I am sure we will see updates. I am waiting for the re-implementation of poly-aftertouch support, but that doesn’t stop me from using and learning the Hapax. I understand the frustration. Are you sure you don’t have a bad SD card? Try a new card and reformatting…
1 Like
I am one of those Blackbox users (I have two). I don’t use the sequencing functionality much, but I love the capabilities for sample management and manipulation. I understand the frustration with the BB though and types of changes that come with the new firmwares.
1 Like
I want to start this by thanking the folks at Squarp for making this super amazing sequencer that I love dearly and has greatly helped me further my creative abilities. I am also an owner of a Pyramid… I LOVE Squarp. Also thank you to this community and the moderators for your support and continued interest. Thank you!!!
I really agree with this need for some sort of maintained list for requests and bugs.
People make posts here with requests/issues. Those requests/issues may or may not be sent to Squarp. Sometimes the post will be revived by someone looking for the same or similar feature generating some continued discussion… again the request may or may not be sent on to Squarp. Sometimes someone will start a new post with the same or similar request/bug (again, unknown if Squarp has been made aware). And sometimes posts sink into oblivion (again, unknown if Squarp knows). This leaves the community unknowing of what Squarp is actually aware of, what they are considering, what they are not considering, what is a non-issue, what is being worked on, what is possible, what isn’t, etc.
It seems there is a disconnect between this community and Squarp. It is difficult to know which issues have been elevated to Squarp. It is difficult to know the COMMUNITY vs INDIVIDUAL requests (which requests are important to a great number of us vs which issues only impact one or two of us).
In a similar issue it is difficult to identify bugs and crashes. I don’t think the HAPAX generates an error code when something goes wrong. I’m not sure how Squarp knows when we are encountering errors unless we report them on this message board AND directly email them.
It feels like all this combined has a chilling effect on community participation/discussion here. What should be a vibrant discussion of possibilities and ideas is relegated to send Squarp an email, and that is the end of the discussion (again, with uncertainty Squarp has ever been made aware of the request/issue).
I’m not sure how to fix these problems or if anyone else agrees that this is a problem here… but I’d love to hear what other folks think about communicating requests/issues with Squarp.
Michael
6 Likes
I would recommend a small update for the worst bugs and easy to implement basics. I mean, loading the last project from the start should not be more than 5 lines of code, done in 5 minutes of work. While on the other hand e.g. midi-file-import appears a bit more complex and can wait till the next feature-update,
3 Likes
Fix the bugs at the very least! ! Anyone that thinks it takes months to fix a few bugs is out of their mind!
Thanks, Michael. This is a helpful summary of the current disconnect. I’ve recently switched from the OXI One to Hapax, and I greatly miss the facility OXI Instruments have for bug reporting and the responsiveness of the developers. Hapax has given me many more tracks than the OXI One and an easier workflow, but I can’t help wondering whether I’ve made the right choice. Still, there’s always Reliq supposedly just around the corner …
3 Likes
I am not afraid to be critical in this situation. Squarp already has my money. Nothing more to lose but my time. It’s a shame that many users have been left in the dark wondering if their hapax is going to be fixed. I find it interesting to see that other users claim there is no issue with the current version of hapax. I have to assume these are light users that have light needs or expectations. Or they are afraid to rock the boat for fear this community will reject them! Well I for one think it is very reasonable to expect a top of the line midi sequencer(40 year old tech) to work as advertised and be supported with frequent updates and communications…at least until the bugs are worked out! New feature requests, I understand if they take longer to implement.
Currently I can’t confidently press play on any of my projects and expect them to play through without PC going crazy or some other bug popping up and ruining playback. It’s not up for the job of a live performance unless you like to embarrass yourself! And that SUCKS!
1 Like
Of the list above I have only run into these two issues:
Both are annoying but I only see them sometimes. Only a few of my Hapax projects have issues with program changes being sent at the wrong time. Why do you think people claim to have no issues? Different usage patterns trigger different bugs. Not even about light usage vs heavy usage.
I do agree some issues are overdue to get fixed. Really hope we’ll see an update soon.
2 Likes
I don’t post here these days (for various reasons) but I will throw my two eurocent in.
-
Hapax’s support has been amazing in the past. I was one of the first batch, and myself and others had a lot of issues with MIDI sync and DinSync staying in time. Squarp worked with myself and another fellow very extensively over a couple of weeks to iron out the issues - which were ironed out eventually. So I cannot fault them for that.
-
There were a small flurry of updates at the start for sure, and then seemingly none. That definitely feels like we’re being left in the cold to a certain degree. I have not encountered any of the errors you are reporting. I’ve had maybe 3 or 4 crashes in the last few months, but nothing that was a total block (I save often). I do consider myself a ‘heavy’ user in that I use it as my main brain and everything goes in and out of it. I use Program Change constantly and have never had any issues, but I don’t use Song mode, though, so that’s why I’ve not spotted that one. I’ve never had the diagnostic mode one, which makes me wonder if it’s a hardware fault perhaps.
-
With regards to feeling like a beta product, maybe I’m too kind, but I don’t mind that so much (although obviously this is easier to stomach with regular firmware updates) as Squarp are a tiny company and probably don’t have the resources to send out loads of units for loads of different people to test. It sucks when something costs you loads and it’s not perfect, but even Telsas are buggy, and the Hapax hasn’t killed anyone yet. I’ve also bought mass produced items from Roland for example, that crash all the bloody time and updates can be even more infrequent.
-
Squarp mentioned somewhere on here that they had some unexpected stuff happen recently. I don’t think they elaborated, but I do not believe they have slowed down the updates on purpose or because they cannot be bothered anymore. There may be more to the story (I know this doesn’t necessarily help you, but it might make you reframe your complaints)
-
Having said this, the communication is variable. We do expect more from a boutique company (rightly or wrongly - I don’t know) than your faceless Korgs or Rolands who you know you’ll never get a response from.
-
I wholeheartedly agree about the disconnect between this forum and Squarp communication/bug reports. I guess they have their reasons, bug tracking is probably easier from an email system than on a forum, but it would be nice if there was more interaction here. Obviously this is a more boutique thing as well. I doubt many people from big companies post on forums, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be nice for Squarp to.
8 Likes
People may not realize this, but debugging is commonly harder than writing new code. Several magnitudes of order so if the developer cannot reproduce the issue. Add a few magnitudes more due to exponential combinations of hardware and configuration, which the developers often have no access to.
By far the most productive thing one can do about bugs they encounter is: try to find a way to reproduce the issue, and report them to Squarp with as much information about the occurrence as possible. Don’t assume they know about an issue you’re facing - they may not, or maybe they do but don’t have sufficient details to solve it. Sometimes it takes several independent bug reports to see the pattern that helps solve the issue, and your report could be that missing link.
FWIW, I too remember seeing something about unusual/unexpected stuff slowing down their development. So there’s probably more to the story than we know and see, but I see no reason to think they stopped caring on their new flagship product. Why the heck would they do that?
5 Likes
Yes but that takes time an effort. Perhaps giving the users some information about what’s planned could be a way of giving back to the community.
If there is a reason there is a cause. After a week of ownership of a 1350 € device I am honestly surprised how beta-phase this machine is. But I am yet not giving up because it does have a lot of potential considering the 2x arm processors etc. specs.
After testing 3 devices, I bought the 4th, Hapax, particularly to overcome the problem of having a stable hardware sequencer for my upcoming live performance and album. I see similar problems with Pyramid, midi notes missing and program change problems.
The most important five features for me lacking considering the live performance are
the focus problem on pattern mode - pressing a pattern doesn’t change the focused track and you end up modifying the previous pattern you were focusing on - seems out of logic when working on a sequencer going from this point to the future, meaning the next thing you are focusing on. Got it?
Track focus doesn’t give on any screen straight away the name of the track. Doesn’t help in memorizing your work in performance situation nor I like to play quizzes in that particular moment of my workflow, especially with 32 midi channels on the go for let say 8 songs in a live performance.
I head up for a 16 track album. That means a total minimum of 256 tracks to be memorized x two button presses every single time I need to check that the focused track is really the correct one, without the 1st feature I mentioned. Do something about it please!
Mute-states are not recorded on sections - how am I going to hop of from my 8 patterns to silence without the feature say on 7 tracks simultaneously when I want a snare roll?
Oh wait, not 8 patterns, it is actually 7 as you have to save one pattern slot for the silence part of your every single individual instrument tracka This is the worst marketing speech of the whole product as the 8 pattern per track is already a ridiculously low number. I paid my computer 600 € with an Intel processor running Ableton and this device has two ARM processors. Except it is a lie and the total amount of programmable patterns are actually 7 if not wanting to give up on conditional feature of silence. How this can be so different when Pyramid already had the option? I don’t want an answer for my question, I want features and you to look in to the mirror and be humble and critically evaluate where you are heading and what is the right solution. Why you do such a thing for yourself and your reputation Squarp? People should be dissappointed.
And free of choice on pattern matrix colors on pattern mode for the convinience of memorizing your performance.
Edit: I forgot the copy of a drum pattern (they are midi notes too!) to poly mode still being on the waiting list.
I want performance from my polychronic performance sequencer as soon as possible or will change to MPC Live. Octave One does have two of them in the setup so it can’t go wrong I bet.
This is a positive challenge for you Squarp as I am tired of marketing speech and am after for honesty and the silent servant that all the users will benefit from.
Dream big and eventually create something new 
3 Likes
Yes, good bug reports take time and effort, and fixing them typically takes several times that, time which is away from implementing the thousand new features other people are asking for. Taking that time (especially to find a minimal reproducer) significantly improves the chance of that issue getting fixed (you could be the only user experiencing it!) but also shows how much you care about that issue. I don’t know what more you can expect in return than getting your case solved.
Edit: And don’t think it’s about developers not wanting to fix your bug. No software developer wants to ship buggy software. Without that quality report (or a few), it simply often is not possible to fix it.
Also, none of this is specific to Squarp.
The size of the company has nothing to do with how much of a roadmap they share with the community.
One developer company like loopy pro for example has this:
Big company like Roland has no public roadmap at all.
Another big company like Epic has great roadmap site:
https://portal.productboard.com/epicgames/1-unreal-engine-public-roadmap/tabs/85-unreal-engine-5-2
1 Like
I personally don’t have the time for it, I really just want to make music which is why I bought the Hapax for on the first place.
I know they will answer individually to users reporting bugs but is not a community type of relationship.
What about if I find a bug but another user is able to find the way to reproduce it? This doesn’t happen without a public place to share and report findings. Same for RFE’s, a user might have an idea and another user might have another idea on top of that.
I don’t really see the benefit of doing all this process hidden, but this is just my opinion.
2 Likes
An open issue tracking system has its pros and cons, like anything. As a user, I would love one, as a developer … that’s a much more complicated question.
I see what you mean, but isn’t this a user community forum? As such, shouldn’t be thinking like users?
1 Like
A fun fact is that the 2 companies I mention they have public roadmaps/bug tracking actually turned out to be extremely successful business as well.
AIUI Squarp used to be much more open and active in the community in the early days. One can maybe draw a conclusion that it wasn’t such a good experience for them.
Which leads to an even worse experience for us.
1 Like