v.i. control forum

[Mark Belbin]

"Notice:
TEAC America, Inc. will cease further development of GIGASTUDIO and GIGASTUDIO related products as of July 21, 2008.
Product sales and technical support will continue through the end of the year. "

My heart goes out to the 5 fine programmers who have been released from duty. No doubt they have gone on to greener pastures.

This is indeed the worst possible timing for me, as I have just released a second product a matter of days ago. This product is the first of its kind, and was completely dependent upon the Giga technology. Now there is no hope of improving it beyond its present level. My heart also goes out to the other developers who have supported this platform, and been treated in this miserable way by TASCAM.

As for Wavelore's valued customers, and their need for support, we are requesting that you keep your business with us, as we intend to make our products multi-platform just as soon as is possible. Interested customers will be offered the cheapest possible (we aim for free) crossgrades when ready. Those of you who have purchased the American Zither or the Pedal Steel Guitar have all, to my knowlege gotten your product(s) to work satisfactorily. It is our aim to offer the best possible support we can under these difficult circumstances. Being that we cannot possibly fix everything that might go wrong on the many systems out there, we will be as cooperative as possible regarding returns and crossgrades.

Since both of our existing products were tested extensively before release, and since we still have contact with ex-Tascam engineers who have offered whatever help they can give us (within the scope of their terms w/Tascam), we plan to keep making them available until stock runs out. The same support and crossgrading will be offered to new customers.

Announcements to be posted on our site shortly.

Best to all,

Mark Belbin
Wavelore Instruments
www.wavelore.com

[Mark Belbin]

Please visit www.opengigastudio.com and make your voice heard. Not only might this be the only way for the Giga technology to live on, it may result in tremendous advance is s/w sampling.

Mark

[the sinner]

RIP Giga

[Mark Belbin]

Well, yeah, if Tascam has anything to say about it.

Not if we can make this open source thing happen, though.

Even though I'm working on porting, I won't hear any nails being driven just yet.

-M

[Thonex]

Wow mark!!!!

This totally sucks!!! Especially for all the hard work you put into your pedal steel Lib. But like you said... it works... and that's the bottom line. I'm sure GS will still be used for years to come even though it will be a discontinued product.

I'm not a GS user, but totally appreciate what it can do and it's just too sad that the disk-streaming sampler innovator is ceasing development. Plus, it was good for the market to have healthy competition with NI, ESX, Mach 5, Halion , Yellow Tools and others.

I would love for it to continue open source... how awesome would that be??

Maybe the Reaper guy should take it over... he seems to be insatiably prolific when it comes to programming audio related stuff.

Let's hope this is just a detour for now.

[synthetic]

I can confirm the above statement, and can confirm that GS4 has been moved to the "discontinued" section of the website. If it's unclear at all, I can also confirm that GVI for Mac will not be released by TASCAM. I'm not permitted to discuss it any further at this time.

As always, let me know if I can help anyone.

[the sinner]

Well I hope apple bought Tascam. I hope no one here is out of a job - best wishes to the tascam people.

[nadeama]

This is sad news indeed. I use both GigaStudio and Kontakt; never saw the point of choosing one over the other (budget permitting), they both have their strengths.

Giga is not going anywhere as far as I'm concerned; I'll still use it for a long time to come.

And I feel bad for all the developers, like you Mark, who have put so much time and effort into making great instruments for the platform.

I hope this open source thing can happen, but I won't hold my breath. I've seen too many times companies just kill off a product and refuse to sell it or open it up for mysterious reasons. But I hope it can happen.

Mark, I've gone to the opengigastudio web site, but I'm a bit confused. Am I supposed to sign some kind of petition? I didn't see anything like that. Anyway, if there's anything to sign I'll be glad to do it.

[ComposerDude]

Wow Oh, man, Mark I'm sorry to hear that -- your Pedal Steel was on my 'must buy' list. Was waiting for the cross platform stuff to get worked out for the Mac.

Want to pay my respects to the fine software engineers of Giga who put together a marvelous product...certainly wishing them well in future endeavors.

-Peter

[lee]

Sad.

But...

Why?

[Moonchilde]

This is a sad day for those who cherished freedom and customization. I haven't even had a chance to jump on GS yet and was hoping to within the next 6 months. What a bummer. Sales must not have been very good, the product was just released and is relatively new, IMO.

We can thank closed platforms for this. We now have one less choice in the world of open tools. I hope Kontakt remains a viable alternative, but I can see that going the way of Giga as well with all the movement to proprietary samplers, considering every major orchestral library will now have it's very own. With out the support by the developers, the open samplers are going to die.

I'm sure NI will always have the tech and benefit of Kontakt and carry it over to their sample line of products. They will probably close their doors someday, most likely post K3.

It probably doesn't mean much, but my condolences go out to all who were involved in GS4 which IMO, was truly innovative with it's built in performance tools and modeling filters.

On another note, Mark, time to look into Kontakt. You need to keep your stuff alive some how, even if it means a "downgrade" in your eyes. Kontakt is very versatile and you could probably get pretty close to the original GS programming.

[Mark Belbin]

ComposerDude @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:10 am wrote:

Your Pedal Steel was on my 'must buy' list. Was waiting for the cross platform stuff to get worked out for the Mac.

Dont' quit waiting! All I need is to hone my scripting chops.

Moon: See above. I don't view Kontakt as a downgrade at all. I was loyal to Giga because it's developers were so helpful toward my needs. I will miss working with them.

-M

[a7]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!



Ok, now that I have that out of my system...

What will this mean for users of previous versions which require authorization from tascam? I have licenses for GS3 and there are occasions when I need to re-authorize because I've had to re-install XP. Will I still be able to authorize my installs after the end of the year?

I'm definitely in the Open Giga camp.

[Brian Ralston]

a7 @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:33 am wrote:

What will this mean for users of previous versions which require authorization from tascam? I have licenses for GS3 and there are occasions when I need to re-authorize because I've had to re-install XP. Will I still be able to authorize my installs after the end of the year?

This is my biggest question as well. For me, Giga will not be obsolete unless it is not meeting my needs any more. I can run a Giga system for years for those quirky little giga samples I still love to use in my template. Heck...I still am on GS3. But I am more concerned about the ability to re-install and authorize the thing in the future if I need to change my system in some way. The authorization process was hard enough as it was with a support number dedicated to it. Now with support ceasing to exist at the end of 2008, I really hope that Tascam will either keep an authorization server online in some archived section. Or release one last "authorization update" that will open up the authorization to allow us to re-install without needing to go through that process.

[John DeBorde]

ouch! I'm having flashbacks to the horrors of the Gibson/StudioVision debacle. I have to say I'm not too surprised, but very sad nevertheless.

john

[mducharme]

I'm sure Sonivox moving to their own sample player didn't help matters.. they were the last major Giga sample developer.

[Mark Belbin]

This authorization problem is where the dongle wins. I feel secure in that my GS4 will live forever, since it's licens is on a syncrosoft key...even though if I find a bug I won't be able to get it fixed, at least I can move it around all I want.

But I'm not suggesting you give Tascam your money.

-Mark

[Nick Batzdorf]

mducharme...no.

[mducharme]

If they refuse to open source it, TASCAM should sell Giga to someone else who can develop it further and not leave us hanging. Perhaps Sonivox would buy it as they co-developed the DEF filter?

[ComposerDude]

Mark Belbin @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:27 am wrote:

ComposerDude @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:10 am wrote:

Your Pedal Steel was on my 'must buy' list. Was waiting for the cross platform stuff to get worked out for the Mac.

Dont' quit waiting! All I need is to hone my scripting chops.
-M

Mark, thanks. Well of course the anticipation continues - there's nothing like your Pedal Steel out there anyway.

BTW, you might get in touch with Kotori (Nils Liberg), Dynamitec (Benjamin), Big Bob (Bob Villwock), among other scripting gurus who frequent VI's Kontakt scripting forum.

-Peter

[Mark Belbin]

Thanks Peter, I will do that. But first I'm going to educate myself somewhat on how it works, so that I can communicatte effectively with whoever it is I end up getting help from.

Thanks for your kind words about the product. Such shame to have this happen right at the end of a year's hard work. Same for Tascam's coders, since they made my instrument programming possible in the new GS4 code. It couldn't have been done in GS3.

Mark

[Thonex]

Mark Belbin @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:12 am wrote:

Thanks Peter, I will do that. But first I'm going to educate myself somewhat on how it works, so that I can communicatte effectively with whoever it is I end up getting help from.

Some people are intimidated by the K2 forum here... but don't be... I can assure you that there is no such thing as a stupid question on there.. and there are some great coders there that will help you learn your way around the KSP scripting waters and general programming. So please... feel free to drop in anytime and fire away with questions... there are some really helpful people there.

Cheers,

T

[ComposerDude]

Well, here it is, in the Legacy Software section:

http://www.tascam.com/legacy;37,7.html

Ironically, the cover art for GS4 is made of zillions of right-pointing triangles...on tape recorders and DAWs that's the symbol for... Play.

-Peter

[Synesthesia]

Mark Belbin @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:12 pm wrote:

Thanks Peter, I will do that. But first I'm going to educate myself somewhat on how it works, so that I can communicatte effectively with whoever it is I end up getting help from.

Thanks for your kind words about the product. Such shame to have this happen right at the end of a year's hard work. Same for Tascam's coders, since they made my instrument programming possible in the new GS4 code. It couldn't have been done in GS3.

Mark

Mark,

I feel for you and for the former Giga programmers. I wanted to publicly thank you for the huge amount of help you have given not only me in my Giga programming projects, but also everyone else - I have often found myself thinking 'If its possible to do x,y,z then Belbin will know how to do it..'

+1 for the fact that Giga4 licenses will be much more future-proof than GS3, but I wonder: they will either fly out the door and sell out quickly as hardcore Giga users (many many top end users as well as us guys) stockpile for their huge rigs and their 64bit futures, or Tascam's abrupt tugging of the rug may frighten off many who would have purchased.

While I praise the innovations of Spectrasonics, EW, Sonivox and NI for their work and their attempts to protect their investments while bringing us new tools, I also feel very sad that the original 'old gent' that started this revolution for us with its much copied technology has finally succumbed to the fickle hand of big business.

Being bought out by a big company is a very uncertain thing it seems..

All the best

Paul

[Ed]

Mark Belbin @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:38 am wrote:

p.s. Please join us in the fight to get Tascam to release the Giga code as open source. Only in this way can the Technology that started this industry continue to grow. Give it to a community with creative vision and no foolish corporate misguidedness and it may just become the open player that most users wish for, but if not it could well remain dead on the Tascam vine:

http://www.opengigastudio.com/

Best,
Mark

wow that would be amazing if they did that, just imagine it.

[JonFairhurst]

This sucks.

I can only assume that GS4 sales didn't hit expectations, and GVI-4 development (Mac & PC) was going to take more investment than Tascam was willing to provide.

On the GS4 side, it's really too bad that there weren't more GSIF 2.1 cards available at a reasonable price. I upgraded to GS4 immediately, but I still haven't run it in 64-bits.

So rather than a large group of people thrilled about the samples they could load, the GS4 launch kinda fell flat, IMHO.

Giga will still be useful going forward, but this is a sad day indeed.

[Ed]

a7 @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:33 am wrote:

What will this mean for users of previous versions which require authorization from tascam? I have licenses for GS3 and there are occasions when I need to re-authorize because I've had to re-install XP. Will I still be able to authorize my installs after the end of the year?

I'm definitely in the Open Giga camp.

Start looking for cracks. When it happens, it will show how ridiculously stupid copy protection is when you have to crack your own software because theres no way else to use it.

[Synesthesia]

Ed @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:48 pm wrote:

a7 @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:33 am wrote:

What will this mean for users of previous versions which require authorization from tascam? I have licenses for GS3 and there are occasions when I need to re-authorize because I've had to re-install XP. Will I still be able to authorize my installs after the end of the year?

I'm definitely in the Open Giga camp.

Start looking for cracks. When it happens, it will show how ridiculously stupid copy protection is when you have to crack your own software because theres no way else to use it.

Be very very careful. You could be installing a heap of malware onto your system. Although I second the question - what happens post Dec 31st..

I have already switched to GS4 so in theory any problems I have from now on are with Syncrosoft - heres hoping those guys never go bust..

Paul

[synthetic]

A large percentage of customer service calls are just to get the old registration working. The dongle (as much as people hate those) is much easier and transportable. When you upgrade your computer you just plug in your dongle and get to work.

As far as registering GS3 after 12/31/08, I don't have any information about that.

[midphase]

Quod Erat Demonstrandum

[Synesthesia]

midphase @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:11 pm wrote:

Quod Erat Demonstrandum

quod sui juris est.

quisquam?

[Reegs]

Whoa! This caught me completely by surprise. A sign of the times and changing market, I guess, but I always thought of Giga as "The Rock" of enduring samplers. I'm saddened by this.

JonFairhurst @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:41 pm wrote:

On the GS4 side, it's really too bad that there weren't more GSIF 2.1 cards available at a reasonable price. I upgraded to GS4 immediately, but I still haven't run it in 64-bits.

So rather than a large group of people thrilled about the samples they could load, the GS4 launch kinda fell flat, IMHO.

Giga will still be useful going forward, but this is a sad day indeed.

Regardless of whether Tascam maintains a sort of authorization system or whether the iLoks function in perpetuity, Jon brings up an important point. Giga (though not GVI) needs GSIF drivers, and there's already only a limited number of GSIF2.1 drivers. Even if it the format and code goes open source, the process of persuading sound card manufacturers to develop and maintain GSIF-capable cards, with no corporate industry backing (only usergroups, so to say) could be a brutal uphill battle. Sound cards need upgrading every once and a while, which could mean losing Giga workability.

Let's not forget about Linuxsampler, either. It's got a giga-format at the core.

So Mark, when's the Open Source petition goin' up??

Reegs

[ComposerDude]

I've got a mint condition GS3 here still shrinkwrapped in its wooden, er, coffin.

[muziksculp]

Bye Giga !

I'm not surprised ... This was bound to happen.

[nomogo]

ComposerDude @ Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:28 am wrote:

I've got a mint condition GS3 here still shrinkwrapped in its wooden, er, coffin.

LOL... thats fittiing... creepy for some reason.