Here's some info about boxed T2 in Europe

[Germ777]

Or you could get FL Studio, which is available as an online download without you getting ripped off, and which includes a Lifetime FREE upgrades, and never need to worry again

Actually. Despite all the naysayers in these forums. FL is the best bang for the buck out there!
I own FL XXL and I must tell you that for programming your synths ( I don`t know how to play keys) bass lines and drums. Nothing can beat it. Support is excelent and the life-time free updates is great.
ow if Gol would work a bit more on the audio side of things
That is what I needed Tracktion for. Audio work with a host that can have time signature changes and loop recording. T2 was ideal for what I need, but right now I just can`t afford the over priced non-usa tag.

[headquest]

mmmhhh..but i´m checking out Sonar SE (because i need a new controller, too)..maybe it´s the best option of all tkay

Probably your best bet then. But if you're in the market for a new controller check out the Korg and M-Audio bundles too.

Any of these could be worth saving up for and using what you've got in the meantime

Good luck finding the host that works best for you - a difficult journey to be honest!

[audiobot202]

Muzys was a top budget sequencer program. I never ever had stability problems with it and all of my VST's worked like a charm with no latency whatsoever or delay. There were some clunky bits, but a few of them were ironed out before it stopped development. A pity really, as it was easy to use and actually had pretty good MIDI editing capabilities.
The forum seems to have calmed down now which is good. Seems that there are still problems for foreign buyers too. Hopefully it will be sorted out, as I would like to see Tracktion be successful. Like Headquest, I think it's a huge gamble they are taking and it's pretty tough to play with the big boys when you have little boy distribution behind you. So to speak...

[Def Dave]

..the cheapest price i saw in Germany is around 170€ incl. shipping that´s around 220$ but still pretty expensive... when you know the former price was 80$

tkay

http://www.musik-service.de/ProduX/Reco ... ion_20.htm

[ModuLR]

And let's not forget this headquest...

If your students have got the NFR version.. they still have an $80 program for free. Dispite it's bugs.. it's still fully featured.. with Final Mix, on top of that all the channel/strip mastering plugins from T2... it's all functional and available in T1 NFR at NO cost to them. T1 which is responsible for 6 pages of music in the Tracktion in Action thread. As much as people want to make it out to be useless, T1 NFR is still a robust sequencer that gave your student the best deal ever... it's was FREE! Probably the most functional freebie ever. It's not like it's suddenly stopped working.

BTW, I do hope something is worked out with international deals... it would be best. I'm just a bit bugged with all the NFR stuff.

[diverdee]

I reckon the NFR 'stuff' has been subsumed under the more general disenchantment of international customers/potential customers.
yep the NFR was/is cool.
Yep the $20 online upgrade is unbelievably generous.
yep the $60 rebate existing (U.S.) users can get on the bundled version in addition to the $20 online upgrade is excellent, no one can argue with that.
There's just a sense that things are.... uneven, skewed, unfair? & that after what has been percieved as a long wait it's all gone a bit pete tong.
it's the contrast between 'woah i'm in the U.S. - wow 2 great deals at once' & 'i'm not in the U.S. woah the online upgrade is incredible value, but wow why do I have to pay so much more for the box?'
Like I said in another thread it feels like on the morning everything was finalised everyone in the office had a hangover & stuck it all together with rubber bands & bubble gum.
There is bound to be resentment - & i'm not talking about NFR at all (i'm overjoyed with mine), it's about the glaring disparity, & if it ends up having a negative impact on potential sales it will be a real shame.

[Germ777]

BTW, I do hope something is worked out with international deals... it would be best. I'm just a bit bugged with all the NFR stuff.

But all the NFR stuff started because Mackie made a mistake and told us we could upgrade/get a price rebate when it seems it was only for the USA NFR versions.
If you consider that many NFR copies were given in Computer Magazine and that it is an European mag. To be left out of this and then to send those letters out sounds like a bad joke to everyone outside of the USA.
Anyway. Now it all boils down to the fuzz created by Mackie about T2 and not being able to get a decent priced product outside of the USA.
All we were asking for is to at least be able to buy an online key without the bundle but ,alas, it has already been stated that T2 is a retailer product. A big step backwards, or at least it seems to me. For Jules neightbours not to be able to buy (let´s forget the upgrade)T2 for the price suggested by Mackie is just way too funny/sarcastic/ironic.

There is bound to be resentment - & i'm not talking about NFR at all (i'm overjoyed with mine), it's about the glaring disparity, & if it ends up having a negative impact on potential sales it will be a real shame.

On my side Tracktion/Mackie has already lost 7 sales right away. I would buy it if a fair treatment was done, but my friend`s (all 6 members of EGO) allready got sick with all this Bull and went and bought something else. So there you go. Make numbers. This is only a very small part of the buying market that got excited with the up-coming of T2.

[valley]

Mackie can't really be held responsible for the vagaries of exchange rates - lets not forget that the current near junk status of the US dollar is something of a freak situation.

That said, given that non US customers are used to paying $80 US and benefitting from the exchange rate, the large jump to the other extreme is certainly going to cause some sticker shock.

I doubt Mackie can give too much of a rebate to non-US customers, as effectively they'd be paying out more in rebate than they are making on the sale, but hopefully they can set up rebate options that sweeten the pill a little.

Personally, if I wasn't living in the US right now, I'd be taking advantage of the $20 upgrade, not the boxed version.

[timmyo]

I doubt Mackie can give too much of a rebate to non-US customers, as effectively they'd be paying out more in rebate than they are making on the sale, but hopefully they can set up rebate options that sweeten the pill a little.

But :

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49058

I am interested in RMIV and have held off buying a drum plugin and have bought T1. Ditto for Amplitube.

ALL of the pre-release chit chat from Mackie reps regarding buy/don;t buy T1 centered around the financial benefit of doing so. Until release day.

I have e-mailed Mackie and, politely, made my thoughts clear.

Tim
(UK)

[headquest]

If your students have got the NFR version.. they still have an $80 program for free. Dispite it's bugs.. it's still fully featured.. with Final Mix, on top of that all the channel/strip mastering plugins from T2... it's all functional and available in T1 NFR at NO cost to them. T1 which is responsible for 6 pages of music in the Tracktion in Action thread. As much as people want to make it out to be useless, T1 NFR is still a robust sequencer that gave your student the best deal ever... it's was FREE! Probably the most functional freebie ever. It's not like it's suddenly stopped working.

Yes, totally awesome!! They got a fantastic piece of software for nothing

The reason for my disappoinment is that the next lot of students who come along may have to look elsewhere for something in their price range - and in my view there is actually NOTHING out there that cometes with T1 at $80.

[valley]

@ timmyo :

You do have an upgrade path that is significantly cheaper than T2 retail though, in that you can use the $20 (10 quid in real money) option.

In terms of like for like - download only, no 3rd party plugs - you are getting T2 for significantly less than T2 costs.

In terms of the plugins, until Mackie make clear what boxed options (if any) are going to be available for non-US customers, it's kind of hard to speculate on how fairly users are being treated.

[valley]

The reason for my disappoinment is that the next lot of students who come along may have to look elsewhere for something in their price range - and in my view there is actually NOTHING out there that cometes with T1 at $80.

eXT?

[headquest]

The reason for my disappoinment is that the next lot of students who come along may have to look elsewhere for something in their price range - and in my view there is actually NOTHING out there that cometes with T1 at $80.

eXT?

Yeah, definitely cool and worth watching. But I think it is presently a little bit TOO underground, plus the learning curve might not suit teenage beginners.

[audiobot202]

[quote="valley"]Mackie can't really be held responsible for the vagaries of exchange rates - lets not forget that the current near junk status of the US dollar is something of a freak situation.

That said, given that non US customers are used to paying $80 US and benefitting from the exchange rate, the large jump to the other extreme is certainly going to cause some sticker shock.
/quote]

But they CAN be held responsible for sales strategy.

I don't know about other countries, but over here in Australia, there's always a lot of sticker shock when it comes to US imports on software. There's never any parity from the retailers.

It's like backwards marketing! Pay for all the boxes, ship 'em out and try to make a break in the market!

I knew there was a reason we had nice convenient software downloads from digitally aware companies who take their web presence seriously. Dammit.

[diverdee]

But :
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49058
(UK)

I take it you are refering to this statement:

Many of you have asked “how much will I pay for Tracktion v2”? At this time, we are not prepared to release any specifics on Tracktion v2 pricing. However, we will reward licensed v1.x users by offering a special upgrade path to v2. This special upgrade will equate to a total Tracktion investment that is lower than the online sale price of Tracktion v2. This is our way of thanking you for your ongoing support and for your valuable feedback.

The interesting part about that particular quote is that it makes reference to an 'online sale price of Tracktion v2', when in fact there is no online sale price, as it is not available for online sale (I am defining online sale here as the ability to buy a download, as per the original T1 or fruity etc., not the ability to order physical product online from a reseller etc.
Even if i expanded the definition to include purchasing the bundle from reseller's etc. the statement is still proven untrue, as there is no non-U.S. rebate that will 'equate to a total Tracktion investment that is lower than the online sale price of Tracktion v2', as in this case in the U.K. a version 1 user is essentially paying exactly the same as a new customer in addition to having initially paid for T1).
There is indeed a special upgrade for the vanilla version, but not (nonU.S.) for the boxed version.

Or am I being too picky?