Every New Smule Update Fixes One Thing & Breaks Two

[_MusiCoolPiyush_]

It was sometime last year that I asked myself - why Smule comes up with 4 new updates each month i.e. 1 update every week and that has been the case for the past few years. How broken is this app that it needs to release 4 new updates each month. I think now I have figured out why that is the case - its because everytime Smule tech teams fix one issue - they end up breaking something that was working and thereby creating another issue

I have been on Smule since 2016 so have enjoyed my time on Smule but I have been frustrated with the "over intelligent" Smule tech team who keeps breaking something that worked while fixing something else. My pattern of creating or joining a video invite is that I first record the audio only. After many retakes - when I am satisfied with my audio recording - I step away from my iPad to do other things and return after few hours to record the video. The video recording will have its own set of retakes but eventually all would go well and I will have a nice video to go along with a wonderful audio recording.

For the past 1 week - this is what I have been observing. I record my audio after few retakes. I listen to the finished recording and when everything sounds good - I step away from my iPad and come back to record my video during the evening time. But this time something has changed. While my finished audio recording (which was sounding excellent) was in this standby mode - it just got loud on its own and now I can hear myself breathing before singing my parts or in between the parts. This wasnt the case when I finished my audio recording as I had heard it from start to finish before stepping away and it was sounding really good. So in the few hours that I was away from my iPad, the audio recording got loud and now I cannot use it for my video because it sounds terrible. I tried going back into audio recording mode once again to re-record some parts just to test if that fixes the overall loudness but that doesnt solve it. I had to close that invite (Quit) and record the audio again. I also did another test where I again recorded the audio, I listened to the audio and it sounded amazing and then I did my video right away so I didnt keep my finished audio recording on standby for couple of hours. This time the finished audio didnt sound loud at all because video was done right away. 

Since Monday last week - I have tried to join/create 5 video invites using method 1 (recording video after few hours of recording the audio) and 4 video invites using method 2 (recording video immediately after recording the audio) and the final result was that each of those 5 audio recordings from method 1 got very loud after I stepped away from smule for few hours. The 4 audio recordings using method 2 didnt have that issue as the video was recorded immediately after the audio.

So Smule new update has screwed up something that used to work while fixing something and maybe that explains why we have 4 updates each month because everytime Smule fixes one thing - it may break two other bits. Looks like their tech team has no Quality Control or Governance team to test that any new update isnt breaking something that already worked. if they had that then maybe we wouldnt have seen these many updates each month. 

[opentype]

Yeah, it has always been this way. Many obvious bugs which are then fixed in later releases. 

They could probably use better testing methods.

But then again, I also understand why Smule operates in a tricky business. Most apps just display content. But Smule needs to interact with the video and audio hardware of the all the devices they need to support, which is in the hundreds. That’s something completely different than just showing a Twitter feed for example. 

[Rogerlococo2020]

They have been even worse before. I wrote many letters to the Smule team, teaching them how to fix the FX issues. Don't expect them to be professional. Smule is just a money-sucking app

[Wishchip]

Disabling auto app updates on my phone since Smule took away non-expiring OCs has been the best thing I've done. I see users constantly complaining about the results of new updates and I breathe a sigh of relief that I don't have to worry about all the problems people are experiencing.

It's kind of like when Apple puts out a new iOS update and you have people asking "Is it safe to download this new update yet? It's not going to break anything, right?" I just don't have enough faith that Smule's constant tinkering will improve the app, unfortunately.

[The Minty Clinch]

2 hours ago, Wishchip said:

Disabling auto app updates on my phone since Smule took away non-expiring OCs has been the best thing I've done. I see users constantly complaining about the results of new updates and I breathe a sigh of relief that I don't have to worry about all the problems people are experiencing.

It's kind of like when Apple puts out a new iOS update and you have people asking "Is it safe to download this new update yet? It's not going to break anything, right?" I just don't have enough faith that Smule's constant tinkering will improve the app, unfortunately.

It’s the Smule cha-cha… one step forward, two steps back. As dear old Len Goodman would have said - seven!