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

[Chameleonman]

Bigrip Studio

[Karlatin]

Bitwig

bro. bro.. Brody...

Why'd ya do it? I know man, sometimes a body goes to dark places. But you were riding high on the goodwill of being the champion of the little man, the champion of the CLAP format. You knew nothing good would come from this paid add-on.

I understand. Its like, if I wuz trying to live in the woods and I was countin' on these two streams to come to my cabin and Bam! someone wrecked my streams. Like, these streams, coming from the North, both of 'em got recked and man, bro, I was countin' on everything coming thru these streams to get me through the winter.

The Dark Winter.

but bro they got recked anyways didn't they? and you needed revenue, right, so you put aside good sense and you thought, hey, a Dark Winter is a-comin' so we gonna charge more for an add-on pack. Don't be sweatin' it bro. I mean, you will be sweating as you huddle together in yr Common Heating Spaces, but, still.

hey, btw, where's that Polish Bunting?

anyhoo, I know bro, things are dark, its like yr hiding yr heart away in a cul-de-sac. But the Sack-Couer sez hey, the Dark Winter is happening anyways, Ima gonna reck yr Northern Streams. Take that Germany and Bitwig.

Dont charge for the Spectral Pack, bro.

That's what love is for.
To help us through it.
Rounds off our edges.
Talks us down from our ledges.
Gives us strength to try once more.
Bro, that's what love is for.

p.s. I've had a little too much French booze tonight.

p.p.s. blame the French. for everything.

[Bieks]

Hot take:
These plugins are honestly worth the 80 bucks that they're selling it for. This would run you a couple of hundred if you'd try to get equivalent functionality in third party plugins.

Calling it fraud is crazy. Typing a literal essay of a stream of consciousness that should've been stopped after like a sentence or two? Also crazy. (EDIT: wait nvm you blamed the french you're good)

Might be smart to rename the upgrade plan to the update plan tho.

[Dostoyevsky]

Hot take:
These plugins are honestly worth the 80 bucks that they're selling it for. This would run you a couple of hundred if you'd try to get equivalent functionality in third party plugins.

Calling it fraud is crazy.

You, too, are missing the point. It's is not about the devices. Never has been.

[PieBerger]

I don't think anyone has pulled the rug out from under anyone.

I do think they have communicated poorly, and a point update with paid plug ins - I can see why that doesn't come across well.

Interestingly somebody on Reddit pointed out they have changed the wording on their "buy" page:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comment ... &context=3

If you go to web archive https://web.archive.org/web/20220923055 ... g.com/buy/ at the bottom of the page we have:
"12 Months of Free Upgrades
Future-proof: All software updates in the following 12 months are FREE."

Now when you go to https://www.bitwig.com/buy/ you have:
"12 Months of Free Upgrades
Future-proof: All Bitwig Studio updates in the following 12 months are FREE."

They literally pulled the rug out by updating the terms/promises of their 12 month upgrade plan, without notice. I'm 5 months into my update plan, these software updates should be free for me, because that was the deal when I renewed my license.

A move like this isn't a communication error, it is deliberate back tracking on promises made to those who purchased and renewed prior to Wednesday's announcement. Somebody made the call and the website was updated to change the wording, allowing them to justify charging for Add-ons because Spectral Suite is a separate product to Bitwig Studio. This wasn't the marketing intern sending out a duff email, a minor whoopsie with little consequence, was it?

Please stop lying to yourself _leras* and gaslighting the rest of us, it really isn't helpful. Thanks.

*edit, for clarity

[Lazarus451]

Hot take:
These plugins are honestly worth the 80 bucks that they're selling it for. This would run you a couple of hundred if you'd try to get equivalent functionality in third party plugins.

Calling it fraud is crazy. Typing a literal essay of a stream of consciousness that should've been stopped after like a sentence or two? Also crazy. (EDIT: wait nvm you blamed the french you're good)

Might be smart to rename the upgrade plan to the update plan tho.

I just ordered a Steam Deck and I expect to get that Steam Deck I paid for (or better). If they would change the contract without telling me first and then asked me to pay more money, I would be very angry. I don't care if these Bitwig devices are good or not. They promised something for their customers, charged 170€ for it, and then changed the contract silently afterwards. And free upgrades usually mean free upgrades, even if you try to introduce some special addon upgrades later. Or if you end up doing it, you'll let people know about it months or at least weeks in advance.

[_leras]

They knew there would be significant backlash. Our task is to make it more intense and last longer than they can stomach and also make sure that they see a noticeable dip in revenue. That's the only way to set things right.

Err, no.

Sorry, I'm not that negative or vindictive.

I also assume people have good intentions and are trying their best.

[PieBerger]

They knew there would be significant backlash. Our task is to make it more intense and last longer than they can stomach and also make sure that they see a noticeable dip in revenue. That's the only way to set things right.

Err, no.

Sorry, I'm not that negative or vindictive.

I also assume people have good intentions and are trying their best.

Ignoring facts and gaslight is negative and vindictive behaviour.

[Lazarus451]

Bitwig might someday have A) an upgrade plan (more expensive, contains every device etc.), and B) an update plan (cheaper, contains core updates).

But they can't bend words and contracts like it was some bar conversation with a drunken friend. Upgrade is an upgrade: "to improve the quality or usefulness of something, or change it for something newer or of a better standard" (Cambridge dictionary). All upgrades for free is quite simple.

A new external plugin made by Bitwig (not only inside bitwig daw) might be a different story. And even then, they should communicate in advance.

[svero]

Complete mess. Sales and marketing disaster. There's zero clarity about what is a paid update and what is included in the maintenance/core package and where resources are being spent. There were probably ways to do this and I might have even happily looked forward to paying for special add-ons in some circumstances, but this is just a confused mess. I looked around at other DAWs for the first time in years. That's huge. IMO they should refund anyone who paid for spectral suite and include it for all current subscriptions as a point update for free. That would start to fix this. THEN they can talk about how to monetize going forward and offer different packages etc... If they don't do that I'm a little unsure how they're going to recover from this. There's no question in my mind this will hit subscription renewals hard.

[SLiC]

Irrespective of all the underhanded methods employed to do thd, I really dislike the fundamental concept of everyone not having access to the same core (built in) devices. It creates issues down the line in exchanging rack presets and projects. Every Bitwig user should have the same devices and grid modules.

[klovne]

If the spectral suite stuff is not an update but an addon, then why did they increment the version number of Bitwig Studio when releasing it

[] Peter:H []

Think about it this way ... it gives you more excitement in the new stuff lottery.
Before: Will they still hold back the long awaited feature to not starv their update pipeline and still keep people buy upgrade plans.
Now: In addition you now have a second lottery: What features gonna end up as core vs paid add-ons. And the previous lottery is obviously still in place.
--
Don't tell me that people bought plans in "retrospective / what we have"... Bitwigs community always worked in "futur whats to come" mind set. I never owned Bitwig 1, but I can imagine that users were only motivated by the idea and promises of the company to buy in, because they saw a great potential in Butwig an therefore bought plan after plan in expectance to get a fully fledged DAW in the future...
We have to be very honest: Bitwig might be great, but it still misses a lot to be compareable to more mature DAWs. And the idea of the community was to go the steps together and invest in the idea... I think this idea now died.

[don_looney]

If the spectral suite stuff is not an update but an addon, then why did they increment the version number of Bitwig Studio when releasing it

I think they had to change something in the core to bring in the new addon features.
In the future this could be independent from now on, my guess.

To all the haters:
If this addon was normally included in the update plan 90% of users would argue that this is not what they have been waiting for. They will wait until MSEG Modulator, MIDI comping, online collaboration, normalization and cancer curation would be included and that they paid the devs to deliver that.
Just buy an upgrade plan if you are happy with the features which are already included and for the next 12 months you get some updates. Bitwig is very fast with updates. Look what happened with 4.0 to 4.3.

Bitwig is my main DAW since version 1. This is a small group of people working at Bitwig. I think they have 4 to 5 devs. Maybe they need new money which is totally normal for a small business in a very saturated market. What would be the alternative, I can tell you that - increase the payment for the update plan. People would have the same discussion: They increased the update plan and I don't need Spectral devices I want .....

[dupont]

My subcription plan will finishe in a couple of week but I will not renew it.
I think Bitwig will start to undertstand they made a miskake with this add ones when their users data base will fade....
Note since I purchased my subcription plan 1 year ago, I had expected more new features ! Which kind of usefull features were added since last year ! Noting I can really be exited of.