Can't believe you're ignoring us!

  • On November 6th, 2014, Adam Rich introduced the topic, "Add audio tracks to editing timeline." I contributed to it in September of the following year, and revisited it and added my contributions to the three pages of others', until January, 2017, when comments were cut off.


    A new topic was introduced by Florian Rapp on September 13th, 2014, that was similar: "attach audio files to s single scene." and this went on until today. 


    Your product is superb; but, for many of us it is too much of a pain in the butt to add the audeo and sync it with the video. For me, and many others, it's a deal-breaker!


    We have asked repeatedly that you add this feature. We've begged, cajoled, threatened, and have quit using your product because of this feature's absense. 


    So far, the only response we have gotten was from Barry Radford, who told us that you are happy to add features when there is sufficient interest in them shown by your subscribers. He also suggested that we hit the "like" button, where there was no such button to be found. 


    You have had too many people like me who have passionately implored you to add this feature. They have told you that it is a deal breaker. They have told you in countless ways why it is important. And they have asked that you respond by either adding the feature or telling us why you won't or can't. 


    What gives with you people? 


    We're all trying to help you succeed beyond your current level. You're trying to stay alive by raising your prices beyond the value of your product, when you could please twice as many people and make the same money at half the price; and you won't even acknowledge that this is an important feature and you plan to add it. And this is  going on for 2-1/2 years! C'mon guys!


    I repeat. I was a subscriber and quit because you did not respond to the request of many of your users. And I won't come back until you do.


    2 people like this idea
  • Hello Ellis,


    First thanks for the genuine feedback and even though it's not positive we are always interested to hear real views from real customers. I have made our SMT aware of your post so they can have a read and take your views on board directly. 


    I'll start with the Like button as that's an easy one to cover. Any active Ideas and Feature request forum has a 'Do you like this idea?' option under the original post at the top of the forum (shown in the screenshot below) and you can click that to like the idea.

    image


    Now on to the meat of your question... Better audio editing options within VideoScribe is the most popular request we have at the moment and one we are taking seriously despite the delay. How many likes a request has is one of a number things that we use to help us decide what to work on next. We also look at the workload involved, how the technology VideoScribe is built in would handle it, the direction we want to take the product and also a balance of time for our team between VideoScribe and other products. 


    This feature ticks most of these but unfortunately the technology VideoScribe is built in makes this feature difficult and therefore it would be a huge undertaking. 

    We are in testing with a pretty major release of VideoScribe which we hope will available very soon (fingers crossed for a smooth testing stage) but this feature would not be included in that. 

    As well this new VideoScribe release we are working hard on a new application so our developers are keeping themselves very busy to make these improvements available ASAP. 

    You'll notice when StoryPix is launched that we have used a different technology and built audio editing in from the start (because we are learning from your feedback) and if this audio editing feature is popular this could potentially be the way we look to go with VideoScribe in the future.


    Moving onto your comments on pricing we have actually dropped our yearly price plan since these requests were made. We came down from $198 for a yearly subscription to $144 around 2 years ago.


    I appreciate non of the above solves the issue and gets Audio Editing built into VideoScribe tomorrow for you but it's a honest answer to a genuine question which is the best I can do.


    Regards

    Barry

    Sparkol Support Manager

  • Thanks for getting back to me, Barry. But I'm afraid that he response isn't going to do it for me. 


    As for the "Like" feature, the suggestion was to click on the 'Like Button," so I missed it; and I suppose that otheres did as well. If there had been a button there instead of just an inconspicuous hyperlink, those who have so eagerly sought the audio feature might have had more clout. Howeveer, I gather that wouldn't have made any difference because the technology would have been just as prohibitive as it is now.


    I've owned and sold a successful software company; so I have some insights into the process. And I can tell you that, from my perspective, if I had as passionate a desire in my customers for a feature as you have had for this one, I'd make it my top priority, even before new products. There is no better customer than an existing customer; and you don't have to do a hell of a lot of marketing to get them tto buy your new stuff. New clients, on the other hand, cost more money to acquire than the existing ones and they use up your resources pretty fast. 


    There are lots more like me out there who haven't even taken the trouble to tell you what they think about  the audio function. And I can tell you that, not only are you losing customers for your existing software that you won't upgrade to suit them, these customers won't buy your new products either. 


    Please note the manner in which this is intended. It's not a gripe, it's constructive criticism that's intended to walk in your shoes and help you be successful. 


    If a) your best customer is an existing customer, and, b) it costs less to market your products to satisfied, existing customers, Then it makes no sense to use your resources on developing new products to sell to new customers at the expense of abusing the customers you already have. That's Good Business 101! 


    If you lose half your existing customers, you'll have only half the good customers to develop new products for. Better you keep all your existing customers happy, and use the revenue from them to create the new products to sell to twice the number of existing customers. 


    Oh well. You'll do whatever you think works for you. As they say on Shark Tank, "for that reason, I'm out!"

  • Hello Ellis,


    Completely understand your point of view and appreciate your comments. I guessed that the answer wouldn't bring you back but I don't intend to make you false promises or give unrealistic timescales! 

    If you make sure you are following the original feature request you will get an email as soon enhanced audio control is made available and again I will make sure these comments reach the SMT.


    Regards

    Barry

  • Hi,


    I am trialling this product for my college and I have to say that it is the audio issue that is really a sticking point for us, when doing a small presentation that is less than 2 mins long doing the voice over isn't so bad but for longer presentations that cannot be broken down, doing the voice over is a nightmare, I find it much harder than recording a 20 minute screen capture because at least on them I can pause, redo the fluffed up section and then edit out the error whereas here it is a complete restart, plus when I realise that an animation segment is too long/short, I have to abandon the recording, tune the timings of the animation and then try the voice over again.


    One solution is to publish the video without narration, import into a separate app (Abobe Premiere, Sony Vegas etc) and then record and add the audio snippets there and then re-encode the whole video but you face losing some quality when doing this.


    Barry I have read to many of your replies on this topic on this and many of the other threads, I understand the issue with how the software was developed makes it difficult to implement but as you said it is the highest requested feature FOR YEARS, you have new tech chief (well about 20 months ago) THIS REALLY NEEDS TO BE DONE.


    As an in between fix why not create the audio track editor like you have done in the other product you mentioned in one of your posts but have it as a free standalone product that can only take the raw videoscribe file, add the sound tracks and then publish it as a video?


    The truth of the matter is, this is one of the better animators out there but I think it is losing a lot of customers (both current and future) to lesser products that support a better audio features as they are key in presentations


    regards


    zen

  • It is a good idea to record your voiceover in any audio editing program (such as audacity which is free) and save it as an MP3. You can edit or re-edit it without staring from scratch.

    The built-in audio recorder is okay for beginners with very little audio/video experience. I wouldn't recommend using it at all if you are capable of using any existing audio editing software.

    http://blog.videoscribe.co/9-free-tools-to-pimp-videoscribe/

    -Mike (videoscribe user)


     

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