4.1 will be great!

[Lexridge]

OMG I cannot believe how some people get their panties in such a knot by being 2 days later in getting an update. If you want to know what is in the new MB 4.1, most things are listed here in the Ardour "What's New" page: https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html Of course Harrison has many other things besides what is listed here, but I guess we will have to find out on Monday what the "special" things are. I am cool with that.

[wango]

some people get their panties in such a knot

Love this "descriptive" expression

[retro]

And one last thought. Harrison is a small company. Not sure how they host the downloads. But maybe it saves them some hassle/bandwidth to release mixbus to subscribers a day or two early. Keeps their servers from being slammed as hard on the "official" release day. Because one thing I'm pretty sure about is, Harrison isn't trying to make anyone feel like a second class citizen.

I like your takes on Harrison - they seem balanced and fair. But it's interesting to me how, although the way MB is marketed doesn't bother me personally in the least, it really pisses off a certain small percentage of people who post here. For some reason, there's sometimes a sense of outrage and grievance (= butthurt) over the way Harrison markets MB. What do you call that thing where you're doing nothing wrong but it pushes people's buttons? In my eyes, it's the people whose buttons are being pushed who need to deal with it. But should Harrison cave for the sake of good PR?

[Matt]

Personally I don't think they need to change. Maybe they could be a bit more forthcoming with how their policies work. And what is what. They are definitely doing it differently than anyone else. Why should they cave and become like everyone else?

And maybe it's due to being burned by avid so many times, that "I've grown a thick skin ", and "don't see it from the little people's side". Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome. Who knows.

But so far Harrison hasn't sold me a $500 toolkit to add tracks and features. Then added it into a later version for everyone. Making my investment obsolete. And then once I've ponied up for another toolkit (this one sold for $2000) to give me almost all the features of PTHD. Then said, well that's now obsolete. You can use it to "upgrade" to full HD (but gain no additional features that the toolkit didn't provide) and pay full HD subscription prices. Or sell it to someone else for pennies on the dollar. Or just quit giving us money. I chose the last two. I sold the toolkit at a loss and put that money towards one year of subscription. Just to see how awesome it would be. See them add all these great new features. Yep. Nope. They still haven't added anything major that I've seen. However I barely even keep up with them anymore. Don't care too.

All that said, I do see Harrison as a small business. One where you know people by name. Businesses like that have to find the fine line between making a profit and going out of business. They don't have the user base to lose users. So maybe they err sometimes on trying too hard to get new users, that they upset others. So while I understand feeling left out, as I have missed my share of good deals, in Harrison's case I just chalk it up to them trying to grow and make mixbus even better. Which in the long run helps everyone. That's my .02.

[bapu]

Other DAWs may have tiered versions based upon features (like MB vs 32c), but they don't have 'classes' of users.

Well, there are in Cakewalk (Besides the three variants of SONAR).

I'm a lifetime update user of SONAR Platinum. I paid for it. Others did not (because they were suspect, or couldn't afford it or whatever). So now, there are "classes" of users of SONAR Platinum.

[DannyB]

Personally I don't think they need to change. .................... They are definitely doing it differently than anyone else. Why should they cave and become like everyone else? ..............

And maybe it's due to being burned by avid so many times, that "I've grown a thick skin ", and "don't see it from the little people's side". Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome. Who knows. .................

All that said, I do see Harrison as a small business. One where you know people by name. Businesses like that have to find the fine line between making a profit and going out of business. They don't have the user base to lose users. So maybe they err sometimes on trying too hard to get new users, that they upset others. So while I understand feeling left out, as I have missed my share of good deals, in Harrison's case I just chalk it up to them trying to grow and make mixbus even better. Which in the long run helps everyone. That's my .02.

Ditto. I'll add $.01 and make it $.03.

My PT subscription runs out in Aug, and I'm not renewing. I'm keeping my monthly MB subscription!

[x42]

Subscribers are not sudo beta testers. Beta testing occurs well prior to any release.
What the early release does expose is any quirks in the install process. Three platforms multiple flavours.

This.

Once things get out there'll be everything from a French Windows XP SP 2 3/4 to a Russian Windows 10 Ultimate and Hackintosh Leopards running around in the High Sierra not to mention various GNU/Linux flavors.

There is a strong correlation that those who support Harrison with a subscription are also enthusiastic about helping out with pre-release testing. It's really a no-brainer to post some sneak-preview to a group of users to double-check. Now Harrison could require an NDA for those, but whatever...

And in all fairness: Everyone gets the release at the same time. There was another bug-fix since the pre-release. The 4.1 final release process in underway (4.1.601) and will continue throughout the day (EST).

[marcusadv]

All this rant over only 2 days beta-access in advance? Jezz...

[Studio Saturn]

I was asking if subscribers get 15 days before the due date man this place would have been a war zone. 2 days is nothing in my opinion.

[Ron MacNutt]

Kudos to Harrison for a great customer experience. I hadn't received an email to advise of latest update (I am an owner of both MB4 and MB32-c4), so sent them an email, as suggested in another thread. I received a reply within an hour with the download link and an assurance that I was on the mailing list (it's possible I deleted the original).

Speedy service, with a quick resolution made my day.

Thank you!