The Logic Off Topic list

> Whilst on the subject, is it presumed that everyone will be 
upgrading to V5
> to fix these probs ? Or is there a plan to actually get version 4 
working
> properly (ever?)

I've been asking the same question here, and got the reply from one 
of the emagic guys, that v4 will not be developed or upgraded any 
point beyond 4.8.1. I think this is definately worth a debate, 
although it is probably too OT for this list. I will crosspost to the 
OTlist. I actually tried to start the debate when I got that reply, 
with this post:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/logic-users/message/93976

but never got any answers. If anybody feel there is any truth to what 
I'm saying, or if anybody thinks that I am talking complete nonsense, 
please comment (on the OTlist, that is).

/////

Since some of you on the OTlist may not be on the logic-users list, 
here is the post mentioned above:

> >The upgrade is 250$ from my local dealer (denmark), which is 
actually 
> >a bit more than I can see lying around on the bottom of my 
pockets...
> 
> US$? Logic Platinum 4.x to 5.x?

Yep. Expensive, right? I know it's a hundred dollars more than 
anywhere else, but still, that's how it is.

The rest of your answer is commented in another thread (look 
for "bugfixing..."), but I'd like to comment on this quote:

> yes, this is how software development works...
> there are always sub-releases between two payable updates.

It seems to be so, that as long as you're talking software 
development, it is quite accepted to release products that don't live 
up to their own manuals, and with non-working features that still has 
buttons (such as "release audio..."). This is not merely the case 
with emagic products - I cannot remember to have ever seen any piece 
of software by anyone that worked flawlessly when it was released. My 
wordprocessor cannot access my printerdriver, my dtp app's color 
correction feature works like shit, windows media player 7 makes my 
PC crash and anybody who has ever tried any microsoft product will 
know that bugs and flaws are a part of any software product.
Why is this acceptable? How come software companies keep on releasing 
products before they are actually finished? I know for sure, that if 
any of my hardware, eg my mixer, keyboard, sampler, amp or whatever 
had just half the flaws that a piece of software usually has when I 
received it, I would immediately ask for a repair. Think about it: 
you buy a mixer, find that half the aux sends don't route any sound 
anywhere - what would you do? have it repaired or replaced at the 
manufacturers expense of course, and rightfully so. Why is such high 
standards for selfcriticism not the norm among software companies??

What I think emagic ought to do here is say to themselves: We have 2 
products out there, branding our name; v5, that has a lot of features 
not included in v4, and so, if you wish to use this superior version 
you'll have to pay for it; and v4, which is still a very good app, 
though not as good as v5, and which has gotten some serious flaws 
while developing. I think it would be a very nice gesture indeed to 
release a LA 4.9 upgrade, which wouldn't have any new features 
included, but would serve only to "fill out the gaps", ie correcting 
the bugs we now know of, before abandoning the further development of 
v4. I don't expect emagic will actually be doing this - then they 
would be the first software company I have ever heard of taking this 
approach - but it seems to me to be the right thing to do.

To end this I will have to say that I still find the parts of logic 
that work as intended to be the first choice for anyone wanting to 
work with music production. Luckily, this applies to the vast 
majority of features in LA, so I'm still a very happy logic user.

It seems to me that this could spark some kind of debate, so: gals & 
guys, fire away!

regards

monsdrum