I just called 1-800-MY-APPLE to find out if my control surface (A Tascam US-428) is supported by Soundtrack. Control surface support is likely to be the first question asked by any professional sound engineer. The gentleman that answered the sales call took my name and number and responded without hesitation that he could not answer the question and transferred me to Apple Care. The woman that responded in Apple Care wanted to know who forwarded me to them because "they aren't allowed to do that. He should have everything he needs to answer your question up there." Of course I couldn't remember the guys name. So they transferred me back to sales. Promptly they re-ask my name and number. Whats the point of asking if they don't even have a way of tracking that information with the call? No problem. I give it to him. This time I was sure to write down the gentlemans name. He spent 5 minutes digging and said he couldn't find the answer. At first he said that he was unable to give an answer PERIOD. When I told him that I would be buying an entire system with additional software, he said that he would find the answer and call me back today or tomorrow. Then, get this.. he wants my name and number so he can call me... Then he realizes he just took it down and reads it back. He was very polite, but acted like it was his first day on the job... Maybe it was, so I shouldn't judge.
I think my opinion of Apple just dropped 100 points. Its now at about the same level as Dell... Nobody knows anything and they're only willing to help if you are going to pad their commission a worthwhile amount...
The stupid thing is that I HATE... I repeat HATE talking on the phone. General purchase information should be available on the web. I would excuse it if this was a cabinet manufacturer or something, but this is a COMPUTER COMPANY for crying out loud!!!!
well... I'm done venting... the good news is that the hold times weren't bad and the people were friendly. I will post a following response.
Thanks for all the responses. The salesman never called me back today. I assume that means he found out that it didn't support my hardware so didn't bother to call me back. I hate sales people.
Comments
I just called 1-800-MY-APPLE to find out if my control surface (A Tascam US-428) is supported by Soundtrack. Control surface support is likely to be the first question asked by any professional sound engineer. The gentleman that answered the sales call took my name and number and responded without hesitation that he could not answer the question and transferred me to Apple Care. The woman that responded in Apple Care wanted to know who forwarded me to them because "they aren't allowed to do that. He should have everything he needs to answer your question up there." Of course I couldn't remember the guys name. So they transferred me back to sales. Promptly they re-ask my name and number. Whats the point of asking if they don't even have a way of tracking that information with the call? No problem. I give it to him. This time I was sure to write down the gentlemans name. He spent 5 minutes digging and said he couldn't find the answer. At first he said that he was unable to give an answer PERIOD. When I told him that I would be buying an entire system with additional software, he said that he would find the answer and call me back today or tomorrow. Then, get this.. he wants my name and number so he can call me... Then he realizes he just took it down and reads it back. He was very polite, but acted like it was his first day on the job... Maybe it was, so I shouldn't judge.
I think my opinion of Apple just dropped 100 points. Its now at about the same level as Dell... Nobody knows anything and they're only willing to help if you are going to pad their commission a worthwhile amount...
The stupid thing is that I HATE... I repeat HATE talking on the phone. General purchase information should be available on the web. I would excuse it if this was a cabinet manufacturer or something, but this is a COMPUTER COMPANY for crying out loud!!!!
well... I'm done venting... the good news is that the hold times weren't bad and the people were friendly. I will post a following response.
Ah found it,
Soundtrack takes advantage of the flexible Mac OS X Core Audio architecture.So,in
addition to supporting the built-in audio I/O on Mac systems,Soundtrack works with
any audio hardware that uses Apple ?s built-in audio class drivers or has drivers that
support Core Audio.
The joy of having access to the Apple Sales Website
Originally posted by MacUsers
Hold on i will find out for you
Ah found it,
Soundtrack takes advantage of the flexible Mac OS X Core Audio architecture.So,in
addition to supporting the built-in audio I/O on Mac systems,Soundtrack works with
any audio hardware that uses Apple ?s built-in audio class drivers or has drivers that
support Core Audio.
The joy of having access to the Apple Sales Website
I believe that I can use it to record.. but will I be able to use it as a control surface? Thats what I want to know.
Originally posted by Jukebox Hero
I believe that I can use it to record.. but will I be able to use it as a control surface? Thats what I want to know.
Soundtrack does not support midi, so I'm guessing that you cannot edit/mix with a control surface.