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

[myfragileego]

There will also be work required to update the add-ons, and that work will be paid for by the update plan fees because after the initial purchase they can't charge a mini update plan for each add on. Or can they??? $20 per year to keep the $pectral $uite updated, and so on for each add on. But pretty sure that would not fly, so it just means the update plan fees will subsidise updates for the paid add ons too. It's just not been thought through. It makes no sense.

Spare a thought for the people at Bitwig who said this was a terrible idea and were ignored. Hypothetical people. But I'd like to think they spoke up and were overruled.

[Dionysos]

Still it is a fact!

It's just your opinion, man. But keep telling you it's fact, it comes across as very important.

And another of my concerns even before this "incident" was - I don't see a vision, I don't know where BW is heading, too.

You seriously don't? You must not even be trying to look for it, then. Their vision and priorities seem pretty obvious to me. I think you just don't like what you see and therefore claim not to see anything.

[don_looney]

Still it is a fact! Yawn, Yawn.
And another of my concerns even before this "incident" was - I don't see a vision, I don't know where BW is heading, too. Yawn. Will it focus on certain niche markets?

Just a question:
Do you know or see a vision from any other DAW company like Abelton/Steinberg....?
I think the online collab is still a point of the road map which was introduced with V1.

[Sibben]

I found Bitwig to be on the expensive side as it was, considering it's elegant but limited in feature set, but I liked the fact that it was a no-fuss all in one license. This is no longer true. Now Bitwig just became a DAW that charges just like Cubase or ProTools but don't have the feature set of either.

[ollie.rollover]

Have they made an official statement or apology yet?!

[flori89]

Have they made an official statement or apology yet?!

They added a new answer to their FAQ:
https://t.co/5B3AqH62I2

[krazzmann]

I definitely like Alckemy's take on it:

[jclosed]

The biggest concern for me at this very moment is...

What do I really get for the €170 yearly renewal?

If you see it the other way you get everything which is already out by the date you activate it and on top of that you get some updates for free in the next 12 month. That is how I look at the update plan.
If I buy Cubase X I get exactly that, nothing more.

If Bitwig marketed it that way, it would be fine, but they actively encourage you to auto-renew your upgrade plan or to activate it immediately after you buy it. They want you to pay for months without updates and now they even exclude some updates from your plan.

I agree with that. I payed the yearly fee of €170 to let them surprise me. Sure it was a bit of a risk if those thing are right into my alley or not. But now? Nope - Too big of a risk. Big chance that everything even remotely interesting goes into the "payed for" bin.

So - Now from paying beforehand I go into paying afterwards. So the next Renewal will not be the upcoming date my present €170 Renewal runs out, but at least a year later. Maybe even longer if nothing interesting is being offered.

Not a biggie - I am sure Bitwig will survive without my money...

[] Peter:H []

Still it is a fact! Yawn, Yawn.
And another of my concerns even before this "incident" was - I don't see a vision, I don't know where BW is heading, too. Yawn. Will it focus on certain niche markets?

Just a question:
Do you know or see a vision from any other DAW company like Abelton/Steinberg....?
I think the online collab is still a point of the road map which was introduced with V1.

Yeah, Steinberg, Cubase Pro. I can only talk about DAWs I own. It's Vision is to provide a complete DAW without any niche tendency, providing tools and featurey for the whole production lifecycle, and as such they offer everything from midi, notation, chords, synths to mixing and mastering stuff and much more.
but thats comparing a company with a long history and a bigger market share and a long stable marketing of different product versions... reliability ... to a company that partly lives on the promise/prospect to be innovative and catch up step by step on commodity features. I mean Bitwig 1 compared to Cubase 8 (just guessing that 8 was out when BW 1 started) lives on concepts, niches, expectations and promises for the future... who should have spent money without that "bright future" in mind?
If you spin this mind set year after year ... to get the users buy upgrade plans... but the promises partly broken in the past and in recent years the promises were replaced by the vague idea of users that bitwig will get this and that ... complete vaccume of any direction... I mean "We do FX" ... hilarious... because I haven't had plenty of reverbs, choruses...and there's a clear lack of free / os ones

[SLiC]

The scariest thing for me now is that Bitwig alone decides what's included in an update and what (and how much) we have to pay for anything they decide isn't part of an update. MESG? Maybe they make that a paid extra, cool new synth...paid extra...buy the DAW, buy the now limited upgrade plans, buy the 'add ons'...We still don't even have the 'network sharing' we were promised since V1, they didn't bother finishing comping (still no midi) but they have time for this?

[ThereatGrumbleMorn]

I agree with that. I payed the yearly fee of €170 to let them surprise me. ...

I would suggest, they succeeded.

[Midibitch]

I was at the Superbooth in 2018 and 2019 and spoke to the Bitwig team. I think they are a team of max 20 people. The main guy behind Clap is Alexandre from Bitwig who started this format on his own in his private time in 2015, i think. Later on Bitwig and U-He joined forces to develop it further and bring more company's in. This is a very passionate small group behind Bitwig with no major VC's in the background. It is not fair to call it a fraud or rug. This is far from reality and not fair to everyone working at Bitwig. They always delivered new updates from version 1 until now and I think they will continue to do so.
We should stay calm and wait for the next updates.

After two nights of sleep and time to calm down, I still love BW as my favourite DAW. I think the team do a good job and this business model move is shure about money and budget to develop in this hard times. I dont believe it's about greed! They underestimate the impact of their idea to change their way of working and monetize. The communication is still a mess and I can't believe that they dont communicate public with their customers. All they do is to announce and not to explain. I hope this won't break their neck as a small company. I'm still sad about this mess because BW didn't deserve this shitstorm at all. Its a nice and small company with really nice people and a great product. But this way of rolling out a new business step is a complete communication mess.

[Dionysos]

who should have spent money without that "bright future" in mind?

I generally buy things based on what they are, not based on vague what-might-be. You're projecting your own (unrealistic) expectations onto everyone else.

Btw, "providing a complete DAW without any niche tendency" could just as well be interpreted as "no vision at all, really", or at least a very weak lowest-common-demoninator one. Bitwig's not for you, time to move on.

[flori89]

I generally buy things based on what they are, not based on vague what-might-be.

No, sorry to get technical here, but if you buy an "upgrade plan" you are doing exactly that: Handing over money for a vague what-might-be in the timeframe of your subscription.

[don_looney]

If you spin this mind set year after year ... to get the users buy upgrade plans... but the promises partly broken in the past and in recent years the promises were replaced by the vague idea of users that bitwig will get this and that ... complete vaccume of any direction... I mean "We do FX" ... hilarious... because I haven't had plenty of reverbs, choruses...and there's a clear lack of free / os ones

For me it is not about future promises. I buy the upgrade plan and activate it when I see an upgrade which I want to have and that's it. If I want a certain device or feature I use a VST or a different DAW for it. I could really use a right click normalize feature. But that is not a deal breaker for me and I can live with that.

Most people did not ask for a EQ+ / Delay+ etc but those FX are great. Keep in mind that Bitwig is really cross platform including Linux. That was a promise from the beginning and it still is today. Also the apple world with ARM and Intel.
I think those native devices are a big benefit for every Linux Bitwig user. Bitwig was never a DAW with a linear workflow, maybe it will never be and I am okay with that.