Karaoke Forums

Ah, I see. A misogynist who is so insecure in his own masculinity that he can't recognize a person rubbing his misbehaving nose in his own excrement in admonishment, so he contorts the rebuke into a cartoonish mama-bear protecting baby-bear image that he can wrap his frail ego around.

Thanks for being so easy to recognize.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled thread.

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~Cindy
Karaoke. Because it's a lot cheaper than therapy.

This was pretty much my experience. I build computers, am tech savvy when it comes to software, but I DON'T program. I can track down and identify bugs and sometimes the root of a bug in certain types of programming, but I have enormous admiration for (and jealousy of) those who can program well as that's something I've never found myself patient enough to pursue.

I, too, use 5 of Latshaw's programs and am mostly happy with it, but I hesitate to express my requests for improvements I could use because of his volatile nature. You never know what you're going to get. I really do think he could save his entire brand and image just by hiring a customer service specialist to act as a buffer between him and his customers.

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~Cindy
Karaoke. Because it's a lot cheaper than therapy.

AMEN!

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

I use songbook generator & songbookslive. I believe those products to be the best available for my purposes. I have only dealt with customer service once. That was in regard to changing the registration name in the printed books to my business' name instead of my name.

That being said, this thread reminds of a time in the mid 90's when working as an IT support specialist in NYC, I was on a job at a law firm that used a CD based case-law access program. The system used a CD tower on a Novell network to read the database. The job was to add 2 drives to that tower. I had 10 years under my belt as a certified hardware tech as well as my Novell & NT certs. When it became evident that those two drives were not being recognized by the case-law access program, even though the hardware checked out and was recognized by the OS, a call was placed to tech support for the software. I always identify myself as an experienced and technically knowledgeable person when dealing with tech support because it saves time when trouble-shooting as I can explain quickly what solutions and scenarios have already been considered. When the conversation started, I was being condescended to. When the conversation ended, the guy who programmed the software was thanking me for helping him discover a syntax error in his code that only pertained to that particular model of CD-ROM drive as the manufacturer of the drive had changed some of the embedded ID code for that product.

This part of the conversation:
"Bob Latshaw:
You either need to have an technician look at it or reload windows because something got corrupted.


Me:
I am a technician.


Bob Latshaw:
Well then you should know what needs to be done. If you don't, I suggest you stop calling yourself a technician."

... reminded me of that incident almost 20 years ago. The guy I called thought I was a moron who couldn't install a CD-ROM drive.

I don't see how stating "I am a technician." could be construed as being an jerk to anyone.

If solving problems was easy, we wouldn't need techs or tech support. The fact that an experienced and knowledgeable person has an issue that they are having difficulty with should: 1) be of priority concern to the product maker and 2) SHOULD NOT be an opportunity to insult or demean anyone.

Two words: Cooperation and Respect (hint - they are interchangeable)

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Never the same show twice!

Problem is, and I really do get this, is that he probably assumes that 90% of the issues he's contacted for are operator error. It's gotta be frustrating, but at the same time, he really needs to learn some self control when it comes to responding to people.

I get from him that his beta testers are yes people. I offered to be a beta tester. He turned me down, probably knowing that I'd tear his software a new butthole.

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DJ Don

All i will say is this. Have you noticed that the majority of requests for karaoke software help are for Karma?? Why do you think that is? You think that the majority of people who were having problems with a particular product would just call customer support, so obviously there is a reason why they don't.


Also if Mr. Latshaw is such a great god of a computer programmer, then why do the data files occasionally need to be deleted to keep the program from crashing.

How do you know the majority of requests for karaoke software help are for Karma? By these forums? Bad gauge. I think what you see is people bitching about his attitude, consequentially asking for help. I imagine a lot of karaoke software users ask for help, but they're not met with the attitude that sometimes comes from Mr. Bob.

Not sure what you mean by data files having to be deleted. I've never had to do that, and I've been using Karma since 2010. Granted, back then Karma had issues, but it's much better now.

I imagine we're going to have a whole new set of complaints once the next version is released. It's going to contain significant changes.

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DJ Don

i did mean to say the majority of posts on this site. Not a large sampling by any stretch of the imagination, but it does show a trend of sorts none the less. If there are people who are coming here to solve there problems then there must be a few others who are just giving up and moving on.

As for the data issue, it is well documented, and the official solution was to simply delete the user database. I thought there was a reference on this website, but I couldn't find it.

I may well be that the issue was resolved, but in my opinion any programmer worth their salt would have fixed it after the SECOND release. Of course, this is just my personal opinion, because I do not have the patience or skill set required to be a programmer, much as I wish that were the case.

-James

James, most of the other hosting programs have their own forums for a "go to" it you have a problem.... Karma does not. Plain and simple as that. Karma users don't mind sharing their thoughts in a public forum that isn't controlled by that software creator.

For the most part the problems people post here aren't problems, they are just trying to learn how to do something that is new to them.

This site should create a forum just for KARMA issues

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DJ Don

Sounds good to me

Then instead of Bob being a so rude he could just refer his customers to this forum for Karma customer service.

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.

There'll be a lot more questions coming to Bob at the release of the new karma (partial) release on Tuesday, Sep 30. Brace yourself for more “rudeness” posts as it appears there will be a lot of questions fielded his way. I am so confused about this new karma update I have a few questions of my own but I’d rather not. I will upgrade eventually, but meanwhile I’ll stay on the sidelines to get a good assessment on how it will play out.

From karaosoft webpage (gist): “Due to the data format switch from XML files to a fully relational Access database, there are some fundamental changes in the way you will treat your media files and database. The old XML format was great for it's speed, so in switching, there will be some trade offs. With the old model, if you deleted or changed the name of a file outside of Karma, the file would still reside in the singer's history, and usually cause you a "file not found error" when attempting to access it. With the new relational model database, the moment you update the database, if the file is no longer there or changed name, it's record is deleted just like before, but in a relational database, that record is now RELATED to the history record of that file, so all history associated with that file will also be deleted automatically. With the old format, when you updated the database, it simply would read all the files and build a completely new media database and wipe out the old one, but leave the histories intact. If we kept this method, all histories would be wiped every time you update the database. That being said, the new update database code has more phases, including the first phase which now scans the media database and flags every file that still exists to make sure those records DON'T get deleted along with their histories”.

More info: https://www.facebook.com/Karaosoft

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

This is pretty much my issue with him. Yes, I'm a Technician (I started with Atari 800XL's, Amiga's, Then PC's, etc). No I'm not a Coder. Yes, I Believe I should be able to go to the customer service rep of software that I have purchased and get a possible solution rather than spend extra time trying to troubleshoot the problem myself from scratch. I could understand if I was not a licensee, but his attitude was just uncalled for.

I didn't say his software sucked, but no one should have to put up with that kind of treatment regardless of their technical ability after spending money to purchase the software.

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

Good point. You win a t-shirt!

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

... nice t-shirt.

It's okay, the owner of CH once barred me from their forums and offered to refund all damages associated with the inexplicable failure of CH back in 2011. I think it was version 1.7xxx or early 1.8xxx.

Their tech support doesn't identify themselves, but they aren't exactly rude. My personal opinion of them is that they go out of their way to condescend to the user, thereby making it less likely that the customer will seek help from them.

That being said, unless you count issues with Win8.1 update causing problems with DirectX drivers, CH V2 has been running with a 98% reliability for a couple of years now.

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Never the same show twice!

For me it has been 32 months (100% reliability) without a single problem of any sort with Karma. In January it will be 3 entire years :clapper: Thank you Bob

I have heard that the New V2 CH is MUCH more stable (That's good to hear), although I'm not a fan of the interface. Just my personal preference on that one.

=)

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Sal "Kjmann" Esquivel
Karaoke With Sal - Website

This is one of the key reasons I chose to write my own (twice). That and I can. I code AND I have been in the IT business since forever. Just because I am a "technician" doesn't mean I know everything about everything. Knowing where to research issues is key, but that's a HUGE problem with all of these programs because there isn't the material out there to research. I know a lot of people like Bob's products, but I really can't say I understand why when it seems that most (not all) have to deal with lockups, and they get below zero support. The great thing for me is, if I had a bug, I can go in and fix it. You people are relying on software that must work in every environment but doesn't have the numbers for top quality beta testing. If I were Bob I would be investigating every problem completely, because that is the ONLY way you can make a more stable product with the limited numbers. Without that, there is NO WAY I would deal with those products. Even going forward, what happens when you are stable for years, but pushed to upgrade to a version that isn't stable?

Some times "newer is not better" and "don't fix what ain't broke" holds very true. I will move forward with new releases when they give me something I can't live without. This latest 2015 version looks like it could offer me some of those features but I will wait until a lot of people have "tried & trued" it.