Spectre Digital Element Bass- A Warning

[Earbrass]

I've been a follower of Glenn Fricker's YouTube channel SpectreSoundStudios, which focuses on metal and hard rock production techniques and gear, for quite a while. I enjoy Glenn's content, and feel the channel deserves extra support at the moment, following Glenn's wife having severe medical issues, which has limited his ability to produce content. However, Glenn also has a spin-off venture called Spectre Digital which creates and markets software and plugins. I have no idea about the actual commercial relationship is between the two entities, but Glenn frequently promotes Spectre Digital products on his channel.

 

One of the products Spectre Digital produces is Element Bass, which is an amp-sim plugin aimed at bassists. I bought this back in November, and I have to say it's really good. However, I have two issues with it, and with the company in general.

 

1. It requires you to login to your Spectre Digital online account every few weeks, or it stops working. This may not be an issue for some, but I like to keep my (Windows) music production laptop offline to prevent any issues with o/s updates upsetting anything I have installed, so this is an inconvenience and an annoyance for me. What is especially infuriating is that this is not highlighted on purchase - I only discovered it when it stopped working after a few weeks, demanding that i re-authenticate. I think this is unacceptable - once you've bought the product, I think you should have unrestricted use of it. This is how all my other purchased software works.

 

2. Worse, in my view, is that I raised a support ticket with the company questioning what was going on. Almost immediately I received an automated reply saying they had got my message and would reply within 24 hours. That was the Friday before last, and since then I have heard nothing from them, despite further attempts on my part to make contact. They were very happy to take my money, but now they have no problem with completely ignoring me. I did find the information that the re-authentication would be required every few weeks on their website, but it was in the FAQ's section not in the 'technical requirements'  bit. If they had just replied explaining that that was how it was designed to work, I'd be lot less pissed off about it To be fair I probably should have read all the FAQ's before purchasing, but the lack of any response is unacceptable.

 

 

Edited January 28 by Earbrass

[fretmeister]

I don't know how many people work for SD but I do know that Glenn's wife is seriously ill at the moment.

Perhaps that has an impact on the support answers?

[lemmywinks]

Any sort of online DRM check is an automatic no for me. Piracy is a service issue so just see if you can download an "alternate" version of the product you paid for that you can actually own.

[Earbrass]

37 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I don't know how many people work for SD but I do know that Glenn's wife is seriously ill at the moment.

Perhaps that has an impact on the support answers?

I don't think Glenn is personally involved in the technical side, and the auto reply I got had someone else's name on it. I think Glenn was more involved in designing the product from the point of view of what it should sound like and the features it offers - I think the actual coding and tech support is handled by others. 

Edited January 28 by Earbrass

[fretmeister]

15 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Any sort of online DRM check is an automatic no for me. Piracy is a service issue so just see if you can download an "alternate" version of the product you paid for that you can actually own.

 

Nobody owns software anymore. It's all licensed.

 

I'm annoyed at online DRM but then I've got loads of plugins that use iLOK so it's not like I'm not used to having some sort of system.

[Earbrass]

OK, I finally got a very apologetic reply, so I am somewhat mollified, especially as I realize it was at least in part my fault for not reading all the FAQs before purchasing!