Herb, Ed is right. People that own Pro edition should be given sidegrade prices to the new VI format standard edition. It's the extended content that should require additional investment.

Your generous discounts on extended content are appreciated, but they fail to even out the situation. There are people who just want to change format to VI, and they'd be crazy to pay what you are asking for the standard edition. Things are priced backwards just to please your retailers [[;)]] Believe me, you will not lose your retailers just because you have a pricing scheme. All you need is a simple system whereby your retailers can check what products a buyer already has.

In any case, what is more important--to give retailers comfortable packages to sell, or to be fair to existing customers? Where do VSL's loyalties lie--the long-term costomer, or the retailer?

I think also the whole retail thing is nonsense anyway. When i upgraded to the ProEd from the 1st it was all handled by Time+Space (the UK Distributer) anyway, they received an email from the VSL website - surely the same thing can happen with VI?

I also can see a load of copies appearing on eBAY by disgruntled long time VSLers trying to recoup some investment on their ProEDs if things don't improve...

@timkiel said:

Surely the VSL team can help us all work through this. Why to take my example (selfish I know) but to me it seems a sensible route, can we not take the price of our previous purchases into consideration - especially as long standing VSLers get screwed by the holiday discounts.

So to illustrate:

VI Symphonic Cube is + £6137

- PRO Edition £3660*
- Chamber Strings £544
- Epic Horns £237

* (I actually bought the 1st Ed and upgraded - but to keep it simple)

Would give a total upgrade price of £1696 - which to be fair I wouldn't mind paying.

Seems sensible to me [;)]

This seems reasonable. I have almost the same set (minus Chamber Strings). I'd be happy to pay something like that for the Cube and something extra for the software development.

24-bit samples (if they're more or less the same than old 16-bit) do not justify the current pricing policy. VSL team must have recorded the samples in 24-bit in the first place, so it's not an extra cost to them either, apart from mapping which must be something you should have some tools developed for.

Pro Edition was an expensive package and I'd hate to pay so much extra for VI Standard edition just to see that I'm using the same samples.

New streaming plug-in is nice in the paper but it's a new software in its infancy and will most likely go through many stages before it is actually usable. I've bought so many 1st generation versions of new software just to realize that I'm actually just a beta tester. Thought the plug-in seems interesting I fear that I will be beta testing a lot and cursing even more when I can't get the job done.

I pray that Herb will consider this pricing policy again and give us the real VIP-prices once promised.

Stakula

I think many good points have been made in the previous posts. Actually, it did not occure to me (must be my fever) until DG mentioned it that this perhaps actually is more of a platform issue.

Like others have said, many already having the product just want switch to the VI version of it...so why not view it as a side licence? Obviously side licences has been implemented for some time no so there can be no problem from a retailer point of view?

Also, some Horizon products relate pretty directly to their VI counterpart. For example if one owns Horizon Solo Strings (yeah I know, I've used it as an example umpteen times, sorry) then perhaps one could upgrade via a side licence to the standard VI version?

After that, the upgrade path could perhaps be the same for all standard VI Solo String users to the extended one?

Perhaps this could work for other products as well, i.e. first a "side licence" just to bring you in on the other platform of the Standard version VI, and from there on up its the same upgrade towards Extended for old and new customers alike?

Please take into consideration that I'm running a fever. I expect to login tomorrow and find that all of my posts were complete rubbish. What can I say? I was bored today and the subject is dear to me.

R

You could also offer a great VIP price for MIR [:)]

@Another User said:

New streaming plug-in is nice in the paper but it's a new software in its infancy and will most likely go through many stages before it is actually usable. I've bought so many 1st generation versions of new software just to realize that I'm actually just a beta tester. Thought the plug-in seems interesting I fear that I will be beta testing a lot and cursing even more when I can't get the job done.

Vienna Instruments are perfectly usable and went through a lot of stages. All of this happened without your knowledge, because we love the element of surprise [[;)]]

The handling is extremely intuitive, as you can customize it without any limits.

I just arrived from Munich and I have seen the reactions of composers. Let me emphasize on that Vienna Instruments are much more than "a nice streaming plug-in", and that´s easier to understand once you played it.

Best, Paul

@Another User said:

Like others have said, many already having the product just want switch to the VI version of it...so why not view it as a side licence? Obviously side licences has been implemented for some time no so there can be no problem from a retailer point of view?

Also, some Horizon products relate pretty directly to their VI counterpart. For example if one owns Horizon Solo Strings (yeah I know, I've used it as an example umpteen times, sorry) then perhaps one could upgrade via a side licence to the standard VI version?

R

I would agree to this, as well : it should be able to upgrade (or sidegrade) only to the VI version of the product we own. This seems logical to me. Then we would pay for the effort of the reprogramming and creating the new platform (noone would deny your effort to achiev this, and we are willing to pay for it), and that's it. From there on, we *can* upgrade, by our choice, to the extended version for full price (or VIP price, if we own parts of it already).

As mentionned before the problem still exists : If I own only parts of the VI in another format (i ex Opus 1 and french oboe and I want to get the VI WW1), will there be a discount?

@Another User said:

If I own only parts of the VI in another format (i ex Opus 1 and french oboe and I want to get the VI WW1), will there be a discount?

Yes, every registered product related to the SC will be considered.

best
Herb

As someone who purchased the Pro Edition only 4 months ago (during the last 'sale') I cannot help but feel like I've been somewhat misled... all the marketing and product information on the VSL website clearly expressed that the long-awaited Cube would be an "upgrade" to the Pro Edition sample library (offering higher resolution and more samples/articulations), and that an investment in the Pro Edition before the Cube arrived would be guaranteed to retain its value (i.e. one would never pay twice for the same sample).

Instead, as Paul mentions in another thread, the Cube is very much a DIFFERENT product, with the new VI software at its heart. While I certainly applaud the technological advancement, to a certain extent I feel like I was manipulated into buying a product that was far more obsolete than the marketing material suggested.

Look at it this way: 4 months ago I invested $4000 to obtain the Pro Edition, and now the Cube is introduced and I cannot access the new VI technology without investing another $5000. However, a new user purchasing the Cube Standard gets access the VI technology for an initial investment of $4600...

I realize in the end that my investment in the Pro Edition will retain its value if I go ahead and 'side-grade' to the Cube Extended Edition, but that is a SIGNIFICANT additional investment, and it all just feels a little funny...

I think VSL should have told us sooner that the Cube would be a different product working via a new proprietary software platform, or *at least* not implied that it would be an extension/upgrade of the Pro Edition. I believe much of the frustration being expressed on the forum right now stems from this misunderstanding/misrepresentation. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how the situation can be made right.... it would certainly help if Pro Edition users were given a reasonably-priced option to obtain the new VI technology for use with their existing library, but it seems this may just not be technically possible.

In the end, it turns out that this big announcement was about more than "just" the Cube... up until now VSL customers believed they were dealing with a company in the business of licensing samples, but now it's revealed that we're ALSO dealing with a software development company, and that has significant implications... some very good and exciting, and some perhaps not. Hopefully all the missing details about the Cube (and the discount calculator) will be posted very soon, and we customers can fully assess how/if our relationship with this "new" VSL company will develop.

- Max

http://www.maxaverylichtenstein.net
http://www.tindrum.com

@charl said:

"Sorry folks, investors are making us betray you. We've checked with our lawyers and we can do this to you without you being able to do anything about it. In the end you can protest as much as you want. Most of you will buy the stuff anyway because our product is brilliant".

Ditto.

I wonder which investor: Wall Street? The City?

[[;)]]

You can buy a Ferrari - if you have to think about the cost of the petrol you put in it - you can't afford it.

No one forces anyone to buy a product. Some of these posts - while I agree with them in principle - are beginning to look like corporate blackmail.

If VI would cost 100.000 EUR, it would be a "right" price yet, but you could not afford it: will you have to stop being a musician because of a limited budget?

A Ferrari is a unique, real piece, as well as a real Steinway (not a sampled one...) is.

Personally I don't think there is such a scarcity of dvd for duplicating samples and software to justify such a high price: 9.200 EUR for a sample library, IMHO, is a martian price, even assuming a highly sophisticated engineering behind the scenes.

This is the world we live in. I must admit: I don't like it, but it does not depend on VSL team, for sure.

VSL in itself remains, to me, THE library and maybe I will upgrade Chamber Strings.

(Fortunately) I do not work for any corporation.

[[;)]]

Hmm... it seems to me though that there is no real point for a Pro Ed user to 'upgrade' to the 'Standard' cube alone without the extra content.. from what little we've seen so far, the upgrade is that extra content, and the quantity of what you get is significant - in most cases double the samples...

I don't like closed VIs, but I do like VSL samples - doubling those samples would be very attractive to me... were I in any position to even consider it. [:D]

Like TinDrum above, I bought the Pro Edition (as an upgrade from Opus 1) in the last sale a few months ago. I was just finishing a project, and have since been so busy I have not even had time to install and use it, making do with Op1 in the meantime... In fact I have not even got round to ordering for the Giga PC I was about to buy for it (which maybe a piece of luck, I don't know). I know that sounds dumb, but I thought the sale would be a one-off and, as I say, at least I've been busy.

Knowing that a new product was in development (though not how soon it would arrive), I asked before I bought it if there would be any problem in upgrading later and was assured that there would be no problem... But now I've understood the complicated pricing system, there IS a problem. I certainly didn't anticipate having to shell out the same money again to change format, before I can benefit from the 'vip priced extended samples'. I don't even know whether ordering the Giga PC will be a waste of time at this stage if the VIs work better as a plugin in Logic on a mac. I understand it's probably impossible to keep everyone happy, and will see what the discount thing says, but at the moment, I feel like I've been left in limbo and I'm sure I'm not alone.

It does all look like pretty good stuff though, which makes it all the more frustrating in a way!

David

This is similar to me, I just bought Pro ed and perf inst. only a few weeks ago and I haven't even got the chance to use it yet since I'm still waiting for the "Quad" to arrive. So they're sitting on a shelf waiting to be used, and meanwhile I find out I bought the WRONG PACKAGE!!! [:@]
I'm certainly NOT going to dish another $5000.00 to do this all over again!

@cm said:

let me fabulate it very simplified - most forum members expected the symphonic cube to be priced around EUR 10.000. it turned up this is approximately the price, even less: 9.200.
users who already own the pro edition (which originally was EUR 5.490) had to spend another EUR 5.410 to upgrade to the symphonic cube, if they additionally own certain libraries from the horizon series even less.
i cannot see this would be such a bad deal considering you also get a really advanced sampling engine ...
christian

btw: version X + upgrade to version Y of a product is always more expensive than instantly buying version Y ... i don't know a product or software where the opposite is the case.

CM,

If thats the case than what is everyone whining about? That seems 100% VIP no?
Evan Evans

well, it's called this way,... You always have to pay if you are the first to get the stuff. Let me tell it this way, I have seen the stuff in Munich and have to admit it's great but I do not need 24bit right now I even can life with my Pro Edition. I just have the fear with the new LOGIC, the Performance Tool is no longer available, ... (hopefully not!!!)

I eventually will end up with the new stuff with a higher price compared to a brand new user but I have both!

This time I am the one who will wait until it's MULTITIMBERAL and otners do the beta testing for me [[;)]] ! And best of all, I am pretty shure,there is a new holiday sale or summer sale in 2007 [:D] !

my 2cts, imusic [H]

@imusic said:

right now I even can life with my Pro Edition.

Are you reeally sure?? The Pro Edition is sooo 2003. [:D] [:D]

/Mattias