This is a public notice to all current and prospective Virtual Drumline (VDL) users.
As many of you are probably aware, our VDL templates for Sibelius and Finale have become a powerful component in integrating VDL into these respective notation applications. However, in the coming weeks we will be phasing out the template portion of our business that we’ve been maintaining over the years.
Why are we doing this?
Over the past few years, these templates have become a major undertaking. The substantial resources required to keep the various templates and their documentation current with Finale and Sibelius updates have placed more and more strain on our ability to develop and produce our core products—print music and virtual instruments.
Additionally, phone and email support for these template products has proved to be centered more on the various notation programs than on VDL itself. Because Tapspace is still a small operation, the increasing number of these kinds of support requests has grown beyond our ability to provide the level of support we value.
For these reasons, we have decided to opt out of the template business, putting our focus back where we feel it belongs … on producing creative print music and quality sample libraries.
Will there be other options for templates?
Yes. Moving forward, we’re counting on third-party developers to carry this torch—developers who specialize in implementing sample libraries like VDL within notation programs. As of May 16, 2011, one such developer has launched who is devoted precisely to this endeavor. Please visit The Write Score for more information on purchasing VDL Templates. Our confidence in the quality of their templates couldn’t be any higher, since the same masterminds that created our previous templates for years are developing them!
We are hopeful that our departure from the world of templates will be an opportunity for a new development community to flourish, providing choices and ultimately providing a better experience in using VDL within notation programs.
Does this mean we’re phasing out Virtual Drumline?
Absolutely not! On the contrary, we’ve elected to focus our efforts on supporting the existing VDL library and developing cool new products, so we view this as a refinement rather than a redirection. We think you’ll be excited about some of our future plans.
As always, we’re grateful for the support we receive from all of our VDL users. It’s inspiring to hear how you’ve used the software over the years in creating your music, and we look forward to hearing more down the road!
Sincerely,
Jim Casella and Murray Gusseck
Tapspace Co-founders
