Hardtimes for Software Developers?

[StuH]

I'm starting to notice alot more specials on music production software these days, especially deals from plugin makers and sound sample designers.

There are alot more of these group buy deals where the price of the software gets lower as more people sign into the group buy deal. In the past you would be lucky if you saw one or two of these types of sales protion happen in a year. I've seen 5 in the last three months.

IK Multimedia have had 2 promotions in the past three months. 6 for 1 TRacks plugins and buy 1 Amplitude product and get 3 more for free. Nomad Factory have a deal on now where you can get every pluging in their entire collection for 400 bucks. Sonic reality have a deal on for Reason owners where you can buy one refill package and get close to 30 more for nothing.

I'm wondering if the recession is catching up to these guys?
Anyway, it is good for us. Keep your eyes out for good deals.

[Big John]

Hmmmmmmmm, there definitely are some good deals to be had but while it's good for us I don't want to see companies going to the wall, it's hard not to take advantage though isn't it ?

[Groovey Records]

sell it now it will be obsolete later

[Ben Harmless]

It's a curious situation. On the one hand, the market is miserable, translating to fewer clients for studios, and fewer spare dollars for plugin purchases. On the other, how many plugins are actually purchased by studios vs. hobbyists with too much disposable income?

Then there's the shape of the market regardless of the current economic conditions. Even as the market is getting very saturated, technology continues to improve. I personally am not interested in paying $1000 for a software bundle that's going to be made fundamentally obsolete by hardware changes in a few years. That's the part that gets me.

What's more, people are very smart, and some of the free plugins out there can rival the expensive stuff. While Native Instruments B4 Hammond emulator is still tops in my book, there are a couple of freeware plugins that can sound just as good depending on the application. End result? I don't own the B4, but I use the freebies all the time. This is not to mention the myriad of compressors, reverbs, delays, waveshapers, and more that might just suit a particular project more than the expensive stuff. Looking at the freebies out there, if I were the head of an audio company I'd have to really question whether it's a profitable market at all.

I ran across this post just the other day. Just one company's take.

[stratology]

Originally Posted by Ben Harmless

I personally am not interested in paying $1000 for a software bundle that's going to be made fundamentally obsolete by hardware changes in a few years.

Agreed. When I saw the last update to Digital Performer, which used to be my favourite software (before they messed up the UI), I couldn't find any reason to buy it.
If you buy any audio software, you have to repurchase it on a regular basis, to keep up with other software (plugs in DAWs), or hardware changes.


Seems to me that the software development concept that is most successful at the moment is the iPhone app model - if the price is very low, like $0.99, lots of people don't hesitate to buy, which, at the end of the day, means good profits for the developers.

Don't think this is applicable to pro audio software, though.


Other things I've noticed:
- you get GarageBand for free with every Mac - so for basic recording you don't have to buy a DAW, and you get lots of plug-ins - which means competition for the small guys..
- if you look at more expensive packages like Logic, you get an incredible amount of (more or less useful) stuff. Companies who rely solely on audio for their business will have a hard time competing.
- lots of high quality software is already available. Choosing between Logic, DP and Nuendo is more a matter of taste than anything else. Makes it hard for new DAWs - like the (good looking) Record from Propellerheads, or the (not so good looking) Studio One by Presonus.

[Ben Harmless]

Originally Posted by stratology

Agreed. When I saw the last update to Digital Performer, which used to be my favourite software (before they messed up the UI), I couldn't find any reason to buy it.
If you buy any audio software, you have to repurchase it on a regular basis, to keep up with other software (plugs in DAWs), or hardware changes.

Agreed, and you have good points.

I'm thinking now though, of a friend of mine who up until his recent upgrade had been making fantastic, top-shelf recordings with a very dated machine and a digital board with a broken screen.

I guess he's the other end of things. They guy who doesn't feel the need to purchase the new stuff after he's bought it once. That can't help the market either. I mean, digital products have built-in obsolescence simply because of the march of progress, but they don't cease to work like TVs and microwaves. If I'm making great recordings with last year's model, I'm not in a hurry to upgrade. Heck, I do some graphic design at work, and I'm still learning to exploit Adobe CS3. I feel no need to ask for the upgrade to CS4 because I certainly won't be doing better work with it, and it would cost about a billion dollars.

[Tim Armstrong]

My theory is that Garageband for Macs and Reaper for PCs (and Macs) have put a serious dent in the non-professional recording software market. Hard to compete with free (or free then very cheap)!

Tim

[Big John]

This is all true of course but ......... experience, skill and a good pair of ears don't come in the box (yet).

[woodman]

Originally Posted by Ben Harmless

If I'm making great recordings with last year's model, I'm not in a hurry to upgrade.

that's a big 10-4 ... i've got the current Garageband for sketches and quickie demos, but for serious production, i've got ProTools 5 with a jillion hi-dollar plug-ins on a 2002 Mac G4 running System 9. EVERYTHING about it is obsolete, but as long as i don't tinker with the balance of things, i can make records with it from here to eternity. it's a nuisance and a hassle sometimes, but the point is it works quite well for what it is.

so now i'm looking at possibly upgrading computers to use M-powered PT 8 in System X ... the upside is obvious, but the downside is losing those thousands of dollars of top-shelf yet antiquated plug-ins. so it's good to know about some of the quality free stuff out there ... i may be pumping your brain for some tips, Ben!

[allen st. john]

Let me ask a stupid question.
Why would someone spend the time to create a plug-in, or even a program, and then give it away for free?

[StuH]

Originally Posted by allen st. john

Let me ask a stupid question.
Why would someone spend the time to create a plug-in, or even a program, and then give it away for free?

Alot of the free plugins are a marketing ploy by some 3rd party developers to get people interested in their pay for plugins.

The VST and DX formats are also open sourced which makes it easy for a computer hack to do this as a hobby and there are a ton out there (some good some not so good).

The full blown DAW program like Reaper or Audacity, I am unsure what the motivation is.

[Ben Harmless]

I think the motivation varies, but in the case of independent developers, it's probably a mix of altruism and self-motivation. For instance, in the case of The Interruptor, they were for personal use, but why not share them?

[StuH]

Originally Posted by woodman

that's a big 10-4 ... i've got the current Garageband for sketches and quickie demos, but for serious production, i've got ProTools 5 with a jillion hi-dollar plug-ins on a 2002 Mac G4 running System 9. EVERYTHING about it is obsolete, but as long as i don't tinker with the balance of things, i can make records with it from here to eternity. it's a nuisance and a hassle sometimes, but the point is it works quite well for what it is.

so now i'm looking at possibly upgrading computers to use M-powered PT 8 in System X ... the upside is obvious, but the downside is losing those thousands of dollars of top-shelf yet antiquated plug-ins. so it's good to know about some of the quality free stuff out there ... i may be pumping your brain for some tips, Ben!

Maybe you could find some interesting ways to integrate both systems.

If your old box is full of RTAS instruments that are good and you still have a use for them, you could dedicate 1 machine to handle this chore freeing up resources on the other machine.

I've always wanted to run Reason 4.0 on a different box from my DAW. I know I could easily double my track counts if I did this. Heck there are some people still using old commodore 64 music applications in their studios. Well the electronica crowd anyway.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by StuH

old commodore 64 music applications in their studios.

now that's hard-core!!!

[loog]

spectrasonics have great ways of curing the obsolete-plugin problem - they pretty much give away their new intel-only versions to users who purchased the PPC-only-version of the previous, older software.

Atmosphere -> Omnisphere
Trilogy - > Trillion

etc etc ... all they charge is for the shipping for the (7 dvd) disks.
Omnisphere has 40-50 GB of samples

spectrasonics are amazingly great products, with great support, and they treat their customers very well.