Not paying full price for a synth

[frankz00]

For example, I've wanted Alchemy for a good 2 years now, and finally after patiently waiting, it went on sale for 50% off.

That is 2 years of use making music missed out on just to save a few dollars...

I'm pretty sure other instruments existed at the time...

[frankz00]

Almost every VST I've bought in the last decade has been on sale, group buy, or secondhand. And I've STILL spent a shitload of money.

Hear hear!

[androidlove]

Never pay full price.

I'm at least a decade behind the times, so I get things cheap. Well, until it becomes vintage.

[pdxindy]

For example, I've wanted Alchemy for a good 2 years now, and finally after patiently waiting, it went on sale for 50% off.

That is 2 years of use making music missed out on just to save a few dollars...

I'm pretty sure other instruments existed at the time...

And if it doesn't offer anything above what you already have, then there is no real reason to buy at all... and if it does, then someone went without for 2 years just to save a pittance ($5 a month is nothin)

Hey, if someone's objective is to be a smart shopper, that is up to them.

[ranger3]

I agree some what with the " buy on sale" price if possible...
I until about a year ago was wot I'd describe as having had soft synth lust...
As in I'd buy everything I thought sounded good on the sellers demo...
Even bought a few cheap,synths in their sale time prices ..( ones I never reinstalled when I recently upgraded my PC ...so that's money down the drain...silly me).
But I agree with some of the other guys here....

Choose wisely as there's so many synths out there hardware & software wise, but software is all too easy to just buy from a click of a mouse button...
I've spent a lot of money on the " must have ..this vst or the latest that vst.... It can become a obsession ...
Now I've gone back to 4 synths I bought a few years ago, all, are still current & receive updates from the developers.

I mainly buy sound banks for them if I feel the synth lust ...( I'm not big on sound design ).

[synaesthesia]

I'm half and half. I seem to quite regularly buy stuff for less than the retail price.

But, also, I buy things if they're the right thing for a project and in those circumstances I don't care of they're on sale or not, I'll gladly pay full price if the product is worth it.

There aren't many products that I would say are over-priced particularly. There are one or two companies who have a price at the beginning that quickly gets dropped and become permanently 'on sale' and the RRP becomes something of a long-standing joke.

But I don't believe developers are out there to rip you off with their pricing structure. Not that anyone's said that per se, but you do see some whining about prices that are pretty inexpenisve for the quality of the product and the amount of time and effort that's gone into producing them.

I am a sucker for Black Friday though!

[kelldammit]

I'm pretty even. The are devs who don't do sales, and I don't mind that, and have zero problem paying the asking price. I've even payed full price more than once for a couple of things.
That said, I don't mind taking advantage of a sale, either. I have less income to throw around these days, so if the dev is offering the discount, well...why not?

Buying secondhand does sort of make me feel a bit weird sometimes, though. Residual catholic guilt, I reckon.

[Gone soft]

Been happy to pay full price for Vaz Modular and Vember Audio Surge, those two get a lot of use.
I don't use Glass Viper a lot these days as I find the support for automation seriously lacking, but the full asking price was way below reasonable so no regrets.
Audio Damage Phosphor probably could be considered not worth it as I almost never use it, but it was less than some people would spend for a night on the town and I just had to know what it was all about so can't be bothered regretting anything..
Full price for Audio Damage Axon was kind of worth it I guess as I've had loads of fun with it, though it was somewhat more primitive than I expected in some respects...

I'm actually not sure I've payed full price for much else, I think the rest is filled up with sales, bundles and stuff from the marketplace. As a hobbyist I can't afford getting it all at full price, but I've been happy to support at least a few devs with the full regular asking price. Bought some FX for full price though, no regrets for anything u-he and I'm sure I won't be complaining whenever I can afford to get some more synths from them either. Also convinced I'll be satisfied to pay the asking price for Sonigen Modular, whenever that'll be ready.

[frankz00]

And if it doesn't offer anything above what you already have, then there is no real reason to buy at all... and if it does, then someone went without for 2 years just to save a pittance ($5 a month is nothin)

Hey, if someone's objective is to be a smart shopper, that is up to them.

I guess delaying gratification is a lost art...

[tibah]

I remember paying full price for Predator, Surge and Saurus. Circle was a *full price* purchase as well, but that was after they dropped the price drastically. Predator was my first ever plug-in synthesizer and I got the boxed version at a local store. Surge and Saurus both bought from their developers.

... I sold them all.

[The_Hidden_Goose]

Never bothered with the sales - I'm just too lazy to keep my eye on them, and I buy so few synths and even less effects these days it's doesn't seem worth the effort for the savings I'd make.

I'll sometimes take advantage of early-adopter type discounts, provided I can demo the software and make sure it's something I'll use.

Got nothing against the sales of course. If they keep pennies coming in for the devs and help the musicians and would-be musicians to achieve their musical goals then it's all good. Presumably they do, or they wouldn't keep happening!