Softphonics are done???!!

[EdGrip]

A Props' refund email looks like this (I accidentally bought Grainframe 2. We've all been there.)

"Hi Ed,

I am terribly sorry but we can't refund Rack Extensions or Refills due to the agreements we have with third-party developers. We're simply not allowed.

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you can make use of the product anyway."

(I have yet to make use of Grainframe 2, but that's entirely my fault. It's a perfectly fine refill.)

[avasopht]

I was thinking of some kind of automated sample-check program that works similarly to Shazam or YouTube's automatic copyright-infringement detection system. Obviously too much to ask of Propellerhead (and pointless, given this is just one instance) but a central sample library database with such a checker (let's face it, probably operated by NI) could be useful in general.

Could work.

However, you could always create a noise signal to run alongside your stolen sample, subtract it from the original sample, and then always play back that sample with the noise signal. This would result in the mixed signal being identical to the original sample, but impossible to detect via analysis of the samples alone.

Any linear filter (boost, cut, low / high pass / EQ) applied to the two signals individually would still result in the same output as the filter applied to original signal.

[dustiraw]

This by any chance has nothing to do with the ReFill using Massive By Native Instruments? Currently working on a ReFill on the same concept and want to avoid any hot water if possible.

[esselfortium]

This by any chance has nothing to do with the ReFill using Massive By Native Instruments? Currently working on a ReFill on the same concept and want to avoid any hot water if possible.

Releasing a set of patches for Massive isn't anything illegal, whether it's packaged as a ReFill or otherwise, so you should be fine there.

Softphonics' Massive refill, on the other hand, can probably be pretty safely assumed to have been assembled from patches he found elsewhere, considering that even his contributions to the Reason 9 soundbank (how did this happen?!? wtf?!) were almost entirely just combis of other preexisting Factory Sound Bank patches.

[CephaloPod]

considering that even his contributions to the Reason 9 soundbank (how did this happen?!? wtf?!) were almost entirely just combis of other preexisting Factory Sound Bank patches.

Wow, is this true?

[jimmyklane]

I’m actually surprised that this thread has gone on this long and garnered the attention of what appears to be the entire forum!!!

So we know this guy stole hundreds to thousands of samples from NI and elsewhere, that he has now gone underground, and that PH isn’t giving refunds for the products. I’ve read the thread and it seems like we’re all talking in circles.

The man is a thief, a con artist, and a hack. In that order.

Theif: self explanatory, but he used complete LIBRARIES from other products.

Con Artist:: He intentionally made money by deliberately scamming the Reason community (which has always been super open and releatively “clean” in my experience....and he took advantage of that

Hack: He could not record his own superlative samples, nor code his own excellent effects, nor could he get anything done without stealing, scamming, or lying about his product.

Repackaging IDT effect blocks as your own DSP code? Hack

Repackaging another’s very hard work sampling an orchestra?
Hack

Disappearing instead of fighting to clear his name?
Guilty Hack!

[Galaxy]

I’m actually surprised that this thread has gone on this long and garnered the attention of what appears to be the entire forum!!!

So we know this guy stole hundreds to thousands of samples from NI and elsewhere, that he has now gone underground, and that PH isn’t giving refunds for the products. I’ve read the thread and it seems like we’re all talking in circles.

The man is a thief, a con artist, and a hack. In that order.

Theif: self explanatory, but he used complete LIBRARIES from other products.

Con Artist:: He intentionally made money by deliberately scamming the Reason community (which has always been super open and releatively “clean” in my experience....and he took advantage of that

Hack: He could not record his own superlative samples, nor code his own excellent effects, nor could he get anything done without stealing, scamming, or lying about his product.

Repackaging IDT effect blocks as your own DSP code? Hack

Repackaging another’s very hard work sampling an orchestra?
Hack

Disappearing instead of fighting to clear his name?
Guilty Hack!

Don't lump everything together like it's the same issue. His FX racks have nothing to do with this and it's obvious he's not the only rack maker to build these types of FX. Whatever your opinion might be on that. It's a non issue. The issue is IP infringement. Don't let one man's mistake ruin the format for everyone else. This is up to the 3 parties involved to sort out. Not you guys.

[botnotbot]

I’m actually surprised that this thread has gone on this long and garnered the attention of what appears to be the entire forum!!!

So we know this guy stole hundreds to thousands of samples from NI and elsewhere, that he has now gone underground, and that PH isn’t giving refunds for the products. I’ve read the thread and it seems like we’re all talking in circles.

The man is a thief, a con artist, and a hack. In that order.

Theif: self explanatory, but he used complete LIBRARIES from other products.

Con Artist:: He intentionally made money by deliberately scamming the Reason community (which has always been super open and releatively “clean” in my experience....and he took advantage of that

Hack: He could not record his own superlative samples, nor code his own excellent effects, nor could he get anything done without stealing, scamming, or lying about his product.

Repackaging IDT effect blocks as your own DSP code? Hack

Repackaging another’s very hard work sampling an orchestra?
Hack

Disappearing instead of fighting to clear his name?
Guilty Hack!

Don't lump everything together like it's the same issue. His FX racks have nothing to do with this and it's obvious he's not the only rack maker to build these types of FX. Whatever your opinion might be on that. It's a non issue. The issue is IP infringement. Don't let one man's mistake ruin the format for everyone else. This is up to the 3 parties involved to sort out. Not you guys.

The RE format might not survive if the community continues to defend developers who slap together extremely lazy plugins. Especially with the new SDK, there is a lot of opportunity for developers to make lazy, stock plugins. Things are going to go downhill quickly if we just give every "dev" a pass just because they learned how to hook up a few wires and decided to make a money grab with it while knowing that their effort (and thus the effect) is sub par to begin with.

Softphonics departure might have been caused by IP infringement, but that doesn't change fact that, going forward, their REs aren't going to be dragging down the shop with their mediocrity.

And that's a good thing.

[normen]

Things are going to go downhill quickly if we just give every "dev" a pass just because they learned how to hook up a few wires and decided to make a money grab with it while knowing that their effort (and thus the effect) is sub par to begin with.

That's a truism but nobody is doing that afaics. Quite the opposite.

[Ermitage]

considering that even his contributions to the Reason 9 soundbank (how did this happen?!? wtf?!) were almost entirely just combis of other preexisting Factory Sound Bank patches.

Wow, is this true?

If I'm not mistaken they are the ones labeled "SO"

[Galaxy]

Don't lump everything together like it's the same issue. His FX racks have nothing to do with this and it's obvious he's not the only rack maker to build these types of FX. Whatever your opinion might be on that. It's a non issue. The issue is IP infringement. Don't let one man's mistake ruin the format for everyone else. This is up to the 3 parties involved to sort out. Not you guys.

The RE format might not survive if the community continues to defend developers who slap together extremely lazy plugins. Especially with the new SDK, there is a lot of opportunity for developers to make lazy, stock plugins. Things are going to go downhill quickly if we just give every "dev" a pass just because they learned how to hook up a few wires and decided to make a money grab with it while knowing that their effort (and thus the effect) is sub par to begin with.

Softphonics departure might have been caused by IP infringement, but that doesn't change fact that, going forward, their REs aren't going to be dragging down the shop with their mediocrity.

And that's a good thing.

Who's defending? The fact is they're separate issues. Both valid. There's a post here a while ago where other unamed rack makers accused of this too but that's ok. One man's garbage is another's gold? Don't like don't buy. Vote with your wallet the format will be fine.

[bxbrkrz]

I’m actually surprised that this thread has gone on this long and garnered the attention of what appears to be the entire forum!!!

So we know this guy stole hundreds to thousands of samples from NI and elsewhere, that he has now gone underground, and that PH isn’t giving refunds for the products. I’ve read the thread and it seems like we’re all talking in circles.

The man is a thief, a con artist, and a hack. In that order.

Theif: self explanatory, but he used complete LIBRARIES from other products.

Con Artist:: He intentionally made money by deliberately scamming the Reason community (which has always been super open and releatively “clean” in my experience....and he took advantage of that

Hack: He could not record his own superlative samples, nor code his own excellent effects, nor could he get anything done without stealing, scamming, or lying about his product.

Repackaging IDT effect blocks as your own DSP code? Hack

Repackaging another’s very hard work sampling an orchestra?
Hack

Disappearing instead of fighting to clear his name?
Guilty Hack!

[stratatonic]

Here's what I just came across on their website ( http://www.softphonics.com/ ):





D.

Looks like Softphonics has added a couple of extra lines to his webpage...not sure why he would add this line:

We were only ever a small, boutique, niche outfit

unless he's thinking of smearing Propellerhead as well as they would have knowingly made money on his dodgy products, knowing that a small outfit did not have the budget or time for pristine quality sampling of a full orchestra with the best instruments, musicians, rooms, microphones etc, but let the products go to the marketplace anyways.

This doesn't look good for both parties.

Here's hoping that Propellerhead does proper due diligence in the future when it comes to sampled libraries - especially when they are of great quality and need significant resources to pull off.

.

Softphonics_we were only a small boutique niche outfit.jpeg (288.84 KiB) Viewed 2041 times

[Ollie]

I can understand people's disappointment at this whole story, but some of this community can come across a little vicious and toxic at times.

To the people saying "I hope he gets sued" and questioning the health issues of the dev, please remember this is not a big company. This is one person. We can all imagine the pressure the dev is under, but those of you who try to enjoy the idea of the dev being under pressure are inciting very real hatespeak directed against one person. That's dangerous for a person's well-being, especially if they may have mental health issues. Please watch your words.

[Catblack]

considering that even his contributions to the Reason 9 soundbank (how did this happen?!? wtf?!) were almost entirely just combis of other preexisting Factory Sound Bank patches.

Wow, is this true?

You can search the R9 soundbank for -SO and see his patches. All of the string ones seem to be using the same combi effects chain. ...and from a quick check of a handful of the others it does look like and combis where he had Thor, Malstrom and Subtractor he used patches from the FSB. The R9 soundbank was showcase of what Reason could do, I'm fine with his combis using these patches, even if the combis he contributed are quite the similar to each other.

What I do find weird about them is that he's put "Softphonics FSB" and his name into those patches. It's almost like he knew he was going to release his own promotional version when he submitted those to Propellerhead.

But I think the thing that gets me about this whole mess, this years long fraud, is that now that he's caught he's insinuating that he's borderline autistic as if that excuses the moral choice to plagiarize and profit? Funny how autism doesn't get mentioned in the interview he did for Reasontalk.

[avasopht]

I can understand people's disappointment at this whole story, but some of this community can come across a little vicious and toxic at times.

To the people saying "I hope he gets sued" and questioning the health issues of the dev, please remember this is not a big company. This is one person. We can all imagine the pressure the dev is under, but those of you who try to enjoy the idea of the dev being under pressure are inciting very real hatespeak directed against one person. That's dangerous for a person's well-being, especially if they may have mental health issues. Please watch your words.

Look, let's not be under any illusions here.

This guy willingly stole content, packaged it up and lied his ass off selling it to customers as his own. Now that that is revealed he issues no apology or honesty, instead plasters blatant lies about the nature of the removal of his products.

He is deserving of punishment and harsh judgement - health issues or not. What, you think nobody with serious asthma has ever done jail time?

[normen]

I can understand people's disappointment at this whole story, but some of this community can come across a little vicious and toxic at times.

To the people saying "I hope he gets sued" and questioning the health issues of the dev, please remember this is not a big company. This is one person. We can all imagine the pressure the dev is under, but those of you who try to enjoy the idea of the dev being under pressure are inciting very real hatespeak directed against one person. That's dangerous for a person's well-being, especially if they may have mental health issues. Please watch your words.

Look, let's not be under any illusions here.

This guy willingly stole content, packaged it up and lied his ass off selling it to customers as his own. Now that that is revealed he issues no apology or honesty, instead plasters blatant lies about the nature of the removal of his products.

He is deserving of punishment and harsh judgement - health issues or not. What, you think nobody with serious asthma has ever done jail time?

Well as I said before, I am 99% sure what you say is right but there IS a small chance that from his point of view this all looked like this for example:

- I can make music with NI instruments and sell that
- So I can sell recordings of NI instruments
- All Reason users basically say they want NI instruments in Reason
- Why didn't anyone think of this? Imma do this.
- There, I sent the application
- Oh it's in the store, cool.
- WHY IS EVERYBODY MAD AT ME AGAIN WAAA????

[Ollie]

I can understand people's disappointment at this whole story, but some of this community can come across a little vicious and toxic at times.

To the people saying "I hope he gets sued" and questioning the health issues of the dev, please remember this is not a big company. This is one person. We can all imagine the pressure the dev is under, but those of you who try to enjoy the idea of the dev being under pressure are inciting very real hatespeak directed against one person. That's dangerous for a person's well-being, especially if they may have mental health issues. Please watch your words.

Look, let's not be under any illusions here.

This guy willingly stole content, packaged it up and lied his ass off selling it to customers as his own. Now that that is revealed he issues no apology or honesty, instead plasters blatant lies about the nature of the removal of his products.

He is deserving of punishment and harsh judgement - health issues or not. What, you think nobody with serious asthma has ever done jail time?

I'm not under any illusions. I just happen to think wishing a certain level of suffering on people is a far worse crime that ripping-off samples from NI.
You can judge harshly, but that doesn't mean you are correct in your judgement. What "blatant lies" are we talking about here? I only see a very basic public statement suggesting the developer is down a hole enough as it is.

I think you're being a little hasty. They have not come forward with a statement of "apology or honesty" yet - that doesn't mean they won't ever. More to the point though, I think it's a bit naive of you to think that someone in a complicated legal situation would publicly post an admission of guilt just to appease an angry mob. It would not be advisable for anyone to do that.

[selig]

Look, let's not be under any illusions here.

This guy willingly stole content, packaged it up and lied his ass off selling it to customers as his own. Now that that is revealed he issues no apology or honesty, instead plasters blatant lies about the nature of the removal of his products.

He is deserving of punishment and harsh judgement - health issues or not. What, you think nobody with serious asthma has ever done jail time?

I'm not under any illusions. I just happen to think wishing a certain level of suffering on people is a far worse crime that ripping-off samples from NI.
You can judge harshly, but that doesn't mean you are correct in your judgement. What "blatant lies" are we talking about here? I only see a very basic public statement suggesting the developer is down a hole enough as it is.

I think you're being a little hasty. They have not come forward with a statement of "apology or honesty" yet - that doesn't mean they won't ever. More to the point though, I think it's a bit naive of you to think that someone in a complicated legal situation would publicly post an admission of guilt just to appease an angry mob. It would not be advisable for anyone to do that.

I agree it would be a terrible idea to post an admission of guilt if they are indeed guilty.

All I can say is that is "I" was accused of such a thing, I'd be all over the internet proclaiming my innocence for all to see.

[swamptooth]

Funny how autism doesn't get mentioned in the interview he did for Reasontalk.

That interview comes up as 404. I was looking for it too.

[jappe]

Please all,

I understand the frustration but:
Please avoid bad tone, personal attacks and health speculation.

[Catblack]

Funny how autism doesn't get mentioned in the interview he did for Reasontalk.

That interview comes up as 404. I was looking for it too.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170606211 ... ftphonics/

[Exowildebeest]

RT (joeyluck) – When creating an orchestral Refill, what is your recording process?

Andrew – Great question. The type of instrument I am deciding to turn into a Refill can depend on what jobs I have coming up in the real world. For example, the recordings for Encore were done a year ago between March 2016 & April 2016, and the editing work was done between September and December 2016. So I always have to be thinking ahead when it comes to “real instrument Refills”. The instruments used has a lot to do with two factors: 1) What musicians am I working with next? 2) Does reason need something like this? If the answer to both is yes then I go for it. The String players used for EncoRE were recorded in the All Hallows Monastery in Drumcondra, just north of Dublin, on the other side of the city where I live. I was there to help record an orchestra who were backing a large choir who were performing newly written hymns for the Catholic church. I am not religious personally, but a job can take you in any direction.

From the interview...

Great question indeed . How much of the answer is true?

[avasopht]

RT (joeyluck) – When creating an orchestral Refill, what is your recording process?

Andrew – Great question. The type of instrument I am deciding to turn into a Refill can depend on what jobs I have coming up in the real world. For example, the recordings for Encore were done a year ago between March 2016 & April 2016, and the editing work was done between September and December 2016. So I always have to be thinking ahead when it comes to “real instrument Refills”. The instruments used has a lot to do with two factors: 1) What musicians am I working with next? 2) Does reason need something like this? If the answer to both is yes then I go for it. The String players used for EncoRE were recorded in the All Hallows Monastery in Drumcondra, just north of Dublin, on the other side of the city where I live. I was there to help record an orchestra who were backing a large choir who were performing newly written hymns for the Catholic church. I am not religious personally, but a job can take you in any direction.

From the interview...

Great question indeed . How much of the answer is true?

My point exactly! The article is pretty damning of the lengths he was willing to go through to continue this deception.

On the other hand it shows how easily sample libraries could be brought over to IDT!

[Exowildebeest]

From the interview...

Great question indeed . How much of the answer is true?

On the other hand it shows how easily sample libraries could be brought over to IDT!

Yeah let's spin this whole thing as a positive for IDT - look how easy it is, any schmuck can do it!