I don't know what has happened at PG Music in the tech support area but in all the years I have been buying the program from the very early beginning dialing the support telephone has become a frustrating exercise. Yes I have called during hours of operation but no one answers except the sweet lady with a recorded message. I find this has been happening all too frequently in the past year. I had heard excuses like the new version has just been released and it's Christmas and holidays etc etc. Well those things are long passed and it is still the same problem. Has anyone else had a similar experience of no one answering ?? What's going on PG Music???

Nelson

They may have to like many other companies, move their call support to Mumbai ???

What time are you calling them?

They are in a pacific time zone, so depending on where you live it could make a big difference in success due to time zones.

I usually start with Chat, which can easily escalate to a phone call or remote assistance even.
One other thing I can think of is that the Canadian holidays may be different than yours, again, depending on where you live.
Anyway, chat has seemed pretty reliable to me.
Start a chat and ask them to call you if you prefer.
That may be possible even when the phone support is closed.

Just some ideas. Once you have their attention they are a great support team.

Nelson,

What's the problem? Maybe someone here can help.

Also... Kent (from PG Music) has been often popping into the forum lately so chances are favourable that he'll see you post as well.

Regards,
Noel

• one of my songs: So Beautiful

As Noel said, give us a crack at it.

Some of us also can leave a message for the developers if you have found a show-stopper.

Hi,

We haven't stopped answering the phone. When you can't get through on the tech line during tech support hours, it usually means we're on the line with other customers.

You can leave a message, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible, or you can contact us by email, or through the online chat service on our website (we're available through chat right now, and can provide tech support for another 25 minutes).

Mondays tend to be busiest, so will be the most difficult days to get through by phone, and earlier in the day tends to be busier than later in the day.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Thank you for the answers. I live in Canada, I know the time difference to Victoria, I know the hours of operation of tech support and I do factor in the excuse were busy with other customers but really. Something tells me that something is going on that never happened before the last year. I always got through mostly on the first try but things have slowly gotten worse especially the last year. OK here is the problem. You have a song say all midi and you want to make or save the midi file with the drums on separate tracks. It gives you the option to do that and when you click on the put drums on separate tracks option BIAB say it made the midi file but you can't see it in the destination folder you told the program to save it to. However if you use the same option and just save it as a midi file with the drums on one track the midi file is visible now in the folder. The program used to work the other way by selecting drums on separate tracks but not now even though the option is there. Is this a bug. After the midi file is made I usually open it in real band and the drums would be on separate tracks. I have found a work around but I would like to know why the method I am discussing here no longer works.

Thanks for the help and suggestions

Nelson

I posted that in the fixit forum after confirming the same problem.

PG have been employing more staff but I think the demand has outgrown the supply as the Mac version is becoming more popular as well as the Win customers growing.

LOL maybe they will end up going for the Mumbai tech support option.

Nelson,

This might be worth testing, too...

I have BIAB (build 516) and RB (build 5)...

1. Open both BIAB and Realband.

2. Use 'File | Save Special | Save song as MIDI file' in BIAB (F6 is the shortcut) to activate MIDI save...

3. When the MIDI save menu appears, click on 'Clipboard' rather than 'File on Disk'. (All information is now on the Clipboard.)

4. Go to Realband.

5. Select 'Edit | Paste' (CTRL+V).

All the MIDI information should be pasted onto individual tracks.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. I just tried this and while the MIDI information was pasted into Realband OK, individual drums were not loaded onto individual tracks (drums were on a collective single track).

Thanks for the replies, hopefully PG music will address this problem in an update


Nelson

All of my Support requests have been wonderful experiences with polite, friendly, and knowledgeable folks. In fact, one of the programmers, Andrew, even remoted my computer to rectify a system problem that wasn't PG's responsibility.

Caveat: They tend to talk funny, eh? You shouldn't have a problem though. Just mention hockey, ice fishing, or Labatt's Blue if the conversion hits a lull.

Seriously, I, being mute, usually start by clicking "Live Help" and list a brief summary of my problem. The clock icon will tell you your place in the queue and the expected wait.

You're right, the "Drums on separate tracks" option isn't working correctly. I'm adding that to the bug list now.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Thank you Kent, look forward to the fix


Nelson

Hi Nelson,

You're welcome, and thanks for pointing it out.

I should point out though, if you're just moving the song to RealBand, you don't need to make a MIDI file, and probably shouldn't. I'd just save the song as an SGU or MGU, open that in RealBand, highlight the Drums track, and hit Edit - MIDI - Split MIDI Drums.

Unless you're also moving the MIDI file to a non-PG program, that should save some time, even after the MIDI export feature is fixed.

Cheers
Kent
PG Music