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Post by jtc111 on Jan 8, 2019 19:16:11 GMT -6
Just ordered a StamChild, now it's a race to see if it ships before the WarmChild or KlarkChild. I'm pretty sure you could produce an ActualChild before your order is delivered.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 8, 2019 10:22:59 GMT -6
So this breeder supplies dogs for racing?
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 8, 2019 9:29:56 GMT -6
What I am concerned about is people going on incessantly about issues that we all know about and have discussed ad nausea um which takes the thread away from its stated topic. So when you bought your dog from Stam, was she delivered on time? And were the "lovely spirit" and "generous, knowing and magnanimous nature" upgrades from the standard model or do they all come that way?
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 5, 2019 20:51:42 GMT -6
I haven't taken a grown up size step in my house in years. And there's a recent edition not in this picture.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 5, 2019 16:01:17 GMT -6
Other manufacturers don't encourage this kind of scrutiny. The scrutiny is a reaction to his problematic business model. At the root of the scrutiny are the delays on top of delays on top of delays, the long list of excuses, and the subpar communication skills. Any company operating that way is going to get plenty of scrutiny. In this case, the scrutiny is well earned. Maybe it’s just me - but when preordering hot new items from just about anywhere - a few months delay is kinda standard. I’ve always felt Stam was a bit of an underdog who is genuinely making top quality products at a price that puts them in a league of their own. My audioscape gssl is nowhere near the same league as my Stam 1073mpa in terms of perceived build quality. Talking about delays is one thing - but making assumptions about how the business handles money is a little unnecessary. Regardless super stoked on this new unit! It’s going to look/feel/and sound great! Your remarks/diversions about quality are non-sequiturs, as is your remark to me as to how Josh handles money. No one is casting aspersions about the quality of Stam's gear and I made no remarks about how he handles his business' money. As for a few months delay being "kinda standard," I'd ask for examples that meet the same level of consistent repeated multiple delays as we've seen from Stam, not just on a product or two, but across nearly his entire product line. Once you've compiled that list, whittle it down to the companies who, after subjecting their customers to multiple failures on projected delivery dates, then give attitude to their customers for being frustrated and annoyed. One example... the original delivery date for the ADG was July 2018. Then it was pushed to August, then September, then October, then November, then December, then January 2019, and they're still not out the door. People who purchased ADG units last May have been told SEVEN different delivery dates, none of which have been true. You said "a few months delay is kinda standard." Seven months is well past "a few months." If you want to defend him, have at it, but please be truthful when you do it. More to your point about delays being "kinda standard." I've preordered things that involved delays. I have a Hendy DaVinci channel strip that I had to wait on. Chris Hendy was upfront about the wait and delivered when he said he'd deliver. After purchasing an Audio-Scape Opto I decided I wanted a second. I contacted Chris Yetter and he told me he was waiting on some parts but could have it for me in a few weeks. He delivered in a few weeks. I've ordered custom built guitars and bouzoukis both inside and outside the US and had to wait. Again, the builders were upfront about the wait time and delivered when promised. I'm not unaccustomed to waiting on orders. The issue is NOT the waiting. The issue is the deception repeated deceptions as to delivery dates on multiple products. Josh has not been wronged (as you've implied). I've seen no one here engage in any unprovoked, unjust, or undeserving criticism of Josh or his business practices. All his wounds are self-inflicted.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 5, 2019 13:47:13 GMT -6
When was the last time you held any other manufacturer to this type of scrutiny? Should we be asking about where Audioscape keeps his money or Dave from AA? I can’t help but feel like their is some mob mentality here against Stam. Other manufacturers don't encourage this kind of scrutiny. The scrutiny is a reaction to his problematic business model. At the root of the scrutiny are the delays on top of delays on top of delays, the long list of excuses, and the subpar communication skills. Any company operating that way is going to get plenty of scrutiny. In this case, the scrutiny is well earned.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 4, 2019 21:11:41 GMT -6
Sorry. That just doesn't make sense to me - any more the putting a 2a and 1176 in one box or a DBX and an 1176 in one box. I have great 2a's and 3a's and I use them all the time - but for different things. I don't get the correlation of putting both in one box and switching between other than they were both Urei's and both ended in a's. Or that one was the descendant of the other. I use em for two different things, and I generally need both during a mix. Which would necessitate I buy more of the above. Which would (presumably) cost more for the dual architecture, and almost certainly be sub standard in terms of design. There's a lot of **** in those things, and they don't all share components easily. I guess my mindset just doesn't line up.... If I need a 2a AND a 3a - simultaneously for mixing - I'd have to buy two and the internal architecture is wasted on extra parts I don't need. I suppose for the guy only needing one.... That doesn’t really make sense...if you buy one LA2A, you have one LA2A. If you buy this, you get the option. If you need two, you buy two. I think what he means is he'd find a single piece of rack gear with two of the same channels more useful than having to buy two pieces of rack gear to get two of the same channels. That makes sense to me.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 4, 2019 18:25:42 GMT -6
It sounds like you've done the necessary investigative work. If you dot your eyeballs and cross your t-bones as recommended, it's probably okay. I'd want a signature on the other end though, so I could verify to whom it was actually delivered. Signature of the buyer isn’t always possible with APO, often it’s just who ever is working at the base post office. I guess my post was unclear. Knowing that it won't be delivered into the hands of the buyer, I'd want to "verify to whom it was actually delivered." Someone on a base somewhere is going to take delivery and I'd at least want to know who had "hands on the ground," so to speak, just in case there's some question of delivery later. It may not even be an issue in the end, but I'd want to be able to show that I took steps to ensure safe delivery.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 4, 2019 16:42:29 GMT -6
It sounds like you've done the necessary investigative work. If you dot your eyeballs and cross your t-bones as recommended, it's probably okay. I'd want a signature on the other end though, so I could verify to whom it was actually delivered.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 4, 2019 11:51:56 GMT -6
Is "xxxx" the expected delivery year?
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 4, 2019 11:50:41 GMT -6
This isn’t meant to be negative - didn’t STAM say he was “going retail” and ending direct sales/pre orders? Presumably all of these new things would then only be available via retailers? I wasn’t ever offered any discount (may not have cancelled my ADG if I was) but how is he going to apply these promised discounts if he’s not doing the selling? Yes, he did say that, and I'm pretty sure he said it would happen by this past September. Perhaps it's still August in Chile. Going full retail would reassign the handling of delivery delay complaints to the retailers involved so I can see why the move is attractive from Josh's standpoint. How long retailers would put up with the heap of complaints with which they'd have to deal (including disappointing and possibly alienating customers who may blame the dealer rather than Stam)... who knows? I wasn't offered any discounts either but it wouldn't have influenced my decision to bail. I've no doubt there's going to be some confusion about discounts and other pricing issues. I had ordered an upgraded 67 at the time when there was only one upgrade option. At some point between the time I ordered and the time I cancelled, three upgrade options appeared on the website. The price I was paying aligned with the highest upgrade price on the website so for a while I assumed that was the upgrade I'd get in the end. Some posts by others made me think I should get some verification and that's when I was told I was getting the lowest upgrade from the website. That wasn't the only reason I bailed but I was done being disappointed by him at that point and I got out. Thankfully, the refund came quickly.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 3, 2019 18:52:55 GMT -6
Maybe that guy is a business genius. Or maybe he's just treating customers as they should be treated and it doesn't actually require any business genius at all. Anyway... while it's right and proper that we should alert people about those doing it wrong; it's equally right and proper that we take a little time to let people know who's doing it right. Kudos to Weight Tank!
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 3, 2019 11:18:09 GMT -6
My guess is the biggest flaw with the Slate VMS product is still the mic itself. The software used is not all that different than another mix engineer's use of some sort of dynamics and EQ treatment. Improve the mic itself and you're likely going to be happier. If you don't like the modeling though, there's several others to try. I don't have one of these, but I've been considering the Sphere L22. A lot of the people who own them say they like the mic's sound just by itself. But the concern is real over whether a change in Apple's OS or a thunderbolt system or Apollo whatever — does that mean Townsend might not support that product any longer? The same crap has happened with companies like ProTools and Apogee. But if you do like the mic, there is a pro/con balance point, because getting the funds to buy one Flea 47 means a lifetime on the sidelines (for me) when I could be recording music with a Sphere and still have options for other mic sounds. Yeah, I could invest in a nicer boutique clone mic for less, but even if they are great components, you won't get your investment back without a bigger brand name. Finding buyers for that can be hit or miss. Just look at how long some products are listed on Reverb. Also...it must be nice to be at a place where losing a $100 production tool isn't viewed as a big loss. Cheers to you. My reservations are not solely with the Slate VMS. That's the system I've heard samples from more than any other. As I said in my previous post, I don't like the dependency on software that may stop being updated at some point and become obsolete, but that's not my only reason. The VMS just sound awful to my ears. Vincent R. has done a bunch of vocal shootouts that have involved the VMS. I don't think he's put videos up for all of them, but I think I've heard all of them. And whether he's presented them to me labeled or blind, I've always picked the VMS as the worst of the bunch. I understand the "value" argument and that you get a bunch of flavors for your money but if the flavors are all bad, what good are they? In Vinny's shootouts that included the VMS there were always some Advanced Audio mics in the mix. Those mics beat the VMS sound quality pretty handily, imo. Admittedly, a Flea is going to be out of reach for a lot of people but the AA offerings are much more affordable and have much better sound quality than the VMS. Given the choice between owning a couple of those AA mics or the VMS system, I'll take the AA mics in a heartbeat. Better sound quality and fewer choices is better than inferior sound quality and more choices. The one caveat is this: if a person really has absolutely no sense of what mic might be best for them personally, the VMS might be helpful in pointing them in a direction. I say "might" because it also could point them in the wrong direction since they're relying on their own inexperienced ears to make that determination. I'm an example of that. Way back in the day I bought the Antares Mic Modeler plugin when it was first introduced. It was when I had little money to spend and my thinking then was the same as I see folks saying now: more choices, yada yada yada. My favorite setting using that plugin was the C12, so I thought that was the mic I was after in the long run, or at least something close to it. Skip ahead some years (and enough bad purchases to realize my instincts weren't all that great) I decided it might be best to seek some opinions. Using a simple rough demo of just me and my guitar, I made a thread over at the purple palace and asked folks to give a listen to my voice and tell me what mic they'd reach for first if I walked into their studio. I got a decent number of replies and most of them answered with a mic in the 47 family. At the time, a 47 wasn't even on my radar but it was absolutely the right advice. So I guess that's the caveat to my caveat.
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Post by jtc111 on Jan 2, 2019 23:15:28 GMT -6
Another reason I'm not a fan of this kind of tech...
Our gear essentially breaks down into two major categories: hardware and software. My hardware consists of microphones, preamps, and compressors. I know that no matter what else changes, my hardware is never going to be obsolete in my lifetime. In 30 years, those things will still work ...they may require a little maintenance along the way, but they'll still work. All the other stuff ...the software... has a shelf life and I have no idea how long that shelf life is. We buy the software because it's relatively cheap. If the eq plugin I spent $100 on becomes unusable at some point, I'm not out much money. But now we're seeing hardware that is software dependent. So which category does that fall into? To my thinking, it's still software since the functionality of the hardware is dependent on the software. While I may not be bothered by the loss of a plugin that I paid $100 for, I'd be kind of pissed if I spent $1-2K on a VMS type system and it became unusable for whatever reason (company folds, new system introduced and support ends for the old, etc.). Software dependent hardware will become obsolete and lose much of its resale value should that happen. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure every piece of gear I bought secondhand could be sold today without a loss, and my Flea 47, which I bought new, I could actually make a few bucks on if I sold it (not that I'm ever selling it).
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 30, 2018 0:54:39 GMT -6
He didn't chime in but I know for the film work he does he really loves the realism of the Chris Hein instruments, as do I. The one caveat is violin. For the singer-songwriter/folk stuff I do, more often than not I need a violin that sounds like a fiddle and the Hein violin can't pull that off ...no orchestral violin vst is going to pull that off. It's a different sound and it relies on different articulations. But if you don't need the fiddle sound, the Hein stuff is top notch. BestService.com runs some great sales from time to time on the Hein offerings. The solo strings package is very useful too. You can select more than one of any given instrument. I think you can choose having up to five playing at once.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 25, 2018 10:59:06 GMT -6
Merry Christmas, friends!
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 23, 2018 17:38:51 GMT -6
I think Chris is moving, so better keep your powder dry! This posted today makes it sound to me like the release will happen right away: A myth. A legend. A curiously colorful tube compressor. Introducing the V-COMP! 2019 is quickly among us.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 23, 2018 16:52:05 GMT -6
He's just teasin' the snot out of me.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 20, 2018 17:08:37 GMT -6
I got a few nasty emails from " he who will not deliver on time be named" because of that little graphic I made.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 19, 2018 22:14:15 GMT -6
BestService has the custom midi 6 pack on sale for a great price. I loaded up on grooves this month. No kidding! These are Toontrack midi packs for half off! Nice score. I bought three of them and grabbed 18 midi packs. At that price it was a no-brainer for me.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 19, 2018 13:47:13 GMT -6
Speaking of design, I saw a FB post from Stam announcing a new product design, a new mic called the SA-57. As great as that sounds, and I’m sure Stam is itching to release some new stuff, it sure doesn’t sit right considering the enormous backlog of orders. Now, I didn’t see where he was taking orders, but still, if someone there has the time to be designing new mics, they should instead grab a soldering iron and help get these back orders cleared out. It’s just bad optics, if nothing else.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 19, 2018 12:28:02 GMT -6
BestService has the custom midi 6 pack on sale for a great price. I loaded up on grooves this month. Thanks! Will these work with tap2find? I've never read where any of the grooves they sell don't work with tap2find, so I'd assume they do; however, I don't use that feature so some may know more than I do about that.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 19, 2018 9:06:05 GMT -6
I could always use some new fresh grooves. BestService has the custom midi 6 pack on sale for a great price. I loaded up on grooves this month.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 18, 2018 10:40:24 GMT -6
I have an Akitio Thunder3 Quad Mini 4-Bay SSD Enclosure loaded up with Samsung SSDs. One drive is for sessions, two are for libraries, the last is for saving miscellaneous stuff I don't want on my system drive but don't want to delete either. I'm pretty happy with that set up.
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Post by jtc111 on Dec 17, 2018 18:59:44 GMT -6
He's a huge tease, isn't he?
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