Christian,
I know you're a fan, as i've read many of your posts.
And i offer the following in addtion to what i've already written:
In any progressive progress, particularly software, there is a point at which backwards compatability becomes redundant. Someone posted a car analogy in another post. Can you interchange parts between an old ford and a new one? No. They reach a point where new technology is too far removed from old.
And in direct relation to VI, i think the same is true. VSL have spent a lot of time and effort building a VI that automates many of the processes we have all commented about many times. The workflow alone will improve.
If you were to build a VI (and you may be capable of that, i don't know) would you build it for 'older technology', or look forward and try to anticipate what's happening in the future? 24 bit is certainly a step forward, and in a few years time we will look back with some nostalgia and fondness at it, as we rave about 48bit, and 96bit. It's progress. As difficult as many of the criticisms may have been for the VSL team, do they simply stay put, and create a process based on now, and not later? How long would it be before many VSL users start looking elsewhere as other companies produce ever more advanced technology?
And the mapping involved must have been considerable. Do VSL go to that effort for the 16bit technology of now? I will be frank with you, i'd do the same as Herb and the team, and as painful as it might be in the present, look forward and try to give my customers a product that will have a longer shelf life of useability.
This seems to be that point that many companies face, of backward compatibility, and i think, given the little information so far, that contrary to the feeling of many posts, the pricing structure of new technological introduction has been with the present users in mind. The discounts on the extended edition are generous.
And the standard base is not one of disloyalty to users, but that point of complete change to enable the new technology to be introduced as painlessly as possible.
We've all bought software, only to find we're already behind the eight ball, and naturally got frustrated at our poor timing. And let's compare apples with apples.
If a software pack costs £500, and the new version costs £500 pounds, we could rightly say where's our user loyalty discount? You might get 10%. And the software company will be accused of not doing enough.
By percentage, the discount offered to present VSL users on the extended edition is considerably more than 10%, probably closer to 90%.
Isn't that an acknowledgment of loyalty by users?
Yes, you pay for the new technology, and it's your choice if you want to take that step, as it is with every product you buy. I would suggest some of the hesitation and irritation involved is as much to do with the prospect of developing a new way of working as anything else!
Because, without a doubt, the VI and mapped 24bit samples is new technology, and we're all on the progress train again, hurtling along in a new direction!
Regards,
Alex.
