Do names influence your buying behavior?
- KVRAF
- 14178 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Lost and Spaced
Analtortion - would have bought in a second, but it was free.
- KVRist
- 222 posts since 22 Nov, 2022
Not usually. Sometimes they can give credibility, but there are some names I see all over the place that actually will deter my interest. Yes, I know Andrew Scheps won Grammys. He also claims every plugin under the sun is his secret sauce. Oftentimes, plugins with 'the usual suspects' endorsing them (looking at you, Venus Theory) are really trying to sell you on the endorsements rather than the merit of the plugin itself and it's become a telltale sign that you can probably live without it. Don't mind it when it's believable that artist would actually use the plugin though, such as Ferry Corsten endorsing Spire or Deadmau5 endorsing Serum.
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- KVRist
- 96 posts since 27 Feb, 2026
coming at this from the dev side, and names genuinely do matter but maybe not in the way the endorsement model assumes. what i've found is that the name of the plugin itself, not who's attached to it, shapes first impressions hard.
we spent a long time on ours. SMOOTH, WARM, WIDE. one word, describes exactly what it does, no metaphor. the alternative is going the abstract route (something like "Opal" or "Noctua") which sounds cool but tells you nothing and requires extra mental load before you've even heard it.
the celebrity thing is a different game entirely and mostly works on people who aren't already technical enough to evaluate the plugin on its own merits. vortifex's AFX station example is the outlier because that was genuine collaboration, not a sticker on the box.
we spent a long time on ours. SMOOTH, WARM, WIDE. one word, describes exactly what it does, no metaphor. the alternative is going the abstract route (something like "Opal" or "Noctua") which sounds cool but tells you nothing and requires extra mental load before you've even heard it.
the celebrity thing is a different game entirely and mostly works on people who aren't already technical enough to evaluate the plugin on its own merits. vortifex's AFX station example is the outlier because that was genuine collaboration, not a sticker on the box.
- KVRAF
- 14178 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Lost and Spaced
- addled muppet weed
- 111293 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
i buy cds and records based on the names.
- addled muppet weed
- 111293 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
im about to do a massive merch drop, 150 shirt designs alonepekbro wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2026 11:29 pm I buy anything that displays the word “vurt”
Fortunately, not many thing do that.
Wurt is also good.
not true, like fugazi, i have no official merch!! unlike them, its lack of funds/need rather than out of principle.
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- KVRAF
- 1763 posts since 1 Aug, 2006 from Italy
"Big names" have no weight in my decision of purchasing something. Maybe, from time to time, they can catch my attention and make me look at a specific tool that I would have ignored otherwise, but then the tool has to deliver. Maybe I'll spend a little more time researching the tool but that's it, any purchase depends only on what the tool is doing.
I don't care who's using it... I'm more influenced by good demonstrations of what a tool can do (and even then, it's not just about "a good sound", there must be some compelling reasons to choose it over the competition), if I can apply it to what I'm doing.
At the end of the day, I'm the one who's going to use the tool, so it has to deliver the results I want...
I don't care who's using it... I'm more influenced by good demonstrations of what a tool can do (and even then, it's not just about "a good sound", there must be some compelling reasons to choose it over the competition), if I can apply it to what I'm doing.
At the end of the day, I'm the one who's going to use the tool, so it has to deliver the results I want...
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- KVRAF
- 2423 posts since 10 Jan, 2018
It's often the older guys flogging the mixing tools.
I suppose they want to top up the pension fund a bit.
I've never heard of most of them and don't care who they've worked with.
People attach their name to all kinds of stuff and I'm cynical about this in general.
An Eddie Kramer bong might have interested me when I was late teens, but not plugins all these decades later.
I suppose they want to top up the pension fund a bit.
I've never heard of most of them and don't care who they've worked with.
People attach their name to all kinds of stuff and I'm cynical about this in general.
An Eddie Kramer bong might have interested me when I was late teens, but not plugins all these decades later.
- KVRAF
- 2707 posts since 23 Mar, 2005 from Detroit
If your plugin name is so esoteric without meaning or relation to what the plugin does, I'll probably have a hard time finding it in my plugin list/folder and it will be soon forgotten. If it is a short precise name that's easy to spell I'll at least have a chance/clue on how to find it if I do a search if I am actively looking for it.
- KVRAF
- 5382 posts since 25 Jan, 2014 from The End of The World as We Knowit
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Winstontaneous Winstontaneous https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=98336
- KVRAF
- 2593 posts since 15 Feb, 2006 from Another Green World
Haha, along the same lines I can't stand hipster stompbox makers who give their pedals (and often the controls!) inscrutable names with no correlation to their function.metalifuxx wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 6:15 am If your plugin name is so esoteric without meaning or relation to what the plugin does, I'll probably have a hard time finding it in my plugin list/folder and it will be soon forgotten. If it is a short precise name that's easy to spell I'll at least have a chance/clue on how to find it if I do a search if I am actively looking for it.
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- KVRian
- 1158 posts since 2 Oct, 2021
That is the good SynthEdit stuff...
ABX is enemy to GAS
- KVRAF
- 2707 posts since 23 Mar, 2005 from Detroit
Also this. THIS. Any developer, THIS, this right here ^^^^. One of my current biggest peeves and annoyances, is dumbing down control parameters like a kindergartner/toddler is using a plugin. You are not being cute or clever cool hip at all. It's the quickest way for me to not want to ever use your plugin, if I have to lookup in a manual every time I use the plugin. Also along those lines, adding whatever elaborate or busy artwork that blends right in with the controls to the point where you don't know if its a knob/parameter or part of the background, and there are only 3 tiny controls with the rest of empty wasted space taken up by whatever art or AI gen graphics. It is counter intuitive and counter productive.Winstontaneous wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 7:08 amHaha, along the same lines I can't stand hipster stompbox makers who give their pedals (and often the controls!) inscrutable names with no correlation to their function.metalifuxx wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 6:15 am If your plugin name is so esoteric without meaning or relation to what the plugin does, I'll probably have a hard time finding it in my plugin list/folder and it will be soon forgotten. If it is a short precise name that's easy to spell I'll at least have a chance/clue on how to find it if I do a search if I am actively looking for it.
- addled muppet weed
- 111293 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
