Ok, so these are the questions in Nuendo Inside for March:
1. How important is file transfer to other DAW’s?
2. At which progress stage of the production do you deliver?
3. Do your projects contain automation?
4. How do you currently transfer files?
5. Do you exchange projects back and forth with Pro Tools?
6. Have you tried out conversion programs?
And here are my thoughts about this:
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First of all, does anybody else notice that all but one of those questions are asking us questions about which functionality we use - functionality which is currently IN Nuendo? It currently supports .OMF, .AAF and other file formats, right? And it contains automation functionality that is very complete compared to other softwares…
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Aren’t these questions quite similar to the ones posted on the survey? I distinctly remember being asked about which DAWs I interface with, which delivery formats are important, which file formats are important etc. Did the survey not work?
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Given the nature of the questions, Nuendo Inside in this case does nothing to evaluate how we want things to work in Nuendo. They seem to be geared towards figuring out whether or not development of the functionality should continue in the first place.
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As predicted, no word from the official SB personnel on whether or not our feature requests are being heard, and more importantly if a different way of gathering feature requests can be created. The Nuendo Inside post by Timo says, specifically:
“The Nuendo INSIDE session allows you to actively participate on the further development of the Nuendo platform by describing your individual working methods or feature wishes – related to the respective question.”
In other words; we can request a feature and know they read it - but only request features related to the questions they ask. In this case we’re not requesting new features, we’re simply talking about existing ones (excepting the one very specific question). So the question I asked - a valid one in my opinion - remains unanswered.
- It is logical to use surveys and a sub-forum like Nuendo Inside when wanting very specific information. However, if you’re really trying to understand users it’s borderline useless, unless the people putting together the questions are on the same “level” as the users, and work professionally in the field. Since that’s most likely not the case, I honestly doubt the questions will yield an understanding of what us professionals want.
In contrast a continuous and in depth presence on the forum, actually discussing the issues with the users can yield a much more correct impression. The obvious drawback is that it can yield answers that some prefer to pretend don’t exist.
I can’t help but feel as if this recent survey and N.Inside session are preparations for changes in direction of the software or even the product line-up. Again the lack of assurance and information by officials makes it much harder to justify future purchases. Hardly the result SB wants to see I bet.