Karaoke Forums

As usual, this is a simple matter of failure to communicate.

For 30 years, MTU has ALWAYS offer existing clients an upgrade price less than the new version's retail. Everyone here KNOWS that if you've been with MTU very long.

We used to create an upgrade part number to go from prior versions to the new, but that forced everyone into the same class, and we didn't think it was fair that someone who just bought should have to pay the same as someone who bought 2 years ago. Today, we send out discount coupons to enter when you order the new version. This gives you a new Registration Code to install the latest version with. For the Microstudio 4.0 (MS4) mailing, we compiled three databases from all MS customers:

1. Those who bought MS3 in the past 30 days - received a Coupon to get 4.0 for $0.00.

2. Those who bought MS3 up to 30 days ago - received a Coupon to get 4.0 for $24.95.

3. Those who had any version prior to 3.0 - received a Coupon to get 4.0 for $34.95.

The response to these coupons has been incredible. We have had less than 5 complaints, including easyeasy and mckyj57 in this Thread. What is amazing is that the two of you didn't try to post in the MTU.Community Forum, or use our Support Center to create a Support Ticket. Instead, amazingly you successfully posted in this Forum. If you want to solve a problem with MTU, follow the methods provided on our web site.

If you read our http://mtu.com/support/customer-support.htm page, you will see it clearly states NOT to email us. MTU has provided free support for 30 years, including free phone support up until last week. MTU has been active on the Internet since 1996. Today, mtu.com receives 150,000 to 200,000 emails DAILY! We have three spam arrestors to filter incoming emails. One is an off-site service that removes the bulk of the spam load from our server,as this was making our site and store run very slow. There are published articles about email tests where the recipients agreed to participate, and were told to expect the test email. From 5 different test groups, only 40% received the test email. With MTU's 3 spam arrestors, your email to MTU doesn't stand even that chance of getting to us.  That's the state of the Internet today.

Our MTU.Community Forums are very successful with many knowledgable users helping each other. Two years ago, we realized some won't post in a public Forum. So, we added our Support Center. It has an excellent FAQ system with search, and, like the Forum Threads, its Support Tickets hold all correspondence with that user so we both can see what has been tried until the problem is solved. Tickets are private so only MTU staff and that user can view them.

If easyeasy and mckyj57 will go to our Support Center, register and create a Support Ticket, the script will email you back when we answer your Ticket, or you can revisit the site to see if we have answered and you didn't get the email notification. I'd suggest both of you register in the MTU.Community Forum also to have access to your peers who are willing to help, if you ask politely. However, if you post like you did here, many of them will correct your misconception of MTU.

MS3 BACKGROUND: We had been working on new CD/DVD drive interface code for 2 years, and we finally got it working in October, 2006. That allowed MS3 and Hoster 3.3 to import and write CDG format discs using almost any drive. Why did we release MS3? DUH... CHRISTMAS BUYING SEASON... and December was our highest sales month in 30 years. We sent out coupons to existing customers who wanted to upgrade then. Those that bought got 3.001, 3.002, 3.003 and 3.004 for free.

In 3.003, we included the most advanced software error correction available on the market. It is far superior even to Plextor drives, which were the "gold standard" for years. Almost all our customers have Plextor drives. However, our new error correction is so good, we have MANY users now reimporting all their songs (either as Hoster KMA files, or Microstudio BIN files. The random graphic errors are gone. One Beta Tester reimported 2500 DISCS. That's how much better our error correction is. What's that worth to you? All MS3 owners got it for free.

MS imports CD Tracks to files on the hard drive. With our superior error correction, there is no product on the market that can touch the quality of our imported files... and that's what its all about. From the imported BIN files, you can convert to any other format, starting from a perfect file.

MS4.001 is under development and will be a free upgrade to all 4.000 owners. It will contain:

1. A built-in file to file converter, going from KMA, BIN, MP3+G, ZIP, WMA+G, MP3, WMA, WAV formats 4.000 supports and convert them to any of KMA, BIN, WMA+G, WMA, WAV. There are enough free illegal MP3 converter tools using the Lame.dll which is now clearly illegal to use even in your home (see mp3licensing.com). Alcatel/Lucent sued Microsoft for patent infringement. So, MTU currently doesn't ever expect to create MP3 files. We can decode them legally and convert them to any other format.

2. A button to allow adding popular digital effects (reverb, chorusing, EQ, etc.) to the mic audio stream only. There's more, but that's all I'm saying now.

3. Tool Tips and cool error messages, no longer the Windows std "message box".

4. Modify the appearance using skins. We've waited long enough, and now were going to give you some "eye candy".

5. Play CD tracks on the fly using our new error correction. In 4.000 we read the track to the HDD, then allow it to instantly play, but the read-in time is objectionable. Playing on the fly will start playing within seconds of the disc spin-up.

These very powerful new features will appear in several releases over the next months. If you want to be mad with MTU, because you refuse to follow our clearly stated ways to ask for our help, that's your choice. However, as I stated at the start of this Post, this has been a simple matter miscommunications.

Have a great day!  :wave:

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Making Karaoke the best it can be! http://mtu.com

Hey karaoketools:
Just send him a copy of 4.0, that'll shut 'em up.  But about this new error correction (way cool by the way) are you just using more levels of Reed/Solomon or did you come up with some AI sort of thingy?

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Okay, who took my pants?

You are here to learn what people need/want to build a better product.  He is here to sell his.

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[shadow=deepskyblue]I'm impressed, I've never met such a small mind inside such a big head before.[/shadow]

Great post  karaoketools. I always used the "rogue" cheaper softwares and started with CAVS player about 5 6 years ago about when it first came out, but I have always ranked MTU in the top three..

It is refreshing to see a professional post with positive candor and with a pride in product These are the types that I had personal and professional relationships for years in various careers. My respect for MTU has been increased a bunch and you are the type we could sit at a workbench , across a desk or at a lounge and and we would all be on the same page.

This industry is in dire need of professional leadership and massive organization. The very fact that on one end it depends upon unscrupulous providers for music whom threaten their customer base with federal laws and on the other end dealing with technological advances that the most inept congress ever couldnt even start to provide proper federal legislation for both..

I have features that I can only dream about At the current rate they wont be legal in my lifetime.

Anyway SIR thank's for the candor and u know what and you too have good one. Good luck with your ventures...

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Join The Karaokle Singers Social Network. Upload Your Music!!

This explains my problem. I bought a product I believed was a new product. It had a life of less than a year. In fact, you as much as say that you released it to increase sales at Christmas, with some success. Congratulations on making money-- but it still doesn't make me happy.

You live and breathe your software. I don't. I don't need to visit the forums to use it, and so I don't choose to do that. I bought it expecting that it would be around for a while -- it wasn't. Caveat emptor, I guess. It is only $40, but I don't have to like it.

It is completely clear that my complaint is still valid from my standpoint. I don't care that if I had happened to go to the forum and divine that there was going to be new stuff coming out I might have done differently. That would have taken study I wouldn't have done and study I still won't take the time to do.

I bought something that was relatively new, expecting it to be the current software for some time. You chose to orphan the software quickly. Fine -- live with the fact that customers are not going to be happy they bought an Edsel.

After reading the response from karaoketools, I don't find it 'completely clear' that your complaint is still valid.  To quote from karaoketools' post:

"For the Microstudio 4.0 (MS4) mailing, we compiled three databases from all MS customers:

1. Those who bought MS3 in the past 30 days - received a Coupon to get 4.0 for $0.00. "

So, if you purchased 3.xxx less than a month before release of 4.xxx you would fall into this category and would get 4.xxx for free.  In my mind, that invalidates your claim that there was no free upgrade.

Of course, there is the problem that you may not have received the coupon and I could only conclude that if this were the case, then you were not on their list of customers who had registered the product.  Until this thread, I had never heard of the company or of this software, so I do not know what method they use to obtain their customers' email address for sending out coupons.  However, in my experience, the email address is usually a required field in the registration process.  Could the problem be that you did not register your software purchase?

The problem with emails not being responded to by companies has been addressed in the response as well.... until some genius comes up with a way to eliminate the scourge of the internet (SPAM), that is something that will just be commonplace!  At least one of my backing track suppliers has a form of resolution to the problem of customers' emails being blocked by anti-spam programs... after my first purchase, he sent me an email, requesting I email in return so that my address can be confirmed and added to his address-book so that the anti-spam would allow my messages to go through!  Maybe this could be adopted by MTU!

You have to use an email to register to even make the software work.  This is the email address they will then send all further updates/specials/promotions/coupons to - unless you change it.  It's possible that the email was entered incorrectly or that it was a purposely wrong email entered?

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

No, probably it was email fatigue. Being in the Internet business, I get literally hundreds per day. It is easy to miss one -- I can't afford to pay attention to every email I get. I give them a second to scan, and if it doesn't look like something that is important at the time -- sayonara!

My basic problem is this -- I bought a $40 program in November 2005. Here it is less than 18 months later, and I will have had to pay $80 more to stay current. That is not normal in the software business; I don't care what anyone says.

Bottom line is I have now spent many hundreds of dollars with MTU, and I have had to spend significant amounts to stay current after only 18 months. That is fine for MTUs bottom line, I am sure. But I don't like it, and I don't have to like it.

When you combine it with the poor design of their user interface, it makes me not recommend the software anymore. At least two people have bought Hoster on my recommendation (and I believe a couple have bought MicroStudio), but I am no longer making that recommendation.

See I find their usability & format extremely easy to work with.  Easier than most of the others i've tried.  
Compuhost is actually another that I was considering - a couple cool additional features that Hoster don't have, but wouldn't make or break a show, it was also a little more at the time I bought the MTU.  For me it is doing everything that I need it to do & have never regretted the decision.  Sorry you ran into problems with them, i've turned several people on to their software & they are all equally happy.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Hey exweedfarmer...  :handshake:

I wish it were that simple, but you and I don't have a clue how to directly contact them. If they post an MTU Support Ticket, their email is private, and we will get them the $0.00 cost coupon, which both of them should have received.

Um...  :no: we worked very hard for this advancement. You're too smart for me to reveal what direction we took. The results are beautiful. Try the demo with a Chartbuster multisession disc, and import track 15. Import it with something else and with Microstudio 4.000. You'll really see the difference there.


mckyj57, why do you feel you got a bum deal? When you bought 3.00x it worked, if you run it today, it still works. If you want a free copy of 4.000, and 4.001 and 4.002 when they release, identify yourself to us with a Support Ticket. Otherwise, there's nothing else I can do to help your attitude.  :yes:

BTW, another CRITICAL reason we had to release in November is that Plextor was falling apart fast. We communicated with their VP of Sales, and VP of New Product Planning, and Operations. They warned us that Japan headquarters was making irrational decisons. We also were buying 100 drives at a time. We used to have a rare failure, but that shot up to 18% to 20%, and the quality went downhill even more when they started having Benq (sp?) in China build them. Both our Hoster and Microstudio sales were 100% dependent on having a valid source of Hareware Error Correction drives available, and Plextor was the only Mfgr left using this. Their 740 drive didn't have this, and customers who didn't read our web site warnings NOT to buy this drive, called us up and cused us out... because they too didn't read our web site about drives.



karyoker... From your respectful attitude I too believe we would hit it off immediately.  :hi5:

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Making Karaoke the best it can be! http://mtu.com

I don't know that I am eligible. I believe I bought 3.003 on Jan 1, along with an upgrade for Hoster.

I have already explained why I am not happy. I like some things about your software, but other things I find maddening. The user interface on all of your products is not consistent either with each other or with Windows standards. Some of the dialog boxes are completely inexplicable, requiring a click to acknowledge when there is nothing that can be done about the event that you are notifying me about. Sometimes you require a dialog to create a new file, sometimes not. Sometimes you can multi-select files with normal Windows rules, other times not. The lack of a fast-forward, rewind, or position slider in Microstudio makes it unusable for practicing. Some of the programs remember where they were positioned last time they were run, other ones don't. Why do you have to click to assign the next book ID? Beats me. The CD import still doesn't use FreeDB. The list goes on and on.

Again, it is simply not normal to end-of-life a major version after a few months. If I did that with the software I wrote, my users would be mad. And I wouldn't blame them. They commit to using something, they don't expect it to die before they even have a chance to completely learn it.

Re-training yourself on yet another user interface is a pain in the petootie, particularly when it is completely different from the last one like Microstudio 2 to 3 was. So I learned how to use 3.x -- is 4.x again completely different? Did the name of imported files change from .bin back to .cdg, so that I will have to again rewrite my scripts? Did you regain the ability to use subdirectories to select files to burn to disk? Will I again have to figure out how to add files to the write disk list? I have no real clue. And it doesn't excite me to play crapshoot with the latest user interface ideas that ignore the ones which have become standard on Windows.

Well, let's see.  If you had gone the AI route, there would be no harm in telling us that, but as you are an honest person you didn't want to lie and say you did, and just Reed/Solomon seemd too simple so you simply declined to answer.  This means that you washed it through Reed/Solomon again, not that it is a bad thing to do so.  PowerKaraoke apparently did the same thing and got the same results.  If I understood Reed/Solomon I'd do it too.

If you need to contact your customers and email is not working for you.  Dah... Don't use email?

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Okay, who took my pants?

mckyj57,
This sounds like a bunch oF MTU Competitors Trashmouthing The competition.



exweedfarmer,
Since when is a develpoer  required to post trade secrets on a fORUM.

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

Sorry Bro, you've obviously didn't do your research, I've have contacted  MTU forum and I was told I need to purchase a new code at $40. I've sent tickets/emails with no replies. I've learnt of the upgrade from this site(which is an excellent site by the way) not from MTU. I DID NOT receive any discount coupon from MTU - one of the reasons why I'm ticked, because I was looking to upgrade. Like one of the guys said earlier if you buy an Xterra and a new model is available should it be free?
No - not if a spoiler was added. But I'm definitely NOT paying for a new truck to get a spoiler, when you just buy the spoiler. Same as I'm NOT paying MTU another $40 for a few add ons (which they just added to boost sales).
I also researched their site before purchasing and NOWHERE was it mentioned about MS 4.000 will be realeased, or I would have waited, like anyone else would have done. Most software I've purchased in the past automatically updates as soon as I go online at least for 1 year and I usually receive an email before the end of the year for a discount if I upgrade.
I like to thank everyone for their inputs, but this is going a little too far for me, it's only $40 I'll survive.
Happy Karaokeing.

They are not required to post trade secrets, but I got my answer.  Before you go jumping my case, there is nothing wrong with running it through Reed/Solomon again.  Simple math says that it will clean up at least 75% of the remaining errors in a CDG file.  The only problem with it is that the processor overhead is huge which could cause your computer to hiccop if it was installed in a player.  I was playing with some AI ideas and I just wanted to know if they beat me to the punch.  From his post, I don't think they did.  You can't blame a guy for getting information where he can.

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Okay, who took my pants?

I guess a smiliar situation is people who bought computers with Windows XP last year... even months before, they are notify that windows vista is coming out and that they will get the upgrade at a discount/free? (not sure what deal it was)  

So basically, the majority consumers for new computers (or just stand alone XP OS) at the time knew what they were getting themselves into.

Is it fair to compare developers of MTU to the gianMONGOUS corp of Microsoft?  Maybe, maybe not, but i think other people still have their rights to voice their displeasure right?

karaoketools, I was unable to find a reference to Lame.dll on mp3licensing.com and am hoping you can clarify your statement.  It seems you are saying that it is illegal to convert files to mp3 and that is why MTU doesn't ever expect to create mp3 files.  However, the information that I found seems to indicate that there are licenced products and therefore it is perfectly legal to create mp3 files.  I quote from mp3licensing.com :

"-Licensing agreements are in place with more than 300 companies

-Over 300 million licensed mp3 players exist worldwide

-Virtually every song in the world has been encoded into mp3

-Licensed mp3 software programs are installed on virtually every computer in the world "

I would be inclined to say that by not including an mp3 coder/decoder in the sofware that MTU is omitting features that potential customers would want!

Murrlyn, what I said was that using the Lame.dll is illegal. If you use anything that requires you to download the Lame.dll, that program is forcing you to be illegal.

Yes, there are companies that pay the $10,000 mimimum royalty per year, and then royalty per copy beyond the minimum if they are successful. However, most people creating MP3+G files are using illegal tools. If you look at the list of licensed companies, and don't find the software/vendor you are using, then you know you are using an illegal product.

Microsoft paid (I believe) $14 million to MP3Licensing/Thompson CSF for the right to use MP3. Then Alcatel/Lucent sued Microsoft because Lucent patents were being infringed. So... the whole licensing thing om MP3 is an ugly mess.

Microstudio is an awesome product with what it has. Yes, to add MP3 would round out the total package. One day MTU might bite the bullet and sign on FOREVER paying the $10,000 a year+ royalties. Like it or not, we're not ready to do that at this point, and we will not ship an illegal product using Lame.dll. The formats we support are all high quality, and do allow converting from MP3+G or ZIP to the other formats when you want to use MP3 files. Enjoy!

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Making Karaoke the best it can be! http://mtu.com

I can vouch for what karaoketools posted. I upgraded for $24 (I bought version 3x when it was released ~2 years ago).

If you're SURE you haven't seen a coupon in your email, or you suspect that it may have been accidentally been deleted from the spam bucket, add mtu.com to your trusted sender list and submit a support ticket ASAP at http://www.mtu.com/kb/support-center.htm (register if you need to). Owner or not, I know the upgrade offer was only good through 4/15 (at least for me).

I've used MTU products for over ten years now & I've always found Bryan to be very responsive. Just be advised that it can take a couple of days for a response. I'm sure they get TONS of e-mail to sift through, but I know a support ticket will get through & be responded to.
...........
Sorry, I read further through the thread. I'm surprised you didn't get any response. Like I said, I've never had any problems with getting replies. (Except slower responses as the years have worn on. I guess that's the price of MTU's popularity & them wanting to be personalized )

Geez... now I just saw your other thread from 3/28. I'm glad MTU came through for you easyeasy.