MY AES WISH LIST
By George Petersen
Here we are—it’s AES week, and if you’re not already planning to attend the show, be advised that San Francisco’s Moscone Center is THE place to be for anyone who’s serious about audio. [For more info about AES visit www.AES.org].
With more than 400 audio companies showing their latest toys, there’ll be a whole lotta technology going on and it’s an ideal place to talk to manufacturers up close and personal about how their products fit into your audio needs. Here are a few suggestions for gear suppliers on my AES Wish List:
Fix your Website! You probably don’t think it needs fixing, but it does. If the words “skip intro” appear on your opening page, you’ve got a problem. People visit your site looking for information, not entertainment. No one wants to watch that whirling logo and spacey music intro of yours. Also, your search engine ranking is based partly on the text on your front page, and if the only words are “skip intro,” there isn’t much for Google, Yahoo, et al, to work with. While you’re at it, test your site with several browsers to make sure your customers can actually view it.
Give us support! Phone support is hard to access (busy signals) for users, so pump up your Web support. Offer more FAQs, troubleshooting tips, downloadable manuals and quick-start charts. And provide documentation for discontinued products: You made that stuff, so give your supporters some support.
Copy protection is a necessary evil. A friend of mine had to buy a USB hub just to run all of his dongles on his laptop! Concepts such as the iLok aren’t necessarily perfect, but are a step in the right direction. Maybe 2007 will be the year when some smart minds in this biz come up with a solution we can all live with. Pleeeeaase?
Every manufacturer is in a hurry to get product out, but can you actually test stuff before you ship it? If it’s software/peripherals, check it on Intel and AMD hardware (with Win 2000, NT and XP Pro/Home); on the Mac side, try OS X (Tiger, too) as well as OS 9 and G5/G4/G3/legacy machines. If some platform isn’t supported, let users know before they buy/upgrade, and don’t simply promise a future new driver or fix. And it’s not just computer stuff– audio hardware (from mics to modeling synths) needs a good dose of beta testing before foisting it on the public.
Finally, look at your products from a long-term user’s viewpoint. A box with a soldered-in battery for RAM backup just screams the phrase “planned obsolescence.” And in one of the few industries where users actually value vintage gear, a few extra coins for a battery socket (or better-quality pots, switches and connectors) can mean satisfied users and repeat customers down the line.
When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.
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So what suggestions do YOU have for manufacturers? And while we’re at it, what would YOU offer in terms of ways that the AES show itself could improve?
CLICK ON THE “COMMENTS” BUG BELOW TO READ/LEAVE COMMENTS…
October 23rd, 2006 @ 5:41 pm
The manufacturers in the industry are definitely doing things wrong! How is it possible that they always release new versions with so many dam bugs? Just a glitch is acceptable, but it has happened that the recent Sonar 5 has 3 updates in less than 4 months old, all of which are just fixing bugs!!
And many others are just selling and pushing us to new versions that force us to re purchase plugins, hardware, change OS, its Dumb! Believe it or not, when Digidesign’s Pro Tools LE 5 came… it was just as good as it gets, the versions after this one have just about the same things, maybe the graphics are “better” but I have gone up down and under looking for real improvements and extreme changes, and all I see is the same old LE 5…with less latency and a little better DSP management… how about updates that really are significant enough? Why is it that the new LE 7 has to make our plugins obsolete? Have you seen the Digi list? It sucks!! I won’t buy in to marketing! NO WAY… we need to have the industry listen to our needs, we don’t need next week updates and upgrades, when we purchase we need it to be great and to be an investment that lasts…I say they need to put more realistic effort in their Research and development, and cut down the buzz.