Fathom Synth Development Thread

[TrojakEW]

The vast majority of people use the free version of Fathom and never buy it.

But one must also deal with reality.

It is really sad because it is nice synth for unbeatable price with best copyprotection on the world . No matter what you do people will never be happy. You set price and they will demand discount even if the price is low. Free is the best price for them, but sometimes it's looks like people want you, to pay them instead to use it . Even if you give them something for free they demand sometning else without thinking what amount of work you have to do to - in return for what? More complains?

Maybe you should try add more restriction to free version or not include all presets just a few to show capabilities of the synth.

Good luck and not forget we humans are selfish creatures.

[Vortifex]

..

[nordickvr]

Vortifex brings some pretty good points concerning the web site and the free version of FathomSynth.
Personally bought the synth because I think it has great potential, but also to support dev's work.

[khanyz]

I would love to start the next round of development (Sampler, Arpegiator etc.)

But it may simply not be possible.

We would need to go from approximately one sale a week to one an hour.

Sorry, folks, it's not even close.

IMO you’ve landed with a bang, now it’s time to let the dust settle and get a stable business and development model. You’ve got 2 great products, a loyal customer base and future plans but it will take time to find a sustainable path.

The updates to Fathom have been fast & furious, with seemingly little thought to income. That needs to change and updates divided into fixes (free), minor improvements (free/same version) and major improvements (paid/new version). As much as users will complain at the change, necessity must rule. Copy Protection is also a good idea, but just a keyfile no C/R, as a way to manage customers/upgrades.

Also, IMO there should be a limited mono version (free), full mono version (paid ~$25), full poly version (paid ~$75). All the different compiles need to be cut too, From experience, it’s a pain to manage and debug. Prices are out my butt .

The website does need an overhaul. Way too much scrolling, especially on mobile devices. It really just needs simplifying.

I hope you make a go of it, the transition is hard but the results worth it.

[BlackWinny]

The vast majority of people use the free version of Fathom and never buy it.

But one must also deal with reality.

It is really sad because it is nice synth for unbeatable price with best copyprotection on the world . No matter what you do people will never be happy. You set price and they will demand discount even if the price is low. Free is the best price for them, but sometimes it's looks like people want you, to pay them instead to use it . Even if you give them something for free they demand sometning else without thinking what amount of work you have to do to - in return for what? More complains?

Maybe you should try add more restriction to free version or not include all presets just a few to show capabilities of the synth.

Good luck and not forget we humans are selfish creatures.

I even thought to another suggestion : to simply stop the production of the free mono version.

It was aimed at being a loss leader, a consumer appeal... and it appears that in fact it is the contrary. Yes, the contrary... because the users of this free product take profit of your work but don't want to go the step beyond and don't want to thank you for your work that they use.

So, I think that it would be better to stop the production of the free version and rather add the common limitations (no save feature + a silence of 3 seconds every 30 seconds + only 10% of the presets) and I would add a full stop of the plugin after 15 minutes with obligation to reload it to continue) to the poly version.

Then if you see that these modifications of the distribution method work better, you go further again... by leaving the developments for a month to invest your time in the creation of a real "User area" where the registered users can get their updates only at this place with their logon, as do almost all the developers so that it ruins the hope to find up-to-date versions on the Warez market for your product, the encrypted zip file being probably not enough to protect it with many of the polyphonic users being probably illegal users, another probable huge reason of this lack of registered users.

It's my two cents, but I'm pretty sure that I'm very close to the truth.

And there are other excellent suggestions made here, especially by RPH, Vortifex and TrojakEW, which are to consider strongly too, as well as mine above.

[skyscape]

Sorry to hear Fathom isn't performing as well as it should sales wise. You are a well liked dev around here (which is more than can be said for quite a few others) and the product is really great. I hope that it can pick up some more momentum soon. I do agree with what many others have said in that:

Fathom is probably too cheap! There is a sweet spot for price where you will get both impulse buyers and those who are a bit more discerning about their purchases. It would be good to research this.

Free version probably does offer too much. What if you kept the current free version of Fathom free but stopped updating it - the poly version can keep evolving. That way the free version (which is already very nice) will still attract people but when they realise that the paid version has the updates and new features they may be more inclined to take the plunge.

Fathom is great for sound designers and people who like to really get into synthesis, but unfortunately a lot of electronic musicians will be wanting simple and easy gratification - having really killer presets could help this (I haven't had a chance to check out the latest ones yet), or doing something similar to what Synthmaster did with Synthmaster One and splintering off another product from the main one, streamlining it and targeting 'the masses' might help bring in more revenue (eg grab a couple of fathom's oscillators and features and wrap them up into a simple one page synth that has something unique going for it and can easily be tweaked and sell that as well, for those who want a well made instrument and good presets, but don't necessarily need to go digging really deep into the synthesis. I don't know how easy that is to do, it might be a maintenance nightmare. It's just a potential business idea.

Approaching youtubers who review or do tutorials for softsynths might also bring in a bit of exposure.

As others have said I would be more than happy to pay for milestone updates and will be supporting your other products as they eventuate.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Sorry to hear Fathom isn't performing as well as it should sales wise. You are a well liked dev around here (which is more than can be said for quite a few others) and the product is really great. I hope that it can pick up some more momentum soon. I do agree with what many others have said in that:

Fathom is probably too cheap! There is a sweet spot for price where you will get both impulse buyers and those who are a bit more discerning about their purchases. It would be good to research this.

Free version probably does offer too much. What if you kept the current free version of Fathom free but stopped updating it - the poly version can keep evolving. That way the free version (which is already very nice) will still attract people but when they realise that the paid version has the updates and new features they may be more inclined to take the plunge.

Fathom is great for sound designers and people who like to really get into synthesis, but unfortunately a lot of electronic musicians will be wanting simple and easy gratification - having really killer presets could help this (I haven't had a chance to check out the latest ones yet), or doing something similar to what Synthmaster did with Synthmaster One and splintering off another product from the main one, streamlining it and targeting 'the masses' might help bring in more revenue (eg grab a couple of fathom's oscillators and features and wrap them up into a simple one page synth that has something unique going for it and can easily be tweaked and sell that as well, for those who want a well made instrument and good presets, but don't necessarily need to go digging really deep into the synthesis. I don't know how easy that is to do, it might be a maintenance nightmare. It's just a potential business idea.

Approaching youtubers who review or do tutorials for softsynths might also bring in a bit of exposure.

As others have said I would be more than happy to pay for milestone updates and will be supporting your other products as they eventuate.

ooooo !!! thats a great idea. ( one page Fathom with basic features ). Would that be a ....... league.... . Seriously, great idea.

[Gotacki]

Hi,

I agree with what is said above. The free version is too powerful. Add to this that the CPU ressources is too much for many multi patches and free users will not want to buy the pro version.
The website need also to have a better design, more professional.

Now, if you want to change the free version, you have to enhance the new version in order to make a significant gap with the old free mono version.

I also think that a Low CPU consumption 'draft mode' could be added for pro version. For big pads, it will make them usable in a composition without the need of bouncing it. The user will have the 'purest' quality when rendering in his DAW. The more usable it will be, the more users will want to use it (and so, buy it).

I hope that you will find your way. We are many to love your work.

[FathomSynth]

Wow, an amazing collection of great ideas above.
Some of the truly brilliant and many I had not thought of.

I will be spending the day collecting and organizing these ideas,
and for the next release I will start implementing them.

I debated carefully before opening this issue to the community here,
but I can see now it was a good decision based on the overwhelming support above.

I will add more of my own plans here as I get through everything but here are some highlights and action items.

1. Trim some features from the free version which is unnecessarily close to functionality to the pro version. I will be very careful about this because one of the reasons the free version is liked so well by magazines such as BPB is that the free version is so useful. But there are certainly room to differentiate a little more, such as the number of presets, the number of filters, double modulations.

Stopping the free version I know is tempting, but having it places Fathom on some very key web domains such as BPB and Plugin Boutique which are absolutely critical, so I would not choose that option unless it is very far in the future. And I think it makes more sense to scale it back rather than end it entirely.

2. I'm aware of the web site issue. I am actually planning on completely revamping the web site and using a horizontal click scroll instead of the annoying vertical scroll. Also the web site has too much info and is confusing to new users.

3. I will be starting an LLC when I do the new web site so I can eliminate the PayPal problem. Allowing people to use PayPal again will obviously have a huge impact on sales.

4. There will be a small recommended donation for software upgrades, somewhere around $2 - $3 dollars, per release which is also the same as per month. This will be optional since not everyone can pay this for every plugin because it would add up. But once the new PayPal is in place for those willing to contribute a little more to the project the ability to do so will be there. Across Fathom's 500+ regular users, this could add up and really help.

5. There will be a completely new GUI soon with some very reflective space age dials and the ability to change the background color of all panels, screens and graph lines, and making this available to only the pro users might do the trick to open the flood gates of those willing to pay for the pro version.

6. Per sample modulations especially in the detune page are killing the CPU, this could easily be changed to per block modulations with interpolation like most other synths without new users even noticing and would work wonders for the CPU issue. Per sample modulations would still be an available option for advanced users who know what they are getting into and could be enabled in the pro version but off by default in the mono version.

More to come after I review all the ideas above, thanks so much for everyone for responding so positively and so quickly.

Again, there is no sympathy needed here since this is a very tough market and we all accept that,
I'm just looking for creative ideas and you all have rallied around the cause amazingly, thanks!

[BlackWinny]

[yellowmix]

The DRM or lack thereof is fantastic. But a passworded zip file is just plain weird for a commercial product, and it is a pain to keep referring to the email with the password. I had to explain this to multiple people which takes away from talking about the synth itself. If Fathom could look at a keyfile with the serial in it, I think that is relatively trivial to implement and would improve the situation a lot. Then it doesn't matter if the website has a user login or not (which is a can of worms).

[FathomSynth]

OK, I’ve reviewed all the posts above and created an action plan.

GENERALS:

Generally, the problem of sales is largely a function of my own lack of attention on the marketing domain and on providing incentives for people to buy. Thanks much to those of you who were brutally honest in pointing out this truth.

“The updates to Fathom have been fast & furious, with seemingly little thought to income. That needs to change and updates divided into fixes, minor improvements and paid major improvements.” (Well stated).

Someone made a high level but useful comment that Fathom has had a successful launch in terms of establishing a loyal fan base but now it’s time to get serious and put more time on the business model and marketing.

Also, there is an overwhelming response that people would be willing to pay a little for software upgrades, and that those who aren’t probably are not using it regularly anyway. This is very critical information.

MONO VS PRO:

Free mono version is WAY too generous thus removing the incentive for anyone to hit the buy button.

Free mono version (if used at all) could easily be trimmed significantly in number of Presets, number of Filters, maximum Oscillators, number of Modulations and several other ways to create a reason for buying the pro version.

The Free mono version should lag the pro version in software upgrades, bug fixes aside. (Brilliant Idea!).

There should be a modest fee for feature upgrades.

TECH:

CPU load has been pushed off too long and should be the top priority. (RPH)

Fathom needs a CPU draft mode which should be on by default.

An FX throughput version of Fathom would be incredibly useful and people would pay extra for it (great idea!).

Offer the new GUI in only the pro version.

WEB AND LICENSING:

Fix the PayPal issue.

The current unzip protection is way too easy to ignore (anyone can get the password) and needs to be updated to use a license file which is either machine specific or at least harder to crack.

The web site has huge problems and needs a professional overhaul.

The web site purchase button needs to be at the very top not buried.

The web site has too much open space, and way too much scrolling before landing on critical info such as the ability to buy.

MARKETING:

Publicize Fathom to leading You Tube reviewers.

Fathom has no presence on other forums such as Gearslutz.com and Music Radar. This needs to change.

Send Fathom to some influential DJ’s, Sound Designers, Film Score houses, Studio’s etc.

Limit the sale price in time more specifically.

DEVELOPMENT:

There will be a completely new GUI soon with some reflective space age dials and the ability to change the background color of all panels. Making this available to only pro users will provide more incentive to buy.

Per sample modulations are killing the CPU. This could easily be changed to a draft mode with per block modulations like most other synths without new users even noticing.

This would work wonders for the CPU issue. Per sample modulations would still be an option available for advanced users who know what they are getting into.

[BlackWinny]

Excellent assessment of all the recent reflections, Everett !


All that will lead you to a much more professional activity and a much greater return on the investments.

[MFXxx]

In for the updates

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I like your spirit Everett.

Its cool that you want to change the worlds best gui and I trust your instincts based on development history. but just know that I like Fathoms style alot.

I will be continuing the tutorials on Fathom. Next is Wavedraw which brings to mind a question.

Is it possible somehow to initiate the bezer draw like wavedraw?