antler

For a tiny moment, I thought it said 75% off. Oh well, my wallet's safe.

Wow. Not sure what I'm more surprised at - that Vue has ceased development, or that Bentley would want to buy a company that makes 3D landscape modelling software; doesn't look like much overlap in business to me. I used to love the idea of creating 3D landscapes, though at some point couldn't justifying the cost for what was essentially just me playing around.

My understanding is as follows. If you have an eLicenser product and it supports Steinberg licensing (as indicated by the table in your second link), you can switch it over. If you have a license for a product which is no longer the latest (i.e. supported) version and it is on an eLicenser, you can continue to use it (as long as you have activated the license on your eLicenser). However, you also have the option to upgrade products that aren't the latest version to the latest (via your first link). This will let you buy the latest version (presumably at a discount), which supports Steinberg Licensing. To summarise: all of your products will continue working, but you must activated any unactivated licenses on your eLicenser. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the lastest version (again presumably with a discount); you will then have the latest version/s, which use Steinberg licensing.

Bear in mind existing licences aren't being revoked. Products will continue to work as long as they're activated to the eLicenser. Here's some other text from the FAQ: Will I still be able to use products with the eLicenser-based licensing service? Yes, eLicenser-based products can still be used without limitations as long as the licenses are available on the USB-eLicenser or Soft-eLicenser. They even hint they might help you out if your USB-eLicenser breaks: What happens if my USB-eLicenser gets broken or is lost after the eLicenser service is shut down? Please contact support for an individual solution. Please note that we can only offer a solution for eLicensers registered in MySteinberg.

They're stopping it. The text below (in italics) comes from the link above (lightly re-formatted). What does end-of-service mean? With the end-of-service of the eLicenser license management system, we are completing the transition to our new Steinberg Licensing system. Since its introduction in January 2022 we have integrated Steinberg Licensing in our products step-by-step and offered various options to upgrade your eLicenser-based products to the new system. If you are still using eLicenser-based products the end of the service will have several important implications: You won't be able to activate or reactivate an eLicenser-based product. If you still have an activation code for an eLicenser-based product you need to activate it before the end-of-service. You won't be able to move a license from one USB eLicenser to another. If you have multiple USB-eLicensers and you want to consolidate the licenses onto a single USB-eLicenser you will need to do it before the end-of-service. Similarly, if you want to move a Soft-eLicenser license to a USB-eLicenser, you need to do it before the end-of-service. Lost licenses cannot be recovered. If you have lost an eLicenser license, please get in contact with us before the end-of-service. It won't be possible to recover lost licenses after the end-of-service.

Thanks for the reminder about using saturation to tame highs.

It's a replacement (I got the impression it's a complete rewrite, but could be wrong on that). Existing libraries will have to be re-encoded for the new player. As I understand, all libraries will eventually move to Engine. Some have already been ported over, others will be available when they're ready (I've got some of their accordion libraries, and was recently issued a new Engine key for them).

In general, I'd say the short answer is look around the market and pick something that's competitive. The longer answer is that worth and value are completely subjective to the individual. The world's most detailed string library probably isn't too interesting to someone who does lo-fi, while someone who does film scoring might be ok with a higher price tag. Likewise, such composer probably wouldn't care much for a plugin that trashes and warbles their final mix. While we are talking synth presets, the same principles apply: does a potential customer like the sound of the patches? Will they help them to learn the synth? Most synths don't come with 400 factory patches - would someone prefer to pay for another plugin on their list, or would they rather have a larger sonic palette at their disposal for the same cost? If they're a exclusively preset-user, the latter might seem to be better value as it comes down to buying a pool of sounds - and having them all in one plugin is arguably more convenient, especially if they don't have the time/inclination to learn another plugin. That said, who buys plugins/preset packs at full price? ?

Welcome back, Larry!

If you've bought similar products in the past, be sure to log into your account as you may be eligible for additional cross-grade discounts.

I understand the purpose of limited-time flash offers (i.e. to trigger FOMO). But to do one for less than half a day - i.e. leave out potential customers who've gone to sleep for the night - seems a little bit too short. But what do I know? In any case, I don't have the products required to use these anyway.

If you watch the AMA (at least from around 18:00 mins), they say they won't be doing the lifetime licence again. They used the funds to build up their product to where it is today; their gift to these 'founders' is that they never have to pay for any of Musio's updates again. All customers from that point will have to pay for Musio 1, Musio 2, etc... and/or subscribe for new instruments.

Are they still using that strategy? I got the impression they're pretty much fully committed to Musio now. Also, some have no Kontakt equivalent, e.g. CineStrings Pro, Women of the North (the female counterpart to the Men of the North library). As you've mentioned, they are targeting the non-established composer end of the market; they have podcasts on subjects pro composers would already have knowledge on, e.g. the business end of getting into composing.

Much of it's already there - at least the cinesymphony series. There are a few Musio exclusives too.

I'll try... EZXs are typically processed and cut down 'ready-to-use' versions of SDXs. If that's so with this one, you can make the corresponding SDX sound pretty much like the EZX. If it's not, you should find you can get some way there depending on which SDXs you have. By using the SDX versions, you force yourself to learn to process drums, as well as being able to be more flexible with the outcome; in both cases, you become a better audio engineer. (not sure if it worked, but I tried...)

Where did you find this information from? Is there a thread on the Presonus forum?

Does that include iZotope and PA, which now fall under NI too?

You're right about Lead Architect. It's more about the add-ons you can no longer buy (not everyone can say installed to every plugin ?); see this post:

If you renew every year, you pay ~200 per year. Perpetual is ~300-400 for the first purchase. Then ~150 for an upgrade, which typically doesn't come out every year. (This assumes they'll continue with upgrade pricing. When CorelDRAW went sub, upgrades were discontinued; you can still buy a perpetual for full-price though. But, it's important to note these are different markets.) It's arguable you don't need to renew every year as you'll get a perpetual for the core product. But if you use any sub-only features, my assumption is you also won't be able to open your projects.

Hmm... Seems I didn't read the fine-print. Yes, that does sounds a bit rubbish, and also very much like why I don't like the all-or-nothing subscription model. It's possible to mitigate by using the core plugin suite and/or third-party plugins only, but losing access to the extras without an option to buy separately sounds like a dark pattern to me. It seems so on the face of it, but it depends: I don't think they release a major version every year, which possibly makes a standalone Pro licence cheaper in the long run as you don't have to pay the subscription fee every year. Also, they might review feedback from this move to determine whether or not sub-only is a feasible route. ... and/or WUP-lite. They promise bugfix patches (e.g. 1.1 -> 1.1.1), but why would they release such patches for past releases (e.g. 1.1.2, when 1.2 is live)? I like S1, but I'm not sure about this direction they're moving in.

Generally, I love SL libraries. But I've already got a quite few brass libraries.

Too bad - I had Retro Mix Legends on my wishlist. Ah well, I've got console strips, etc. from PA, United Plugins, AudioThing, and probably some others I've forgotten about.

Cool. I've always been tempted by those and wondered why they didn't do a bundle. But all sounds in one instrument is better, because it gives more possibilities. Sadly though, it'll have to go on my wish-list for now; I'm a bit overspent at the moment.

Thanks. I wasn't sure why they'd be collecting emails to download the now discontinued plugins if they're (sadly) shutting down shop.

They've also included a new subscription offering: Studio One+ Hybrid. Looks like if you stop paying, you get to keep the current version of S1 you had. Not sure if you get minor-version updates, but this is a nice idea.