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+1
I check the initial release notes and unless there is something I really need, or a fix for something that should have been fixed years ago, I just don't bother. To be honest, realtracks are great, but I have enough for what I want / need, so they are not as great a draw as they maybe for many others.

As many have said, we now have bandaids upon bandaids. I love the product but have stayed away from recent upgrades just because it seems that's where the failures seem to occur most. I am happy with the old tracks, even the old track names. For me the last "wow" item was probably the mixer. 2021 seems to be the most unstable release in the life of the software. I have been around for more than 20 years, so I have seen my fair share of horror stories.

Maybe next year...


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Originally Posted By: PeterGannon
Thanks for the inputs. We read them all and appreciate any constructive criticism. The recent release (825) in the support area fixes several issues (including the style-change-at-a-bar issue mentioned). We work hard to correct reported issues, add requested features and develop more RealTracks.


Good to see you Peter as the CEO of PGMusic taking part in the thread, Hope that you will be able to get future Upgrades coded ie Band in a box 2022 so that the Realtracks will work with this years Stable version when it reaches that stage, which will please a lot of users I am sure, and the users will be able to test the new version at thier leisure.

Many thanks.

Last edited by musiclover; 03/07/21 09:51 AM.

Musiclover

My music https://www.youtube.com/user/donegalprideofall

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I was a software engineer for many years before my retirement. Matt is absolutely correct; the best tester knows absolutely nothing about what he is testing. I was in an environment where it was expected that the engineer who coded something also was responsible for testing it. That's a recipe for disaster; the engineer is going to test what he/she knows the software does (called a "sunny day scenario"), but the end user will ALWAYS do something unexpected.

That said, it's axiomatic that any program, no matter how simple, from "Hello World" on up is impossible to test for all possible use cases. Consider as an extreme a complete set of tests for a program whose only purpose is to add two integers. A full regression test would test the result of adding all possible combinations of two integers - banging one infinite set against another. So you test what you decide is reasonable to test, edge cases and so on. But never every conceivable test.

Then some bright user decides to add infinity to infinity...

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Or divide by zero.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Someone will always do the unexpected. What's important here is that the program handles these situations elegantly.


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When I was writing macros in Lotus 123 and Excel and writing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) we called "beta tests" gorilla tests. Like Matt we would take someone who knew nothing about computers to test the macros and someone who knew nothing of the SOP object (machine operation, testing procedures, etc) to try to run/operate it by only using the SOP. You learn very quickly how difficult it is to write/program things like that.

PS - I was the gorilla on a couple of SOPs!


Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

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I worked for several years as a programmer and later as a computer systems auditor. We were required to develop a set of regression tests that were used by the programmer to test their own work to ensue they hadn't broken something that had previously worked. When changing a program, you tested your changes first with the regression series and once they had cleared these tests, scenarios were developed to exercise the new stuff. The purpose was to try to break their own code. If it didn't break, they hadn't tried hard enough. Eventually these new tests were added to the regression library to be used for the next release.
When working for industry or finance, for instance, coding errors could result in a fatal crash or a financial disaster. Under these conditions BIAB would never have left the programmers desk.


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I would like to see beta testing start quite a bit earlier, and begin with the program having all announced features present.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
I would like to see beta testing start quite a bit earlier, and begin with the program having all announced features present.

Definitely supported.
Current beta test times are totally inadequate, putting a product to market with known issues, insufficient testing and incomplete development. Very frustrating for the beta testers.


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Or...
Consider rolling out a few updates at a time, with testing in between throughout the year.
More time for beta testers + more stable product with less frustrations for end users.

Another HUGE reason for doing it this way is somewhat in line what Gordon Scott had mentioned:
"What's interesting is that I've quite often started over and complete the better way in a tiny fraction of the time the original took."

It is astonishingly true and I think it could apply to BIAB in some way. Meaning, when you doing some deep structural changes and not being pressed by time, you can find other perhaps much better ways to do other planned things.

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This is a good point Matt and one that should seriously be considered by PG.

Although some of us like the challenge of finding little cracks here and there in the software, myself included, I would guess that many of the 2021 users are starting to reach the point of frustration and judging from some of the comments maybe worse.

Jeff


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Hi Peter (Gannon),

Yes great to see you joining this thread.

It is now completely clear to you and everybody at PG Music what your customers want:

1. No new functionality in 2021 - Fix the software - current version and previous versions problems.

2. Invite world class performers into your studio to record the Realtracks that have been mostly requested by your customers over the last few years e.g. Brass Rhythm Section, Organ B3 soloist, Blues Harp Soloist.

A statement from you along these lines would be very welcome and may encourage customers to upgrade to BIAB 2021 or 2022 later this year.

Thanks & Best Regards
Nigel


Nigel Spiers
Christchurch, New Zealand
info@nzacoustics.com
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PG Music News
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