Firmware updates

[Aaron]

I have now been doing this type of work for many years. Here are some things I can say with conviction:


Software is never done. This is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes, I envy the makers of analog gear.


The wish list always gets longer. Take a look at any of our new update feedback threads. Delivering more features generates another round of requests.


When a company spends too much of their time fulfilling customer requests, they end up having only one product. I made this rookie mistake in my first business.


I know we set an incredibly high expectation going forward with the amount of features we delivered on blackbox in its first year. There will be more to come. Please enjoy what you have. We love you even when we spend time building new hardware because that is what pay the bills.

Take care.

[Georges]

Maybe you should consider open sourcing the firmware, or at least parts of it? That’s what Roger Linn has done with the Linnstrument. Just a thought ... IMO that’s very much in line with the euro rack community’s DIY philosophy.

[jayneural]

Or make a OSC & FX engine compatible with the Korg format

[Michal Ho]

I would buy a second BlackBox if it had one of the following: automation lanes, motion sequencing or LFOs as control sources.


I admit I'm currently not yet shopping for the BlueBox, but that might change once playing live shows regularly in settings like this comes back (a soundcheck for an improvisation ensemble in 2016):

[mycoffeeguy]

I'd probably cut back on the coffee.

I'd add the firmware update. What you really care about? Clearly, Me. Not any BlackBox info. Run along.

[mycoffeeguy]

This is all a business tactic, and I love how most of you side step that and say its hardware/software we are talking about, when it is 2020, the year we're talking in.

Get real. 2 teenagers could probably build the BlackBox and give it regular updates, whatever you consider "regular".


I'm just laughing at how some of you are coming in with capes on. Ha ha. Wow, 2020.

[jayneural]

Man, do you really have time in your life for that kind of posts ? Business tactic ? Seriously ?

Why don’t you just resell your product and buy an MPC ? That would be great a customer tactic for you !

[jsilence]

mineral said

DO YOU ALL NOT GET THIS???? We will continue to get abandoned, 1010 is becoming into a "move forward, don't look back" MO. Starting to feel shafted.

Just release the damn source code so we don't have to wait until a pandemic wipes out humanity?

Relax, dude!

[mycoffeeguy]

Bro, I'm chill. Trust. CAPS or nah, I'm chill. It's just hilarious how many people be sticking up for shit. lol

[jayneural]

FYI, there are used MPC Ones for less than $600 now, and they just added a cool drum engine in the firmware. I think it better suits your needs as it virtually has all the features we could ask for a sampler/groovebox.

Blackbox is a quite different product and it’s been so since it was released. It’s never going to become an MPC. People love it for what it is and not for what it could be.

[Suspect Frequencies]

The foolish buy a product for what it might be, the wise for what it is.

[RMG___]

I would be perfectly happy with just some bugfixes to the existing featureset

[underwood]

Bugfixes have to have priority above new features. Second stability and performance.

[j3threejay]

Been thinking about this thread today and I totally empathize with pretty much all the different views expressed here.

With that being said, I was thinking back to the gear I have bought over the last 20 years and most of it never received any “updates” especially any that added new features. What an amazing time we live in for music technology these days!

Been considering contentment and expectations in light of this and asking myself if I am expecting or anticipating more of a product than what it was advertised to do at the time when I researched and bought the product.

Just wanted to share my stream of conscience and see what other people thought in regards to my reflections or if they had similar thoughts.

[Georges]

Without internet, software quality at launch date had to be more thought and tested through. These days you can afford to launch hardware on time and to refurbish the software later on.

[oscillatedspace]

I worked on a HW digital sampler/sequencer for a startup for 4 years. The phrase I kept hearing was hardware is hard. It is, especially when the OS is the bottleneck. As Aaron mentioned, analogue HW is different and doesn’t always have the quirks of OS development. Elektron just released os 1.4 for a machine that’s 10 years old that maybe has features some have been waiting on for years. Did that stop people from using it? No. Make music and find out new things you can do with the BB rather than complaining. I just used a raspberrypi and made an OSC to MIDI bridge so my BB can use my old Monome 64. Sometimes fun discoveries can happen when you think outside of the bbox...

[Steve]

I work here so you can take this with a grain of salt... I have a room full of gear that has never received a single update. In fact, a firmware update to fix or improve anything was never the norm. It was rare. That never stopped me from using the gear. If you hit a wall you find another way around. If you discover a limitation you simply do something different. The fact that you (or me) can buy a piece of gear, have a dialogue with the developer, and possibly influence the direction of development is a modern luxury.

Firmware updates are great for us all. Expectations, on the other hand, can be difficult to manage!

[sydilaxe]

What irritates me when re-reading the thread is a particular individual writing that everyone is owed firmware updates and that 1010Music shouldn't be releasing new hardware until that is addressed. Then this individual calls out the approach of waiting for a product release before continuing development on other product firmware as a "business tactic." Then, he/she calls out people who are presenting logical responses to these rants as caped heros defending 1010Music- and that teenagers could build a similar sampler and release more regular firmware updates. Maybe this is all just simple trolling, but I think that Aaron and Steve have been very patient and diplomatic in their responses. This individual in particular does not seem to understand running a business, software development, or that there can be different and equally valid viewpoints on particular subject. If this is not playful trolling, then the poster really shows a lack of maturity and awareness.

BTW, 1010Music should use marketing and "business tactics" because *gasp* they are a business. They have a bottom line to meet in a particularly competitive and cluttered market space. If they bent to every whim and whimsy over the years, I am sure they would have shut down long ago.

[Blond12]

This are screenshots of a 2 months ago discussion with Christine... ( Octobre 10th 2020)

So ? Aaron ? Because this was aparently planed for a future firmware update, can we have at least some news or something ?

Thanks...

[Morientes]

A "2 months ago discussion"? So what? Reactions like yours are the reason why it is so delicate to say anything at all about current developements.

[Blond12]

A "2 months ago discussion"? So what? Reactions like yours are the reason why it is so delicate to say anything at all about current developements.

Hey... If you'r happy with your box in this actual state with no updates and news since july glad for you... Just respect the other huge part of the community who's not happy at all