TC Helicon, maker of the popular GoXLR channel mixer, fired entire software development group (developing news)

[rpgnoob]

Summary

From the sparse information that is available on Twitter (they can't even do a Twitter thread) and a Discord message, no further software/driver updates can be expected.

 

Quotes from company Twitter:

Quote

First - all warranty cover continues under Music Tribe, the only difference to you is the name. The cover and care remain the same.
 
Second - our Discord server will stay open.

 

To be very honest, we’re still figuring out the rest.

 

Screenshot of Discord message:

 

 

My thoughts

I hope TC Helicon does the right thing and publishes the hardware schematics, manuals and entire software/driver stack to a public GitHub repository, which the community can fork going forward. Enabling hardware repair through 3rd parties and continued software support through open source development (see right to repair debates and movement & reducing e-waste). The Linux support does already come from open source development community, not TC Helicon-paid developers. Senpai Gaming made a video about the news (and alternative product choices).

 

Sources

Tweet 1, Tweet 2. Discord message. Now news/blog entry on TC Helicon website, or Google News coverage as of writing this post.

[suicidalfranco]

Shouldn't have bought a mixer that requires software to work in the first place.

 

[HarryNyquist]

Sucks for the developers.

 

I never understood why people bought this hardware though. Every review I've seen says it's flaky at the best of times. You pay just about as much buying a decent audio interface or mixer from a reputable brand as you did buying the GoXLR, and the audio interface/mixer doesn't need software to work.

[HenrySalayne]

20 minutes ago, HarryNyquist said:

Sucks for the developers.

 

I never understood why people bought this hardware though. Every review I've seen says it's flaky at the best of times. You pay just about as much buying a decent audio interface or mixer from a reputable brand as you did buying the GoXLR, and the audio interface/mixer doesn't need software to work.

I think there is some confusion about what the GoXLR is. It's a digital mixer/interface combo but audio processing is not done in software on the host computer but in hardware on the device. The GoXLR is the affordable and easy to use option between a "normal" interface and a full blown digital mixer. And it has a lot of hardware controls conpared to other solutions.

There is definitely a place for such a product and not a lot of options to choose from. That's why the GoXLR is so popular.

[-rascal-]

TC-Helicon is local to me.

I don't know what's going on, but I seems to be downhill for them within the last year or two.

We hired one of their long-time (8+) Engineers in May of this year; he was one of the guys who worked on the GoXLR.

[MsNIKITA]

On 7/12/2023 at 8:45 PM, suicidalfranco said:

Shouldn't have bought a mixer that requires software to work in the first place.

 

I disagree with you. Not all mixers which have software drivers & firmware are bad, there are some exceptions, take RME for example. 

[suicidalfranco]

4 hours ago, MsNIKITA said:

I disagree with you. Not all mixers which have software drivers & firmware are bad, there are some exceptions, take RME for example. 

Nah, all bad. And it's not "they aren't bad", it's "they aren't bad, yet"

Want proof: looke above

[HenrySalayne]

5 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Nah, all bad. And it's not "they aren't bad", it's "they aren't bad, yet"

Want proof: looke above

But you do know that any device reaches EoL at some point? Any peripheral might eventually stop working because you don't get driver updates. Please explain to me why you think this is especially a problem of the GoXLR.

[suicidalfranco]

Just now, HenrySalayne said:

But you do know that any device reaches EoL at some point? Any peripheral might eventually stop working because you don't get driver updates. Please explain to me why you think this is especially a problem of the GoXLR.

Cause devices that don't really on software don't need driver updates.

Goxlr is pretty much a paperweight now.

A mixer that handles your inputs and output electronically without any software in the mix would keep working the same way it did 70s as it would in 2023.

Can apply to mixers that saying that goes "good headphones stay good" that dankpods likes to remind everyone every time I picks up a good pair of old cans.

 

[HenrySalayne]

23 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Cause devices that don't really on software don't need driver updates.

Goxlr is pretty much a paperweight now.

A mixer that handles your inputs and output electronically without any software in the mix would keep working the same way it did 70s as it would in 2023.

Can apply to mixers that saying that goes "good headphones stay good" that dankpods likes to remind everyone every time I picks up a good pair of old cans.

The GoXLR is not a mixer, it's an interface mixer combo. Comparing it to a standalone analogue mixer or passive analogue electronics like headphones doesn't make any sense. A mixer would require an additional multi-channel audio interface which will suffer from the same EoL problems the GoXLR will suffer from. You cannot use a simple 2x2 interface. You need additional virtual audio devices to have individual inputs for different programs. Then you need hardware controls, outboard equipment and so on...

The barrier of entry to replicate the functionality of the GoXLR with a standalone mixer would be a X32 Producer or an Presonus Studiolive 16.0.2 and something like ASIO Link Pro to get the virtual audio devices. And then you have a 19" mixer sitting on your desk and it costs at least 3x as much...

 

And the GoXLR is not a paperweight right now. The current software iteration will probably work throughout Windows 11 and maybe even beyond that. It might be wise to not buy the GoXLR for MSRP right now, but there is also no pressure to replace it with something else.