Quoted from RobF:Yeah I can completely understand that. I didn't mean to put you in a place to have to give an explanation. My point was, for a first time time customer it wasn't a pleasant experience having a black hole for support for a new product that didn't work correctly out of the box. If I hadn't figured it out on my own I would have certainly sent it back for a refund and been sour on the product. I only mentioned to you in the case you could pass along feedback that the approved method of support seems broken and if isn't the right way to get help, then they should update their website.
In any case, a general thanks to you for taking the time to help folks on Pinsound's behalf.
That all makes sense. Just as a reminder to the newbies to this thread, in no way do I officially represent PinSound, nor do I receive any compensation from them. I'm just a guy who loves and appreciates what PinSound brings to these pins. I have two pins that PinSound supports, and in them I've gone all out with PinSound boards, PinSound shakers, PinSound speakers, PinSound Headphone Stations, and one of my games has the PinSound DMD controller in it.
I've literally developed dozens of PinSound orchestrations for both my games and a multitude of other games commissioned by other owners. Additionally, I've done several shaker routines for both of my games and several others as commissioned, and many of my shaker routines are now embedded by default into the PinSound firmware. I'm happy to share what I've learned over the last few years with others to hopefully enhance their experience, as well.
I do all of this as a hobbyist, who happens to love the PinSound products. They bring new life to old pins, and IMO are the first upgrade any owner should consider if they want to enhance and improve the game playing experience. I have no special connection to the PinSound brothers, other than them being aware of my passion for their products. We informally correspond every few weeks both regarding their products as well as personal matters. My main intent in my relationship with them is to genuinely express my gratitude and encouragement for what they are bringing to the pinball community, as well as offer constructive criticism where applicable (obviously, they are free to take it or leave it - which they have done both at various times).
It is important to know that this is not their full-time gig. They are pinball enthusiasts with knowledge, skill, and passion as it relates to electronics, software development, and pinball. They are offering something quite unique to pinball, whereby they take a hybrid approach. They provide technically advanced products and tools, but it is up to the community to actually develop the orchestrations for the various games. There are both pros and cons to this approach, but to me it is the best of both worlds. We get a professional product platform, yet we as owners get to apply are creativity to it (I wish the could be said for other pinball enhancements, e.g. color DMDs just to name one). The downside is that it takes time as a community to develop a good orchestration library, and I would say that many/most either don't have the skill, time, or desire to learn how to do audio editing to the level required to produce a good orchestration for a game. Even so, people in this position still have options to enhance the OEM orchestration using PinSound, to encourage the community of owners of a given pin to work together, or to even commission (i.e. pay money) and work with people like me to create them.