Are plug-ins overpriced?

The question de jour is the following: Are todays plug-ins overpriced?

Let me know, and feel free to bash each other in the comments section (but bash friendly please or I’ll brazilian jiu-jitsu your ass out of here :D )

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Are plug-ins overpriced?
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Posted on 31 August by stiff
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Comments

There are 7 kickass comments ~ what do you think?

  1. OK. Are you going to drop $13k on the king-of-the-universe Waves bundle? - which will not work at all in 3 or 4 years, and the way Digi changes things, may not work next month. OR invest $13k in nice mics, preamps, compressors that will hold their value for the next 20years (and perhaps even increase)?

    Now S. Massey’s prices are right on.

    By mr sean ~ August 31, 2008 kl 1:07 am

  2. I agree - Mr Massey rules.

    Also, why must we always pay a high premium for TDM versions of plug-ins rather than RTAS? Is Digidesign making developers pay more money for the code, is it more difficult to code for? Or is the attitude, “well, anyone who can afford a TDM system is obviously a millionaire, so let’s charge them millionaire prices.”

    By Guy Sigsworth ~ August 31, 2008 kl 5:14 am

  3. I hope some of these companies read this poll….I’d love to upgrade to dual core mac but the upgrade cost on plug-ins is what holds me back.

    By Leadfinger ~ August 31, 2008 kl 6:55 am

  4. yeah, there’s no correct answer to this poll. the actual answer is ’some are, some aren’t.’ As has been pointed out, Massey’s pricing scheme is excellent. Mellowmuse makes cheap stuff that will all be RTAS soon enough. Ohm Force is pretty reasonable if you can find a (frequent) discount code. Basically the small one-to-a-few-men operations can price things well. The giant multinationals like Waves are gonna have to charge a bit more to recoup their marketing costs, extended R&D and their own licensing costs (to SSL, API etc).

    The other side of the coin is that low price alone clearly can’t keep companies afloat - look what happened to Elemental Audio. Their stuff sounded great but they were about to go under so they let Roger Nichols in to rejig the distribution and branding. We all know what a clusterf*ck that ended up being…

    I’m starting to support smallish developers more… if I need a new anything I’ll have a look and see if any “indies” do it first. Might be riskier than going with a Waves or Digidesign solution as far as future support goes, but the value for money is much higher.

    By terminal3 ~ August 31, 2008 kl 7:59 am

  5. the question is pretty silly.

    you could as well ask “are cars overpriced?” or “are lawn mowers overpriced?”

    By wurst ~ August 31, 2008 kl 4:57 pm

  6. [Quote] Or is the attitude, “well, anyone who can afford a TDM system is obviously a millionaire, so let’s charge them millionaire prices.”

    __

    I think there’s a little grain of truth in this notion. I’m not sure that the attitude is “millionaire” but certainly an old-fashioned recording industry mindset of “professional pricing.” The industry has changed radically since TDM began. Great studios have crumbled [latest: Allaire, industry panicking, consumer interest freefall, etc.

    TDM is an old product from a rosier time when it was thought that any working audio professional would be willing to spend this kind of dough on audio production. It was the age before “In Rainbows” valuation schema and, y’know, Logic 8 costing less than lunch at a nice restaurant…

    - c

    By Chad ~ August 31, 2008 kl 5:03 pm

  7. Re: “you could as well ask “are cars overpriced?” or “are lawn mowers overpriced?””

    Yes I could, but it’s not of interest for this blog.

    By stiff ~ September 7, 2008 kl 12:33 pm

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