But, in fact, many respond to existing threads, as you've done here. Unless you work for Spectrasonics you don't actually know what the distribution looks like at all. It could be that the distribution mirrors the response here, or it could be that it's highly skewed one way or the other. I doubt people go looking for a place to complain so what is likely is that all responses here are mostly in the intersection of (regular) KVR readers and Spectrasonics customers. Since you've admitted that your transaction was three years ago, you are evidence that KVR members who are satisfied customers do respond in these complaint threads even if the transaction is quite old. As is evidenced by other Spectrasonics threads they have a quite loyal user base so it's reasonable to believe that other satisfied users would also post here as they do in other threads.

I have no skin in this game, I'm just pointing out that your assumptions may not be true.

Well, then how about this:

I've been around here a while now and I own rmx and trilian. I too had to go the route of the "squeaky wheel/kvr" method of getting something taken care of.

I don't think that every single time someone tries to transfer they have fail, but it's happened enough times here on kvr that it's prudent to be cautious

I bought RMX, Atmosphere, and Trilogy all secondhand, and AFAIK the seller didn't have any problems. Online complaints always make a company seem worse than they actually are, most satisfied customers don't post that their transaction was ok. I'm not defending Spectra's poor behavior in this case, tho.

It's clear that sorting transfers is not at the top of Spectrasonics list of priorities, and yes I can see that can be frustrating. On the other hand... has a situation ever been ultimately left unresolved or ignored? AFAIK all these problems do get sorted in the end. Not perfect, sure, but given that, it seems bizarre to me that anyone would avoid buying from the company based on this alone. Just allow plenty of time, and it'll get sorted.

I am currently 3 weeks into waiting for a license transfer. Not the longest I know, but seems like an age when you are dying to get your hands on Omnisphere, Trilian and Stylus RMX. Hope it doesnt go on much longer !!

That's way too long to have to wait unacceptable

True, but I'm part of a very small subset of Omni users that (A) visit KVR Audio, (B) have an account, (C) post frequently. IIRC, Omni has more sales than any other virtual instrument. It is not much of an assumption to say that the majority of users are probably not like me, frequent posters on KVR. In my own experience as a developer who, unlike Spectrasonics, primarily gets customers through KVR, there are a lot of lurkers here who might read a thread but not post (or might not even be registered.)

Just curious here, being an (A),(B)&(C) person myself, where have you seen any sales figures about Omnisphere?

It's popularity is well-known (and deserved), and they have hundreds of famous users, but I'd be somewhat surprised that Omnisphere is the best-selling soft-synth out there simply because of it's price, and the hardware-or-die guys.

i would love to see the figures as well, just curious.

Fairly quiet Spectrasonics customer here.

First up, I've never dealt with Spectrasonics regarding a license transfer, but when I have contacted them for some other support reason, they've never been anything other than swift and professional. Most Spectrasonics customers have little reason to contact support however as the products are easy to use and exhibit few if any bugs.
I say the following as a music software purveyor myself (EZdrummer/Superior)........... I perceive Spectrasonics to be a very successful, popular company. Spectrasonics has rarely offered any of their products with a deep discount.
You might have noticed over the last year or two, most other companies have been offering almost non stop 50% off deals. This is because the music software scene is highly competitive and we've all been experiencing a global financial crisis recently.
No fire sales = decent full price sales in my experience.
In addition, they can afford to give away gigs of content to users completely free of charge.
Even the $100 Moog library is for charity.
If you follow the distributor charts, like Time & Space, Spectrasonics continually feature in the top ten or twenty products sold, or downloads...... and they aren't even releasing new products all the time like many other companies.


I'm absolutely not a fan boy. I've criticzed Spectrasonics from time to time, even on this forum, but credit where it's due, Spectrasonics have delivered high quality, widely used (industry standard you might say) software instruments.
And my impression from watching music forums daily for many years, is that they enjoy a happy and loyal user base, with support or tech issues very much a rare occurrence.

Great post, Chris. It's been 2 years now since they released anything new that they actually get money from! The wonderful thing is they keep getting new customers cos they keep adding so much great new free stuff to the existing products.

Like you I've received excellent support. License transfers appear to be a bit of an anomaly, but they do resolve those things in the end - it's not ideal, but allowing time (ie a month or so) is the best advice to people who might want to sell.

Coming up to 6 weeks for a license transfer and still no word.

I seriously would love to know how it can possibly take so long. U-he processed a transfer within a couple of hours.

I did not replied here up to now, but I could not resist today.
I bought Stylus and Omnisphere as "used" licenses.
I remember I waited about 6-8 weeks for one license transfer, you can criticize this, nevertheless it is worth to wait.

So, as I say, you have no evidence of what the actual distribution looks like.
If it mirrors the actual KVR responses, then I would say that's troubling.



I don't disagree, but you know nothing of the silent majority, they may be just as irritated when they try to sell, that's the point, you can't say anything about the distribution other than what you observe here. If you agree that this is not a random sample, and I would say that's a pretty reasonable assumption, then you cannot infer anything about how big or little of a problem that this really is.

Your original assertion is incorrect, people who are satisfied DO respond, as you have demonstrated, however, whether they do or not, you have no idea whether that is the "norm" or not. That is pure conjecture.

Have you any plans to join them in a near future?