Elemental Audio been swallowed up...

[parma]

they stil didn't answer perhaps the most important question: why the (still) gargantuan price increase?

probably because the answer is greed (especially considering that they state in their own FAQ that they are quite a profitable company already)

I don't begrudge anybody trying to make an honest buck, but from $129 to $249 for a name change is a bit much

[beej]

Well the new prices aren't of EA's making, but RND, so the EA faq can't really cover that. We'd need a statement from RND on the price issue, although I'd say the new prices are more justifiable than the first increase, given that they are going for boxed shop-distribution - the shop markup and manufacturing cost eat into that price quite heavily...

[Aleksey Vaneev]

So, there are no problems it seems. EAS went into this risky deal to see if it ends up profitable to them. Doing a similar thing together with Bob Katz could be a better thing, because he wrote a book which is probably even used in educational courses. I.e. better consciousness about that new 'patron' -> easier acceptance from wide spectrum of users.

[Gargoyle]

Or... failing Bob Katz:

Elemental Audio Systems, brought to you by:

[jupiter8]

Here's what the man himself has to say about this matter:

Dear Forum users:

Thanks for stopping by. It is always good to have new comments.

I have not deleted any of these posts, and I am not going to. The only thing that upset me was the giant lime green font, which I have changed.

I am however dissappointed in the non-adult approach to the comments and sugggest that each of you delete your own posts.

1) Any existing Elemental customers can move over to the RND versions for less than $20. You will then own the expensive versions.

2) We are in the middle of adding features, improving those that exist, and creating TDM versions and versions for other hardware platforms.

3) RND purchased the rights to the Elemental plug-ins because I think they are the best available and will add to the future line-up to be offered by RND.

4) RND will be funding further developement of Elemental products as well as using Elemental to add their expertise in the developement of our plug-ins.

5) I am paid rather well for engineering and producing and do not need to rip off customers who buy plug-ins. We have invested substantial funds to build a succesful company and are not planning to leave anyone behind.

6) If you already have Elemental products, they will continue to work fine. We know that there are cracked versions of the ones you have. We cannot invest in new features with the possibility of kracks looming on the horizon, so we have implimented iLok protection.

7) I have spent 25 years developing software to make my records sound better. Some of the applications took an entire computer to run one instance. Now that computers are fast enough, those apps are being turned into plug-ins for others to use. There will be hundreds of presets available, tip sheets and videos available to add value to all of the plug-ins in the RND line.

I apologize for any surprises, but the e-mail from Elemental to its customers was late going out. The change-over was timed for the Paris AES show.

The RND web site is going to ramp up quickly with all of the content you are used to with the Elemental site, plus much more.

We are concentrating on the automated iLok authorizations for Demos and purchased products which has slowed the web site developement slightly, but this will speed up as soon as we return from AES.

Have a nice day.

RN

[Sascha Franck]

All that FAQ and stuff from Mr.Nichols is nonsense in my book.
With all these tactics (iLok, higher prices, boxed versions, the presence of Mr. Nichols) they are clearly aiming at another clientel. Bye bye advanced home studio user, hello "professional" world. For the latter, downloadable versions and PDFs are apparently smelling fishy.

This, wrapped in more friendly words, is what they could've said.

[dramsenik]

Bye bye advanced home studio user, hello "professional" world

I think you're right,

but how will this change be perceived? professionnals also read forums... they also don't demo lots of stuff (time and stability consumming...) and they are more likely to keep their habit than us: they like some plugs or better hardwares and abuse them.

[smart]

I just wish we had a last chance warning to buy some Elemental Audio stuff before the prices doubled.

[once_twice]

This whole bitching about iLoks is retarded. I can't believe more people aren't doing what many savvy but moral people have been doing -- pay for the software, use the crack.

Well that's a contradictory statement if ever I've seen one. What ? Moral people download cracked software and buy the legitimate copy ? Fascinating.

[beergeek]

I just wish we had a last chance warning to buy some Elemental Audio stuff before the prices doubled.

Dude, I'm with you...I d/l demos of the plugs pretty close to the changeover and have found them very reasonably priced, easy to use and high quality. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to demo them much before RND came into the picture.

[beergeek]

Oh...one other thing

I can understand the current pricing structure for boxed versions with printed manuals and stuff...I can even understand the iLok thingie though I disagree.

But to double the price for authorizing basically the same d/l I demo'd a couple of weeks ago...well that's

I could understand a small increase for the d/l version for the distributor's cut...but if I bought this 2 weeks ago, I'd be paying 20 bucks to "upgrade" to the iLok'd RND'd version...so....why not just charge 20 bucks more for the plugs for god's sake?

I doubt there would have been anywhere near this kind of backlash....

my 2 coppers...

[Sascha Franck]

Well that's a contradictory statement if ever I've seen one. What ? Moral people download cracked software and buy the legitimate copy ? Fascinating.

Seems to be not all that much of uncommon practise though.
I *could* come up with some examples, but for obvious reasons I won't.

[original flipper]

HI

I feel for anyone who purchased these under the understanding that they had no dongle/Ilok protection and now find that to keep up-dated they will have to now go buy said device.

That really sux.

Hopefully though; you should be able to use the last versions of these plugs for some time - if I remember a reply to an email I sent the company their plugs are optimized for dual core/cpu and should be fine for a good while yet.

Perhaps people need to realise that the latest incarnation of a plug doesn't have to make 'your' older version redundent!

Flipper.

[Sascha Franck]

Perhaps people need to realise that the latest incarnation of a plug doesn't have to make 'your' older version redundent!

Too true. While you never know about the Apple side of things (there's been like 3 required plugin updates during only a few years), at least the Windows versions should be fine for quite some time to come.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Oh...one other thing
I could understand a small increase for the d/l version for the distributor's cut...

Big pro audio retail distribution networks need at least a high margin off the list price (that's the reason we usually see considerable discounts on all kind of ware on such sites like Sweetwater).