iZotope Iris 2

[Sampleconstruct]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for explaining it. I wasn't an IRIS owner so I didn't know that no updates had been made for 2.5 years since the first release. That's crazy. I think everyone can concur that u-he has much better/more open support than izotope has been displaying lately.

It sounds like it's a culmination of reasons to be angry with izotope as opposed to just compatibility.

-Sam

Well, anger doesn't help anybody here, but the issue with iZotope is more about unfulfilled expectations in combination with a faulty release and a funky update policy in general. Altogether this results in what everybody can read in this and other threads across the net. I love all the iZotope products which I use, but I refuse to upgrade some of them until they will stop working, if then there is no real alternative on the market I'll give in and give them more of my money.

[CrystalWizard]

It sounds like it's a culmination of reasons to be angry with izotope as opposed to just compatibility.

-Sam

for me it's unhappiness/heavy duty turn-off and most definitely for many more reasons ( but including backwards compatibility) as stated many times in this thread.

[paterpeter]

As much as I appreciate Brad joining here, I wonder: why didn't iZotope try to make a polished update from the start? Now they are promising their best efforts to make it right. But why didn't they have the pride to make a good update from day one? Did they think nobody would mind? Do they really care that little about existing customers?

I fear that this is just damage control and when this is over (one way or another), they are back to their old policy: practically no point updates for their products with expensive upgrades to new full versions with dubious improvements.

Hopefully I'm completely wrong and they actually learned something from this case and Ozone. But the fact that they have investors to answer to makes me fear the worst

[TabSel]

Exactly.

[Sampleconstruct]

Hopefully I'm completely wrong and they actually learned something from this case and Ozone.

and RX3->4.

[lnikj]

On the Zebra 3 / Iris 2 issue, I think one of the differences will be that U-He, a customer focused company, will likely make sure that Zebra 2 continues to work through OS and DAW upgrades, knowing that people have invested heavily in Zebra 2.

I doubt that Izotope will do the same for Iris 1. Brad - please tell me otherwise?

[lnikj]

Again, on the Zebra 3 issue, Urs has stated that the upgrade from Zebra 2 to Zebra 3 will cost $30. That will be for a major upgrade that they've spent years working on.

Izotope, by contrast, would like to charge $99, and $149 going forward, for a minor 'update'.

[Spitfire31]

Hopefully I'm completely wrong and they actually learned something from this case and Ozone.

and RX3->4.

I was just going to +1 that, when I saw that you beat me to it…

/Joachim

[Caine123]

As much as I appreciate Brad joining here, I wonder: why didn't iZotope try to make a polished update from the start? Now they are promising their best efforts to make it right. But why didn't they have the pride to make a good update from day one? Did they think nobody would mind? Do they really care that little about existing customers?

I fear that this is just damage control and when this is over (one way or another), they are back to their old policy: practically no point updates for their products with expensive upgrades to new full versions with dubious improvements.

Hopefully I'm completely wrong and they actually learned something from this case and Ozone. But the fact that they have investors to answer to makes me fear the worst

maybe there were more people complaining now, i even started some topics and also some followed!

[aMUSEd]

On the Zebra 3 / Iris 2 issue, I think one of the differences will be that U-He, a customer focused company, will likely make sure that Zebra 2 continues to work through OS and DAW upgrades, knowing that people have invested heavily in Zebra 2.

I doubt that Izotope will do the same for Iris 1. Brad - please tell me otherwise?

Yes to me the issue is not preset compatibility per se but confidence. If compatibility was broken for good reasons but we could be confident Izotope would not let people down if Iris 1 stopped working then fine but their poor track record of attention to Iris's development doesn't fill us with such confidence, whereas u-he's track record is much better. At the same time losing preset compatibility when nothing has been done to the actual spectral engine seems relatively trivial and Izotope arguably should have done more to help maintain it, particularly given that much of their marketing was around preset bank addons that no longer work in the new version and are not even taken into account in the upgrade cost (not to mention the enormous investment in third party banks).

[zerocrossing]

Well, to me this smells of, "We've got to get this update out before the holiday shopping season starts!" and not much more. Luckily, it seems our voices were heard and they're working to remedy the issue, so what's left to grouse about? iZotope's never been a "here's a free update" company and let's face it there's no sign of them starting now, but their stuff has always worked well for me and I can't imagine Iris 1 dying a horrible death any time soon. I've got plenty of old plug ins that haven't been updated in a very long time that still seem to work fine. I imagine as long as the VST2 format is supported we don't have much to worry about.

I also don't quite understand the complaints about it becoming more of a mainstream sounding synth. I can't fault them for trying to broaden their market and I'm sure the people looking for interesting stuff will find new ways of using the basic waveform stuff in conjunction with the spectral stuff for cool new sounds. It also makes Iris more attractive to the musician on a budget who wants a synth that can handle bread and butter sounds and offer interesting sound design options in a single instrument. Alchemy does this well... now Iris does too. What's the big deal? I think iZotope heard us and hopefully they're already thinking of ways to make the experimental crowd happy too.

[Michael L]

zerocrossing, I think we can do more than "face it" that iZotope does not give better value for money with their updates. By demanding fairness, we help improve the quality of the products everyone gets for their money. Good customers and good companies are partners. The Massachusetts (iZotope HQ) Consumer Protection Law says that companies need to follow community standards of fairness. Simon, aMUSEd and others show that iZotope's actions are not fair compared with similar companies such as u-he.

Brad is new to iZotope this year, so we will see what upper management lets him do. I believe that iZotope needs to re-think their practice of over-charging and under-delivering on updates, such as for Ozone 5 -> 6, RX3 -> 4 and Iris 1 -> 2. As caring customers, we should not be satisfied when they add a few features and call it a new version, while eliminating existing features and compatibility with their own expensive add-ons. Over the long term, fairness increases our loyalty and their profitability.

[swartzfeger]

I also don't quite understand the complaints about it becoming more of a mainstream sounding synth.

The problem (that's been harped on numerous times) is that it ostensibly went mainstream at the expense of it's core strength and appeal.

Letting Iris' core spectral tools lie fallow for 2.5 years are the source of the complaints.

[Sampleconstruct]

.....but their stuff has always worked well for me and I can't imagine Iris 1 dying a horrible death any time soon.

Sure, irony always works - Iris2 has definitely stopped working well for me. If I and hundreds of my subscribers can't access 2.5+ years of sonic work in an "update"- sorry, that just does not work for me at all.

One of my favourite iZotope plugins Spectron stopped working a long time ago, it was hardly ever updated and they just let it die without further notice.

But that was the dark past, now on to the bright future, maybe somebody like Brad can actually change something, he sure has already changed my impression/perception of iZotope during the last days.

[SLiC]

IZotope have had a lot of bad press lately, the ozone 6 downgrade was a fiasco and iris 2 has let a lot of people down. KVR and Gearslutz have been fairy vocal, but one wonders how much difference we make and how much people listen (the people who can actualy empower fixes rather than manage PR)

Ultimately I suspect the most influential factor will be if people don't upgrade and revenue targets are missed, the reputation hit is less tangible, but generally affects companies in the long term (for example, I don't thing I would rush to buy another izotope product)