Forced Upgrades

[LeVzi]

Thinking about various issues and upgrade paths for various DAW's or indeed softsynths and effects. Got me thinking about developers being genuinely loyal to users or forcing us to upgrade to their latest products.

I know this is true in the world of iPhones etc, and maybe other Apple hardware, by releasing the latests iOS versions etc, their older hardware craps out, i've watched my wife's battery time get cut in half each time she gets updates from Apple, which makes me laugh as I stick boldly to Android.

But in this industry, do the same principals apply. I feel Steinberg are guilty of this, while I appreciate they cannot keep supporting older versions of their software indefinitely, by literally stopping any support for it means unless you upgrade, you are forgotten, yet you maybe successful with it. There are SX users still around, how do they cope ?

That's one example, and personally the only one I've experience with, at least the likes of Native Instruments are pretty fair with their updates / upgrades.

How do other companies fair ? Not just for DAW's for Softsynths / Effects. I see a lot are moving away from paid purchase to subscription, is this another means to end paid upgrades and keep things moving better ? Maybe this is the future ? These forced upgrades seem like a sort of subscription to me, every point release means updates, and that means cash.

Thoughts please.

[pekbro]

Upgrades are a fact of life, as long as a company isn't too ridiculous about it, when it comes to
frequency and cost/value, I don't mind. However, when a company employs cheap and bs tactics like
time-limiting upgrade eligibility, (looking at you Toontrack, Magix etc.). The only thing that
will ensure, is the fact that I will never give them another penny.

[LeVzi]

Upgrades are a fact of life, as long as a company isn't too ridiculous about it, when it comes to
frequency and cost/value, I don't mind. However, when a company employs cheap and bs tactics like
time-limiting upgrade eligibility, (looking at you Toontrack, Magix etc.). The only thing that
will ensure, is the fact that I will never give them another penny.

So they only allow you to upgrade for a specific time ? Or at a reduced cost ?

[pekbro]

Yes, a time limited option to upgrade...

Variance of upgrade cost over time or iteration is not something I would automatically consider
unreasonable, but to try and force the issue, by eliminating the path completely. Well IMHO,
thats a great way to shit on someone who has heretofore supported you.

Toontrack has done that to me, and Magix is alluding to it with SoundForge. Although, I suspect
the Magix thing is likely a ruse, we shall see.

[sqigls]

happy here on Cubase 6.5 and Mavericks.
Stability, and enough tricks to keep me writing music for a few more years that's for sure.
"Forced upgrade" is a phrase that i will not acquiesce with.
ANY company dropping the "Forced upgrade" on me can SUCK IT.

vote with your dollar baby

[lfm]

Toontrack?????

I bought Superior Drummer 2.x and got updates until 2.4x over 6-7 years or so.
Bug fixes, extended for other SDX abilities etc.

I only updated due to it was there, only once because a bug - which I reported, and acknowledges by them, and fixed a month later.

And if to upgrade to SD 3.x you still have discounts doing that.

You have multiple licenses you can generate, and even running out of those you have free options. If switching OS hdd you get another computer id and need a new license/code/whatever you call it. Never payed though.

Anything unfair here?

Or is your issue just buying one version when they released a new one just after?
What Steinberg call Grace Period?

Magix and maintenance, completely agree though. Biggest downside of those folks. It takes years for even showstoppers to get fixed. Getting update 18-24 months later does not help, really. You abandoned already long ago.

[woggle]

Reaper is upgradeable or not - all previous versions are always available
FL is buy once upgrade forever for nothing if you want

I think it is too much to ask a company to endlessly support OS upgrades for old software

but I am not happy that I can't run my CS6 version of Adobe Audition on win10 and that has put me off buying or "clouding" their products.

[pekbro]

Toontrack?????

Yup, they removed the option to upgrade from EZ Drummer 1-2. Saying it was because
they were not going to support version 1 any longer. WTF does that have to do with
offering an upgrade. Complete BS imo...

[woggle]

fxpansion were absolute shits with the non-upgrade of Guru. As far as I am concerned they got a bunch of interested users to give them ideas for improving Guru then implemented those ideas and rebadged Guru as Geist with stuff all respect. The crossgrade price was an insult. I would never buy anything of theirs again.

[rod_zero]

The problem is getting worst in the Apple side of things.

They update the OS each year, and it usually brakes something so if you did the update you will need to wait for developers to make an update to their software or hardware. Because of this they have stopped support of older versions on newer OS or of new versions on older OS.

And this gets worse as time goes by, and recently there are some rumors that Apple will stop using Intel chips in a few years, abandoning x86 architecture.

[superscan]

With Apple you know that they support n-2 with their OS and n-1 with Logic Pro X. And Logic users don’t have to upgrade Logic if the OS still has a year left on it. You just don’t get the lastest features. They’ve made it pretty compelling to keep Logic current.

For me having up to three years is more than enough. I’ve found in the last two years most vendors have lastest MacOS support within 60-120 days after release. Four months isn’t much time to wait. That being said if you have a stable known configuration you should be reasonably good for two years between upgrades.

Hardware on the Mac side is much longer. I recently retired my 2009 MacBook Pro in January. It still ran El Capitan natively. The 10.4 release of Logic was compelling enough for me to move on and get a newer Laptop.

That’s just me.

[lfm]

Toontrack?????

Yup, they removed the option to upgrade from EZ Drummer 1-2. Saying it was because
they were not going to support version 1 any longer. WTF does that have to do with
offering an upgrade. Complete BS imo...

Motivation sound completely BS, agree.

My path was a free EZ drummer LE in a magazine, then crossgrade to SuperiorDrummer 2.0 as I recall.

I have nothing but good to say about Toontrack though. First time I heard something different.

[THE INTRANCER]

but I am not happy that I can't run my CS6 version of Adobe Audition on win10 and that has put me off buying or "clouding" their products.

Hang on , if Adobe Audition CS6 doesn't support Windows 10, wouldn't that include Photoshop CS6 ? There have been times where I've converted video material with it's video editing feature but of course I use the retail Photoshop CS6 on a pretty much a daily basis with Windows 7 64 Bit...If it doesn't run on Windows 10 then that's news to me.

[rod_zero]

With Apple you know that they support n-2 with their OS and n-1 with Logic Pro X. And Logic users don’t have to upgrade Logic if the OS still has a year left on it. You just don’t get the lastest features. They’ve made it pretty compelling to keep Logic current.

For me having up to three years is more than enough. I’ve found in the last two years most vendors have lastest MacOS support within 60-120 days after release. Four months isn’t much time to wait. That being said if you have a stable known configuration you should be reasonably good for two years between upgrades.

Hardware on the Mac side is much longer. I recently retired my 2009 MacBook Pro in January. It still ran El Capitan natively. The 10.4 release of Logic was compelling enough for me to move on and get a newer Laptop.

That’s just me.

And Apple users think all that is good. LOL

[murnau]

Free lifetime upgrade here.