Voltage Modular Feature Requests

[utdgrant]

I don't know if this puts anyone's mind at ease.

It absolutely does for me, Robert. Thanks for taking the time to compose such a comprehensive response - it's much appreciated.

[Steve W]

I don't know if this puts anyone's mind at ease. For some, I suspect that nothing short of an announcement of Voltage Modular 3.0 with half the features in this thread would do that.

. . . a major version with significant features while maintaining backward compatibility with a massive number of modules is no small thing.

Just to be clear when I replied with some questions to a thread started a few days ago regarding Voltage Modular 3.0 by a VM user, I was in no way endorsing a major new version.

Do you want VM3 to be designed so that all existing VM2 modules will work flawlessly with it? Or do you want people to have to buy all new modules?

I still don't get it. What is it that 3.0 would bring? Other companies keep bringing out new version after new version after new version and many of those companies do that so they can sell the new versions to their existing user-base. To me the fact that Cherry Audio doesn't do that is a good thing. Why make the current version obsolete?

[cherryaudio Robert]

Absolutely understood. I don't want to conflate "feature" with the need to update to a major version. Minor version updates also generally get new features. I'm simply trying to be clear that we have not abandoned VM or left it to module developers. That I cannot announce a "VM 3.0" does not mean the platform is dying/dead, or that features cannot be considered in the meantime. And just because the dev team is busy does not mean this thread or VM itself is being ignored. Apologies if I caused any confusion, I had a few threads and some recent messages in mind when I was writing up that reply, but this is the thread I wanted to address the most.

[UrbanCyborg]

I'd like to request some new interface functions in VMD. Specifically, I'd like dialogs that can accept simple user input, like yes\no, or three-choice. I'd also like a version of the existing dialog box that can do some minimal formatting, so that you could make, say, columns, and have some expectation that they'd line up correctly. Some control over the colors and text formatting would be nice, too.

Reid

[Macha]

For me using 4 behringer bcr controllers the most wanted new implementation in a future update of VM is a visible indication of which knob is tweaked. It is now very had to see.
Ideally the best would be a colored ring around the knob that shows up when tweaking the corresponding mapped knob on my hardware controller.

I notice this is implemented when selecting a module with the cursor…….a thin colred line appears around the module. Please implement this for knobs and buttons as well.

[UrbanCyborg]

One problem with implementing it for knobs and buttons is that that's not totally under CA's control. For instance, a number of my modules use a custom multi-state button, and while it derives from the existing VoltageToggle class, it manipulates its appearance on its own. It would be difficult, possibly not doable for CA without access to my code. Multiply that by all the developers, and I suspect what you want is infeasible. Besides that, it would require modifying control handling in a way that would be very difficult to impose from above without breaking a large number of modules.

Reid

[SA2K]

One of the main things I want if there's a major update for Voltage Modular is a huge update to the weaker module designs by just making a "classic" Cherry skin for each worse design like the core component set. Please add "standard" skinning to the feature request list. The modules that have worse designs are very cheap looking.

[UrbanCyborg]

That's a pretty subjective call, don't you think? I doubt CA would even want to try to dictate appearance to devs, apart from the control they already exercise in rejecting problem modules.

Reid

[GusGranite]

We are watching this thread, and the items listed will be considered for future iterations of Voltage Modular. But I also need to be clear about a few other things.

- We are not working on the next major version of Voltage Modular at this time. We have some roadmap concepts, and plenty of good ideas exist in this thread and elsewhere (mostly from developers, we note). But a major version with significant features while maintaining backward compatibility with a massive number of modules is no small thing.
- As I said, the list is good and valuable. There is no need to prioritize it. That is indeed our job. Only we can judge what is possible in our platform and what features make sense, both technical challenges and market value.
- Voltage Modular is not abandoned. There have been two updates since the release of 2.5 last year, and twelve updates since the release of 2.0. We run several promotions each year, and Marketing continues to feature VM, the developers, and their modules on social media, the website, and the newsletter. If we did not care, there are more effective ways to kill a product. There has been absolutely zero discussion here about allowing VM to languish. We acknowledge that users in this business often equate a lack of major annual (at least) updates to "end of life." We just don't accept it.
- All those efforts take time and resources, and Voltage Modular and VM Designer represent about 10% of the catalog. As you say, Gus, "There is a good little Voltage Modular community to grow." Yes, it is little, but we still do what we can to grow it. The fact is that, just like the hardware market, the virtual modular market is a fraction of the entirety of what we'll call the desktop music market. We allocate our time and resources accordingly.
- We are still a small company with a small development team. The developers pay attention to this forum, the Facebook groups, and the items that Support and Marketing make sure they should see. Bugs and suggestions do go into our database and are tracked.
- But they do not necessarily have time to come into this thread and interact. This is why we don't hang on the Discord server. We regret that, but it's just a fact. We release about ten products a year and may do the same this year. We're working on multiple products at once. The development team has to be allowed to focus on what they do best. We appreciate that you started and maintain this thread in the forum we host, but that doesn't come with a promise that we'll meet your expectations about involvement.
- I'm sorry that some feel that we do not engage enough with our customers and that we have to "step up." We're going to have to agree to disagree. Frankly, I spend too much of my personal time engaging with Cherry Audio's customers on social media, email, YouTube, and other forums to accept your position. I'm not complaining. I love my job and our customers, fans, and partners. I think you're possibly viewing this through the narrow silo of Voltage Modular, which is just a portion of Cherry Audio's business. I understand that VM is the topic at hand here. But there is no single Voltage Modular developer, support team, or marketing team. There is Cherry Audio.
- We update (for free, of course) all of our products (including Voltage) with new features and to keep up in what seems to be the never-ending race of operating system and processor changes. That is not free, that is not easy, that is not profitable. But it's necessary for our business, for the developers, and for the users. Another macOS update is coming, and we want to avoid a repeat of the Ventura situation we dealt with last year.
- As others have "noted," there's little point in me coming in here and saying "noted" on a semi-regular basis That doesn't mean I'm not reading and noting. If I'm quiet, I'm probably busy doing the weekly newsletter, posting new content to the website, interacting on social media as Cherry Audio, or working on projects with the other team members.

I don't know if this puts anyone's mind at ease. For some, I suspect that nothing short of an announcement of Voltage Modular 3.0 with half the features in this thread would do that. But with the release of Novachord + Solovox behind me and the next thing in front of me, I at least wanted to add a frank reply that acknowledged that we're paying attention even if we can't meet the expectations on our level of engagement.

In the meantime, please keep them coming. There's no such thing as feedback that isn't valuable. Just keep in mind that we often have to weigh the suggestions from a different perspective.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Robert. Your frank honesty is appreciated. Here’s hoping things pickup for Voltage Modular as it is such a great platform with such talented developers (both Cherry Audio and 3rd party).

[GusGranite]

I'd like to request some new interface functions in VMD. Specifically, I'd like dialogs that can accept simple user input, like yes\no, or three-choice. I'd also like a version of the existing dialog box that can do some minimal formatting, so that you could make, say, columns, and have some expectation that they'd line up correctly. Some control over the colors and text formatting would be nice, too.

Reid

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