Overtone DSP?

[eric71]

I was just following up on some plugins I was interested in from Overtone DSP, and their website doesn't seem to be working @ www.overtonedsp.co.uk. I then checked at their KVR forum - which has now been moved to the "old" company forums section. Have they changed their name? No mention in the KVR forum, and it must be less than a week since I was at their website. Anyone hear anything?

[sysrqer]

I am on their mailing list and I haven't heard anything about a change. I would think that their website is just down temporarily, at least I hope so.

[finotti]

I had just noticed the same thing. I've been saving up to buy their bundle... It would be quite disappointing if something more serious really happened...

[finotti]

I'm starting to think the company went the way of the dodo. . I wrote a message to their support email address and received no reply. I was planning to buy their bundle in November, so really bad timing...

[jonetsu]

As can be read on KVR:

"Just had a look on the UK companies office - ACMT (the parent company) is still listed as active. But the acmt site is also down"

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6908751

[glowrak guy]

I'm starting to think the company went the way of the dodo. . I wrote a message to their support email address and received no reply. I was planning to buy their bundle in November, so really bad timing...

The skills are in demand, so not likely to vanish. It's pretty rare for someone to be invested in something
so complex as mastering/effects coding, and just walk away. Cream rises to the top,
so likely it won't be much longer til more is known.
Cheers

[finotti]

OK, for the ones not following the KVR thread, the site is back online. (Phew!)

[ufug]

Looks like some of the plugins have been removed, but they still have the Pultec emulators which is excellent news (I am addicted to the PTC-2A). I wish them much success with whatever changes they are going through.

[mike@overtonedsp]

The website is back up - we had a few unexpected technical and operation issues which affected the site for a while. Regrettably, some products are currently unavailable, for product availability and support, please use the contact form on the OverTone DSP website.

The skills are in demand, so not likely to vanish...

If only that were true. My personal evidence is that there was significantly stronger demand for my / our software than there is now. Its been a very successful venture, which is unusual - its hugely difficult to make any money at all as an independent developer. But, around the end of August / beginning of September, people just about stopped buying what we make. One day it was good, then suddenly the next day it wasn't, and so far nothing we can do has had any impact. We still get a lot of interest in the software, and a lot of really positive feedback from our existing users, and potential new users. The quality is not in doubt, but its also increasingly common for people to tell us they love a plug-in but will defer the purchase for a few months, because, it costs... as much as... £20 or £30. That doesn't leave very much for us when all the taxes and expenses are deducted. Musicians often have to budget agressively (so do independent developers) but if that's the market we find ourselves in now, its doubtful how much longer we can continue. It costs (significant) money to make and distribute software professionally. Currently, I'm technically better off financially - e.g. I lose less - if I do nothing, than if I write software. That's how in demand this stuff is(n't). Unfortunately if no-one buys the software, it doesn't become free, or automatically get open-sourced, it will just cease to be available, or possibly to exist at all (if for no other reason than I'm not prepared to fund the cost of making it available or maintaining it from my own limited resources). I'm still hopeful the situation will improve, but I can't offer any guarantees at the present time.

[ufug]

Glad you are back up and running despite what sound like some big challenges. You make an excellent product.

One day it was good, the next it wasn't, and so far nothing we can do has had any impact.

This is really not that different from trying to make a living making music.

Feel free to ignore a couple unsolicited thoughts in response to this:

• I'm wondering if you have any new products in the pipeline? Your customers (like me) may have already bought what they need, so we're unlikely to buy the same things again. Would love to see something new, or even *hear* about something new to look forward to. An LA-2A emulator might fit in nicely with the other vintage emulations.
• I'm glad you have engaged customers on social media and YouTube the last few weeks, but you guys were largely MIA on those platforms in the past couple years and it takes ongoing effort to build interest online. I think if you keep engaging, you can build some awareness that would be really helpful--you have a quality product at a crazy good price. Get a couple licenses to those people on Youtube who "teach" mixing with a focus on plugins, let them know you have a respectable Pultec at a fraction of the cost of the big guys and you're willing to let them compare it. I think 90% of online music "how tos" are plugin-focused.
• Likewise, I've been on your mailing list for awhile but never have received anything. When you have fans/customers worried if the company has folded, that's not good. I know it may not be your thing, but it's just how it is now. Engage us! Likewise with forums, including this one.
• Don't pay any attention to those who bitch about your pricing. People who won't or can't pay, just won't or can't. That's absolutely fine. But they are not potential customers.

Cheers Mike and I hope you can get the plane back up in the air!

[jonetsu]

Some kind of (temporary) partnership with a DAW to make product known/available ? For instance, u-he had a Bitwig special recently.

Cheers.

[finotti]

[snip]

My personal evidence is that there was significantly stronger demand for my / our software than there is now. Its been a very successful venture, which is unusual - its hugely difficult to make any money at all as an independent developer. But, around the end of August / beginning of September, people just about stopped buying what we make. One day it was good, then suddenly the next day it wasn't, and so far nothing we can do has had any impact. We still get a lot of interest in the software, and a lot of really positive feedback from our existing users, and potential new users. The quality is not in doubt, but its also increasingly common for people to tell us they love a plug-in but will defer the purchase for a few months, because, it costs... as much as... £20 or £30. That doesn't leave very much for us when all the taxes and expenses are deducted.

[snip]

I am terribly sorry to hear about the struggles. I've bought the vintage bundle as soon as you went back online and quite like it! And certainly, for a really reasonable price. I will definitely keep an eye for any new products you put out.

Thanks for supporting Linux and providing us with good plugins for a reasonable price! (I wish it were open source, but certainly understand it is hard to make a living out of it.) I hope business pick up again soon.

[tseaver]

Mike,

I had previously held off buying the plugins because I didn't feel as though I had a good enough grasp on my workflow to use them effectively. I just bought the suite anyway as a token of my appreciation for your willingness to support Linux musicians.


Tres.

[mike@overtonedsp]

Thank you all for your support, I'm hopeful that I / we (though its mostly me these days) can turn this around but it might take a while to happen.

if you have any new products in the pipeline?

We did have, but unfortunately one of our newest product(s), caused us some unwelcome issues, that I cannot discuss here, but we are hopeful a way forward can be found which is acceptable to all concerned. Personally I don't think we've saturated the market at all, but, it is a very crowded market (if you include Win / Mac etc) and the biggest problem is getting noticed.

I think if you keep engaging, you can build some awareness that would be really helpful--you have a quality product at a crazy good price.

The most limited resource is time - at the moment I'm running this almost by myself. I personally wrote every line of code, created all the graphical assets, built the website, maintain the hardware, create the 'marketing' resources (such as they are), handle the day to day admin involved in running the business. I do involve others when their time permits, but at the present time its simply too expensive to formally employ anyone else (and after a 25+ year career in this industry, I'm at the point where I don't want to take on huge debt to finance it).
So social media and all of that is another huge drain on time. Again, from personal experience, independent developers (like musicians) work incredibly hard. I enjoy the work and its my choice, but doing this basically seven days a week for the last eight years or more has been insanely destructive on just about every other aspect of my life (and to some extent health)

Likewise, I've been on your mailing list for awhile but never have received anything...

I / we try not to spam people, and mostly if its me who has to put together a mail update, I'm probably too busy doing software maintenance of some kind or dealing with some other issue.

(developers really 'like' new plug-in fromats or some other host / OS incompatibility issue, because it means having to spend months re-working / testing what you've already done, just to get back to where you already were, if not you won't sell anything you already make ('future proofing') and if you do, by definition, nothing else will support it for months, which means you won't see a return on your 'investment' - if ever - and, if its an 'update' people will really really not want to pay you for it.. but I digress)

When you have fans/customers worried if the company has folded, that's not good..

In this case, there are regrettably also some other issues which I simply cannot discuss publicly for which I apologise. I understand this causes frustration for customers.

Some kind of (temporary) partnership with a DAW to make product known/available ? For instance, u-he had a Bitwig special recently.

Possibly, there are increasingly 'market places' for in-app purchases too in DAWs, but, understandably, like all app stores, that often comes at a cost. In the past we've had products in some linux DAW manufacturer's 'store' but the majority of the sales still went through our site

I had previously held off buying the plugins because I didn't feel as though I had a good enough grasp on my workflow to use them effectively. I just bought the suite anyway as a token of my appreciation for your willingness to support Linux musicians.

Thank you, that's very kind - it wasn't intended as an inducement to buy in any sense. I've chosen to be quite candid about what's happening, I just think its important sometimes that people get a picture of what's going on - there have been some challenges recently, but I'm still hopeful things will improve

[sysrqer]

Why don't you reach out to people here with the non technical things like social media? I'm sure some people would be happy to do some work in this respect for free if would help you out.