[Fixed in 4.4] Weird bug: latest "Spectral Suite" update not included in upgrade plan

[Echoes in the Attic]

I too was surprised to see an add-on, but not quite as enraged as others. Nothing has been taken away, I just don’t something that I didn’t know existed yesterday. I fully agree that the messaging around the upgrade plan does conflict with these add-one being extra cost. But I think the reason for that is that we are used to them releasing new devices as an upgrade to the program.

They could not have done it worse...

It has been 5 months since 4.3 was announced and people were expecting a new update to be announced shortly.

Instead they release a paid extra when every user had the understanding that any new releases would be included as part of the yearly plan. That understanding was based on what Bitwig stated.

I agree the timing wasn’t good. They could have done this much better. Maybe announced add-ons and add-on plan at the same time as a major upgrade with new features so people could decide to only go with the main upgrade plan after that or both together? I don’t know.

[Held]

You can say that about every single software company that has add-ons or more than one product. Ableton live introduces Sampler? But it takes away from the core application development! Or those phase plant snap-ins.

The difference is that Ableton users don't have an upgrade plan that expires at some point which is supposed to provide them with updates. Ableton users only pay when a they buy a new version.

[SLiC]

Also, to people who say nothing is being taken away from non addon purchasing customers: of course it is. They only have a certain number of developers, and when those developers are spending time on paid add ons they are not spending time on core updates. To the detriment of all the users.

You can say that about every single software company that has add-ons or more than one product. Ableton live introduces Sampler? But it takes away from the core application development! Or those phase plant snap-ins.

You can't have a upgrade/subscription plan that includes 'all updates' and then also charge for updates...cake/eat it.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Extremely lame move from Bitwig, no two ways about it.

I, like many others here have, year on year, dutifully handed over our upgrade plan fees and kept our purchase up to date.

It should be kept in mind that we handed over that money IN ADVANCE, with no knowledge or specific expectation of what would be delivered in the following year.

Why on earth did you do this? Why would you buy future features blindly? WE did not do this. YOU did. And no offense but it’s a silly way to buy things. Instead you should buy things you actually want. Is it really that hard to hold on to your money and wait until there are features you actually want to pay for and then give your money?

There is no duty here. If you felt a duty to blindly give a company money once per year regardless of what you get, then that’s on you.

[Quack Quack]

I read through every single comment waiting for a company apology. Bitwig has clearly breached their contract of offering all updates for free and hasn't even bothered explaining the situation, I supported Bitwig and all updates since Beta. I will be pirating every future version till this is fixed. I'm not switching DAW because the company decided to be shitty.

[EmmetPDX]

I don't even know what to call this...

To call it a "betrayal" feels overdramatic, since companies aren't our friends and we're all used to getting squeezed by them from time to time. It has nothing to do with the quality of these devices. These look like relatively neat little devices, but I can easily vote with my wallet by simply not buying them. I definitely don't "need" them, and I also don't want them to the extent that I'm willing to reward what can be most generously described as a shady business practice. Bitwig can learn from that what they will.

But to say it's a "disappointment" is a huge understatement, because as someone who has always been happy to renew my upgrade plan when cool new features come out, and who currently has an active upgrade plan, it definitely seems like Bitwig has suddenly stopped holding up their side of the deal here. When you sell people "12 months of free upgrades" and then create a suite of new devices that, for some reason that probably has everything to do with extracting more money from loyal customers and nothing to do with music or technology, it erodes trust, right?

I mean... It's obvious to little old me, shouldn't that be obvious to them too?

I understand that the economy sucks right now because of the war in Ukraine and the continued effects of Covid. I get that Bitwig might feel the need to bring in more money as a result. But THIS just isn't the way to do it. As much as companies may be feeling the need to bring in more cash however they can, their users, musicians and real people working various jobs, are hurting just as bad and in most cases have only become more sensitive to getting ripped off by corporate fuckery.

At a time when the software industry is rife with rent-seeking subscription plans, many of us have gladly spent money year after year on Bitwig upgrade plans, and I have personally always felt that it has been a great example of a fair and pro-consumer business model. But that model relies on the fundamental relationship of trust between the developer and the user, that when you sell them "the latest version of Bitwig + 12 months of free upgrades", you are taking their hard-earned money with the genuine intention that you will live up to that agreement.

If economics means making that deal more expensive, then go for it and individual users can decide whether it is worth it or not. But don't sell us a year of free "upgrades" and then start selling us new devices as "add-ons", because that is a sure fire way to f**k up what has (in my opinion) otherwise been a pretty good relationship with your most loyal customers.

I guess that's it, the best way to describe this is that it's a monumental f**k up, and I hope that the Bitwig developers are smart enough to see things from the perspective of their customers, to understand how how this erodes trust, and to take some kind of steps to resolve this situation...

[tommy2tone]

Sad day for Bitwig. Hopefully, they'll reconsider after taking in all the feedback on the web. Sent an email to Bitwig support for good measure voicing my displeasure. Hope others will consider doing so as well!

[Echoes in the Attic]

Nothing has been taken away

That's not true.
- Developer time has been taken away. The time that could be spent on bug fixes and major releases that included in upgrade plan.
- Features has been taken away from further core functional - now they never will be core splitters as Multiband FX. Will you buy Multiband FX as addon? What's the diffirence between these splitters and multiband, mid\side splitters? Where is this edge between addon and core functions? They will call anything as "addon" and ask to pay for it. There was no such term in Bitwig before as Addon. The thing is that addons are the same built in devices as any other but they call it different. Why not Delay+, Phasor+ and etc are not addons and are core features? They added many such devices and called it Bitwig 4 with such few actual new features that must be called minor update. So we got then "addons" like features mostly, and those features took to long. I still think this should be called Bitwig 3 with addons now.

I mean nothing has been taken away from what you currently have in the program. I think this all speaks to the fact that an upgrade that includes a year of free future upgrades is confusing to people. If you wait for two or three years and buy The upgrade for the features that have been added over those couple years, rather than for what comes in the next year, it’s a lot like just paying for a major upgrade, plus you get another year. It’s not the best system, but it’s so not a subscription. Like I keep saying, people should upgrade when they want the features already developed.

I’m playin devils advocate here a bit because of the strong reaction of everyone but I still don’t think it was a great move. It’s a confusing and weird system.

[borrachoruso]

If we start comparing the DAW business models there's a big difference.
Bitwig charges an annual renewal fee. Let's compare it to the DAWs with subscriptions:
Studio One - subscription fee (price is similar to Bitwig's annual renewal plan) includes ALL Presonus add-ons + extra software + extra libraries + cloud service.
ProTools - subscription includes all Avid plugins + some great stuff like full version of Falcon
Reason - optional subscription that includes ALL rack extensions that Pheads team releases

And only Bitwig promised All bitwig studio updates for the renewal plan fee and now releases new functions (those devices extend core functions of Bitwig, it is like multiband FX, it is not a sample library) for the extra charge. BTW I'm totally fine if tomorrow Bitwig comes with a collab with Spitfire and offers a special add-on of some of Spitfire libs native to Bitwig.

I'm on Bitwig 4.something (update plan expired some months ago). I update as I do with Steinberg Cubase, every 2 years. (I also have Logic but rarely use it).

If you believe even for a second that in it's current state Bitwig "basic" is underfeatured then you're very much in error.

The simple fact that you can create inline parallel chains and modulate anything with the included per device modulators (not including the grid or note operators) already make Bitwig a superior workflow.

For some reason people here only equate some money they pay for some features they get. No one mentioned how much useful stuff for actually making music there is already. Is almost like no one makes music, but just collecting features (by the way the spectral stuff is pretty useless for me for example)

Classic daws (Cubase, LPX) will never have the modulation abilities of Bitwig. Ableton can do some but those Max devices are huge resources hogs, so making a complex project in Albleton is taxing the CPU to the point of gui slows down while Bitwig doesnt break a sweat for the same stuff.

My advice, as music maker releasing music on deadlines, feel free to pickup Bitwig. In it's current state is the most capable daws for electronic dance music production

[Nemirov]

I mean nothing has been taken away from what you currently have in the program

including annoying bugs for years. But you can still think you did not loose anything.

[HBIII]

I almost feel that this is illegal. People paid for a year of all updates for free and then this happens. I’m in the US where we have pretty much no consumer protections, but I bet people in the EU could get a refund.

[Phil B]

Extremely lame move from Bitwig, no two ways about it.

I, like many others here have, year on year, dutifully handed over our upgrade plan fees and kept our purchase up to date.

It should be kept in mind that we handed over that money IN ADVANCE, with no knowledge or specific expectation of what would be delivered in the following year.

Why on earth did you do this? Why would you buy future features blindly? WE did not do this. YOU did. And no offense but it’s a silly way to buy things. Instead you should buy things you actually want. Is it really that hard to hold on to your money and wait until there are features you actually want to pay for and then give your money?

There is no duty here. If you felt a duty to blindly give a company money once per year regardless of what you get, then that’s on you.

Would you pay the same amount for a catch up upgrade for all of the updates you’ve missed as you would for the same thing that also covered a subsequent year?

[skiltrip]

when updating and NOT buying these new add-ons, do they just stay in your plugin list?

[SLiC]

I’m playin devils advocate here a bit because of the strong reaction of everyone but I still don’t think it was a great move. It’s a confusing and weird system.

Sometimes it's better not to try and defend the indefensible, it just creates even stronger reactions!

These are just the sort of devices I would expect in small 'point' upgrade (largely unnecessary but fun toys)...so hopefully that means they are actually launching Bitwig 5 in the next few weeks with all the useful stuff in!

[Echoes in the Attic]

Extremely lame move from Bitwig, no two ways about it.

I, like many others here have, year on year, dutifully handed over our upgrade plan fees and kept our purchase up to date.

It should be kept in mind that we handed over that money IN ADVANCE, with no knowledge or specific expectation of what would be delivered in the following year.

Why on earth did you do this? Why would you buy future features blindly? WE did not do this. YOU did. And no offense but it’s a silly way to buy things. Instead you should buy things you actually want. Is it really that hard to hold on to your money and wait until there are features you actually want to pay for and then give your money?

There is no duty here. If you felt a duty to blindly give a company money once per year regardless of what you get, then that’s on you.

Would you pay the same amount for a catch up upgrade for all of the updates you’ve missed as you would for the same thing that also covered a subsequent year?

Your question makes no sense. You buy something for when YOU start using it, not the whole time I existed or when other people could have been using it so far. Any software you buy you have the choice when you buy it. It doesn’t matter when it was released. If you want to use a thing that exists then buy it.

Someone else above was comparing to other subscriptions. I don’t know if it’s the case with those specific ones but generally subscriptions are a license to use something only while the subscription is active. Bitwig has never had this. I pay once and use it as long as I want. If at some point I want more stuff that they are offering, then I buy that. Seems simple enough?