Quote:
Originally Posted by TweakHead
No clue. But the Nord Modular G2 isn't old enough to justify completely dropping support on the software side of it - and for this particular product, without the software the synthesizer is rendered almost useless besides the patches you have stored into its internal memory. This is what will probably happen to some of our software synthesizers of the old age. For example, just recently support was dropped on Albino 3 - which was still a very good VA software synthesizer on its own right, needing only unisson to stand up against anything in the market even today. It's a sad situation for such a lovely machines that have been used to oblivion in many modern tracks and are still mentioned a lot by many accomplished producers. But it is what it is... I guess, as far as the Modular is concerned, you can always set up a partition with an older version of windows or mac, or even a virtual machine just for being able to use the software to create new patches. But, by all means, Clavia should get a kick in the but for it. And so should Rob Papen being so greedy about his god damn presets - which btw no real producer cares for since they're mostly garbage compared to what you can do with that beast of a synthesizer programming it yourself...
When we buy a product we expect the company to keep up with the promise and at least keep supporting the stuff we paid for. There's also the powercore dsp that was able to run the virus synthesizer that is now dead, right Berni? We should gather all the music folks and kick some serious developers but if you ask me!  |
I'm aware of Albino support being dropped, but aside from that most of my soft synths that were purchased many years ago are still getting great support. Recent example includes e-mails I've received direct from Urs (Zebra developer) who is not too busy to care about supporting software I paid for back in 2007. Lennard, developer of Sylenth1 has also been helpful many years after the sale had long transpired.
Overall I would say software support in the soft-synth world is way better than one can expect from mainstream business software. The bottom line there is that software is not just a one-time purchase. It must exist in an ecosystem that is subject to constant change -- OS updates, driver updates, DAW/Host updates, etc will all have some impact on your software's ability to continue operating in the future. This is not a phenomenon specific to music software, but all software in general.
When a software company's revenue stream dissolves, there is simply nothing left to continue paying employees. It's not a matter of ripping off the consumer, it's a matter of survival. This is one reason the industry has gone more toward "software as a service", such that people pay a monthly or annual fee to use software on a per-user license level. This helps rid them of the false thinking that "okay I bought this software, it should work forever".
With all of that said, I think all my VST plug-ins have an amazing record of continuing to work, regardless of whether I update them. I think that says something about the relatively non-volatile nature of the VST specification; it is not something that tends to get affected by Windows or OSX updates for example.
Dedicated hardware that attaches to your computer is another matter, as there is usually some type of proprietary driver or software (i.e. Automap) involved. I'm not sure why the Powercore DSP was discontinued, but I suspect there was a point at which it was clear that sales growth would not sustain support costs (only a guess.... typically when something makes a lot of money it tends to not get discontinued).
I have worked at companies where I've witnessed absolute tragedy with regard to engineering staff cuts. By that, I mean that decisions were made by douchebag bean-counters and upper management know-nothings that resulted in the layoffs of key engineers that were required to keep the product line going. Yes, the layoffs were made without the realization by management and accounting types that they just cut off the lifeline to their own company by firing the only few guys that understood how things worked. The stupidity can be that rampant. So I have seen products be discontinued because of that sort of error in management, but it's not the only cause of course.
Overall, I think we should be thankful at the type of software and gear (or in many cases software INSTEAD of gear) that we can buy these days. When I first got into electronic music, you could easily spend $20k (which would probably be more like 3 or 4 times that in today's money) and still not have enough to produce a professional track. And in those days, a typical synthesizer cost several thousand dollars but was almost guaranteed to be discontinued a couple of years later. I think all products undergo this type of lifecycle.
At the end of the day though, with a software based environment, in theory if you are content with what you have, it's irrelevant that the software has been discontinued. Like namnibor said, some people still run XP!! If they plan to evolve they are kind of screwed because they are sitting on a ticking time bomb.... some software update will eventually come along that will make them regret that, unless they decide to lock down their system, no more updates or new software, and just consider that the last music making box they will need for the rest of their lives. In fact they could just image the hard drive and carry the environment forward to a new PC whenever their current hardware's life came to an end. I've heard of things much more absurd.... I know some people kept their original Atari ST sequencing environments going, as-is without modification or maintenance for something like 20 years! For all I know there may still be some out there doing all their production on them or Amigas.
For me I don't think I could ever just lock things down and fall outside the normal lifecycle of updates and deprecation of products. Trying new things is part of what keeps me inspired and interested in the hobby of synths. And none of my investment in softsynths has required any physical repair
.... I've seen guys already having to replace keys in the keybed of their Virus Tis!!