You must read this and forward this on to someone at Apple that cares! This was written by Steven Massey of Massey plugins and was posted on the Logic discussion board where I am sure it will last 5 seconds! Also see the following links:
http://www.gearspace.com/board/music-computers/179984-dammmmmit-no-massey-love-au.html#post1873684
http://masseyplugins.com/index_v2.html?page=news
http://www.fxpansion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=28017&logic#28017
Begin Quote:
So what is up? Can any other programmers verify this?
Sorry for the bad news y'all. This was not an easy decision to make -- in fact it wasn't even really a decision. I should probably answer the question of "Why?" with something polite and diffusive. But, after what appears to be 3 months of wasted development and having to layoff my first and only employee, I'm not feeling very polite. The real answer is "Apple Sucks." Their level of support for the AudioUnits format is depressingly insufficient.+
Here's how things started out about a year ago, prior to beginning development. I tried to obtain information from Apple representatives at trade shows concerning the existence of a developer program for Logic, hoping they might also provide a discounted or free copy of v7. I spoke to no less than 8 to 10 people at an AES and a NAMM show. No one had a clue or any obvious desire to assist me. Finally, one individual did take my contact information and said he would follow up after the show. I never heard back. Eventually, another AU developer informed me about a secret -- in true Apple fashion -- email address which puts you in touch with someone that might handle Logic and AU issues. After a couple of initial emails, I thought I was making some in-roads. However, I never received any final information. And, my subsequent follow-up emails were either ignored or filtered.
Now, after three months of work and three months of perplexing, random crashes with our beta plugins, we returned to investigate the sample plug-in that Apple provides in the developer kit -- the plug-in code we patterned ours after -- the plug-in code Apple provides to developers as a starting point for creating new plug-ins.
Well... come to find out, this sample plug-in crashes in exactly the same manner! The core developer kit is ridiculously and embarrassingly broken. The problem is, Apple isn't embarrassed -- when this information was presented to them, the response was verging on indifference.
Perhaps, they will eventually get around to resolving the problem and perhaps with another thousand hours of debugging, I could finally uncover and fix the bug myself -- though my confidence that this is a Logic bug is growing stronger.
But more importantly, Apple does not inspire any confidence in me that building a business based on their platform would be a prudent decision for me, or you, in the long-term.
All these experiences (or non-experiences, rather) really beg the question, can I function at the mercy and whim of a company that
(A) doesn't seem to have any sort of dedicated support team or formalized support program,
(B) has a secret support email address,
(C) provides an obviously defective development kit,
(D) doesn't provide free, discounted, pre-release, or debugging versions of the software to bona-fide developers,
(E) doesn't respond to personal inquiries,
and (F) doesn't care when you do manage to get in touch?
Perhaps all these things would be fine in a do-it-yourself, unlimited-free-time, programming-for-the-fun-of-it scenario, but they are wholly inadequate for supporting a real company with around-the-clock customer support, which needs to resolve bugs for professional users in a timely manner.
Steven Massey
Massey Plugins Inc.
http://www.gearspace.com/board/music-computers/179984-dammmmmit-no-massey-love-au.html#post1873684
http://masseyplugins.com/index_v2.html?page=news
http://www.fxpansion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=28017&logic#28017
Begin Quote:
So what is up? Can any other programmers verify this?
Sorry for the bad news y'all. This was not an easy decision to make -- in fact it wasn't even really a decision. I should probably answer the question of "Why?" with something polite and diffusive. But, after what appears to be 3 months of wasted development and having to layoff my first and only employee, I'm not feeling very polite. The real answer is "Apple Sucks." Their level of support for the AudioUnits format is depressingly insufficient.+
Here's how things started out about a year ago, prior to beginning development. I tried to obtain information from Apple representatives at trade shows concerning the existence of a developer program for Logic, hoping they might also provide a discounted or free copy of v7. I spoke to no less than 8 to 10 people at an AES and a NAMM show. No one had a clue or any obvious desire to assist me. Finally, one individual did take my contact information and said he would follow up after the show. I never heard back. Eventually, another AU developer informed me about a secret -- in true Apple fashion -- email address which puts you in touch with someone that might handle Logic and AU issues. After a couple of initial emails, I thought I was making some in-roads. However, I never received any final information. And, my subsequent follow-up emails were either ignored or filtered.
Now, after three months of work and three months of perplexing, random crashes with our beta plugins, we returned to investigate the sample plug-in that Apple provides in the developer kit -- the plug-in code we patterned ours after -- the plug-in code Apple provides to developers as a starting point for creating new plug-ins.
Well... come to find out, this sample plug-in crashes in exactly the same manner! The core developer kit is ridiculously and embarrassingly broken. The problem is, Apple isn't embarrassed -- when this information was presented to them, the response was verging on indifference.
Perhaps, they will eventually get around to resolving the problem and perhaps with another thousand hours of debugging, I could finally uncover and fix the bug myself -- though my confidence that this is a Logic bug is growing stronger.
But more importantly, Apple does not inspire any confidence in me that building a business based on their platform would be a prudent decision for me, or you, in the long-term.
All these experiences (or non-experiences, rather) really beg the question, can I function at the mercy and whim of a company that
(A) doesn't seem to have any sort of dedicated support team or formalized support program,
(B) has a secret support email address,
(C) provides an obviously defective development kit,
(D) doesn't provide free, discounted, pre-release, or debugging versions of the software to bona-fide developers,
(E) doesn't respond to personal inquiries,
and (F) doesn't care when you do manage to get in touch?
Perhaps all these things would be fine in a do-it-yourself, unlimited-free-time, programming-for-the-fun-of-it scenario, but they are wholly inadequate for supporting a real company with around-the-clock customer support, which needs to resolve bugs for professional users in a timely manner.
Steven Massey
Massey Plugins Inc.
