driver with BS. It just says nothing.
As a standalone it seems not to support Acoustic Bass. It sounds like a piano with the pedal down (terrible).
I must say that if you are not an expert, frustration could the biggest part of what you get buying Bandstand.
I have truly regretted that I payed for it.
Coyote Forte is much better for me. "

I really hope there will be an update making bandstand more usefull for the non experts , too.

 

Hi all,

I made this thread sticky to use it for update notes etc.

currently I am working on a library version that allows you to load all sounds into memory at startup. after much thinking from all sides, we finally came up with a working solution for my PC desktop here.

what I would need are volunteer beta testers with the live setup, i.e. laptop. interesting here are the amount of RAM you have and the actual loading times compared to the faster desktop hard drives.

please let me know if you are interested in beta testing. you would need to have at least 768 MB RAM in your laptop, better more.


Best,
Markus

 

Sorry, my RAM is 960 MB

 

I'm ready whenever you are Markus

Colin

 

I'm so very happy to hear this from you Markus. I would be grateful to be included in this beta test. My Hardware is as follows:
Toshiba P35-609s Laptop
3.2 ghz P4
1.5 gig ram
60 gb HD
Windows XP Home SP2

I also have a Macintosh Dual 1 Gig Desktop
1.5 gb ram
2 80 gb HD
OSX 10.4.5

I also have a 2.3 ghz P4 Desktop
1.5 ghz Ram
80 gb HD
Windows XP Pro
But since you only allow installation to 2 machines I do not have Bandstand installed there

My day job is Software Technical Support and QA Testing, fwiw.

 

excellent, guys!

our test manager will send you the beta test NDAs. then we will be ready to start in no time.


Best,
Markus

 

Dear NI.
Please, I have newer intended to use BANSTAND as a live instrument. It was intended as replacement of a Canvas SC 88 in my studio. Sad to say it can’t.
If I understand your intentions right, you are not going to make it sound more realistic. Not before other, fundamental problems are sorted out so it can at least play 3 minutes without dropouts. As we all know now, it can’t be used in a serious studio session. Not for long time from now. I will not have it. I have relied on NI´s good name & trusted you that I’m buying a professional piece of a useful tool. It is not. I have to find another alternative & it is not right to mislead pour studio owners to buy an early beta version of a new, still under development, promising software. This is not right.
I’m willing to beta test your product but it is not proper to make me pay for that.

Please contact me off the list so we can arrange return of it.
Thank you very much.


/kurt