iZotope discontinues many plugins (iZotope and Exponential Audio)

[ramseysounds]

They should be forced to open source every abandoned software. It would allow users to find and fund maintainers

Forced? We live in a dictatorship now?

[eerie_audio]

In order to even get the "updated code", you need to invest in WUP. Granted, you can install multiple versions in parallel. But that's a PITA, unnecessary bloat and this does not give you more recent code versions (as in: VST3 or native x64).

"Forced Yearly Upgrades", as in... if you want to continue your old plugins with "updated code", and get certain new releases on top of that.

In my case... if I were to use certain plugins without investing in WUP, I'd need to install V9, V10 and V14 to be able to use all the plugins I paid for (I recently bought "Harmony", that is V14+ only). Or "pay for upgrades". And Waves "force upgrades" on the dot... current record is 9 months life-span of a major version.

So as nice as your counter example is in terms of maintaining code, which is all good and fine. It's not as "clean cut" as it may look like.

I think the most important point being made is that, you're not required to keep your WUP up to date, especially if you're on the same system running the same O/S. Because, most of the incremental updates are minor. But, here's the kicker, if you ever choose to update your system and O/S, you will always have a safeguard by purchasing WUP, which will always allow you to properly function with the current requirements, adding support and future proofing your authorization and transfer of system registration.

[ROTMetro]

They should be forced to open source every abandoned software. It would allow users to find and fund maintainers

Forced? We live in a dictatorship now?

What does the electoral process have to do with consumer rights? There are plenty of democracies that have policies requiring company's to support their products for a certain number of years. When a company sells a product, they are making the claim that the product is suitable for use for the purpose of the product. If I sell a car with no replacement parts I would be shut down as a company as being able to fix a car if part of it's 'suitable use'. With music plugins, people often go back to projects made years before. Therefor a claim could be made that suitable use requires the company ensures the user can do that, either in the form of continued support for the product, or by releasing all rights to the product if they no longer want to maintain it.

TLDR - Having a legal remedy when a company lies to consumers and says 'use our product for purpose XYZ' then makes their product unsuitable for purpose XYZ is not dictatorship, it is simply holding companies that lie to consumers accountable for their lies.

[ramseysounds]

They should be forced to open source every abandoned software. It would allow users to find and fund maintainers

Forced? We live in a dictatorship now?

What does the electoral process have to do with consumer rights? There are plenty of democracies that have policies requiring company's to support their products for a certain number of years. When a company sells a product, they are making the claim that the product is suitable for use for the purpose of the product. If I sell a car with no replacement parts I would be shut down as a company as being able to fix a car if part of it's 'suitable use'. With music plugins, people often go back to projects made years before. Therefor a claim could be made that suitable use requires the company ensures the user can do that, either in the form of continued support for the product, or by releasing all rights to the product if they no longer want to maintain it.

TLDR - Having a legal remedy when a company lies to consumers and says 'use our product for purpose XYZ' then makes their product unsuitable for purpose XYZ is not dictatorship, it is simply holding companies that lie to consumers accountable for their lies.

Get a life and stop being so dramatic.

[tappert]

]Get a life and stop being so dramatic.

What? We can't have our own opinion?
We live in a dictatorship now?

[Compyfox]

Just a short follow up:

iZtope finally responded to my support ticket. Depending on the follow-up response to my ticket update, I might or might not add some more commentary.

For the moment:

• I pretty much got the same commentary as I got through Facebook (like: the longevity of plugin use).
• apparently, iZotope plans "upgrade/crossgrade deals for Exponential Audio software users"... mails will be sent out soon(tm)
• I just got another confirmation that there are no plans for a follow-up for Trash 3 or Iris 3, and that it is "unlikely" (quote) that we will see any in the future. "Excalibur" wasn't even mentioned.
• I was assured that iZotope will be communicative regarding upgrade plans
• I was assured that "Stutter Edit 2" will not be discontinued, yet there are no timelines for a M1 compatibility release (reminder: MacOS 11 Big Sur with M1 support was released October 2020, Stutter Edit 2 was released June 2020, no updates for either OS!), but it "works with Rosetta 2"

...yeah, no.
The trust is out of the window. And I will hold them to their "promises"...


...and so should you!



Tread it caution, everyone. I fear another "scorched earth" scenario in the near future with another member of the "Soundwide" family. (and there goes another support email -- I do have a sizeable toolset from them after all, stuff I that are "daily drivers" and can't be easily replaced either)

[machinesworking]

Actually... here is the fun part...

AKAI Software, Sonivox, Air Music Tech... if you dig a little bit, you will find out that these are all the same developers. Though granted, "Transfuser" could see a visual uplift (and UI resize features). Not to mention, finally a user account that keeps me updated on software updates.

sure, but inMusic is the money source, and they decide which products get attention, so Air hasn’t received much in years being not a huge source of cash, but Akai being profitable does. This is relevant to the discussion, conglomerates or investment firms that buy up companies help to determine their trajectories.

[Compyfox]

Not quite... Air Music Tech still released new plugins, while Sonivox's last notable one was "Solina Redux", and I think the Keyboard collection. Air on the other hand released plenty of modules for AKAI MPC and standalone (IIRC: Hype, Odyssey and Tubesynth)

And since we can't seem to shake that topic, thanks for the reminder to download the new MPC Software updates

[zerocrossing]

Honestly, I don't get their strategy. If they think this isn't going to have a huge hit on their already damaged credibility, they're in a state of denial. After what happened with Iris 2, I decided I was done with them. Don't get me wrong, I'll use them until they stop working, but I don't see myself ever giving them my money again.

[theviirus]

At this point, I almost want Izotope to sell Trash2 to a competitor so they can maintain it. But I think it would require something izotope has not provided so far in this matter; transparency. What bugs? What issues? You have nothing to show since the last update three years ago?

This mildly bothers me because I had my eyes on Vocalsynth2. Now i’m second guessing jumping on the PluginBoutique sale out of fear they are doing the same thing; selling it on steep discount with unspoken plans to discontinue it with development having already ceased (unknown to the customers.)

Because you don’t buy software expecting it to be dropped in the next year. Apple M1 didn’t come out of nowhere either; devs had access to sdks for enough time to make progress in the last two years and modernize their products for the M1…which could easily extend the support of the product for more than five years. Knowing this, I am now considering this situation in the following context: Izotope knew two years ago they would not continue development on Trash2 in order to support M1, and continued selling the software anyway. This sounds like fraud, but I haven’t fired up the pitchfork yet.

[ROTMetro]

Forced? We live in a dictatorship now?

Get a life and stop being so dramatic.

Posts blown out of proportion overly dramatic hot take yet calls someone who posts any further response dramatic.

Calls user with 44 internet forum posts as having no life from a profile with 1328 internet forum posts.

[digitalboytn]

This is just the bean counters doing their thing...

They are trained to cut costs ...not build companies..

So their mentality shines through and it is especially prevalent in the private equity companies...

We will see many more amalgamations like the Soundwide deal and it will lead to more of the same outcomes...

Thank God for the smaller,independent developers out there who still have some passion for their creativity...

Without them,we'd all be at the mercy of the bean counters and their masters in the corporate suits

[machinesworking]

Not quite... Air Music Tech still released new plugins, while Sonivox's last notable one was "Solina Redux", and I think the Keyboard collection. Air on the other hand released plenty of modules for AKAI MPC and standalone (IIRC: Hype, Odyssey and Tubesynth)

And since we can't seem to shake that topic, thanks for the reminder to download the new MPC Software updates

The topic is relevant, and you're proving my point by mentioning that Air "released" plug ins for Akai. Air have done next to nothing for their own line up, Transfuser etc. Vacuum "pro" which has never made any sense at all... Anyway, my point wasn't to argue semantics it was to say that investment companies or umbrella companies IMO do not spread the wealth evenly, and deprecate products at a higher rate than privately owned and/or funded audio0 software companies.

And yeah updated the MPC software here , which still does not support VST3 and Apple Silicon for that matter.

[Igor Sena]

All of this is really sad and quite honestly a bit fraudulent on their part to continue to sell products they didn't intend on support in the future and products they knew would be discontinued (they didn't just decide that in a day) but at the same time when you do a little research on who purchased a major stake in iZotope, Native Instruments, etc it's really not surprising. Wouldn't be shocked if more unpleaseant news come out in the next month to a year or 2.

[jules99]

The music software landscape might look quite differently 12 months from now...