I think many users here are really willing to support Neural DSP as an innovative start-up company (hardwarewise). Some may have bought the Quad Cortex in good will, as pre-ordered device with the intention to fund a great idea.
In my impression we are approaching a situation, where good communication becomes crucial to uphold confidence and to avoid frustration.
Since I have faced situations where my customers / sponsors became disgruntled upon missed deadlines (this year I am entering my 20th year as professional software engineer) I realized, that a) transparency / good progress reporting helps a lot in regaining confidence and b) communication of challenging issues can be of help in finding out-of-the-box solutions.
So as suggestion please let us nerdy fans within this forum see where the dev team is at (maybe by a burn down chart per feature or similar), and (no offence) stop referencing the âNewsâ page, stop closing posts with concernes about the progress and donât mention dates like âby the end of monthâ or âin the comming daysâ. We truly understand, that it can be a difficult endeavour to implement such good firmware.
Thank you!
âThe history of failure in war, or in any other human endeavor, can be summed up in two words: âtoo late.ââ [General MacArthur]
Devs are not particularly interested in sharing in-detail progress ala github with the general public or with demanding customers that feel so entitled because they bought a thing. If the hardware was open source, sure, but closed source/in house production needs to be able to just work and not constantly be talking with the userbase. Itâs not helpful.
Everyone complaining about lack of communication: what exactly do you want more of? You get monthly updates from the devs that tell you what you need to know. The software is in beta, and theyâre working out bugs. You know mostly the big things they have tried to get into it.
What would be enough? Weekly updates (hereâs a hint: theyâd be âthe beta is still in testingâ)? Daily updates? Youâd be taking away a devs time from working on the product to appeasing a VERY small number of people that have far too much time sitting on internet forums.
For peteâs sake, when the software is deemed ready enough by the devs to be released itâll be released. EVERYONE knows the status of things right now. If you have really excellent coding skills, knowledge of acoustics, and can apply for a job with Neural, then maybe youâll get more detailed, by-the-hour info.
Oh no, not this âWeâre entitled to know everything theyâre doingâ nonsense all over again.
The funny/sad irony about this is that when 2.0 is released, people are going to start complaining that the devs didnât spend enough time making everything 1000% perfect.
For real there needs to be a sticky post that just links to the most recent dev news and a âjust wait for it to be released alreadyâ and then any other posts about it just locked. Clutters the forum from more questions about what FRFR cab people should buy.
Software estimation is hard, and a non-trivial time sink for a small team. Iâd much rather those resources be applied to development work. Monthly updates are more than sufficient.
the idea that end users are entitled to know internal process because they bought the product is honestly silly. While NDSP could do better with phrasing of information, thereâs zero reason to have the expectation for them to keep the users up to date with dev tasks. Itâs honestly just absurd, and people are feeding off each other at this point asking for more transparency there. Even as it is, we get all the software devs and project managers on every forum here voicing their opinions about conditions they know nothing about. Imagine the response of the public to a burn down chart or something similar. Everyoneâs an armchair expert
I want a Webcam in the devs office ffs !!!11!!!1!!one!
It can´t be that I - a buyer who is responsible that Doug has a mansion and sports cars - do not know the exactly state of the update.
My next step will go further !!! I will make a sign out ouf cardboard
Nah, jokes aside. I understand that people are excited about a BIG Update, but who really cares if an update comes out on this friday, or the next, or maybe in 2 weeks. It don´t really makes a difference.
If they would delay it till the end of march, ok.
No, Dude, thatâs the problemâŚthey keep saying itâs just around the corner, teasing us with that carrot. Thatâs what is getting all the panties bunched up.
So, Iâm imagining this scenario where my PM comes to me and says: âHey lead developer, we have a client asking for burn down charts, what do you think?â.
I reply: âThink of a diplomatic way to tell the client to go ____ themselves.â.
Seriously, this request is unreasonable.
Also: I think many of us think they would like to have a very involved community manager to give us hugs and tell us everything will be OK, and sometimes having a community manager does help, but clearly NDSP have thought about this and chosen otherwise. It is a double-edged sword, after all. If you make an individual the focus of the product on the Internet, personalities come into play, and they may well end up vilified which solves nothing.
Well I think some of you have this backwards⌠From what I understand NDP promised things long before the release they still havenât delivered. I understand people that got in early is upset about that. I got in late so for me itâs what I see about communication. They got it wrong from the start.
You donât see Fractal Audio talk about updates before they are actually ready. And they donât promise time frames for updates. One day itâs just there and you get positivity surprised.
They way I see NDP do it is hype up updates and set time frame they arenât able to follow. No wonder people get upset.
Half of posters everywhere complaining about missing âpromisedâ features already bought the QC like a year or more post launch when the state was well known. I have no sympathy for those people - theyâre whiny about it because they want to be. I do sympathize with pre-release buyers but I also understand there have been plenty of chances to resell above retail since then. IMO, people need to look at whatâs happening NOW and not what happened at launch.
Too many people are caught up in drama thatâs 2 years old at this point and it definitely spills over into every single conversation and thread like this. Itâs a small team, and theyâll do what they can as fast as they reasonably can. If people canât be patient for that, then theyâre better off buying fractal which is so complete at this point that updates do virtually nothing.
I donât know for the âknowing everything they doâ, i also like some surprises !!!
But for me the frustration is normal cause the promised agressive plan of updates is clearly not there (yet) ! Iâm still confident it will come and the QC will be so much more than it is now.
Maybe the 2.0 was to ambitious and having 1.5, 1.6 etc with just the features that are already working properly would have been better solution ?
I think closing very quickly threads add frustration.
Well guys, calm down. The point is, that some seemingly read the News page different than others.
Let me quote the Quad Cortex Development Update - June 2022:
âIf we have learned anything from our announcements regarding Quad Cortex development, itâs that promising features and timelines set an expectation that lead to disappointment when we delay a release because we want to perfect things. All of that to say we are pleased about the progress with the desktop controller and we canât wait to share it with you.â
The last 3 of 6 posts since then where about beta tests and bugfixing. More or less of the nature âreleasing soon, be patientâ.
All I am saying is, that I also want to be pleased with the progress. But the impression raises, that the same mistake is done again.
And worse, it leads to lots of pressure upon the developers shoulders, which is very unfair.
So if you share my frustration, what would you suggest to improve communication?
Please make constructive suggestions that help NDSP solve the problem instead of calling it a drama.
Not really. I think you joined a lot earlier than I did, though.
I didnât mean to shoot you down in any offensive way, btw⌠Itâs just that it seems clear NDSP is choosing to handle things a certain way, so a communications wish list feels like something that would increase frustration rather than relieve it.
I bought the QC one year ago, knowing that there were a few features missing and maybe added later, mainly hybrid mode, desktop editor and support of NDSP plugins.
I am happily using the QC without these features since then, live and in the studio. If I would have found any showstopper, I would have returned or sold the unit.
Hybrid mode should come soon, which is nice.
Desktop editor: I was surprised to find out that I donât need it. The touchscreen is working very well for me. I would like to have local backups though.
Plugin support: I captured some of my favorite NDSP plugins as a workaround. Full integration would be realllllyyyy nice of course.
What I want to say is that I see the updates more as nice improvements than as something I paid for and urgently need.
I think thatâs the main point where the opinions differ in this forum.
One part of the QC users says âI paid for the promised features, so I (rightfully!) demand more info about when I will get themâ
And I can fully understand this position as well.
The other part of the user base are like me, seeing the updates more like an improvement.
But simply have fun now with everything that has the cortex? no?
TOO DIFFICULT?
aaaaah⌠ok ok ⌠okâŚ
just enjoy this supercar as the updates will comeâŚpeople.
