PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I just had a quick look at Sonic Core's home page in eager anticipation of news, but alas no news. They still only have the blurry XITE picture followed by a "jingle"-sound that , n my ears, could have been ripped from a cheesy sci-fi show from the 80's, early 90's (Babylon 5 comes to mind).

Am I the only one who feels that both picture and sound is not doing the XITE/SCOPE system justice?
If you are going to present something NEW to the world, why double it with a sound that sounds dated and a picture that is out of focus?

I'm not saying this to piss on Sonic Core's parade, I'm only trying to point out a marketing problem that should be pretty easy to solve for a free plugin or two...

I find it annoying (bad sound, it ask me every time for quicktime plugin, is a waste of time...)
Sincerely I've never understand the CW S|C marketing plans...
Marketing seems to be an almost unknown matter for this brand.

Agreed.

For a product that will cost about $3500 I want to see a website that instills confidence. The sonic core site fails to do that. From looking at there site I was not sure if I wanted to spend $400 on a used card. It was only on the advice and warmth of this forum that convinced me to get into the platform.

I don't like splash screen intro pages in general. I just prefer websites which load the main home page instantly. Web designers use such intro pages to disguise the loading time of the main home page, so that when you finally get there, the images etc are all loaded & not still in the process of loading, but most intro pages are more annoying than waiting a second or so for a few images to load on the main page if you go straight there. My Sonic Core bookmark bypasses the intro page & takes me direct to the home page.

Shroomz~> wrote:My Sonic Core bookmark bypasses the intro page & takes me direct to the home page.

so does mine

I truly pray for SonicCore. I still use my old creamware pulsar II. I sold everything else that had anything to do with Creamware - only because it could not keep up with my current computer system's needs. I hope that I am always able to use Creamware/Soniccore synths! Yes, they sound that good. I truly think that nothing else comes close to the sound I get through Creamware's design.

Seeing Soniccore take over was a blessing - Seeing how they have handled things reminds me of the last days of Creamware.

SonicCore has failed to delivery interms of advertising and marketing. It shows heavily on the website and it's lack of updates. Splash screens are not effective in terms of marketing and need to stay with amatuer websites for graphic designers and artists. If you trying to sell a product get to the goods - focus on what the consumers want, not bloated details and self indulgent pages describing what may be possible.

I am hoping for the best today and wish everybody the best of luck.

Quality is not enough to keep things moving. I'm betting Solaris will shine much needed light on SonicCore as a company. X-cite is not so exciting to anyone other than the current fanbase.

Cheers.

when i visited adern site some time ago, i got scared like hell, that sound at welcome page,
and i forgot that i have sound card output on maximum level

X-cite is not so exciting to anyone other than the current fanbase...
of course it isn't - how could it be anyway ?
noone but the current Scope users has an idea of the sound and system capabilities (or it's handling)
only a few folks at music tradeshows ever saw a prototype and 'reviews' are your least reliable source of information today

cheers, Tom

Good advertising and marketing should make it exciting. Otherwise, only current users will use it.

The website should be a billboard not a brochure - it's to get people excited. Which it does not.

That's just my opinion.

i shall preempt braincells' reply so he doesn't have to bother:

This splash screen spells the end for SonicWare. No-one wants hardware anymore XITE will make them go bust. However Steinberg are brilliant [repeat loop]

mr. a, there's no need for that

What do YOU think about SC's splash screen and sound?

petal wrote:mr. a, there's no need for that

What do YOU think about SC's splash screen and sound?

Sorry couldn't resist . i hate any splash screen - horrific waste of my time, i always link to the main page of any website if i can. Also hate websites that blast music out - really handy when you're trying to discretely surf at work.

stebzilla wrote:Good advertising and marketing should make it exciting. Otherwise, only current users will use it...

well, at least we know it's price tag...
which is probably a tiny bit too high for a quick emotion driven surf-by purchase - 1 digit left of the decimal to be precise.
This is not a Wii or a Playstation - it's a professional tool adressing a fairly limited customer base.
An extremely useful solution under various circumstances, but unlikely targeted at the typical M-Audio or even Creative Labs user.
There is no point in selling huge quantities, you got to sell the right quantity that keeps business profitable.

of course your opinion is as good (or bad) as mine, no problem.
Regarding the topic Mr. A expressed it perfectly for me, too

cheers, Tom

astroman wrote: noone but the current Scope users has an idea of the sound and system capabilities (or it's handling)

I would put all my efforts in overcoming this. After all, with all these free available resources as MySpace, Youtube, Facebook etc. and the really small investment in making 10-15 captured on screen little tutorials of all the features, in proper English, focusing on the real and exclusive advantages shouldn't be that hard...

Most of us users are not geniuses, at least I don't consider myself special, but nevertheless we managed to master and love a system because of its unique features. These should be spread everywhere. Everybody says that Scope is a niche product and for that reason it's useless to target the masses. This is absolutely wrong in my opinion. A product that features a complete, powerful, superior quality environment for production and that lets you avoid tons of outboard synths and tools at an affordable price (compared to Pro Tools and other professional setups with the same incredible amount of plugs) IS a mass product, if you consider that it can address, now in the Xite-1 form, all the studio, live. on field necessities of musicians and producers.

My 0,02€

steinberg has an intro splash, too. but it looks way more professional than the s|c one. generally, i also hate intro crap.

Splash screens should be left in 1999 along with the Flash versions of them, where they belong, unless it's the few weeks around launch-time. Of course if I took my own advice Adern would revert back to skipping the flash splash that's been up there since the launch of Flexor3...

I mostly agree with the points about S|C / CW's marketing abilities, however one might reflect on it being some zen-koan form of anti-hype. This, in an era when many products are almost entirely hype! Would be a good 'guerilla' marketing scheme to tack on some 'grassroots' efforts by us emphasizing the lack of hype around this product when discussing its power & features elsewhere? Perhaps not, but it could almost be called refreshing

alfonso wrote:

astroman wrote: noone but the current Scope users has an idea of the sound and system capabilities (or it's handling)

I would put all my efforts in overcoming this. After all, with all these free available resources as MySpace, Youtube, Facebook etc. and the really small investment in making 10-15 captured on screen little tutorials of all the features, in proper English, focusing on the real and exclusive advantages shouldn't be that hard...

Most of us users are not geniuses, at least I don't consider myself special, but nevertheless we managed to master and love a system because of its unique features. These should be spread everywhere. Everybody says that Scope is a niche product and for that reason it's useless to target the masses. This is absolutely wrong in my opinion. A product that features a complete, powerful, superior quality environment for production and that lets you avoid tons of outboard synths and tools at an affordable price (compared to Pro Tools and other professional setups with the same incredible amount of plugs) IS a mass product, if you consider that it can address, now in the Xite-1 form, all the studio, live. on field necessities of musicians and producers.

My 0,02€

well said alfonso. and also tom.. only current users know the power of scope and we know what our xite_the_monster can do. we all can spare our time and do some music and upload to a particular site.

I think that Xite must be 100% ready before a marketing approach starts... what have been done gives informations to scope users mainly and i assume they do their best (I agree, things could be sometimes improved though).

Buuuut ...being at the Namm show is worth the money and that's ... marketing ! Soooooo ... i think their current marketing is better than before and is really optimized. And as pointed out by Gary, although they want to let us know Xite-1 is almost ready, they have to face competition that's why we only have bribes . Confidential data would be risky. For that reason i have decide to wait, I sold my pci boards and i am building my new studio in the meantime... That helps me waiting

yes Firubbi, but my estimation of the future release is based on a running system - otherwise I wouldn't subscribe to anything published on any website (announcement) today...
It's also based on meeting the SC team personally on a tradeshow.
Everyone who had the same opportunity, be it Frankfurt or Anaheim, confirmed the same: these guys are nice chaps, knowledgable and they listen to customers, leaving marketing bla bla to others...

Developement really IS difficult today, I've experienced some serious delays myself last year - with much longer delays than used to be.
Any system environment has become more complex and if you're after a true solution (instead of just keeping people busy) the amount of time can be stunning... to say the least.
Nothing unusual btw and can be watched throughout the industry.

I'd rather have them focus on facts than on fakes...
nevertheless I consider the website quite adequate for it's purpose - I've seen lots of worse ones...

I completely agree with Alfonso about the role the XITE can play once it's released.
it is a very affordable piece of gear:
high quality mic and instrument IO
digital mixer/routing with excellent insert processing
flexible monitoring,
live recording in full resolution of whatever channel, bus or sub you choose
digital IO for outboard integration
the best sounding virtual analog stuff that money can buy
all in one neat box
add the prices and you may find that cables alone (for an alternative) will put you back more...

cheers, Tom

I would like to see the splash go away (I'm bookmarked to go around it anyways), and instead post a myspace-like side-bar with sections of people's songs that have been produced using Scope.

I can only assume that there will be an update to the site soon, since Music Messe is also coming this Spring.

The impression Gary and got at NAMM was that 'the gentlemen' are enthused and happy with the response so far.

So, it's now up to having a successful product with revenue from initial sales, and then the marketing can take off.

Greg