why is taking a long time to be able to download the phoenix plug in!!!

[eskay]

I'm mixing a Project today, and figured this is a good time to try out the Phoenix plug in on my mixes. I filled out the request form at 10:00 am this morning, NY time, now it's 7:09 pm, and I still don't have any e-mail directing me to the download instructions. I guess I wont try this out, but damn every other company sends me an e-mai immediately.
What gives....

[GearGuy]

Phoenix is like 2 guys... and you are e-mailing them on Sunday, after the Christmas holiday never the less! Even the largest plug-in companies (Waves) are actually quite small. I would assume that Phoenix doesn't have automated systems to give out auth code so chill out.

[eskay]

My point is that every other company gives an automatic reply. they don't personally mail you out the installer. It should be an automatic reply....waves does this, bombfactory, trillium labs, you get my point.....

[bassmac]

Originally posted by eskay
My point is that every other company gives an automatic reply.

McDSP and UA - just to name a few... are done by phone and e-mail - not auto reply.

[davemc]

Whats wrong with personal service I can understand it gets annoing waiting. Although if it was a week or so later then worry.
Well I know it comes in handy when you have problems not just to get a auto responder.

[eskay]

Not a biggie. This is why I was upset. Software plugs get a lot of grief from people. Ex. you always have to update, it doesn't as good as the real deal, blah, blah....But one great advantage that I've always like about plugs, is that you can be working with a producer, and he says "you know it would be cool to have an effect like this, or "hey I want a different sound for this drum kit...." and you are like, "Oh shit, I just read in Gearslutz, that joe shmoe just raved about the saturation of his drum kit, using this plug, let me go the web and download it instantly." I don't have to call a rental company or so forth. I want it now!!!!
Also I have bought about 70 percent of my plugs this way. An idea would come up in a project, I would download a plug try it out, and if I was happy with it, I bought it instantly. Unfortunately with the Phoenix I got a reply today, and I tried to transfer the demo to my iLok, and the page kept saying will update any second, just hold on, for an hour..........

Than I started panicking cause I've had one iLok fail and missed a deadline, and I got completely ****ed for that, I restarted my machine, and quickly checked the iLok to see if it was working fine, and thank God it did. I have to finish mixing tomorrow, so unfortunately I wont be taking any chances in trying to authorize my iLok, until all the projects are finished this week. I really wanted to hear Phoenix though
I guess it will have to wait.

[Noah]

From a plug-in makers perspective:

Firstly, I want to say that I understand your point totally. Looking at our downloads it's amazing how many happen all hours of the night. Purchases as well...for demo's we use an auto responder so we can get users up and trying them out right away. For actual orders it's business hours only.

I'm 99% sure that Dave Hill (of CraneSong) uses a temporary iLok auth to authorize the demo version of his software. He probably gets the email and manually uploads the auth to the account. (This can only be done from one computer BTW)

To automate this process could easily cost between $5K and 10K to hire out to a developer that can develop an XML web app that does all this manually. Plus you want to make sure that it's very secure. If it gets cracked it's basically the keys to your company, and all the profits it might make. Scary Stuff...when you think that Dave put in a couple of years worth of work on this plug. (We have spent 3.5 years developing our latest line of plugs)

With that said, I'm sure Dave and lots of other plug-in companies would love to have it done automatically. I can also tell you that many are looking into it, and a few have accomplished it. Some with in-house knowledge, and some using outside contractors.

Going farther, I'm sure lots of developers would love to also have the way to fully auth a customer straight from a shopping cart system, but this can get even more complicated. Currently we do it manually during business hours. It is our goal to be able to have your order processed in minutes all hours of the day or night. I'm sure it will help our sales...but the infrastructure both internally and on our website server would take lots of time and work. Plus finding the person who knows how to do it all is a trick, and or taking the time away from our own plug development to do this.

Have a good one, and we do hear what you are saying!

Noah
(SoundToys)

[Chae Ham]

I can't speak for the demo authorization, but whenever one of our clients has purchased the Phoenix, we've been able to get them up and running in less than an hour at most--this is of course during Crane Song's Operation hours. They're great guys they'll get back to you. The holidays are just a bit crazy.

A fully automated system has many benefits, but also a lot of risks for the vendor if something were to go wrong. No code is EVER perfect, there will occasionally be problems, especially when it interacts with an unpredictable amount of "imperfect" variables=people. As antithetical as it may sound, it is sometimes more efficient to handle things manually, even if it may require a little patience.