Bug Reporting & Issue Tracking

Stewart

Hello everyone! For those that don't know, my name is Stewart and I manage the Technical Support side of the CX team here at Spitfire Audio. I'm here to clarify how we go about reporting bugs and issues within our products, and the process enacted by our Product and Engineering teams when they've been made aware of issues.

Whenever a ticket is created that is reporting a bug, we then attempt to replicate the issue on our end. This is to determine whether or not the issue is specific to the library or system dependent. We then log the issue against the product using an application called Jira. This allows us to receive updates and notifications as the relative team works through the issue, and update the attached tickets accordingly once a fix is created. We offer further troubleshooting and solutions in the event that we are unable to replicate the issue on our end.

The amount of time between an issue being reported and fixed ultimately depends on the severity of the issue and the amount of support created (i.e. people reaching out about it.) We try to fix as many issues within each library update so that we aren't sending updates too frequently. Once an update has been created, it then requires interdepartmental coordination to have it released to all users. As a result of this, there can be some time between an issue being reported and a fix being created.

With all of this being said, it is incredibly important that a support request is created if you are experiencing an issue. This allows two things: one being that it allows for us to track the amount of support an issue is generating (which will result in a quicker fix) and will ensure that you receive an update or fix for the issue at hand as soon as one is created.

Support requests can always be created from here.

RyanRhea

Hi Stewart!

Just curious if you guys have a team that is big enough to handle all the bugs, or if people are just complaining a lot on forums but are not formally reporting.

I think the main issue people are having, in general, is a lack of understanding of the process. So thank you for helping to clarify all this here! On VI-Control there is an overwhelming negativity towards your player and the bugs that some have been experiencing for a long time, and it's really beginning to affect people's opinion of SFA.

It would go a long way to at least explain to everyone what is going on and some status of the fixes, because for a lot of folks it just doesn't seem like you guys care. Of course, I know better than that... but it does seem like it's a growing PR issue on VIC that you guys might want to start addressing over there. 😱

BTW, I FRIGGIN LOVE COLOSSUS. I can't wait to get my review video done. 🤟🏻‼️

Thank you, again, Stewart. Love my SFA stuff to death!

RR

Stewart

Hey @RyanRhea thanks for the feedback! We certainly have a team large enough to handle the bugs. Updates are ultimately subject to development time however, which can change based on the severity of issues that are being reported. Our goal is to fix as many bugs as we can in a single update, but there are times when there are more critical errors that take priority and we aren't able to add fixes for every reported bug against the product as a result.

I totally understand how a lack of insight into this process could affect people's opinion, hence this post! I'll be posting this on VI Control to provide clarity to the users over there as well. Hopefully that will improve not only bug reporting, but also the speed that we react to them as well!

crampton

Hi Stewart , I have reported an issue with my originals . if you can help i would be greatful . Jeff

aldous

Hi @Stewart , thanks for the info: I’ve been a bit nervous about the potential for bugs going unfixed, so glad to hear this is likely just an information problem. So, since no good deed goes unpunished, I thought I might as well say what information I find myself wishing I had… :-)

Personally, I’d appreciate a more open list of “known issues” — I get that support burden is a way of measuring how many people are affected by a bug, but it’s quite a bit of work to make a report. Few bugs result in a nice clear crash - instead, it’s often a bit more subjective - and it involves work to isolate a recipe to reproduce. Bugs are unavoidable and I’m happy to report them, but it’s not a good use of time just to “vote” on a bug you already know about. Also, how do you prioritise bugs that affect few people but are “show-stoppers” i.e. no work-around? On this point, I’m asking out of pure self-interest!

An authoritative list of updates and fixes they contain would also be a big help, along with clarity on how/when the Spitfire app notifies of instrument updates. If I have an instrument saved in a template/preset, it may (correctly!) not benefit from changes until it’s re-created, so having that info up-front — to know when it is/isn’t worth refreshing a preset, or is/isn’t worth retrying a plugin — would really help. I know there’s a Zendesk release history for BBCSO, and some other instruments are distributed with a change-log; it’s really just a matter of knowing they’re reliable.

Finally, one person’s “bug” is sometimes another’s “quirk”. It’s totally legitimate for some bugs to go on the “can’t fix” or “won’t fix” piles, but from personal experience and lots of lurking on VIC, it feels like being more up-front about this would be a long-term win, even if it isn’t necessarily what the reporter wants to hear at the time.

Max Køngerskov

When switching between the spiccato and staccato G note in the C1 range on the bass in solo strings, there's a noticeable difference in pitch. I hope it gets fixed soon.

Stewart

Hi @aldous , thanks for the feedback here. I totally understand the nervous feeling about the potential for bugs to go unfixed!

I agree that an open list of known issues would be great information to provide going forward. I'll try to figure out a method to bring about this information regularly. As you've said, few bugs result in a nice clear crash — this is ultimately why we do at times require steps to reproduce the issue on our end before logging. We do confirm it with any user that reaches out about an issue that has been logged however.

I also appreciate the release history for BBCSO and want to offer that information for all of our products. I've been working with the product team to figure out a better method of releasing this information alongside updates. The exact fixes in versions can typically be found in the "documents" folder within the main library folder. We currently send a download ready email whenever an update is available. I'll reach out to the team that handles the copy for the update emails and see if there's anyway we can add release notes there as well.

We are generally up front about bugs that are logged and will not be fixed. If a ticket is attached to a logged bug that will not be done or is intentional, we subsequently message the ticket this so that they are aware. I think a list of known issues would benefit getting this information to a greater audience however.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Stewart

Hi @Max Køngerskov please create a support ticket here with a description of the bug and the library it's present in.

Max Køngerskov

https://community.spitfireaudio.com/discussion/comment/12209#Comment_12209

Hi Stewart, I've been contacted by Jack and I think he's on it.

Nought

I got the error 193, it says "unable to load VST plugin, Make sure selected DLL is a valid 32bit image.

Stewart

Hi @Nought we do not support 32-bit, only 64-bit operating systems. Feel free to reach out to support here if you are receiving this error on a 64-bit operating system

Michael B. Oliva

Abbey Road 2 has been broken since release and I’ve got nothing but the ‘run around’ and “we are aware and working on it” for over a year.

many actual news on what’s going on with that?

Stewart

Hi @Michael B. Oliva @Michael_Dow1986unfortunately that's the only update we're able to give concerning Abbey Road Two at this time. The issues that were reported require a lot of development time, which is ultimately why it's taken so long to get an update out. The issues have been logged with the developers however and they are currently working on fixing them to get them into an update.

aldous

Hi @Stewart - belated thanks for your response above, which I completely missed, sorry! All sounds positive. Regarding bugs that aren't fixed: my experience is somewhat different, but perhaps policy has changed over the past year or so?

I actually came back to this thread with another request: the Ventura compatibility statement makes clear that Spitfire can't yet provide support for Ventura, but how well/badly the plugins actually work is a separate question. I assume you have some info on that from testing and/or support requests? It would help to have, for example, an idea of how bad it is (no/superficial/significant/total loss of functionality), how likely (no/some/most/all users) and whether or not there are work-arounds, for each library.

Partly asking because of various forum posts from Ventura users; but also because Apple only provides full patching for the latest OS. Staying on Monterey therefore becomes a bit less reasonable with each passing month and, since Jan, Spitfire's plugins have been the last thing preventing me from updating.

Thanks!

Andrew Ernst

Earlier in the conversation, there was a suggestion for a "Known Issues" for each product. This would be a great step towards transparency with your user base. I'm a software developer and often need to track down known issues in the software I use, and having access to the JIRA or bugzilla instances of the upstream software I rely on is invaluable for confirming when I am experiencing a known issue (versus having to report a potentially new bug).

Not sure this makes sense in the context of sample libraries, but there is likely a subset of your user community who would find this information extremely valuable. I also agree that the animosity towards SA over at VI-Control has been a little more prevalent in the last few months.

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I noticed that you didn't make a post in the VI-C "Commercial Announcements", which makes me curious if you've opted to stop supporting the site? It'd be a shame to lose the SA presence there.

Stewart

Hi @aldous no worries! Our policy hasn't necessarily changed, but the ways we go about monitoring and staying on top of current bugs has. It essentially boils down to myself and the product leads from the CX team working more closely with product development and providing real time updates on the scale of users being affected by issues. I'm hoping that we'll be able to implement a list of known issues to assist in this and add a bit of transparency into our progress around fixing reported issues.

Regarding Ventura — while we are not fully compatible, we haven't heard anything that would suggest our plugins do not work if they are fully compatible with M1. We have received some reports of issues with our plugins that are not M1 compatible, but our engineering team is looking into them to bring about full compatibility anyways. I would say it's okay to update to Ventura, but it will be with the caveat of possibly needing to downgrade back to Monterrey if you encounter any issues.

Stewart

Hi @Andrew Ernst I totally agree! I'm currently working on putting together a plan that will bring this about as I would like to see increased transparency for our user base as well.

I can assure you that we have not opted out of supporting VI-Control and it is a forum we're still active on. I've posted some bug fixes there but have yet to post an equivalent of this post. I'll ensure that I post by the end of this week so that the audience there can have access to this as well.

kolton

Hi, I hope I’m posting in the right place.

I am not able to get Symphonic Motions to show in the player. The license in showing in the spitfire audio app and I have tried relocating, repairing etc. but it still doesn’t show in the player.

any ideas?

Thank you,

Dan

aldous

Thanks, @Stewart - sounds very encouraging on the bugs front, and thanks also for the Ventura info: that's certainly all I needed to know. (FWIW, what you've posted above seems totally clear to me; feels like it could replace the "not compatible" line of the current Ventura statement without causing trouble... but easy for me to say when the trouble doesn't end up on my desk :-)

Stewart

Hi @kolton sorry to hear you're experiencing an issue with Symphonic Motions. This post was actually meant to be more for clarification on how we go about reacting to reported bugs, but I'm happy to help. I've created a support ticket for you so that a member of the team can help you in getting the issue fixed.

Stewart

Hey @aldous no problem! There has been conversation around updating the statement, but we are wanting to ensure all of our bases are checked before doing so.