Ability to Add Our Own Sounds

Suggestions
#1

I’m a longtime user, but not a subscriber (I prefer to buy soundsets individually rather than as a subscription service). One thing I feel is severely lacking in the program is the ability to add our own new sounds to Syrinscape to create custom soundboards.

I have a lot of CDs of sound effects, and there are tons of public domain SFX available online that would be so great to use in a soundboard like Syrinscape. However, at the moment, currently the only option is to run both Syrinscape and another soundboard program. That’s not really useful.

From browsing the forum, I get the impression that subscribers are able to use the web interface to upload their own sound files to the cloud and use them in their own campaigns, which is great. But it’s a shame if that’s a feature only available to subscribers. I have every intention to continue to support Syrinscape by buying soundsets, but I don’t ever see myself subscribing, as I really dislike subscription-based software.

I’ve seen in other posts that 2020 is supposed to be the year of big updates to the desktop software. If that’s the case I’d like to say that one major killer feature Syrinscape is missing is the ability to add sounds and build custom soundsets in the desktop player, for non-subscription customers. I would be thrilled if that were a possible addition to the program this year.

#2

Hi @osarusan Yes creating content from scratch and mixing and matching existing content with yours is 100% supported in Syrinscape. Correct, this is done directly on our server via the Online Player so that your content migrates out to any Offline Player you sign into. Users can even share their content with other users as Community Content (of which there is some GREAT stuff).

As for it only being available to our Subscribers, the SoundSet Creator is a complex and powerful tool set – the same one we at Syrinscape use to create our massive libraries of sounds. It required extensive resources to develop, and requires ongoing resources to enable the global Syrinscape community to create/customise and even share their creations, as well as sync them across all of their devices. As such, we can only offer it as a premium to our SuperSyrin Subscribers at this time.

There is a LOT of value in a SuperSyrin, definitely check it out. If you need to reverse some of your purchases and put that money into a sub instead, we could do that.

Note also: you can subscribe via once off purchased Vouchers instead, if an automatically renewing sub is not to your taste.

Does that all make sense? :slight_smile:

#3

Hi Benjamin,

Thanks for the reply!

I do understand that a lot of resources go into the creation of that sort of thing, and I can appreciate the reasoning behind the decision to offer it as a premium option. Particularly with the costs of cloud storage, I see why that would be linked to a subscription model.

In my case it’s not so much about money or sunk costs as it is that I just really dislike subscription services. I’m happy to buy soundsets and software, but it seems like everything is moving to subscriptions these days, from Adobe, to Office, even to 3d printing software. I would rather pay for something once and then buy occasional upgrades than have to pay monthly for so many different services.

Would it be possible to offer something slightly more limited than SuperSyrin as perhaps a premium add-on purchase for non-subscription customers? For instance, I’d be willing to pay for a “Syrinscape Deluxe” player upgrade that included the ability to create custom soundsets/add sounds locally with only files on my own hard drive (rather than cloud storage).

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#4

Note: our sub is not quite like a typical sub in that: everything brand new we release during the period of your actual active subscription goes into your permanent library as if you just bought it = you sub for a while and if your sub needs to end you are NOT left with nothing but rather a nice rich library of great useful content.

#5

Anything is possible… :grin: but everything costs dev money and time and takes away from our ability to do other stuff we want to do…

At the moment… such a model is NOT something we are able to make a priority. :space_invader::hammer:

The actual price of the SuperSyrin really IS the premium add on price we’d need to charge to make JUST the Creator functionality available to a user… it just also happens to unlock complete access to 500+ SoundSets AND the ability to run games Online AND all the community content.

#6

A SuperSyrin is also by far the BEST way of supporting a company like us… giving us a regular predictable income that we can plough back into developing the App, developing a mountain of cool new content AND… buying gaming accessories for our mums… :wink:

#7

Well that is something worth considering! I wasn’t aware that was the case.

I’ll look at the subscriptions and maybe try one out for a while.

I still wish there was a way to add local sounds using the desktop version as opposed to the online version, but I understand it’s not the easiest request to fulfill.

In any case, I appreciate the reply, and keep up the good work!

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#8

:grin: :beers: :space_invader: :slightly_smiling_face:

#9

Hi Osarusan
Forgive me for chiming in here. I’m not afiliated with Syrinscape, I’m just another customer.
I’m the same as you in that I really, really do not like subscription services as a rule. More than that, when I first came to Syrinscape I really had little interest in the soundsets they produced, but was looking for a way to manage and play my own library of background music & sound effects. Since the only way to try the Creator was to get the SuperSyrin subscription I, very reluctantly, went for that.
I have to say that I don’t regret it one bit. The recent switch to using the online creator instead of the locally installed version makes it so much easier to pull elements together from existing soundsets, combining them with music and soundscapes from other sources. I’m finding myself using more and more of Syrinscape’s existing and growing library, using more features than I’d originally wanted and getting more value for money out of it.
It might be worth noting that the old locally installed Creator ran its interface in a browser anyway, and then you always had the added complication of uploading the finished soundset before you could download to the player, which was an extra step where things could go wrong. Using the online player now is a much slicker workflow, and while all my gaming nowadays is online, if I was running a face to face game now I’d probably still use the online player instead of the desktop player(s) for the convenience of having everything in one interface.

TL:DR As someone who shares your dislike of subscription services, I heartily second the recommendation that you give it a try.

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#10

I have to say that I am really disappointed that Syrinscape has not evolved beyond the subscription format. Like DrVesuvius above, I want something that can largely manage my own sound library for gaming and maybe supplement it with some things from what they have available.

I will NEVER support a subscription based platform, and I find the idea of maintaining it for our convenience and/or cost effective explanations to be little more than excuses to keep people paying monthly… in other words, greed.

VERY disappointed, and not only will I not recommend this software to any of my gaming friends, I will actively voice my opinion against it at every opportunity.

Good day, sirs.

#11

Building and maintaining Syrinscape online has taken large amounts of time and money. Subscriptions ensure that we can continue to develop the app and build new content. In other words Subscriptions are the lifeblood of Syrinscape.

Unlike most subscription services Syrinscape grants you ownership of new content that we release, that means that even if your sub ends you get to keep the content we released whilst you were supporting us, that’s on top of granting you access to over 500 soundsets, 1000’s of songs and the tools to build your own content and play online. This week we released the Avernus Mega Pack, which means that our subscriber have just gained over $60 worth of content for the price of that sub and with new content coming out every week I’d personally say that’s a pretty good deal

#12

You need to read DrV’s post more carefully! :smiley: Start from the last sentence!

#13

Hi.

With Supersub do we continue being able to use our own custom content developed with the SoundSet Creator or downloaded from the Community should we choose to discontinue subscribing?

#14

Community built content is available to all Supersyrin Subscribers so you would need to maintain that lvl of subscription to use it. Your own content built using the Creator however can be used as long as you maintain some lvl of subscription, that could be Supersyrin or just the Server Access subscription. Also your content stays safe of the server, so if you needed to take a break and then come back at a later point your creations would still be there waiting for you :grin:

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