How Does one become a Beta Tester for Fractal Audio?

Every now and then there's a call for new testers. There was (is?) an application you fill out. Then there's a brutal trial by fire where the victor lives, the rest die, and a new tester is crowned.

Or Fractal reviews the applications and picks some people. Depends on their mood that week.
 
Basically guys who play out regularly using the Axe-Fx and have a long history of doing so, guys who post a ton of great patches or demo's using the Axe-Fx, and guys who provide thousands of helpful post as Axe "guru's" to other forum members seem to be Beta testers.

Kind of one of those "if you have to ask" type of situations for the most part.

Why is someone like Tyler Grund a Beta tester and I'm not ?

Well, because he's being sharing amazing patches since the early days of the Axe, and he's a monster player who post lots of sound clips that sound flat out amazing. I don't have those type of chops, I'm no Axe guru (though I do try to help when I can) and I'm no master tweaker sharing presets everyone loves to use, no naturally someone like me has never been asked, and probably will never be asked to be a beta tester.

That actually is for the best too.... because realistically what is someone like me really going to be able to provide as feedback ? That it sounded great. It always sounds great.

Someone like Scott Peterson on the other hand can probably provide 2 pages of notes on exactly what worked and what didn't.
 
I would suspect it's a lot like being a "Software Application" beta tester, it's a ton of work.
The manufacturer is looking for someone who is willing to help them. Note "help" here.
Beta testers are typically easy to get along with, explains things well, understands concepts easily, works constantly to work around problems, does excellent documentation of issues,
is very constructive in describing issues and how they happened so others can duplicate, etc.
You would be expected to download code, update your AFX, fully test, document your findings, put back your production firmware possibly, then get ready to do it again.
Talk about constant re-tweaking of your tone knobs.
Basically you need to be relentless in your support of FAS while always being positive and helpful.
 
barhrecords said:
I am not a Fractal beta tester, but there is a whole side to beta testing that is more about methodical tedious time-consuming rundowns of screens / parameters / functions etc.

It is less glamorous than in looks from the outside in a lot of cases.
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That's one of the reasons I lost interest in beta testing games, IE, another "fun" past time. When it becomes more of a job than a fun past time/hobby, I'm out. I already have a day gig where I work 60+ hours every week. I don't have time to take on another one.
 
Wait, you mean being a beta tester doesn't mean I can just get the latest FW sooner than everyone else because I hate waiting ? lol
 
Definitely not a ploy to try and get something like FW 18 now. I wont lie, I'm sure those are some intriguing perks to doing beta testing, but I am more so interested in just helping the company. I've been using Axe since the Ultra, used to tour non stop with it. But now I do more studio work, and really wanna help push this thing further if I could. I am no coder, so probably wouldn't help in that respect, but it just sounded interesting for a minute, so I figured I would ask. Thanks for the input!

Btw, Yek, I will get right on that $10,000. Should I send it to somewhere in Africa?? ;-)
 
Testing and QA are not anything like most people think they are. People hear a title like Video Game Tester and think "hey I'd like to get paid to play video games all day." Wrong! You'll spend endless hours pouring over every conceivable detail and use scenario in the most repetitive and tedious way imaginable. Not only that but you have to very thoroughly document everything that you see and do. It requires a crap load of patience, intuition, attention to detail, and follow through. It is NOT for everyone.
 
barhrecords said:
It is less glamorous than in looks from the outside in a lot of cases.
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This is true.

It is work. And very busy and time consuming work now that Fractal has grown its production lineup. What we're handed isn't highly-polished, ready-to-rock in most cases. It's...uh...beta. And you can't just noodle for ten minutes and give it the thumbs up. There are test plans. And deadlines.

If you enjoy this kind of work (and I'll say it again: it's work), it's highly rewarding and enjoyable. But it's work (saying it again) nonetheless.

And I have to say, interacting with the rest of the beta team and Fractal is an education. Super smart people in all regards.
 
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barhrecords said:
I am not a Fractal beta tester, but there is a whole side to beta testing that is more about methodical tedious time-consuming rundowns of screens / parameters / functions etc.

It is less glamorous than in looks from the outside in a lot of cases.
Click to expand...
+1. I haven't volunteered because I have been a beta tester before and, in this case, I am unwilling to put in the time to do it well. I don't even have my presets redialed for FW17 fully. I'd much rather be patient and enjoy the already almost too frequent fully QAed releases.
 
A few years back I was an Axe Edit Beta tester. I can tell you that you need to have a lot of free time in order to add value, and fulfil your end of the deal.
I was eventually retired from the AE Beta team (and rightfully so) because I wasn't able to keep up with it.
I was a former software tester at my day job....so I LOVED doing it. But finding the time to do it properly is not easy.
So be careful what you wish for.
This is also not easy if you gig every weekend (and only own one Axe) because you may find a defect that causes you some issues while performing....just sayin.

I have much respect for the Beta testing folks....their countless hours of free testing, give us a cleaner firmware release every time. Whether your know it or not.
 
Chris@KatsuKuriMedia said:
but beta testing and developing video games (or anything) IS a job...
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Not all the time. Some do it for fun. I have a large library of old VB6 based shareware I released years ago. I used to beta tested for several gaming companies during closed beta cycles. Neither of which were jobs. I did both for fun.

When I changed careers back in '98 to full time software development my shareware endeavors slowed drastically, eventually down to nothing. When I wanted to escape in gaming, some of the requirements to be on the beta team took a lot of the fun out of gaming, so I stopped beta testing.

If you enjoy beta testing, go for it. I no longer have the time or enjoy it enough to do it. I know I couldn't do it justice and wouldn't provide any value.

Not all beta testing and development is a "job".
 
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