Wishing for a VSL voicing-management app

[Macker]

Without naming it here, I've been familiarising myself with a voicing-management app I've just bought. It's basically a MIDI front-end real-time polyphonic voice-distribution utility app that works with DAWs to achieve auto-divisi and to make some simple orchestration configurations amenable to polyphonic live playing.

The biggest issue I have with it is its grotesquely over-inflated price tag - I reckon it's at least 4x overpriced for what it is. Perhaps we're supposed to overlook that and just be grateful because right now there's no real alternative in the market. But in my view the developers (perhaps led up the garden path by their "authorised reseller") have done themselves no favours, because (1) the nasty pricing leaves a very bad and long-lasting aftertaste (creatives don't want that kind of odium associated with their tool kit), and (2) the app is certainly not rocket science and so there will be competitors before too long; then guess who'll be exposed and shunned as overly precious and greedy little piggies.

I took the painful hit in buying the app because there's no free demo (that I could find) and I needed to know certain technical things about it, having to do with my forthcoming Situater Environment Subsystem. Now that I've a clearer view of the odious overpricing I couldn't let it pass without posting some sort of warning here.

I'm pretty sure VSL could and should compete with this product, and produce a modestly-priced voicing-management app (perhaps sort of like VI Pro's Auto-Voicing on steroids) that would be excellent for auto-divisi and various 'auto-orchestration' tasks. Live polyphonic playing of templates with Sy Dimension and BBO libraries would be greatly assisted and enhanced; but of course the extent of the whole potential field of use cases is huge.

[dragsquares]

When the app you are referring to came out, there was nothing that did what it did.  Still isn't anything that does that.  I would certainly love to see VEPro do this, and in doing so become the object-oriented library-dominator it should be.  (See my recent post in the Ensemble software section.)

That said, I'm curious as to what you are basing your statements of inflated price on.  I mean, I know how much it is - I bought it.  It's not a feature of a mammoth app like Cubase or something - it's a specific app by a small developer that does a certain thing that some people find useful.  (I wish it were more like TransMIDIfier in terms of transforming the data as it's split, and I think they are working on that.) I don't resent them, or have a bad taste in my mouth or any of that.  It's a very iffy thing to decide what someone else deserves for what they do, especially when nothing else does it, and there's not much point in being bitter about it, if that's what you are doing.  Price doesn't require a warning - it is what it is.  Any consumer can decide if the feature set is worth it to them, and it's not the developer's fault if the expense isn't justified.  It was for me.  When I use it it's great.

[Macker]

I'm happy that you're happy about the price. And I'm not bitter, the price is. We'll probably have to agree to differ on this. I think perhaps our respective cultures have prepared us in different ways as regards business. I prefer to leave it at that.

[Bill]

Is there some reason you're not giving the name of the app?

[Macker]

A couple of simple reasons, Bill: I've no interest in giving it free publicity, and I prefer to be free to speak about it without fear of lawsuits and other censorial tactics.

[dragsquares]

I’ll respect your wishes by not mentioning the name - though I think that the courts of the world would be clogged if someone got sued every time - or even one percent of the time - for complaining on the Internet - and also I’ll refer you to this thread where what you wish for was being talked about - I have long been a proponent of VEPro doing a lot more than it does now for MIDI processing. Here’s hoping we all get what we want. [url=https://www.vsl.co.at/community/posts/t56752-My-roughly-annual-request-for-a-]The thread[/url] Regarding price - I think if it this way: if a tool or sound library makes things faster for me, it will pay for itself rapidly. I work all the time (a very fortunate thing) and the music business has declined in rates generally (an unfortunate thing), so whatever makes it possible for me to do more with my time is desirable. I hazard a guess as to what my hourly rate would be based on how much I need to work to hit a monthly mark, project how many hours it would save me per month to use the product, and if it makes sense and if the product’s price is comparable to others (if any), that decides it.