linuxaudio.org

On Fri, 2006-07-28 at 23:48 -0500, Renich Bon Ćirić wrote:
> Well, the system has some major, important bugs. You could search a list

quoted text
> of it on the unnofficial support forum, www.mpc-forums.com, since akai

> doesn't even have a bug tracking system, at least outside.

> 

Ehh ... I looked around a little in:
   Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000

   26864 Posts, 3600 Threads
Is that the one? There is no search function in the forum, and quite a

low noise to content ratio. I can understand if akai is not willing to

manually browse through it all ...
I found one report of a "missing file", but nobody chiming in with a "me

too", so there is no pattern there to follow. On the surface, that

report could also look like a "dog ate my homework"  :-)
> The last version was released 1.5 years ago. The update has a great

quoted text
> number of bugs still in it. This bugs could be corrected easily, the

> developers say, but they haven't been corrected.

>

What developers, akai? Open source advocates?

And again, what bug? Saying "a great number" is hard to follow up on.

In the forum I see many suggestions that could be compiled into some

kind of wish-list. I would recommend that those people pick up some

abondoned PC from the garbage bin, install Linux, and then join us

here.

The chance of akai open sourcing their application is next to nil. They

would (and should) consider their knowhow to be trade-secrets, which

means that everything would be under an NDA. Furthermore, it would also

be riddled with licensed patents, so of very little use to us.
That the OS (or application) is not being updated is not nescesarily a

bad thing. It might be so that the real bugs have been ironed out and

compliance with specifications have been achieved. For that matter, the

OS for my hardware synthesizer haven't been updated since late '84 (or

was that early '85?) The OS misinterpreted an "all-notes-off" to be a

"system-reset", which was the end of fun with inter-operability. Despite

that there are no further updates after that, I am still happy and I use

it every day :-)
> Support from akai is very strange, you do have a support@akaipro.com

quoted text
> email, but they usually just say that akai has nothing to do with it and

> that you should forget it.

>

> The hardware is great... the service isn't... they could be so

> successful,..

It's a $3K unit! If they have managed to ship, say 3000 units, they

would be close to (or beyond) break-even. My guess is, from an

accountants POV, that they are successful. 
High profiled synthesizers are like Lambourginis and Ferraris: Everybody

knows what they look like and what they can do, but only the few select

can afford to actually own one and use it. Talking of which: Porshe

still haven't fixed the bug in the back-suspension of the 911

Carrera ... 
()

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