Nord User Forum

[Schorsch]

Still, Apple's not to blame, as they have been issueing warnings about the switch to 64-bit for years, so I find it surprising that most companies aren't ready yet. They should have been preparing for it for a long time, and I'm sure they've had access to beta versions of Catalina for a long time for testing purposes...
If you're a small independent developer, working alone or with a small team, I can understand that it's not always possible or easy to assign the necessary funds and people to develop a new version of whatever software you've developed, but for companies like Nord, Steinberg, Korg, etc., who have plenty of resources, there's no excuse for not being ready before, or at least on the day of Catalina's release.

No one's blaming Apple fror anything regarding the shift to 64bit only from Catalina on, but on the other no one can blame any other company for not being ready with 64bit versions of their software unless Catalina is officially released. There is justification to do so only when Catalina is available and the only option for customers buying new Macs.

Also how do you know that Nord has plenty of resources? According to my knowledge the whole company is less than 40 people. These 40 people develop and maintain 8 (!) different core products plus additional options, including

- manufacturing and shipping of the products
- firmware maintenance/updates for the current product lineup
- development and maintenance of software tools like Sound Manager, Sample Editor, Drivers and others (which is what this thread is about)
- development on the hardware level for future generations of the existing product lines and potentially new products
- creation/recreation of samples
- hardware maintenance and support
- sales, marketing and administration
- plus others I may have forgotten

Do you really think that less than 40 people is "plenty of resources" for a company like Nord (even if they may have outsourced some functions/levels of work which I would guess they did)? Given this situation I fully understand why Nord has to prioritize it's tasks and workloads and not spend time and tight resources on release (nota bene: I don't mean "development"!) of product revisions to support an operating system which has not yet been released.


Just to be clear, I'm not a Nord fanboy nor am I in any way related to or sponsored by Nord, but I worked for a number of tech companies both hardware and software (and still do so), therefore have a bit of insight in what it means for a company to professionally maintain such a product set. I therefore fully understand why Nord acts like they do and I think they do a fantastic job with the limited amount of resources, although I personally would also wish to get a lot of additional features on both the hardware/firmware and the software tools side of the game.

[GuiliClayder]

no one can blame any other company for not being ready with 64bit versions of their software unless Catalina is officially released. There is justification to do so only when Catalina is available and the only option for customers buying new Macs.

Catalina will be released in a couple of weeks. If all those companies are truly ready with 64-bit versions of their software, then why are they issuing warnings not to upgrade ? People will only upgrade when Catalina is officially released, the discussion is not about beta software ; however, the fact that these 'do not update' warnings are there, is a sign that they won't be ready when Catalina officially hits the market.

Also how do you know that Nord has plenty of resources? According to my knowledge the whole company is less than 40 people. These 40 people develop and maintain 8 (!) different core products plus additional options

Is that my problem as a customer ? The way I see it, premium prices equal premium support. Full stop.

[Schorsch]

Is that my problem as a customer ? The way I see it, premium prices equal premium support. Full stop.

Nope. Cos as you frequently point out, you're not one. What I find interesting about your posts is...er...nothing.

[Schorsch]

Catalina will be released in a couple of weeks. If all those companies are truly ready with 64-bit versions of their software, then why are they issuing warnings not to upgrade ? People will only upgrade when Catalina is officially released, the discussion is not about beta software ; however, the fact that these 'do not update' warnings are there, is a sign that they won't be ready when Catalina officially hits the market.

Did you see any such warning being given by Nord? If so please show me since I may have missed it .....

Also how do you know that Nord has plenty of resources? According to my knowledge the whole company is less than 40 people. These 40 people develop and maintain 8 (!) different core products plus additional options

Is that my problem as a customer ? The way I see it, premium prices equal premium support. Full stop.

Have you had a problem up to now with any of Nords software tools not running on an official release of MAC OS? If so please let me know, again I may have missed something .... if not please be patient until Catalina has been released, you then will have a reason to complain if Nord does not provide updates to their software tools to be ready for Catalina at this point of time.

[GuiliClayder]

I wasn't talking about Nord specifically as far as 64-bit support goes and apparently Nord will come through with 64-bit versions of their software.
But while we're at it : how about some iOS apps, Nord ?

[Schorsch]

I wasn't talking about Nord specifically as far as 64-bit support goes and apparently Nord will come through with 64-bit versions of their software.

Aha ... isn’t this thread specifically about Nord Sound Manager not supporting next version of Mac OS?

[GuiliClayder]

I wasn't talking about Nord specifically as far as 64-bit support goes and apparently Nord will come through with 64-bit versions of their software.

Aha ... isn’t this thread specifically about Nord Sound Manager not supporting next version of Mac OS?

We were digressing, talking about Steinberg, Native Instruments, etc. I merely picked up after that.
But no skin off my nose. As you said, I'm not a Nord customer.

[PScooter63]

There is one interesting thing I found out today from a trusted Apple networking specialist (not a direct Apple employee, but this is his bread-and-butter we're talking about, it's his job to be knowledgeable).

This is only tangentially related to the subject at hand, but possibly useful to a narrow subset of users: once new Macs (desktops, laptops) start shipping with Catalina out of the box, it's unlikely that downgrading them to Mohave will be officially supported/sanctioned. Something about the new T2 security chip configuration disallowing that.

Having said that, I think far too much fake outrage is being generally expressed in this thread. What person, when investing in mission-critical new hardware or software, doesn't take a long hard look at compatibility/usability before taking that leap? They don't call it "bleeding edge" for nothing.

I also agree that Nord is hardly the only entity in this boat. I received a proactive email from a just-as-legendary notation company last week, advising me to NOT upgrade to Catalina until they give the all-clear.

[GuiliClayder]

[/i]: once new Macs (desktops, laptops) start shipping with Catalina out of the box, it's unlikely that downgrading them to Mohave will be officially supported/sanctioned. Something about the new T2 security chip configuration disallowing that.

You can never downgrade on a Mac. Well, you can, but not without some serious tinkering, something most users will not and cannot (or know how to) do. And to be honest, you shouldn't have to.

I also agree that Nord is hardly the only entity in this boat. I received a proactive email from a just-as-legendary notation company last week, advising me to NOT upgrade to Catalina until they give the all-clear.

Again, to each his (or her) own, but my opinion stands. All those companies should be ready NOW, they've had years to prepare...
I'm paying good money for a keyboard (or whatever I want to buy), money I work very hard for. So I think I'm entitled to get my money's worth.
I know that every company is trying to (or at least, is supposed to) keep the right balance between offering good customer service and high quality products on the one hand, and making a good profit on the other hand.
Sadly, though (and I'm not pointing any fingers at Nord, just speaking in general), the scales mostly tip towards making as much money as possible, instead of keeping customers happy. Ironically, I feel that Apple has turned a bit greedy since Steve Jobs passed away. I could be wrong, but it's not the same anymore. The magic is still there, but it's fading slowly but surely...

[baekgaard]

I know that every company is trying to (or at least, is supposed to) keep the right balance between offering good customer service and high quality products on the one hand, and making a good profit on the other hand.

Well, in general, it may be more complex than this. Independently of what profit margin a given company operates on, there is always the reality of balancing the available resources (limited not only by money but also by skills, training, availability, laws, current hiring and attrition rates, complexity of increasing team sizes, ...) with the things that the customers want. Should the company prioritize new products, new services, free upgrades (think sounds, maybe), bug fixes, etc -- matching the available resources.

Even highly succesful companies with vast amount of resources needs to prioritize...