some background on our chap11 status

inDSP Frank · Post by **inDSP Frank** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 4:57 am

Dear Planetz,

I thought I drop you some lines to give you some background on what is going on at CreamWare. I am an ethusiastic and proud reader of your forum for a long time now, even if I can only come by sporadically due to my workload at CreamWare, and even Creamworkers need some sleep from time to time. I never posted here because I can't promise to answer every request or even read every reply to my postings. However, I thought it would be a good idea to register today because you guys have deserved to know a little more about CreamWare.

I was the first person on the companies payroll in 1992 and I am in some way responsible for anything happening at CreamWare. My job is to oversee fields like "future", strategy, business model and technology.

I am sorry if we may have occasionally failed to meet your expectations in the past. We have a long-term plan in place and all we can try, and this goes to all Creamworkers, is to do our very best. As Mr. Murphy rules us as well, there are always things that go wrong and they do, if there is just a slight chance they could. You won't believe how extremely hard-working and dedicated our staff is, sharing the same vision as most of you guys have. One rule of the past I'm afraid will not change in the future: we'll always be "late" to your expectations, we'll always need longer to release software than we would all like to see it and there will always be bugs and issues that slipped thru our nets. Please have a little patience. We know about most of your wishes and share many of them. But it always take us time to deliver, and it always takes us longer than we are comfortable with. Thank you for the patience many of you guys have, just like many of you do, we also suggest that you concentrate on enjoying on what
is already there and what is great and just look forward to more pleasant surprises in the future. Without such attitude it is hard to lead a positive and satisfied life in a world where Mr. Murphy rules. 'nough said.

There are many facts about CreamWare you will not be aware of. What most of you know is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more going on at CreamWare than you may be aware of.

Did you know that CW is very active and indeed successful in the German broadcast sector as well? Since the tripleDAT days we are one of the two large players in Germany that provides editing and database systems to radio stations and journalists. Since 1995, our "CUTmaster" is the best selling and most widely used editor for editing radio content. We closely colaborate with the WDR, Germany's larget broadcaster by far, and have performed many developments in this field, the last project we completed was a new generation of CUTmaster, a multitrack radio editor now based upon and integratable into our SCOPE technology. Our broadcast sector is very promising, as especially our stand-alone technology (see Noah) is of big interest to this market.

Did you know that we have built a sizable industrial OEM business? Don't be jealous. Our MI activities profit from these activities a lot. It would just not be possible to recoup all our technology investments from the MI market alone. The MI technology segment is just too small to make a living for such sizable and powerful developer team which we maintain. Thanks for the architecture of our technology, we can swap innovations back and forth between our segments. For example, if we were not in the Radio business, there would never be a successor to tripleDAT in the MI.

Actually, these days most of our income comes from fields different from MI. We are working with a number of OEM partners who use our technology within their products. We are not supposed to name them all, for confidentiality reasons. But you many already know about Fairlight (THEY'RE BACK!) and Salzbrenner/Stagetech who both use our engines in large scale and very high-end mixing consoles. Also, CreamWare is technology supplier within the US radio digitalization efforts (HDR - high definition radio), a hugely booming sector for years to come. What does HDR have to do with Noah? HDR already helped to develop Noah. You profit.

Some of you have been wondering what we may be doing, not releasing new SFP version every month. What we actually do is build the platform, for the profit of SFP. SFP would not have been posssible just building on DSP card sales in the MI.

Regarding our current chapter 11 status, I know we will make it and we will be fine. Stronger than ever before, I am sure. Also the preliminary administrator we have believes in the long-term potential of our company and he is helping us to secure just that. We are by no means "falling apart". In Germany, filing for protection from creditors is a process that shall help a company, not destroy it. We do need, and we get, help from our partners and users. Meeting a purchasing decision for CreamWare NOW is indeed a good idea and will help our plan significantly. We need your continued support.

There is one favour I would like to ask you for. There are many more forums in the internet, none of them as great as this forum, but still important forums to the market. Our biggest problem at the moment is that people suspect CreamWare to close down, not knowing - or not wanting to know - the facts. If you should participate in or should happen so read such forums where rumors are spreading which are just untrue, please come to our aid and provide information that is important in that context. SFP will not go away and chapter 11 does not mean bankruptcy. We are taking a "time off" to restructure our debts, for the benefit of all creditors and our company. We feel this is a very positive process so far. It reduces the risks of all creditors and secures the future of our technology. We do not intend to have any creditor loose any money. We have a plan in place and this plan is developing nicely. As long as you keep your fingers crossed, we will be fine.

You may expect a number of great new plugins and products from us in the future, already in the short term (see our current plug-in press release. Speaking for all Creamworkers here, I thank for your continued support.

Best regards and
make music!

Frank Hund
CreamWare GmbH

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:50 am

Wow, thanks for taking the time and coming here. This sort of thing is very much appreciated by all I'm sure.
I think most people here are very satisfied with their CW product (I know I am) and therefore we can see past a few bugs or a late release. Good communication between developer and customers is very important for this and it's great to see you realise this as well. It could easily be different (look at Steinberg, they have great product, but plagued by bugs and late updates, and they only make it worse by not communicating with their customers in any clear way).
I have already mentioned in another thread that indeed I have seen these messages of Creamware's alleged bankrupcy in other forums, and I always replied and showed the people that this scenario is very unlikely and totally unfounded. In the future I will just link them to this message.

I wish you Creamworkers all the best and hope the NOAH will be a great success, as well as your OEM deals and the broadcast business, so that we simple music mortals can profit from cool new plugins, even better versions of SFP and (hopefully) new DSP cards in the future.

_________________

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-06-14 08:52 ]

gedas · Post by **gedas** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:53 am

Thanks a lot for the input, and long live Creamware!

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 9:13 am

Very interesting to read something about the structure of Creamware

Thank you.

Music Manic · Post by **Music Manic** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 10:15 am

Phew!
Fingers crossed.I've built my computer system around creamware and it would be a shame now things are getting where we wanted.
All the best.

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 10:35 am

My fingers are crossed!!! And I'm very much looking forward to new products coming from you guys at Creamware. I'm sure a lot of readers here will be pleased to see that you took notice and posted here 'bout what's going on.

If anything I'll help spread the RIGHT word of what's going on at Creamware where ever I can.

Greetz and KEEP IT UP!

Ashkenazy · Post by **Ashkenazy** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:05 am

So this means that the Scope Fusion Platform is still as alive as it always was and that buying Creamware products isn't a risk of becoming saddled with a lot of expensive gear from a company that is going to disappear?

In that case I don't see why the seller at the shop (see http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=5&16) told me absolutely not to buy Creamware stuff anymore.
He was convinced that Creamware had ended.

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:22 am

The internet is a wonderfull source of information. Unfortunately a small story easily becomes big, if somebody find it interesting. People build their own ideas out of pure unsupported belief. And others are too little critical with the information they read.

HEAR SAY - DIE

This is realy one of the bad sides of the internet. This could have roumered and grown outside the internet. I just find it an easy explanation - so take it as n more than that.

Side note: Even the (non-existant exept maybe pro-tools? - I never tried that) competition MAY even have used this oportunity to make a bunch of forum profiles all over the web. Scientific psycological tests show, that people value "first hand" information far higher than numbers created from wider surveys. I believe we all know the story. Someone mentions a horific story about dataloss on a specific Maxtor hard drive (I am realy sorry at0mic

), and there will most often be people, who gets scared from this "first hand" repport and desides, that Maxtor is unstable junk. No matter how many numbers they see from surveys, wich shows that Maxtor are rather stable (I don't know about Maxtor). The first hand info talks to our emotions in a much stronger way, than the more acurate numbers. Another example:

Durring a war, we hear numbers about mass masacres. Also "our" people are doing good. Do we react? Suddenly national TV starts showing pictures of severely wounded people (only 3 or 4 people a day). Do we react? I'd say, that the pictures of the few are much stronger in manipulating public opinion, than the numbers. I am sorry for this bizare story, but that was the best way, I thought I could explain something about the power of HEAR SAY.

HEAR SAY - DIE

inDSP Frank · Post by **inDSP Frank** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 11:54 am

@Ashkenazy

No way our technology will disappear. We had a temporary cash problem. Now, after our filing, we're better off in cash than before and can continue at full power. Otherways our business is going too well that it made any economical sense to shut it down. SFP will continue, you will see.

Yeah, rumors - we give headaches to some competitors so guess who loves to spread rumors.

Kamurah · Post by **Kamurah** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 12:03 pm

Excellent post Frank.

We are all here because we believe in your product and in your company.

It is refreshing to see a company actually acknowledge and give stock in the opinions of its users and what those users can bring to the table as far as positive PR.

I have always lauded the merits of Creamware in public forums. I have also publicly stated frustration at the slow development and implementation of Mac OSX support. But in the end....I rectified my own problem by buying a PC for the cards.

Still, I am sure we will all be very proactive to support Creamware in any and all ways possible...both financially and through public edification. (I just bought MiniMax yesterday...and Vocodizer a couple of weeks ago)

Thank you for taking the time to communicate here...and best of luck in your future endeavors.

Ashkenazy · Post by **Ashkenazy** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 12:49 pm

The shop where this story was told to me is Infinity Four, who are also in the Dutch dealer list on the creamware site: http://www.creamware.de/en/Links/dealer/benelux.asp

So it was an official Creamware dealer who told me this 'bankruptcy' story.

I'm glad of course that the story isn't true!

[ This Message was edited by: Ashkenazy on 2003-06-14 14:10 ]

doodyrh · Post by **doodyrh** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 1:09 pm

Hello Frank and thanks for posting. I wasn't aware of many of Creamware's activities so that was illuminating.

On the subject of rumours, these tend to appear when there's a lack of real information. IMO CW has not been very good at communicating with its customers with the inevitable result of gossip and frustration.

I disagree with the criticism further up this thread of Steinberg on this issue. Their handling of the VST 5 public beta a couple of years ago was an exemplary case of a company surmounting major problems with the product by being open and cooperative with its customers. That built a great deal of loyalty. Steinberg forums are public for the world not just to see but also to participate. And their moderators play an active part. Finally, the most senior management and staff regularly partake in open webchat interviews fielding all questions.

As one example, CW could be more open in its handling of bugs. Your customers are smart people who accept that all complex software has bugs. It's nothing to be shy about as long as action is being taken and seen to be so.

Right now there's no way of knowing which bugs are known and which aren't. There's no list. The forum search doesn't work. When we post a suspected bug there's usually no acknowledgement. The same bugs re-appear in version after version and the individual devices don't even have version numbers.

It's nice to hear from you at any time and thanks again for this and for your marvelous products. But I'd prefer if communication were part of business-as-usual rather than just in difficult times.

Regards
Robin

[ This Message was edited by: doodyrh on 2003-06-14 14:14 ]

Post by **hubird** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 2:32 pm

much appreciated Frank!

At the same time Doodyrh's words are not untrue, so I share his thoughts too

keep up the good work!
cheerz

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 2:52 pm

I disagree with the criticism further up this thread of Steinberg on this issue. Their handling of the VST 5 public beta a couple of years ago was an exemplary case of a company surmounting major problems with the product by being open and cooperative with its customers. That built a great deal of loyalty. Steinberg forums are public for the world not just to see but also to participate. And their moderators play an active part. Finally, the most senior management and staff regularly partake in open webchat interviews fielding all questions.

I agree about the public beta program, but remember that was way back with Cubase VST 5. Nowadys it seems to be a totally different story with SX. The program is still full of bugs and users have been waiting for over a year for a fix. Key features from VST were actually removed in the making of SX, making it less functional than it's predecessor in some places. There is very little active communication from Steinberg to the users, certainly not on the Cubase forum. There is one moderator who tries to answer some of the more important stuff but usually ends up giving no new info at all, or just making the confusion about certain issues even bigger with vague marketing blurbs.
The chat sessions aren't much better, again giving very little real information. There are no acknowledgements of bugreports, nor is there a list of what's being worked on.

Anyway, not to take this thread from it's original course, I do agree that more communication = always better. I don't know if any CW people still regularly post in their own official forum, but it would be nice to see some more official presence here as well and, as doodhyr says, not just in case of emergency.

Jan Nolte · Post by **Jan Nolte** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 4:16 pm

Hi,

how can we be sure, that Frank is really from Creamware?? Sorry for my mistrust, Frank, but there are many fakes in the internet (also nichts für ungut, wenn Du wirklich der bist für den Du dich ausgibst

)

Bye,

Jan

[ This Message was edited by: Jan Nolte on 2003-06-14 17:20 ]

inDSP Frank · Post by **inDSP Frank** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 4:30 pm

On 2003-06-14 17:16, Jan Nolte wrote:
Hi,

how can we be sure, that Frank is really from Creamware?? Sorry for my mistrust, Frank, but there are many fakes in the internet (also nichts für ungut, wenn Du wirklich der bist für den Du dich ausgibst )

Bye,

Jan

[ This Message was edited by: Jan Nolte on 2003-06-14 17:20 ]

Du kannst mich erreichen unter fh@creamware.de

>>>also nichts für ungut
no prob

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 5:02 pm

On 2003-06-14 17:16, Jan Nolte wrote:
Hi,

how can we be sure, that Frank is really from Creamware?? Sorry for my mistrust, Frank, but there are many fakes in the internet (also nichts für ungut, wenn Du wirklich der bist für den Du dich ausgibst )

Bye,

Jan

Pfff, does that long post he wrote really sound like he's a faker? Come on!

Jan Nolte · Post by **Jan Nolte** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 5:15 pm

Pfff, does that long post he wrote really sound like he's a faker? Come on!

he, you won't believe how much energy some people provide to do such fakes. They are like the hackers, it's an exercise for them.
But you are right, most of the informations in his post only can know a Creamworker.

By the way: I saw the Creamware-Logo in the Stefan-Raab-Show on german tv

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 5:47 pm

Er, Jan mate, i notice that you're a bit of a Pulsar newbie (which is no problem - no snobbery round here) but if i had only made 9 posts on a forum designed to help me i probably would not in my 10th post start calling people fakes with no evidence. It seems a bit rude and ill-considered. Think before you post. Don't drink and drive. Look both ways before crossing... (sorry i had a flashback to 70s road safety campaigns)

Mr Arkadin

Jan Nolte · Post by **Jan Nolte** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 6:14 pm

On 2003-06-14 18:47, Mr Arkadin wrote:
Er, Jan mate, i notice that you're a bit of a Pulsar newbie (which is no problem - no snobbery round here) but if i had only made 9 posts on a forum designed to help me i probably would not in my 10th post start calling people fakes with no evidence. It seems a bit rude and ill-considered. Think before you post. Don't drink and drive. Look both ways before crossing... (sorry i had a flashback to 70s road safety campaigns)

Mr Arkadin

I didn't want to be rude or ill-considered, sorry, but if someone says, he is from Creamware it should be certain that this is true. It's also in interest of Creamware. Think about the rumour about the bankrupt.

Jan

PS: Don't try to educate me, I hate that!

[ This Message was edited by: Jan Nolte on 2003-06-14 19:57 ]