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Hi Admin Keymaster,
I’m hoping you can help. I started out with master tracks when they first came out and stayed with them till version six. I have some old master track songs that I am desperately trying to revive, but since it is decades ago since I used Master tracks pro we no longer have a serial number in order to install it using SheepShaver.
Could you please make any suggestions on how I could move forward and what I might be able to put in the section program serial number when installing.
I’m sorry for contacting you this way. I did try to make a post, but I guess it did not go through and I am all out of options.
Any advice you can have I would greatly appreciate it!
Kind regards
ChrisPS, I’ve never been on a form before so I don’t know if I’ll ever get notified if you respond, but I will check back.
Thank you so much for your time and patience.Sonic Scores Overture incorporates the functionality of Master Tracks Pro. I suggest downloading it for evaluation to see if it can open your old projects.
This board doesn’t let me post links or I would include one–neither have I ever used Master Tracks Pro.
Mike, is Don sick? Dead? Is there anything you can tell us. Last we heard from him was May 2025.
I’m offering money to fund the completion & CRICKETS. What is going on?
Some kind of crowdfunding should be possible, indeed
Or something like an pre=delivery purchase.But I don’t think anything like that is worth considering, unless we get some news on the progress, or the lack of it.
We have no idea if the stand-still is due to financial reasons, or to really personal ones.
Overture 6 is also blocked, by the way.
Been doing lots of charts lately. Working on one now which reminded me to take a look at the forum. No update yet so still on track for that late 2027 date. Still hope to be wrong on that.
Mike, is Don sick? Dead? Is there anything you can tell us. Last we heard from him was May 2025
Probably the last time I spoke with him. I left a message in January but have not heard back.
Worst customer service ever. If 6 ever does come out (which I feel like there’s currently about a 5% chance of that ever actually happening), Don has proven to his previously-loyal customer base that he doesn’t care much about us. I understand plans don’t always go according to plan. That’s forgivable. I understand things like health problems can sidetrack goals. That’s forgivable. And if he’s dead or in a coma or something, that’s unfortunate and obviously forgivable, but is there really no one he’s designated to keep us apprised of the situation? Keeping us in the dark for so long when we’ve been begging for an update informs us of the level of customer service he/his business is capable of providing, if Encore ever does actually get off the ground again. Probably time to move on.
Worst customer service ever.…
You aren’t his customer — and never were unless you own a license for Overture (as many of us do).
Don was the original developer of Encore but there were other owners over the decades. It was the last owner that never updated to 64 bit and left the code in such shabbles. Don bought the source code and has been promising to resurrect Encore. Yes, we are disappointed that this hasn’t happened but, until he sells licenses to the new version, the term, “customer service” does not apply.
Minor technicality. He’s showing his lack of ability to respond to his main pool of potential future customers. I have little faith that his actual customer service will be any more responsive should 6 ever appear.
The view of who is/isn’t a customer is a bit myopic IMHO.
There are people here who already own old versions of Encore who are willing to part with money to update it.
There are people who are waiting for news of E6’s release–we should disappoint neither current nor potential customers.
What will it take for people to realize that both Overture and Encore have been abandoned?
The owner is a multi-talented individual and probably has numerous income streams. The last two addresses for Sonic Scores are in extreme upper-class neighborhoods.
A simple word to users is a minimal gesture of good faith. When I was having family issues that prevented me from playing gigs I had already contracted, I called everyone involved, told them what was happening (without gory details) and asked if they’d like me to call a sub. Everyone understood and all was well when the family situation got sorted out.
On this forum and the other one, people lament the owner’s silence Both pieces of software are OK, but numerous alternatives exist that are more bug-free and have more capabilities. One of them comes at a cost of zero.
The blunt point is this: If either piece of software was a priority for the owner, we would have seen support and development. SOMETHING occupies higher priority (be it financial or emotional) in the owner’s life. Who knows what it is? The owner has rudely ignored current and potential customers. That’s just bad business practice.
Both pieces of software are OK. Other software is more advanced. Unless one is overcome by his or her own inertia, other software is NOT difficult to learn. It’s a matter of replacing old, ingrained habits with new ones. All of you are intelligent enough to do that.
If there is a legal definition of “abandonware,” I haven’t seen a concrete test that defines it. Even though the owner has been silent for some protracted period of time and there has been no development, both pieces are still the IP of the owner and should not be traded about willy-nilly.
We have to be realistic:
– Both Overture and Encore look abandoned by Sonic Score’s owner.
– We must understand that resources are completely missing to progress in any of these two areas!
When the former PassportMusic abandoned the boat, early 2022 (and already in the years before when there was no progress either),
the Encore users were faced a double issue when considering that situation:
– the burden of learning, then become efficient with, another comparable product.
– the need to reclaim their earlier work sitting in their libaries of Encore files.Frankly, my opinion is that the first element is something that may lies onto all of us. Difficult and annoying, but not impossible.
But we cannot face the second element without technical tools or methods.1. My first expectation, suggested before the 2022 crash, was to have a limited update to the Encore software, forgetting about 64bit support, which “simply” provided a valid XML export, at least at the XML2 standard.
2. My second hope, when I saw that the product was bought back by Sonic Scores, was to get a nice new version, of course.
3. But I would have been satisfied enough if only some elements of the plan were kept:
— Having Overture reading Encore files (E4.5 and E5) — which would allow XML export at XML3 level
— Having signs of life of Overture product.After all, Overture is certainly the product which offers the best “mental” compatibility with Encore, and so the smoothers learning curve.
4. If nothing comes from Sonic Scores, we stay with the need to convert our files.
What might be possible for our community is to somehow “organize” some efficient migration method.— the prerequisite is to ensure that all users have PDF versions on disk of all their files.
— that I understand from all the discussions made here, the only practical tool is to use the PDFtoMusic product:
++ PDFtoMusicPro as a standalone tool to create XML2 version of the Encore files
++ Plan PDFtoMusic for the users wanting to use Harmony Assistant as their future music editor.These methods require to become efficient with these products, perhaps with a user’s guide. Would a forum be something useful?
Wow. A lot of passion for these products!!
If Don is reading these – my message to you is I’ll be so happy when you release a new version of Master Tracks Pro. It’s such a great product – elegant design and a joy to use – and I hope that the comments about you are not so off-putting as to make you abandon your work on MTP! I for one am hanging in there 🙂
Kind regards from HMB
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