KVR Audio = A warning

[Ernest Meyer]

As for the other statements, I already answered them, and I am not repeating what I said above again, except to say, I have lost money hand over fist on development this last two years, but I am still distributing audio software for free--just as I was before--because I will not let my own ideals be further belittled by those of debase and criminal intent, whether or not KVR or anyone else cares to help me defend myself from wrongful statements about my integrity.

I believe it is good for the artistic community and the artists themselves to have access to such free software, and I will be attempting to form a better relationship with Ableton to such an end.

[Ernest Meyer]

Now I think my new design is quite exciting. As it is built in cycling74, I can currently build standalones for Mac, PC, and Max for Live, and they are discussed in this forum here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=208638

I also built a beta of the Husserl core, which is multiphonic, that is, it can play sixteen different sounds at once. I may need to transfer some of the internals to c++ for better performance, but I think over the last few months I figured out some things that may make that unnecessary. It could take six months or so to bring it to the same quality as the version previously only available for Reaktor. I welcome input and constructive criticism, whether here, or on my own forums on Yofiel.

[sxa]

As for the other statements, I already answered them, and I am not repeating what I said above again, except to say, I have lost money hand over fist on development this last two years, but I am still distributing audio software for free--just as I was before--because I will not let my own ideals be further belittled by those of debase and criminal intent, whether or not KVR or anyone else cares to help me defend myself from wrongful statements about my integrity.

I believe it is good for the artistic community and the artists themselves to have access to such free software, and I will be attempting to form a better relationship with Ableton to such an end.

Im glad you're interested in releasing work to the public for free, and I hope it goes well for you.

I can only surmise that many more artists will benefit from it than e.g. the $200/year subscription (for current versions and unspecified work in advance, if I recall correctly) I believe you originally wanted to charge people who had already paid for your products. I think Im right in saying that was your intention, yes?

[Ernest Meyer]

It was $20 for a month, or $100 for a year, to continue to support Reaktor. No one on the KVR forums wanted to pay anything at all for Reaktor support and criticized me to death for wanting any money at all for anything, and I had to drop supporting Reaktor at all, as it doesnt do multimedia anyway. I hope you and everyone else who tried to portray me as some sort of evil monster are pleased with yourselves. Now Heavens*onEarth is out of business and its Reaktor support is gone for ever. Why this should satisfy anyone who is not a competitor I have no idea. Maybe people just get carried away with anger while debasing other people's work, and dont think of the negative consequences for others by their actions. Really they deserve sympathy, not incrimination. Now if you will excuse me, I have shared my negative experience, and now it would be more helpful to everyone if I could please return to some constructive work.

[sxa]

It was $20 for a month, or $100 for a year, to continue to support Reaktor. No one on the KVR forums wanted to pay anything at all for Reaktor support and criticized me to death for wanting any money at all for anything, and I had to drop supporting Reaktor at all, as it doesnt do multimedia anyway. I hope you and everyone else who tried to portray me as some sort of evil monster are pleased with yourselves. Now Heavens*onEarth is out of business and its Reaktor support is gone for ever. Why this should satisfy anyone who is not a competitor I have no idea. Maybe people just get carried away with anger while debasing other people's work, and dont think of the negative consequences for others by their actions. Really they deserve sympathy, not incrimination. Now if you will excuse me, I have shared my negative experience, and now it would be more helpful to everyone if I could please return to some constructive work.

1. My mistake on the amount.

2. In the original KVR threads, the original issue was that people were primarily bothered by you basically announcing that they'd have to pay a non-refundable subscription to get potential access to updates of products they'd already bought, but only if you actually developed them in the first place. Is that not what you were proposing?

3. Nobody posted in the threads expecting to get stuff from you for free. You did repeatedly claim that certain unspecified anonymous people 'expected' that, but I dont remember any evidence of it. I think you blamed members of the NI Reaktor forum at the time, though, am I correct?

4. At that point in time, I believe you stated you'd basically written off continuing to do Reaktor work anyway (as you effectively admit above wrt 'multimedia'), so the cessation of this work was your own choice, yes?

5. At this point in time I believe you'd already announced that you were discontinuing Heavens*onEarth as a business in favour of yofiel, and its cessation was your own choice, yes?

6. I could be wrong about saying you were banned from KVR in 2013, Im starting to think it was actually 2012, am I correct?

Im not sure why you would claim that I, or anyone else has tried to portray you as 'an evil monster', as Ive clearly done nothing of the kind. Im not sure that compounding your claims of some kind of criminal conspiracy with this kind of statement comes across as particularly well-founded.

But like I say, Im sure people here are perfectly capable of making up their own minds. I just think its fair that when you make claims that dont fit with someone else's view of events that they perhaps point out the disparity.

[Ernest Meyer]

What I object to is the fact that my integrity was globally attacked and ^all* of my work demeaned not only on KVR, but on every single board I visit, because I wanted 10 or 20 dollars to do a week's work for one customer, when I have distributed free software to thousands of people, which you can still hear on TV shows and TV channels. It's totally ludicrous really to see the amount of effort people have put into abusing my prior work. The only possible explanation is that they stand some fiscal benefit from it which they dont reveal. Otherwise, anyone determined to continue questioning my integrity at this time can only be insane. There's no other rational explanation.

[mcnelson]

What I object to is the fact that my integrity was globally attacked and ^all* of my work demeaned not only on KVR, but on every single board I visit, because I wanted 10 or 20 dollars to do a week's work for one customer, when I have distributed free software to thousands of people, which you can still hear on TV shows and TV channels. It's totally ludicrous really to see the amount of effort people have put into abusing my prior work. The only possible explanation is that they stand some fiscal benefit from it which they dont reveal. Otherwise, anyone determined to continue questioning my integrity at this time can only be insane. There's no other rational explanation.

Dude, kudos for being active in the community and distributing your work - free or not. But jumping to baseless conclusions and casting aspersions without proof is not going to do your integrity / reputation any good. At the very least I'd change your thread title to something a bit less inflammatory; there is a gulf of difference between KVR (the site) and some KVR users you may take umbrage with.

[sxa]

What I object to is the fact that my integrity was globally attacked and ^all* of my work demeaned not only on KVR, but on every single board I visit, because I wanted 10 or 20 dollars to do a week's work for one customer, when I have distributed free software to thousands of people, which you can still hear on TV shows and TV channels.
It's totally ludicrous really to see the amount of effort people have put into abusing my prior work. The only possible explanation is that they stand some fiscal benefit from it which they dont reveal. Otherwise, anyone determined to continue questioning my integrity at this time can only be insane. There's no other rational explanation.

1. I get the impression you're saying 'distributing free software' gives you a certain amount of carte blanche in certain situations. Im not sure if the world works like that. I think the original objections came out about as a result of the status of your paid products though?
2. Obviously no-one will be able to confirm your claims about being 'globally attacked' and your work 'demeaned on every single board you visit', but it does sound far-fetched, and moreso that you are blaming the management of one of the largest audio software communities around for that, on scant evidence. Claims like these hardly sound like, ahem, a 'rational explanation'.
3. You seem to have no issue whatsoever continuing to question the integrity of the management of KVraudio, even when the basic assertions you've made which support your hypothesis (cf Sheffield) can be easily dismissed. That seems somewhat hypocritical does it not?
4. There certainly are other possible explanations. I have to say that the failure to admit them seems deliberately misleading.

[Angstrom]

I'd like to point out once again that one of my servers was also attacked hundreds of thousands of times. With hundreds of "Admin" requests per minute, and different IP addresses every hour or so, trying to log into an SSH session, or other things.

That's not unusual, it's just bots at play. Was I attacked by KVR? Nope, I assume my server is just a number on a long list that a botnet is working through. Nothing scandalous, you might as well punch the ocean.

[Ernest Meyer]

While I believe free software is good, other people like me need to pay bills. I was repeatedly harassed to release software for an old version of Reaktor which would only benefit those who had cracked it, and be to the detriment of Native Instruments.

Whatever your opinion may be of that, even software developers are humans and have bills to pay. I know there are those who believe all software should be free, but while I circulate free software, I also respect people who ask for money for their work too, and wont contribute in any way to those who steal from them. You may wish to support those whose desires lead to software businesses going bankrupt, like mine. I dont.

In the short term, that was to my detriment. In the longer term, that is real integrity, and people who make a living from software know it is.

[sxa]

Just thought I'd address this, from the first post, for some additional perspective.

In the last month, I mounted a new website with much deeper cyber protection, and feeling safe, I posted about it on KVR Audio, because since I started in this business it took over musicdsp.org. Anonymous members there who would never have been tolerated on the original musicdsp.org lists criticized my integrity and claimed my work as their own with hostility. When I defended myself, the forum administrator banned me.

On yofiel.com, Ernest claims the following about this 'incident'

http://www.yofiel.com/forum/software-de ... nd-pirates

I did have some discussion on the KVR Audio developer forums about this algorithm, One long-time member there claimed my work was not new, but could not produce any source to prove it so. He then repeated my algorithm as his own to someone else. Then he got me banned for defending myself from his insults, so I mounted my own forum rather than adding myself to the KVR list.

.

The actual KVR thread in question exists here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=425792

Anyone can decide for themselves whether Ernest's claims here and at his own site are true when he says people 'claimed his work as their own' (even while stating 'I am perfectly well aware I didn't invent anything new.' btw) or whether there were 'insults' there against him, or why he got banned.
I'd personally suggest the evidence from that thread that not everything Ernest has claimed to be true is actually supported by the facts.

[sxa]

While I believe free software is good, other people like me need to pay bills. I was repeatedly harassed to release software for an old version of Reaktor which would only benefit those who had cracked it, and be to the detriment of Native Instruments.

Whatever your opinion may be of that, even software developers are humans and have bills to pay. I know there are those who believe all software should be free, but while I circulate free software, I also respect people who ask for money for their work too, and wont contribute in any way to those who steal from them. You may wish to support those whose desires lead to software businesses going bankrupt, like mine. I dont.

In the short term, that was to my detriment. In the longer term, that is real integrity, and people who make a living from software know it is.

1. Your ensembles for old versions of Reaktor would still run in the appropriate old versions of Reaktor, and they would also still be editable; in the KVR thread you did eventually admit this was true despite your current assertion otherwise. yes?
2. Am i wrong in saying, though, that your response to that was that you claimed you would have to 'check their details with NI' as to whether your paid customers were legitimate owners of Reaktor before you would provide them with the ensembles they'd bought.

[TomViolenz]

This is starting to feel like we invited the neighbours over for tea and they start up some family drama in front of us right in the middle of our living room and we can't escape.

Just sayin'...

[sxa]

This is starting to feel like we invited the neighbours over for tea and they start up some family drama in front of us right in the middle of our living room and we can't escape.

Just sayin'...

very good point. my apologies for my part in that. its awkward seeing someone make grand accusations about others when one knows that there's a different side to the story. mea culpa.

[Ernest Meyer]

Well, that was a business problem way above either your head or mine. Native Instreuments would have to go into extensive legal activity to share its custom,er list. The extent of the fiscal impact on their business was not reasonable for the sake of people refusing to pay ten bucks because I would not support people who did not install the free upgrade to non-pirated versions. That was the reason I stopped distributing anything at all for Reaktor.

As for 'false claims' on KVR, it was in another thread that the person repeated my algorithms. And he edited his comments not to be abusive, but still stated I was wrong to state my algorithm was my own invention. Then I was banned, which the administrator has every right to do. My complaint was that the person who was abusive about my contribution remains there, and my own contribution, which was positive and good in nature, was not appreciated at all, so it is my opinion that musicdsp.org should find another host. A commercial concern should not be permitted to control what was intended as a public list when it has been in the position of showing bias, whether its bias is right or not. That is my opinion.

And in fact I never claimed my antialaising was my own invention either, merely that I was the first to share software showing it works. Which I have. And in other places, some people actually said thank you:

https://cycling74.com/toolbox/antialiased-oscillators/

No one at all has expressed any appreciation of my work on the KVR forums since 2009. My opinion is, and again it is mu opinion, some sort of horrible global trend has taken over for the last six years or so where people somehow think it is good to make derogatory remarks about others whenever they can, wherever they can, typically without rational reason. There is ample evidence on news nets, many of which had to stop supporting public comments on their articles because of this enormous and sad trend of public rants and rages in any place they can. They didnt want to, and there was alot of sadness in the decision, particularly in publications like Scientific American, but it just couldnt continue to let people write hostile remarks on its article contributions. Recently there was a TV show about a four-year-old who was painting abstracts, 60 Minutes did an article on them saying the parents helped paint them, and they received unbelievably nasty hate letters from total strangers. maybe people need to put so much effort into attacking other people's creativity because they have no creativity of their own, but whatever the reason, it is, in my opinion, a mental sickness that has taken over too much of the mindset of the younger, of which most younger people are in this current era unaware. And that's why I am saying this, not because I think they deserve to be hated, but because they need sympathy. It is so sad.

I would appreciate it if the people who continue such debate could agree they have written all they need to on their opinion, and let me do other work now please.