From: ewilts@mr.gov.bc.ca (Ed Wilts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio
Subject: Re: MIDI Programs
Date: 9 Apr 92 11:52:16 -700
Organization: BC Systems Corporation

In article <54025@hydra.gatech.EDU>, gt2862c@prism.gatech.EDU (gt2862c THAM,JEFF C) writes:
> In article <1992Apr7.083006.392@mr.gov.bc.ca> ewilts@mr.gov.bc.ca (Ed Wilts) writes:
>>handle MIDI timing).  Blue Ribbon recently sent me a demo copy of SuperJam. 
>>This self-running demo doesn't and crashes frequently on my A3000.  For my
>>needs, I want a stable product - if a company can't even produce a self-running
>>demo then I don't trust them to develop production software that has user
>>input.
> 
> The only problems Blue Ribbon's heard of is people using A500, and that's 
> because of hardware limitions. Are you sure it's not your hardware setup that's
> causing the crashes? Maybe you have a corrupted copy. It runs fine for

Do you work for Blue Ribbon?  Have you heard that they were shipping corrupted
copies?  Do you honestly believe that the software left BR is perfectly working
order and then bugs magically appeared in the code while it was in transit
without introducing any disk errors?

> everybody else. Is that the only piece of Blue Ribbon software you own? I
> don't think you should judge a company when you don't even own an actual
> product.
> 
>>All major sequencer packages have demo versions available.  If you really want
>>to mail order your software, try out the demos.  They all vary considerably in
>>look & feel.  A package that's right for the way one person makes music may not
>>be right for you.
>>
> 
> I agree here. You should try them all and see which one you like. Talk to other
> users too. I am not trying to put down Dr. T, but it's seems like you're trying
> to make Blue Ribbon look bad, rather than present an objective view.

I'll be as objective as I can.  My Amiga 3000 never crashes when I don't expect
it to.  I use KCS regularly and it has never crashed in the 3 years or so that
I've owned it.  I spent $10 to have Blue Ribbon Soundworks send me a
self-running demo of SuperJam.  The demo does not run.  After some fiddling, I
got the script to complete (delete some opening windows at the right time to
make sure that the simulated mouseclicks are clicking where they're supposed to
be).

I'm not trying to make Blue Ribbon look bad but stating simple facts.  The demo
does not run properly on my system.  When I started up SuperJam without the
script and experiment on my own, I experienced numerous crashes.  Simply put,
the software is not robust.  What I received was not production quality.

You say that I shouldn't judge a company when I don't own one of their
products.  I'll be blunt about this.  When a demo does not run, I will not buy
the product.  The purpose of demos is to allow a prospective customer to
properly evaluate the product.  I evaluated it.  In my opinion, it stinks. 
And, no, I did not phone BR about the problems I experienced.  When I spend $10
for a demo, receive it with absolutely no documentation and after numerous
delays on their part, and find that the demo that is supposed to be completely
self-running doesn't even complete, the product isn't worth yet another
long-distance phone call.  It's really too bad.  I thought by their nice glossy
that the product had potential.  If only the product lived up to the hype...

-- 
Ed Wilts, BC Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
EWilts@MR.Gov.BC.CA   |   Ed.Wilts@BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA   |   (604) 389-3430