How can the average consumer tell if the plugin is actually worth the asking price?

[FabienTDR]

In many cases, the plugins are probably not worth developing in the first place. Meaning, the dev would make more money serving burgers at fastfood shop or a gas station on a half-time job. So if you really like something, maybe it's worth overpaying a bit, as an investment in dev's survival.

I guess you don't have much experience in the field. Motivated developers can earn a very comfortable living in the boring corporate software industry (e.g. standard rates for freelance SAP devs start at 1500$ per day). Most devs with a bit of experience easily make more money than their dentists.

Even with halfway average web coding skills, you don't have to work in fastfood shops ever.

[FabienTDR]

double

[xoxos]

Most devs with a bit of experience easily make more money than their dentists.

apparently i lack experience in this field.







ahahahahahahaha *coughs up a major internal organ*


o, there it is! i *forgot the satanism*

yup, there's the thing i really need to get ahead in this industry of exploiting ignorance!

remember: compiler, dsp tutorial, and a goat to f**k when you go to the lodge!

[camsr]

The amount of code in modern software is quite huge. One of the worst aspects of this (in my own opinion) is that about 80% or more of the effort goes to the GUI!

If you want to think about how much the software is worth try breaking it into parts. How useful would it be without a GUI? How useful would the GUI be without the audio parts?

A lot of time (here) goes into listening to determine if something has "ear candy" value. Usually audio DSP algorithms can be quite simple, foregoing FFT processing and the like. Getting to a reasonable algorithm takes more time than code. It's important to also point out that code is not everything. I can only guess the amount of time spent doing UI code versus DSP code is also larger, but as far as any user is concerned, they will know right away when something sounds good.

Plugin users should be wary of judging quality based on looks. While this is always pleasing, and can improve creativity, the purpose is to provide audio. A good demo can go a long way to impressing potential customers, and IMO, a good demo is worth the extra effort.

[BertKoor]

Plugin users should be wary of judging quality based on looks.

Well, suppose the plugin looks like this:


Even when the synth underneath actually "sounds like a Virus", then I can promise you get less appraisal than if you build a bog-standard VA with the basic SynthEdit blocks but with a GUI that resembles a MiniMoog.

[pekbro]

I tend to find out all I can about a developer before spending money on their products.
Favoring the highly educated and or experienced, especially if the product is costly.

If I don't know your background, or if it has little to do with the production world, chances
are I'm not going to buy anything from you unless its dirt cheap. Its not really that hard
to guess where the quality is going to come from, although its not always the case.

Demo, demo, demo...

[camsr]

Even when the synth underneath actually "sounds like a Virus", then I can promise you get less appraisal than if you build a bog-standard VA with the basic SynthEdit blocks but with a GUI that resembles a MiniMoog.

Why do you think that is? I suppose your comparison is void, yo are comparing a plugin that looks like windows 98 to everything else out there

[Zombie Queen]

Most devs with a bit of experience easily make more money than their dentists.

By making VST plugins?

[masterhiggins]

Most devs with a bit of experience easily make more money than their dentists.

By making VST plugins?

That's clearly not what he said.

[Numanoid]

Searching for "VST" in Google, I get about 22 million 300 thousand hits

Out of which Dexed is the top featured pick image, chosen to illustrate the subject.

Quite interesting a freeware VST is top of the heap at Google, how they gonna make money out of clicks to that?

[Zombie Queen]

Out of which Dexed is the top featured pick image, chosen to illustrate the subject.

Google bots act differently depending on user. I get Serum as top pick.
Then I found that there is a company named VST manufacturing some sort of hydraulic machinery.

[chk071]

Why make things so complicated? Someone came up with a price for the plugin he developed, the market decided if it was the correct price or not, competing products opted for a similar price, or not, and you, as a consumer, decide whether something is worth the asking price or not. No need to make it more complicated than that, IMO. Developers need to make sure the development costs are covered, and, if it is a success, they're able to buy a Porsche, or, rather, to expand the company, realise bigger projects by employing more people, or even buy out competing companies. That's the nice thing about social market economy, isn't it? It's all possible. Not just that everyone gets the same, and only can live from with it, just. Ultimately, the consumer decides about success or not, by his buying behavior.

I could develop a soft synth, and charge 1.000 € for it. But that wouldn't be very smart, because noone would buy it at that price tag. People are used to pay 150 €, or more, for a good featured synth. I could sell it for 100 € too though, if i want to beat down the competition. It might, or might not affect the buyer though, because he might think, for 100 €, it's not as good as the 150 € synth. Or word-of-mouth recommendation indicates that it might not be as good as the 150 €, therefor priced lower. Or it sells like hot cakes, and gains a lot of popularity, but you have a problem with support with so many people who bought your synth, and the associated support requests.

[whyterabbyt]

Most devs with a bit of experience easily make more money than their dentists.

By making VST plugins?

That's clearly not what he said.

Actually its FabienTDR who completely missed what ZombieQueen said.

[Numanoid]

Google bots act differently depending on user. I get Serum as top pick.

I guess so.

This is the search string for "VST" I used in Google:

https://www.google.no/webhp?ie=utf-8&oe ... 7QCw#q=vst

I then get these top hits:



By clicking that link, you get different results?

[Zombie Queen]

By clicking that link, you get different results?

Yep. 2/10 of top results are not audio related.