Pioneer Toraiz SP-16: Planned Firmware Update 2021?

My observation is that something is clearly wrong at this department and division

has been for a very long time actually

Is this the only company where there appears to be no management, or if there is, that management is not concerned or care about it's customers?

Maybe it is Pioneers business model - launch half completed products and then release newer products, with some missing functionality of previous models?

All I know as a Pioneer customer, is that we've been told lies upon lies in this support forum

Support told us in no uncertain terms that the Toraiz AS1 was still being worked on, after all these years (It must be four years by this stage), with the midi sync bug which has been there from day 1, yet nothing was released after all this time - only then to turn around and see, oh i guess it is not being worked on actually, oops

This was clearly a LIE. There is no way someone was employed by Pioneer to work on a firmware, and delievered nothing after four years!

A prime example of this Company - 'I guess'

How can it be possible in this day and age, that the support guy has to second guess what is happening?? 

Where is the support guys' manager????  Does he have one??? Why has this not been escalated? Why is this situation allowed to continue?

The same goes for the Toraiz SP16 - they keep on telling us they are STILL working it. Last year there was a rumor that the SP16 was discontinued. Support were very quick to issue a clear statement...from the SALES department - This is not a discontrinued product!!!

(What does not discontinued mean? That there are pallets of units in warehouses still needed to be sold? From where I am looking they are discontinued products when it comes to firmware)

In the last 3 years several list of fixes/improvements for the SP16 have been gathered and apparently passed on to development black hole. Many from here, also from the Toraiz facebook group

And the same ol broken record peddled here - "Wow, Many thanks for this awesome list - will pass it onto the folks at development." and of course nothing happens, the guy in support is not able to even establish whether anything whatsoever is being worked on. He cannot deny nor confirm anything.

And now the other products are all going this route - Pioneer you are consistent. I will give you that!

The DJS1000 and Squid users are waiting patiently on fixes but have no clue whatsoever whether anything is being worked on or will ever be delivered

But Pioneer choose instead to spend money on artist videos pushing unfinished products, rather than use this money to work on much needed firmware updates, and then to double and triple down on the lie that these products are all being worked on, yet no firmware update is delivered

Stop mugging your customer base off Pioneer

It is not a good look

Hi Pulse,

thank you for your reply. I work full time for a big company, from my 20 year working expierence I have the following to say. Excuses are the least preferred answer, they don't help anyone, and are largely unsatisfactory for customers. Take this as a request to improve the process: As a messenger, can I kindly ask you to use your position to represent our interests, promote and follow up on them - rather then putting it up as an excuse not being involved. Every other options than "we don't have any information" would be an improvement.

Kind regards,

Roy

I would love to see:

-Fix the mute function

What's the point of having large "live-friendly" pads to mute on the fly, when they mute the audio instead of the pattern? That's non-musical and pointless. The DJS-1000 gets this right - mute pattern instead of audio. It's practically the same machine with just a different layout. So why is the mute function different, with one approach (muting audio) being completely useless? And why is it so hard to port that part of the code from the DJS to the SP? It's basically the same software no?

-Record midi into the sequencer for all tracks

Why can the SP-16 only record incoming midi on sample tracks? If i want to trigger drum samples I prefer to use the pads anyway, but if i want to play something melodic then a midi keyboard is surely the preferred tool. Please record this into the midi tracks!

-Step copy/paste

Says it all! 

Hi Pulse,

thanks for your answer. Which is just a repetition of what you answered before. Compared to other companies, including mine - and their effort to work and communicate regarding their products with their customers - this forum and the displayed attitude towards customers who bought a 1500$ product is a reason to not buy another product from Pioneer ever again. This is rather unprofessional than helpful, and common sense and all the other dissatisfied buyers all over this forum and Facebook already agreed with what I am stating here. If after over 20 years of company affiliation "Sorry, I am just the messenger!" is your only answer to a customer, maybe investigate other options of handling a request.

Kind regards,

Roy

Pulse,

I don't know your situation, but no other music company (or company in general) Ive purchased from, conducts their customer service this way. I've been asked quite a bit about the SP-16 and AS-1 over the last few years and my answer still remains.. "great products that sound great, lacks needed features but still fun to use. However, Pioneer DJ (as reputable as they are) as a company, is something to be desired and it's future may be in question." The last few times I've been asked, I've shown interested parties these forum posts. It's not an impressive sales tool to say the least. So after 20 years with this company, there is nobody above you that you can raise these issues with? You answer us with hopelessness, and that reflects poorly on Pioneer DJ. I know you know that, but why you and those above you let it continue is not a good sign. I'm not going to push for anymore answers, because we all could probably guess successfully what they are, in a few tries.

I wish you and Pioneer DJ the best going forward.

Pulse,

May I ask why you don't have any information on future updates?  It sounds silly that any communication with your development team seems to be shrouded in mystery.  This isn't good for customer relations.  It makes Pioneer DJ sound as if there are serious issues behind the scenes, or this product line is just left to wither on the vine.  

Thanks for your feedback Peter, we'll pass that to our product and support teams for consideration.

@Jeffrey > When we ask, they say exactly what I'm telling you "I'm sorry, we don't have any information on updates available at this time."

I'm just the messenger!

Roy,

And from 22 years of being here in the Pioneer DJ forums, I can tell you that these aren't excuses, they're answers. I convey the feedback and requests from customers on the products, so they are aware of your interest in fixes and changes, however they have nothing for us to tell you. Whether that means they have something coming tomorrow or never, there is no information available. Sorry!