Beta Tester's Interview

Long before we invited the first big wave of beta testers last week, there was a small group of selected enthusiasts supporting us with the development of the upgrade. The numerous fruitful discussions, ideas and inspirations has helped us to get to the point we have now reached at last. In this series of interviews we would like to give you an idea how this worked and how it felt. This time Kepz, who produced the first complete track together with potasmic, gives you his impressions of what took place. So, enjoy our first Beta Tester’s interview also on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/notes/audiotool/beta-testers-interview-kepz/1523092471046348/

Kepz

What was your first impression? „I remember when I got access to Next, I had a huge live jam with Andre, rnzr, Cripta, Potasmic and some others and it was extremely fun even though we only had a fraction of the tools available at the time. I knew right away that Next had huge potential to bring the community closer not just with esier collaboration, but even to just hang out inside the app and jam with other users.”

Has your first impression been proved correct? „Yes definitely. Even though there has been more focus on testing specific parts of the app lately, we have done lots of little jams over time while testing and even had video calls and it felt like we were all in the same place making music.”

How did you experience the improvements over the time? „It was great to watch the development process. Andre and Macht reacted very quickly to our bug reports and listened to all the feature suggestions. Andre gave us weekly updates on what they were working on and what problems/decisions they were facing which was always interesting to read.”

What are your favorite features? „Live collaboration (obviously) - Band splitter. It may not be as cool as some of the other new prototypes, but I had this tool in mind for a while and it was amazing to finally get the chance to request it - Helmhotlz, I have never heard of a comb filter before Andre showed a prototype and it’s now my favourite new toy. It has tons of uses from simulating unsynched delay to adding harmonies to noises - New sample picker feature for the machiniste.”

What do you think the community will like best? “I think the community will love the improvements in tools like Reverb and Pulverisateur as well as all the new toys. And biggest of all, live collaboration and in-app chat. I think someone will definitely try have a celebratory gathering in a draft with like 50 people invited. (note to self: ask Andre about that)”

What do you think are the main difficulties facing the programmers? „Some latest challenges have been regarding different operating systems and making sure the app performs well on all of them. “

Message to the developers and the community: “Devs, keep up the great work! You’ve come across many roadblocks but you kept working hard without losing your vision of Next. Community, be patient, the wait will be worth it! Thanks”

Kepz Music: https://kooscha.bandcamp.com/album/under-ep