What would you be willing to pay for a VST version of AXE FX?

[Stratman68]

If it involves iLok, I wouldn't use it if they paid me. If not, I'd need to use a demo to determine latency before purchase. Can only speak for myself though.

I agree 100% about ilok. Plenty of options around without ilok.

Also, for me, I would rather use my hardware fractal stuff to record or play live.
But for those that would want it, that's cool...............

 

[PumpkinKing86]

If Fractal does the same thing that other plugin companies do where they treat you like a criminal and enforce an iLok-type system or if they charge prohibitive prices, then I want no part of it.

I don't get how plugin companies think charging multiple hundreds--if not thousands--of dollars is a smart idea. Maybe that makes sense if you think your clients are all professional recording studios that presumably have thousands of dollars budgeted for software. For the average person though? Hell no. Piracy is the more appealing option. People have better things to spend money on.

I think something less than $200 is more reasonable. $400 though for Helix Native or Superior Drummer 3? No thanks. I also don't want to see subscription services like the Steven Slate suite of plugins. I want to buy something once and own it, not have it leased to me.

 

[guitarfishbay]

iLok is great if you use more than one computer.

It's like having a car key to drive cool software wherever without having to do a load of challenge response codes and deal with maximum install limits.

I'm not a fan of the subscription model either, I prefer owning outright.

 

[iaresee]

I don't get how plugin companies think charging multiple hundreds--if not thousands--of dollars is a smart idea. Maybe that makes sense if you think your clients are all professional recording studios that presumably have thousands of dollars budgeted for software. For the average person though? Hell no. Piracy is the more appealing option. People have better things to spend money on.

This is correct: the target audience for something like this isn't the average person in their home office playing rock star on the weekends. It's professional studios who make their living using these tools.

I once sat next to the product manager for Maya, a very popular 3D animation tool suite, on a flight. We were both in the paid, licensed software business and we got to talking about piracy. He said something that stuck with me: he wasn't overly concerned about the 16 year old in his mom and dad's garage who stole a copy of Maya to animate a little indie game. In fact, he saw it as lock-in for the product -- that 16 year old would go on to school and then the industry and demand to use the product he or she was most familiar with. All he was concerned with was people who took the software for free and used it to make money. Those people, well, they should be paying, right?

That certainly changed my perspectives on licensing and I drove an effort to remove some of the really PIA licensing we were using in our CAD tools as a result of that conversation. Net result was no loss in revenue on our software and a generally happier customer base who no longer had to fight with FlexLM daemons just to get our software to start (unfortunately we couldn't completely remove FlexLM because third-party IP demanded it in order for our software to access it...).

I want to buy something once and own it, not have it leased to me.

All purchased software is leased. There isn't a EULA on the planet for a purchased software product that allows you to do whatever you want with it, whenever you want the way you can with (most) physical purchases. Whether you pay once or pay a subscription for it doesn't change the fact that it's a lease. It only changes how it's paid for.

 

[Jason Scott]

All purchased software is leased. There isn't a EULA on the planet for a purchased software product that allows you to do whatever you want with it, whenever you want the way you can with (most) physical purchases. Whether you pay once or pay a subscription for it doesn't change the fact that it's a lease. It only changes how it's paid for.

I think he just means he'd rather pay a lump sum vs. monthly installments.

 

[ChristThePhone]

Depends on local law. Some EULAs are simply invalid in some countries.

 

[PumpkinKing86]

Thanks for the reasoned response, @iaresee.

I still don't care what any EULA says though -- they have no real meaning or enforceability to me.

 

[firepile]

If Fractal does the same thing that other plugin companies do where they treat you like a criminal and enforce an iLok-type system

They already use iLok to protect CabLab and the reverb plugin (no dongle required, though).

I think something less than $200 is more reasonable.

Since the FAS reverb plugin alone costs $200, I doubt that is going to happen.

 

[JJunkie]

Judging by the poll results id say fractal are just at the finishing stages of decommissioning the axe native coding team. Oh well.

 

[dr bonkers]

If it involves iLok, I wouldn't use it if they paid me. If not, I'd need to use a demo to determine latency before purchase. Can only speak for myself though.

+1000 The fact that I had to plead on the internet for an earlier version of iLok in order to run my critical programs on my computer because PACE customer service just kept repeating the same old script which didn't help me with my particular computer = PACE can hum yankee doodle dandy on my balls and I wouldn't buy another product that used iLok.

 

[iaresee]

Re: iLok and FlexLM and the plugin protection. Here's another thought: that stuff is annoying but I don't think that stealing the plugin and using it for free is the kind of theft Fractal is worried about. The biggest threat to Fractal, if they release a plugin, is that disassembling the software is a much, much simpler task now. The firmware is encrypted in the Axe-Fx II, makes it harder to reverse engineer without a large investment of capital. Not so if you release a plugin. Anyone who wanted to know Fractal's algorithm secrets can know them with much greater ease if a plugin exists.

That's the kind of theft that'd be weighing on my mind if I was Fractal and mulling over a plugin. Not the people out there who use it without paying for it.

 

[steadystate]

You also have to consider whether Cliff is happy with the way business is going. It seems he's never been out to sell as much as possible. There is much to be said for being comfortable doing exactly what you want to do, while knowing that your product is safe from pirates.