Who thinks plogue chipsounds is too expensive? (Page 3 of 4)

Chipsounds is a pretty good deal for all the ground it covers. 15 soundchips that are accurately and authentically replicated. Not a lot of other chip VSTs can really say that. Chipsounds is one of the few that takes the weird quirks into account (I know SIDizer emulates some SID bugs. Emulates just SID and costs $50). Not to mention Chipsounds appeals to a really niche crowd? If you're going for big bucks you'd want to market your product more towards the EDM goons or to a niche crowd that has more money than the lo-fi nerds.

For all the research and development that went into Chipsounds $75 doesn't really seem like asking for too much. Gotta take advantage of those currency changes man. Read the news, keep up.

Chipsounds is not overpriced, it's very fairly priced even. It offers so much, and has a very decent interface.

Btw, ALL top-level synth VSTs cost around that price or more.
Zebra $200
Massive €150
Sylenth €140
FM8 €150
Serum $190
Arturia Arp2600 €150

Many of those have been around for a while, so NO, VSTs have not become expensive. Which cheap ones do you own?

Last edited by Diskette Deluxe (Jul 1, 2016 6:06 am)

No it's not hardware, and if it was, prepare to double or triple that price for a fraction of the features a VST exposes. There are freaking MONOPHONIC analog synths that cost 2000 euros... monophonic... VST price starting to sound pretty damn sweet right?
Try making Massive into a hardware synth, it'd take up your entire room and cost half a million dollars to manufacture.

What VSTs really fail in my eyes are licensing. I have paid for all of my VST licenses ever since I "got serious about making music" but what really irks me isn't that I just paid for something that exists only in virtual capacity and on my harddrive and someone's server across the world, it's the licensing of the thing.

What bothers me is that often licenses are very unfair, to be quite honest. Massive for example gets voided if activated more than 3 times I think? Something like that. And what do you get to do once you've maybe accidentally voided it. Nut up and buy another copy.
And you have to deauthorize it or whatever before you install it again, what if you forget? Yeah, exactly. I've actually already forgotten once.

There are also many VSTs I've had to refuse to get because they deploy some backwards, shitty "always online" licensing. Like iLok. I LOATHE iLok.

So yeah, VSTs aren't that expensive for what they offer, as has been repeated a dozen times here, licensing is atrocious. There should be a standard, other than iLok, that VST developers can deploy that's FAIR and doesn't treat *legit customers as criminals*...

EDIT: for chipsounds tho I find the license is pretty damn great, you own it as long as you keep track of that encoded image-key thingy they send you. That's really really clever.

Last edited by my.Explosion (Jul 1, 2016 12:09 pm)

Uhm no, I don't think you understood me. Some of these synths are new other have been around for years. The pricing of top-level VSTs seems stable.

And you already solved your own problem: if you can't afford it, just pirate it.

Last edited by Diskette Deluxe (Jul 1, 2016 12:44 pm)

NI support rules, and will totally work with you to fix authorizations on any legitimate copy of their software

I can see your point on vsts vs hardware, as we all know vsts require no work to produce, its a real ripoff!!

Yeah of course NI's gonna help you if you lock up your computer, so is Ableton if you accidentally mess up your harddrive and lose a (quite expensive Live Suite) licensing key. Companies that have competent people working at their help-desks do that well.
I was using it as an example for how licenses often work though, and not every company is as lenient.

Maybe not fair to use NI exactly, since that company's like one of the few I trust. But it was the closest thing at hand just now.

EDIT: furthermore why I think there should be a "gold standard" for licensing software, VSTs included is that. Once you own like a dozen or so licenses, it starts to become a real pain the ass to later hunt down all of the serial keys, passwords, logins for the sites/VSTs should you have to relocate or get a new system harddrive. YES there are ways to manage this on your own but. A real standard would mitigate that a little bit. but then, we all know what standards and software developers have in common: They are just as unwilling to bend.

Last edited by my.Explosion (Jul 1, 2016 1:27 pm)

Some artists make incredibly good things with free VSTi's. Just go check minusbaby music for example.

Stop whining and go learn sound synthesis. No plugin will spoon feed you. Unless you're a weaksauce at electronic music.