Maybe a stupid question, but was just wondering. Or an upgrade from Zebralette. Probably even stupider considering it's free. I never play with Zebra because I know I'll want it, but right now it's costs about my car payment amount.

There's always the very generous http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-dinosaur-crossgrade which has been available since day one practially. Saving you $50 on the price!

SOrry, no, we don't do Group Buys or anything.

Every super special sale IMHO is a slap in the face of those who paid the full price a few days before. I prefer to favour early adopters and existing customers over new ones. That's why I keep the cost of ownership low, do special introduction offers and keep a constant price for as long as it gets.

It's the opposite of companies who trick you into buying with a low price and then milk you dry over the years.

In a nutshell.

Urs

That was Urs' attitude when I bought Zebra a few years ago. It just goes to show that no change can be good.

Spectrasonics uses a similar approach, but when they release a new product they are more than fair with their users, in case of Omnisphere release, they came up with 2 different upgrade offers, one for users that owned all their products (In this case Omnisphere was $150.00), and another for users that had just Atmosphere.

True, but Spectrosonics products cost 2-3 times as much as U-He products. And U-He synths are better than Spectro's VA tech!

I love both companies, and I feel that both are more than worth the cost. I think it's reasonable to say that both companies keep their customers at the cutting edge of synth tech once you buy in. If you owned Zebra, frankly you prolly could sell most of your other VAs and never regret it.

Urs looks after his customers really well!

i bought Zebra in the pre release stage & saved some cash many years ago

those that got Zebra1 only paid $20 to upgrade to Zebra2

with MFM it was a free update!

& to top it all off, they are amazingly good products!

Urs could make a big bit of cash from a Group Buy! his reasons for not making this quick easy cash are insanely noble!

& the best bit is, when he dose need some cash he makes a new 'state of the art' plugin!

Subz
Last edited by djsubject on Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

True.

How do you know I don't own Zebra or any of u-he products?

it was 20$ for the upgrade, until we did the new website that was launched in June. The website doesn't distinguish between Z1 and Z2, so we called the upgrade off. Anyone with Z1 can retrieve his codes on the support page which will then be Z2 codes.

(we still maintain Mac UB versions of Z1, Zoyd and MFM1... on request...)

Didn't mean to imply that I did.

Again Urs is spot on.

There have been several times I felt like I have been ripped off when some poroduct special got slashed half price, when I paid the full price!

I think it degrades a product in long run, too.

A once-in-a-lifetime special (advertised for 6-12 months in advance) would be different though (wink wink). Still, a slap in the face for existing customers (unless existing customers would get the benefit of soundbanks or other goodies for a special deal)!

That works the other way around as well though. If you take a look at z3ta+ which was 1st lowered in price and now it's even magware coming with the CM magazine DVD. Reason is that it was discontinued, meaning one day the "technology" will be old leading the developpers to decide to offer a good deal for it. There's nothing wrong with that imo, you can't expect a year old plugin to still be worth the price it was when it was released. If you bought it at the wrong moment in time, bad luck. All of this doesn't apply to Zebra though as it still is being developped.

How a special sale could be a "slap in the face" of existing customers, I've never understood and probably never will.

Whenever I'm buying something, my decision is based on the value for money, my needs and the status of my bank account at that single moment. I really couldn't care less what anyone else will pay later - be it the next day or years after. If anything, I'd just be happy for those who can enjoy the product now too. People, I guess, who often couldn't afford it at full price.



Apropos "early adopters": how's that UHBIK X coming along?

They could always buy it used. Alchemy and Zebra are constantly on sale on this forum even when they are as good as it gets soft synth wise. I bought my versions from here and made a significant saving.