Nord Sample Editor NS3 - Please Nord!

[analogika]

+1 with cgrafx:
The little 27 people cie doesn't hold anymore especially with all the buzz created on this forum. It takes just few minutes to write a basic statement, a lot of other small cies are doing that all the time. The thousands of German small and medium cies have done that for years and that's why that are known all over the world for the quality of their products and services whatever the number of people they are...

What exactly about this statement is not „basic“, clear, and straightforward?

Attention Nord Stage 3 Owners: An updated version of the Nord Sample Editor adding compatibility for the Nord Stage 3 is in the works and will be released soon. Stay tuned.

Are you demanding an apology or something?

[cgrafx]

When you have six thousand people working for you, you might have time to waste on participating in forums and seeming totally cool.

When you have twenty seven people working their asses off to get software written, firmware fixed and an entire sample library updated, plus doing the entire assembly and possibly designing new products in the shadow of a huge backlog of orders for the Stage 3, I would hope that the CEO is standing at the assembly line with all his colleagues, trying to get s*** done as fast as possible.

The message on their website is clear. If they lose a couple of customers - well, they’re back-ordered until probably mid-next-year, I’d think. They’ll be fine.

Lack of information about what is going on can kill a product and a company. The back order issue is exactly the kind of problem you don't want to have. Inability to deliver a product on a reasonable schedule in the face of significant competition is how companies go bankrupt. The 2018 NAMM show is just around the corner. There are lots of other companies that I expect will be releasing new products. If Nord is unable to deliver product in a timely fashion they will lose more than a few orders. I finally had to pull mine, because I can't allow $3500 to sit in somebody else bank account while I wait for product to be delivered at some unknown time in the future. Its not hard to determine how long product will take to manufacture and deliver, yet Nord is doing nothing to keep their distributors apprized of the schedule. In fact they haven't even delivered the stuff that was supposed to be on the orders they have delivered.

How do I know this? Because my dealer had my $3500 and only received ONE NS3 Compact (5 where supposed to be in the shipment). Almost 6 weeks later and my dealer has ZERO information from Nord on when they will receive any more product. Since most of the other distributors are now saying backordered until Feb 2018, I had no choice but to cancel my order.

It doesn't take more than a few minutes to keep your supply chain or customer base updated. Had there been some indication of what allocations could be expected, I might have kept my order, but we are not talking about $100. Add to that the problems with getting the sample editor finished along with clear quality control issues and this starts to add up to trouble. 30 people is more than enough to do a significant amount of work. It doesn't take thousands.

As a matter of fact, most other product lines generally don't have groups that are any larger than Nord, they just have more product lines.

My lifelong best friend is the VP of product development at Fender. I've had the pleasure of meeting a number of the product development teams when I visited him at Fender headquarters in Phoenix. Their product teams are just a few people each.

[kbrkr]

When you have six thousand people working for you, you might have time to waste on participating in forums and seeming totally cool.

When you have twenty seven people working their asses off to get software written, firmware fixed and an entire sample library updated, plus doing the entire assembly and possibly designing new products in the shadow of a huge backlog of orders for the Stage 3, I would hope that the CEO is standing at the assembly line with all his colleagues, trying to get s*** done as fast as possible.

Are you telling me Nord never anticipated this need prior to the launch of the 3rd generation? They've had plenty of time to accommodate this software. And besides, they can ALWAYS ramp up software development by using contractors and/or off shore delivery systems. Heck, they can even have a 3rd party write the module for them. We're not talking Rocket Science here. This is very very bad product deployment practice on Nord's part. I had no idea this was their service level prior to purchasing my first Nord.

[anotherscott]

Are you telling me Nord never anticipated this need prior to the launch of the 3rd generation? They've had plenty of time to accommodate this software. And besides, they can ALWAYS ramp up software development by using contractors and/or off shore delivery systems. Heck, they can even have a 3rd party write the module for them. We're not talking Rocket Science here

A software developer never really knows how long it will take to get the bugs out of something, even just enough of them to ship. I mean, in a perfect world, the bugs don't exist in the first place, but even Microsoft and Apple have released buggy stuff (and have missed release dates), and they have nearly infinite resources.

Obviously, this is more complicated than they expected it to be. But you can't necessarily solve a programming problem simply by throwing more programmers at it. Could they sub-contract/out-source? Possibly... but what is the guarantee anyone else could do it any more quickly than they can, considering the head start and Nord-specific experience they already have? Or maybe the issue is that they HAVE out-sourced it, and that company has not produced a usable product. One of the problems with out-sourcing is you have less control.

The point is, we just don't know. Things always look easier from the perspective of the people who don't have to do it and don't have all the information. All we know is that Nord intended to have this done more quickly, and they certainly know this needs to be done, that people are waiting for it, and are upset about it and possibly delaying purchases for it. I think it is safe to assume that Nord is currently pursuing whatever path they think will get it done as soon as possible.

[kbrkr]

Are you telling me Nord never anticipated this need prior to the launch of the 3rd generation? They've had plenty of time to accommodate this software. And besides, they can ALWAYS ramp up software development by using contractors and/or off shore delivery systems. Heck, they can even have a 3rd party write the module for them. We're not talking Rocket Science here

A software developer never really knows how long it will take to get the bugs out of something, even just enough of them to ship. I mean, in a perfect world, the bugs don't exist in the first place, but even Microsoft and Apple have released buggy stuff (and have missed release dates), and they have nearly infinite resources.

Software development is not a magic art. There are methodologies like TDD and Six Sigma which incorporate quality in all phases of software development. I disagree, you can actually predict software quality based on the methodology or lack thereof used in development. If you are hacking software or flying by the seat of your pants, then yes, you will have poor quality from the start. However, between Unit Testing, Integration Testing, User Acceptance testing, and then writing use cases from the design phase, you can mitigate 90% of defects.

[PScooter63]

Software development is not a magic art. There are methodologies like TDD and Six Sigma which incorporate quality in all phases of software development. I disagree, you can actually predict software quality based on the methodology or lack thereof used in development. If you are hacking software or flying by the seat of your pants, then yes, you will have poor quality from the start. However, between Unit Testing, Integration Testing, User Acceptance testing, and then writing use cases from the design phase, you can mitigate 90% of defects.

Nothing is a magic art. I’m a software testing analyst by trade. In my experience, what you’re describing is a narrative spun by a project manager, not someone who wrestlies with actual code (I’m also a former programmer).

Fact is, none of us know what Clavia is or is not doing behind their company doors, and we would do well to not presume so much.

[Quai34]

@Analogika:
Come on, this statement is the same all the time, like we are aware, it's in working progress, just don't ask anymore...
There is nothing special about this statement that couldn't be said by any "box of beans/food" CIE.....We pay thousands of dollars for their product, we could expect more explanations that just the copy and paste of the usual one....
Not an apology (and finally why not, even governments are doing it to calm any situation they have..." But as anotherscott said we don't know and it will be better if we would know, about why, delay, resources put towards it etc....
I've been in marketing/sales business for years at managers/executive levels and the best solution, even in the worst case scenario/mess you could be in, is to be as honest and detailed as you could be....
Then, the apology/Pardon will come directly from the customers who will really appreciate this honesty....and will be way more patient because you let them know....

[analogika]

Again: what "honest" message should they be sending, exactly, that would satisfy you?

They announced a clear deadline and missed that for reasons unknown. Would you seriously prefer they kept doing that? Are you simply looking for a clear statement to sue over? What is it?

They’ve said "we're not quite done, but it will come soon," as that’s probably the concisest they can make it. For all we know, the programmer's wife has gone in for cancer treatment, and he could presently give two shits and a holler about some guy whining about returning his keyboard over the software being late, while their order books are full until beyond next summer. And maybe it's just a crucial, show-stopper issue that they ran into with the new file format that requires unexpected re-doing of rather larger portions of code.
We just don’t know, and we're not going to until it's released.

[analogika]

Frankly, I think that even if .nsmp3 is just a fairly simple extension of the previous format that includes basic filter and envelope presets, that still means that we're going to need a full interface for all of those options - basically an editor for almost the entire sample synth engine, as it were.
And we really need that interface to not suck.

That would be the single biggest redesign of the Sample Editor since its inception.

[Quai34]

Nothing to sue, just some detailed explanations that everyone could understand instead of being in the dark.
When you had to cancel your tour in Spain with your Santana Tribute band, you posted why and gave explanation and yes, you apologize...
Something like, this our plan, with step 1, step 2 etc, why step 1 and 2 are difficult because we want to make sure etc....
The "we are not quite done and it will come soon" is not good because it let other people to think about unexpected ....It's way better to know the worst than to imagine the worst...Ok, fine for you if this statement is enough for you, I still believe that, like a lot of us, Clavia could have made a better communication on what is happening....
If they really describe what difficulties they are struggling with, even the cancer guy example, we will pardon them way more than just the "it's coming soon...." So, I will stop here for that topic anyway.