Skein - Glitch machines : FM synthesizer

[WasteLand]

i hope he will implement a way that you can register your plugins from Pluginboutique for future updates and upgrade options....

that is my question also, can you register the plugins bought via PB now at glitchmachines?

[nanostream]

Good for them, I hope it works out. They/PB taught me not to buy at full price, but to wait for a crazy sale. I’ve always wondered how they pay rent.

Some official info about updates and upgrades would be great, though.

[buffalo roam]

I can understand that Glitchmachines wants to make more money per sale, but $89 for Skein is steep, when I can buy a super-powerful synth like Synthmaster 3 for $75 on sale or Pigments for $99 on sale. Much as I like the presets I've heard, I don't see myself buying Skein without a hefty sale price--especially when I've bought other Glitchmachine products for $10. Skein just does a certain range of things well and is not a full-fledged FM synth like others on the market. Sorry.

[nanostream]

I can understand that Glitchmachines wants to make more money per sale, but $89 for Skein is steep, when I can buy a super-powerful synth like Synthmaster 3 for $75 on sale or Pigments for $99 on sale. Much as I like the presets I've heard, I don't see myself buying Skein without a hefty sale price--especially when I've bought other Glitchmachine products for $10. Skein just does a certain range of things well and is not a full-fledged FM synth like others on the market. Sorry.

It’s not worth 90 bucks for me as well, but I can easily see myself buying it at half price or so at some point, assuming they’ll have Black Friday sales or whatever. But those 5€ sales at PB were crazy imho (good for you and me in the short term, though).

[martiu]

i am sure they will have sales but maybe not as drastic as the plugin boutique ones, so half price sales is very likely

[thecontrolcentre]

I own every other GM plugin (all bought direct from Glitchmachines), so contacted them to ask for a discount on Skein, but they very politely refused. I won't be buying at the current price.

[morphex]

I’ve purchased all of the Glitchmachines plug-ins through the years, and I think that they make excellent sonic spices that can be used in almost any kind of music, as long as you’re not too heavy-handed with the effects.

The price may seem a little high compared to other full-featured synths in the same price range, as previously noted with Pigments 5 and SynthMaster 3 being good examples. Even Current 2 was only $10 more when it was on sale. Skein is definitely more of a niche VST like the rest of their awesome lineup.

It’s also really stable on my Intel iMac and my MBP with an M3 Max processor. I really expected it to be more resource heavy. But it’s quick and snappy, there’s no complicated authorization process with GM plug-ins, and the range of different possible sounds is fairly wide.

The onboard effects and glitching feature adds even more bang for the buck. So, although an intro price may have helped sales, it’s still a potent take on FM and it’s worth it if the Glitchmachines style of audio extremism is “your bag baby.”

I have no doubt that people will flock to retailers like Plugin Boutique in order to save some cash. And like their previous releases, it will probably show up highly-discounted months from now. I hope that Ivo earns enough to continue developing these quirky little machines so that I can continue having fun using them.

[sandandpaint]

I’ve purchased all of the Glitchmachines plug-ins through the years, and I think that they make excellent sonic spices that can be used in almost any kind of music, as long as you’re not too heavy-handed with the effects.

The price may seem a little high compared to other full-featured synths in the same price range, as previously noted with Pigments 5 and SynthMaster 3 being good examples. Even Current 2 was only $10 more when it was on sale. Skein is definitely more of a niche VST like the rest of their awesome lineup.

It’s also really stable on my Intel iMac and my MBP with an M3 Max processor. I really expected it to be more resource heavy. But it’s quick and snappy, there’s no complicated authorization process with GM plug-ins, and the range of different possible sounds is fairly wide.

The onboard effects and glitching feature adds even more bang for the buck. So, although an intro price may have helped sales, it’s still a potent take on FM and it’s worth it if the Glitchmachines style of audio extremism is “your bag baby.”

I have no doubt that people will flock to retailers like Plugin Boutique in order to save some cash. And like their previous releases, it will probably show up highly-discounted months from now. I hope that Ivo earns enough to continue developing these quirky little machines so that I can continue having fun using them.

from what it looks like the price is reasonable - I just dont have that money for a synth at the moment when the exchange rate is so dire. Pretty sure I will end up getting it tho, hopefully the US economy tanks soon and the US$ loses a shitload of value - unlikely given they are moving to overt oligarchy

[pocvecem]

Well, I would gladly pay the full price to support the developer. But only if can demo a software before purchasing it.
Word.

[morphex]

Well, I would gladly pay the full price to support the developer. But only if can demo a software before purchasing it.
Word.

I like the strategy of releasing a “lite version” of a plug-in for free, or at least a very low price so that people can use it without the usual demo restrictions. Glitchmachines offers a couple of free effects that I found very useful before I invested in the full versions.

Another couple of really good examples are Dawesome’s Zyklop and u-he’s Zebralette3. Both give you a powerful instrument to use with the sound engine taken from the full-featured synth that they’re based on.

There’s no time restrictions and you can save your own patches. Slimmed-down versions have almost always convinced me to purchase the full version when I can afford it. It also shows a company’s good intentions when they give back to the community that supports their work with their hard-earned cash.

I know that this may not be feasible for some developers due to the cost and time involved. But as a customer, it’s very attractive to be able to become familiar with a synth before committing to a full retail price tag. It’s also an effective way to get the attention of a bigger audience, and that could potentially lead to more customers down the road.

Now, I don’t know about all of the complexities involved in bringing plug-ins to market. And I respect the brilliant minds who do it well, including Glitchmachines. Having access to a demo makes common sense to me and I’d like to see more developers adopt that mindset.

[HOTF]

I had a chat with Ivo from GM and this might answer some your questions :

"Thanks for reaching out! Yes, I finally ended my contract with PB because it wasn't possible for me to stay in business if I continued to sell our plugins for 90% off.

Not to worry; as far as I understand it, and forthcoming point updates (i.e. 2.1, 2.2. 2.3 etc.) that may happen will be submitted to PB and you can download them via their dashboard. They just won't be published on the front end of their site.

Then, when the eventual V2 or V3 etc. come out, all you have to do is email me here with proof of purchase from PB and you will get the same upgrade discount that customers who originally purchased directly would get. At that point, the relevant purchase will live on our server and you can only access it there.

Of course in an ideal world, we could just migrate everyone from PB to our database, but I use a pretty limited third-party merchant platform (DPD) and it just lacks the functionality and bandwidth to pull that off. So in a nutshell, everything you bought from us via PB up to this point stays there, and all of the small free updates for those products will be delivered via their dashboard. Then, anything new from this point on is purchased from us directly.

As far as sales go, I really want to get away from this whole discount culture thing because it's a race to zero if that makes sense. Going forward, I plan to cap our sales at 35% off, which I think is very fair, especially considering that I already set our prices lower than many of our competitors to begin with. I usually have one or two sales per year - situated around Summer and then the Holidays.

Let me know if I can assist you further and thanks for your continued support!

Cheers,

Ivo"

[WasteLand]

thanks @HOTF, this answers all my questions....

[pekbro]

Hmm, well hopefully this works out for them, since they are nearly alone in such a niche market. I have all their plugins, but the bulk of them were acquired at PB. I don't see my collection expanding much further with this news, maybe, we shall see how it goes...

[robindrieghe]

I hope this goes well for them, Ivo is a very good dude, the price for future users will be very different but we can all agree that 10 bucks for plugin is not very good for the plugin maker

Better sell 1000x for 5€ then 500x for 50€.

[vurt]

I hope this goes well for them, Ivo is a very good dude, the price for future users will be very different but we can all agree that 10 bucks for plugin is not very good for the plugin maker

Better sell 1000x for 5€ then 500x for 50€.

more users = more support, which costs money...

fewer, more discerning customers, minimises support requests.