iZotope discontinues many plugins (iZotope and Exponential Audio)

[Cyoon]

yea, but SE 2 isn't that old yet I'd say. I mean, iZotope seems to deliver quite capable software for a higher price than others. It means, that they are testing a lot upfront of the release I think and sell it basically feature complete. That's what I kinda noticed. So they probably don't really plan to update it feature wise anymore.

[Compyfox]

If Stutter Edit 2, which released in June 2020 and hasn't been updated since (not kidding), is not on that list -- however Iris 2, which saw the last update in May 2020 was... Then considering that M1 is a thing since October 2020, and now the sudden "drop of old code".

...this does not bode well and I legit fear for the worst here.



EDIT:
And there it is... sent out on 19:05 (UTC+2), just arrived at 21:35 (UTC+2)

Dear Customers,

We're writing with an update on the Exponential Audio line of products.

After assessing the full line of products available, we have confirmed that the Stratus and Symphony reverbs are the pinnacle of Exponential Audio's development. To show our commitment to them, we have just updated them with a new UI as well as native M1 support.

While we will continue supporting Stratus and Symphony, we have made the decision to discontinue selling R2, R4, R2 Surround, PhoenixVerb, PhoenixVerb Surround, NIMBUS, and Excalibur. Support for these products will remain in effect for 12 months from your date of purchase.

Nothing on Iris 2, Breaktweaker and Trash 2 yet... and DDLY has been dropped many months ago already. So while I didn't get "the other mail", I got the one on Exponential Audio... albeit with a delay (probably because this news bit blew TF up and the servers are hammered now).

[kidslow]

Guess this means there will be no Trash 3.

It is implied in the email they sent, but not stated. If there was a Trash 3 planned, you could be darn sure they'd be marketing it in advance. So that much we know. None planned. If there is enough of a grassroots hue & cry, they could change course and continue the product line(s).

If, as alleged (and I believe), this is due to code that became unmanageable going forward, that is 100% on Izotope. Means they did not sufficiently document the code, nor retain developers who had knowledge of it. Corporations are notorious for undervaluing institutional memory, even worse are those owned by private equity looking to turn a quick buck.

There is no reason they could not modernize Trash or Iris (or any of these) black box and deliver a version 3, except allocation of resources. Seems short-sighted, given how much they've built those brands up to now, but I'm not making the tough decisions. Bad as they may be from a branding or customer loyalty standpoint, perhaps they are the best ones for the company?

[Igor Sena]

Not only that, @jens... nearly all Exponential Audio plugins were updated in June 2022. But I'm not a Mac (especially not M1) user, so I can't comment on that.

I also rather not "Hail Waves". While they do indeed keep their code updated, the way they handle things is just as abhorrent. Because their WUP is calculated upon the MSRP, not what their tools usually sell for. There is a "capped maximum fee", but there is no "flat fee" for upgrades -- and they start to do the "forced years upgrade" thing as well. Something that should also be called out IMHO.

However -- this isn't about Waves... this is about iZotope.



Other than that... "Advanced Versions" might(!) turn "Subscription Only" (which I can't seem to find any news/references about). Hard pass! What is this, Adobe?! (@Igor Sena)



@Johnnyjohn
No Trash 3 announced. And I was told "nothing on the horizon" (not an actual quote!). Which is... not a good move.

Not only that, @jens... nearly all Exponential Audio plugins were updated in June 2022. But I'm not a Mac (especially not M1) user, so I can't comment on that.

I also rather not "Hail Waves". While they do indeed keep their code updated, the way they handle things is just as abhorrent. Because their WUP is calculated upon the MSRP, not what their tools usually sell for. There is a "capped maximum fee", but there is no "flat fee" for upgrades -- and they start to do the "forced years upgrade" thing as well. Something that should also be called out IMHO.

However -- this isn't about Waves... this is about iZotope.



Other than that... "Advanced Versions" might(!) turn "Subscription Only" (which I can't seem to find any news/references about). Hard pass! What is this, Adobe?! (@Igor Sena)



@Johnnyjohn
No Trash 3 announced. And I was told "nothing on the horizon" (not an actual quote!). Which is... not a good move.

After a ton of people showed concern and criticism regarding the subscription model, they sent an email clarifying that they will keep perpetual licenses along with the subscription model, etc, however, if i'm not mistaken, when they introduced the subscription model they mentioned something along the lines of the pro versions getting new features and updates (as long as you subscribe) so the real question remains: will the advanced versions eventually stop being supported in terms of bugs, new OS´s, etc until one day they stop working all together, forcing people to go subscription? That remains to be answered.

If that day comes, i wil just search for other companies´s products.

I understand that subscriptions can be very beneficial and alot cheaper if, for example, you need a certain plugin to use on a project/projects and you won't ever use it again, etc but i won't ever do that, unless a similar situation comes in and i don't want to purchase said plugin/plugins.

There is also this video where they pretty much did some planned press on Pensado's Place and talked about the subscription model, basically trying to justify it by claiming inclusiveness ( lots of companies favourite thing to say nowadays because that automatically means it's a good thing and makes people not criticize it or analyze it deeply because if they do that must mean they don't want inclusiveness):



He also mentioned thinking about people on a budget, hence the sub model. That is good in a way, for one of the reasons i mentioned, but in the long run that will end up costing the sub buyers so much more money than if they bought them right away, and if inclusiveness and being budget friendly is the plan, why not rent to own and let people own the plugins instead of having to pay to use them? That would help the people on a budget, right?
Not to mention the slap in the face for all those who have been showing loyalty and purchasing/upgrading the advanced versions. And don't even get me started on the loyalty pricings; they are insulting.

Don't get me wrong, i am being very critical here but iZotope also has great things about the company which i wish more companies had, like their license policies, who are fair for both the consumer and their company; in fact all audio companies who develop plugins or vsts should have such policies ( or similar policies like Spectrasonics), but more and more i'm seeing wrong things happen.
I have had R4, R2, Nimbus, etc for many years now but imagine if you are one of those people who recently bought one of those plugins (or all) and now you read their statement. I know they were on sale very cheap and were even offered for free with other purchases but it's still very scammy to lower the price of such products in a way that everyone buys them, only to then discontinue them. There is no way they did it not knowing they would discontinue them. I would be pissed off.

[SHall1000]

To be fair I’d be more pissed off if I’d payed full price for them.

[Jmf1928]

Given that R2, R4, and Excalibur were my favorite products in the lineup these days, I suppose I’m done. I have a boatload of izotope stuff, but my preferences are for mostly products that are now defunct (EA, Iris, Trash). I’d gladly have paid to upgrade them to M1 if that’s what it took.

[Compyfox]

After a ton of people showed concern and criticism regarding the subscription model, they sent an email clarifying that they will keep perpetual licenses along with the subscription model, etc, however, if i'm not mistaken, when they introduced the subscription model they mentioned something along the lines of the pro versions getting new features and updates (as long as you subscribe) so the real question remains: will the advanced versions eventually stop being supported in terms of bugs, new OS´s, etc until one day they stop working all together, forcing people to go subscription? That remains to be answered.

If that day comes, i wil just search for other companies´s products.

I did a dive at this... dragging video, since I legit never got any follow-up email from iZotope (why am I even subscribed to those?) regarding their Subscription Models.

From my understanding is, that the idea here is to "distribute features sooner". So Subscribers can get access to certain modules sooner "as beta", which are then folded into the next paid major upgrade. I am not a subscriber, I refuse to be a subscriber (no matter the company -- I am rather bled dry by perpetual licenses), so I can't comment on that.

This is what basically another "Soundwide" company is doing. Plugin Alliance releases tools/betas earlier to the masses to the "Bundle Subscribers", and then like 2 weeks later, for everyone. Case in point: see the recent "Kirchoff EQ" beta run.

However, if their focus is "subscription only" in the future, and basically gate-keeping features even with RX (Standard)... then yes... I'm moving on and rather slog through Steinberg products again. Then again, ACON Digital doesn't need to hide. And who knows what HOFA Plugins and NUGEN Audio still have on their plate.



Still... I remain skeptical. If there is no update for "Stutter Edit 2" within the next two months (until Winter Holidays)... then yes... I fear this is another tool on the chopping block.

[ChamomileShark]

It's a shame that this would seem to be the end of the EA stuff. I think I've seen Neoverb on sale cheap so that may also fade away and then it seems the Lexicon legacy is over.

I guess the only products that are likely to be safe from a near future axe would be Ozone, Neutron and RX. Oh and possibly Vinyl for some reason.

[Igor Sena]

After a ton of people showed concern and criticism regarding the subscription model, they sent an email clarifying that they will keep perpetual licenses along with the subscription model, etc, however, if i'm not mistaken, when they introduced the subscription model they mentioned something along the lines of the pro versions getting new features and updates (as long as you subscribe) so the real question remains: will the advanced versions eventually stop being supported in terms of bugs, new OS´s, etc until one day they stop working all together, forcing people to go subscription? That remains to be answered.

If that day comes, i wil just search for other companies´s products.

I did a dive at this... dragging video, since I legit never got any follow-up email from iZotope (why am I even subscribed to those?) regarding their Subscription Models.

From my understanding is, that the idea here is to "distribute features sooner". So Subscribers can get access to certain modules sooner "as beta", which are then folded into the next paid major upgrade. I am not a subscriber, I refuse to be a subscriber (no matter the company -- I am rather bled dry by perpetual licenses), so I can't comment on that.

This is what basically another "Soundwide" company is doing. Plugin Alliance releases tools/betas earlier to the masses to the "Bundle Subscribers", and then like 2 weeks later, for everyone. Case in point: see the recent "Kirchoff EQ" beta run.

However, if their focus is "subscription only" in the future, and basically gate-keeping features even with RX (Standard)... then yes... I'm moving on and rather slog through Steinberg products again. Then again, ACON Digital doesn't need to hide. And who knows what HOFA Plugins and NUGEN Audio still have on their plate.



Still... I remain skeptical. If there is no update for "Stutter Edit 2" within the next two months (until Winter Holidays)... then yes... I fear this is another tool on the chopping block.

I would hope that is the case at least. It would be understandable/tolerable if that was the case. I had ( still have because i haven't researched further besides what i saw at first in their posts) the idea that the pro versions have certain features that the advanced ones don't have. If what you say is true ( i'm honestly not doubting you, just hoping it is true) that is actually nice. But i would be skeptical and wait a few more years to see if they completely ditch the advanced versions aside, updates and bug fixes wise. I guess it depends on how good the subscription model goes.

[KimFish]

All those sales for EA products until recently and then suddenly discontinues before releasing M1 support? This is a scam mfs?

For Trash 2, hope there’s good alternatives I could find, it’s really a good one… Not gonna purchase any iZotope plugins from today btw

[pekbro]

Fortunately, I stopped buying stuff from Izotope long ago. Now you know why they let all that stuff go for
$9, they knew were on the way out. Nice...

[Examigan]

I was confused when I didn't see R4 and Nimbus in my list of products in my account on their website this morning. I wrote to their support about it and they said I can still download them from here:
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/dow ... ducts.html

[Robmobius]

I have a lot of their older products but this comes as no surprise. I use RX Advanced for work, but I wouldn't touch an Izotope plugin with asbestos gloves (YMMV).

[Jafo]

Meh. I uninstalled all my iZotope stuff a while ago for very silly reasons (I grew tired of the way they litter my plugins folder with extra dlls a là SynthEdit) and never really missed them afterwards. I might look into them again if they ever learn how to statically link like everybody else.

[Compyfox]

I would hope that is the case at least. It would be understandable/tolerable if that was the case. I had ( still have because i haven't researched further besides what i saw at first in their posts) the idea that the pro versions have certain features that the advanced ones don't have.

No, if anything, the Advanced version has features "Pro"/Standard doesn't have. I don't understand where you get this "Pro" commentary from. It has always been, and probably will be (until they change minds again): Elements > Standard > Advanced

If what you say is true ( i'm honestly not doubting you, just hoping it is true) that is actually nice. But i would be skeptical and wait a few more years to see if they completely ditch the advanced versions aside, updates and bug fixes wise. I guess it depends on how good the subscription model goes.

.dot upgrades, unless they change that, will remain like they are. Currently: free. Adding new content might be different for subscription models. All of that is yet to be seen.

For Trash 2, hope there’s good alternatives I could find, it’s really a good one… Not gonna purchase any iZotope plugins from today btw

As of this moment, there isn't a 1:1 solution. The closest you might get, is Kilohearts Multipass with the Convolver Module, or the "full bundle" where you also have access to all the EQs.

This way you can build you own custom multi-band tool, run through a saturator, and then use an impulse response on top. However, there aren't as many Saturation Types available, and/or custom waveshaping curves. Unless you can load a third party plugin at some point (then MWaveshaper might do the trick).





I've yet to get the mail on the iZotope products, and my ticket is also pending.