Because music is a crucial part of the DNA of our shows, Matthew and I were extremely excited when Show Cues was announced. In fact we immediately purchased the app, and then ordered the custom remote from Shawn Popp. He told Matthew the cords were not in yet, but he would ship the remote, and then ship the cord a few days later when he got it in.

After ordering, we did indeed get the remote on June 1.

It was extremely disappointing as the auto fade button causes the audio to garble right before fading. It sounds so bad, and is a total deal breaker for us. Matthew immediately emailed Shawn with the issue and he came back with the following email: "Right now there is a small issue with the fade function. you are correct it does jumble the music like its fast forwarding. This is being fixed with the v2.0 remote and the next update."

On June 1st, Matthew then asked him why he would send a remote that was not fully functional, and he responded with the following: "The new remotes just came in. The programmer is preparing them and they will be ready to ship next week. Because of the issue and the delay, we are offering a FREE exchange. There have been several people like yourself who wanted to use the app right away. We shipped the Elite 7 button to satisfy demand and to make up for the delay. Once I have the new remote in stock, you can send the elite back to me or directly to iJet and we'll replace it at NO CHARGE. Again, I fully expect to have the remotes by the middle of next week."

On June 7, Matthew emailed Shawn asking for status of the new remote and he did not answer.

On June 13, Matthew emailed Shawn again asking for status of the new remote and again.....no reply.

At this point we have spent$49.00 on the App, and $60.00 on the remote ( Which no cord was ever sent later as promised either.) This means we have spent $109.00 on Show Cues, and unless Shawn will communicate and keep his promise to swap out a good fully functional remote for the piece of totally useless junk we received, it is a total loss.

We would have never posted this, but Shawn has not responded to any of our emails asking for updates and this is disturbing.

~Nanci

Aloha Nanci,

Ok first it sounds like you are not disappointed in "Show Cues", you are disappointed in the remote control. Shawn has been in contact with remote company trying to make sure we get the very best working remote possible. I just got back off the road and will be talking to him as well. The manufacturer is aware of the slight glitch and trying to correct it, hopefully soon. The new update to the App will feature a play/fade option which seems to work best so far. They are also working on a magnetic switch. Most of time my shows have a sound tech who manually operates the App for me and it's great. I am aware and working with the remote people and hope to have a solution soon. I travel a lot but check email as often as I can and always respond, so feel free to contact me if you cannot reach Shawn. I believe he may have been busy at work and a little behind but he is working very hard to provide the best quality remote control. Please be patient and thanks for your support.
Carl
mojosoftwareonline.com

HI Nanci,

I apologize I have not been in touch. I have been out of town all week, and have not had the chance to get back to you guys. You emailed me on monday; I did indeed send an email letting everyone know about the status. In fact I offered to send the cables later at my expense, since you wanted the remote shipped as soon as possible and before they cable was available. I had planned to send the cable and adapter with the new remote. I also apologized for the fade issue and mentioned that we were working on it. Unfortunately these things cannot be fixed overnight with a touch of a button. I am working with two separate individuals trying to make the best product possible. Carl travels a lot, as do I, but you can rest assured we want you to be satisfied. I have responded to all your emails and am doing everything I can. I'm sorry you are disappointed. I am literally working day and night to make sure the remote is functioning properly. As I said before, I will swap out the remote with the new version. If you are unhappy, I will be more than happy to refund your money. Send me an email privately and I'll take care of you.

regards
shawn

It just sounds like they brought this to market a little too quickly and didn't have things all squared away. I'm hopeful that in a few weeks things will fall into place. I understand the frustration though. When money is sent it is normal to expect that the product is all ready and has been thoroughly tested. I'm sure it has been a learning experience for them and it sounds like they are trying to make it right.

I will be the first to admit we did bring this to market a bit prematurely. Nevertheless we are working very hard to make it a great product. Please bear with us as we go through these growing pains. There is a lot of things in the works and the product will be great.

Regards
shawn

I agree. The good news is that Carl was very responsive to my requests for features and he has included those in the upcoming update (I'm sure others had requested the same.) Assuming everything works as it's supposed to, I'll be a happy camper after the update. Now, if I can only be patient enough to wait for the update!

In defense of Show Cues: (which says a lot because I sell a competing software) I would like to say that glitches are to be expected in all applications. Just look at any professional software like Microsoft or Apple. They find issues all the time and come out with a new set of patches every month. you pay $100s if not $1000 of dollars for their software and they have 1000s of developers working on it all the time. It is impossible to identify & fix every glitch. As a customer you need to be patient and report issues and as a developer you need to pay attention to your customers and make timely updates. Which it looks like this is happening from the comments above. You cannot expect everything to be perfect all the time especially for $100. If your show is really critical then you need a professional Sound & lighting engineer with professional should equipment.

As I said on the original thread, I didn't buy the remote Carl provides, because I do not particularly need the fade in/out feature, I can live without it.

I have used Show Cues on my iPad lots of times now, with the normal iJet remote, and am more than happy with it.

Really pleased to see that Carl is willing to 'come out into the open' and explain things, though.

Dave

You guys are missing the point.

The reason we went public has nothing to do with the glitch. Glitches happen. My concerns are as follows:

1.) They didn't inform me of the glitch before selling me the remote. This isn't an undiscovered problem that just cropped up. This is a basic functionality issue. My degree is in computer programming. I know the difference. They sold and shipped me this remote KNOWING this problem was happening.

Had they said "The remotes aren't ready. This is a beta remote. It garbles the music before auto-fading." I would have never bought it. That never happend.

2.) We had TWO WEEKS (6/1 - 6/14) of radio silence in which my emails went totally unanswered. We finally got a response today, but it took this thread to accomplish that. Had we not made the original post, I fully believe they would have kept ignoring us.

Let's be clear... This isn't about a "trivial undiscovered bug". This is about the way they're doing business.

I know we're ticking some people off, but frankly I don't care. If I treated my customers this way, I'd expect to be called out for it.

I love my mp3tech and have no plans to change, but thought about this app for backup in case I need to send in my mp3tech for repair.

Hopefully this will get worked out soon! Be sure to comment again when this gets resolved!

Tim,

We also use an Mp3tech, and are quite spoiled by the awesome job that it does.

We really were excited about Show Cues because we thought it would work really well for some of our smaller shows and outdoor gigs that we did not want to take our big expensive sound equipment out.
The terrible garble of the music before auto fading was a huge disappointment after using the Mp3tech for so long.

Matthew and I both are hoping this will get worked out soon as well. (Especially since we have already invested in it.)

I really think the lack of communication will improve now that we brought it to light on a couple of forums, and the issues will be resolved. We will definitely keep everyone up to date with our experience.

~Nanci

The fact that Show Cues works with iOS devices is fantastic, because there are so many people that have an iOS device of one kind or another, and I think there will be a huge market for it.

I really want this to work, and when it finally does, I will be the first to give it my full support!

~Nanci

It is the remote. The only way at present to engage the 'auto fade' feature is to press and hold the track advance button i.e. to FF the track that's playing for a split second - hence the garbling on the audio. I can only imagine that the special remote has a separate button that simulates this. The new app update is going to have a fade out feature in the software. I'm guessing (only guessing) that you will set a "Fade or Stop" preference for each track and when you press the track advance button on the remote Show Cues will carry out whichever you selected... (which will probably make the 'special remote' obsolete)

The problem was a remote issue along with Apple not including any fading capability in their SDK because most users just play music and I don't think they thought of performers using a remote control and fading. It does not work the same as crossfading a DJ app, our App will fade perfectly when operated manually too. Finally today the hardware developer created a new remote which does the fade without a glitch and will work well.

It looks like he will have the new remote finished tomorrow and mail me one to test and then we are good to go. The new remote has better technology and longer range, works like a charm and we are very excited about it. You will love the updates too

BTW Someone said the App was worthless without the remote but that is far from true. I use Show Cues all the time without the remote, having a sound tech run my show so it can be used manually. Many are using it with the current remote but a new remote is coming soon.

Carl,

Thanks for the info.

Are you guys offering a remote control exchange?

When is the Show Cues 1.2 update going to be ready and how long is the AppStore taking to post the update?

Thank you,
G

G,

Yes I believe Shawn has told everyone who purchased an older remote from him, that they could have an exchange. The new remote was sent overnight today and I look forward to teasing it tomorrow. If all goes well as I believe it will, they should be ready next week. The update, Show Cues 1.1, is now ready for Apple and they take 7-10 days usually to approve and post on iTunes.

Aloha,
Carl

I saw the ad for show cues in the latest magic magazine. Before I purchase this have the problems been fixed?

No, they have not been resolved as of yet, but if you read through this thread, they have posted that they are working on it.

They are saying the app itself is fine, but the app without the remote is
worthless to us for our specific needs and would be like trying to use an
MP3 tech without a remote.

To be fair, maybe others would be fine to not use auto fade, or if the music
garbles a little when they do use it.

Perhaps there are folks who want and can use the app without a remote.

~Nanci

Hello Friends, let's please give this a rest. The issues has been acknowledged in public no less and are being addressed. Please let that be the end of it. These are some of the most hopeful products we have seen for this function in a long time. Let's try to be supportive of this great effort as they refine their products. I am sure they would appreciate your input, but in a more private manner. It's embarrassed to read these continued public floggings when people are clearly taking responsibility and doing their best. I am a professional magician, a software engineer and a reviewer of electronics for magical performance. Magic is primarily a cottage industry and requires our patience. With our respectful and private input, this could be one of the best audio solutions for performing beautiful magic with ease. Let's take the high road and rise to the moment. Sincerely, David Reed-Brown

DaveRB and other supporters of Show Cues:

Your opinion is appreciated. However, the fact remains that this device was sold before it was fully functional. It's nice that the issues are being addressed. But how would you feel if you bought a new car, but weren't able to drive it because the transmission was flawed?

I fully support Nanci and Matthew here ... They bought the product in good faith, but in its present state it is useless to them. I would be pretty PO'd if I had bought this app and not been able to use it as I had been led to believe.