BEWARE: SSL is abandoning their plugins. Again.

[simon.a.billington]

Originally Posted by Stephen Bond

Compatibility going forward is a big dealt to me. These days I generally stick with the main plugin vendors and avoid any niche products.

I've lost a few plugins along the way. mainly from TDM to RTAS and then RAS to AAX but to be honest there are generally plenty of better replacements. It is just I'd rather see Sessions open up as they were saved a year, five or ten years ago.

No one likes WUP but to be fair, Waves still support the Q10 after well over 25 years of being in the market

Stephen

I sent some feedback to iZotope concerning plugins like Neutron basically suggesting that going forward, they too should keep their plugins backwards compatible.

Every time its a new version its a new plugin, you can't uninstall the old plugin if its in many projects, but eventually you will come to upgrade your system and that old plugin just won't be compatible any more. I think everyone knows that story really.

All they need to do is check for a version number on launch and open the plugin in the "appropriate" mode, whether it be modern or legacy. Even when open in legacy mode they could enable users to swap to the modern mode with just the push of a button.

Whatever they do they'd be fools not to start considering forwards and backwards compatibility. The same goes for the other devs. Except Waves, they are pretty much the only guys who got this bit right.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by uptheoctave

I don't know who you mean but I have done tech support before and it is a bit of a thankless task.

A tech support person is often caught in the middle between wanting to help a customer but being limited by whatever decisions are made by the higher ups, or by people who no longer even work for the company.

Sure, and that isn't lost on me. I imagine that gig can feel quite stressful at times. I won't post what the guy said but it was flat out rude and entirely dismissive. Neither of those characteristics should drift into client communications. It's purely bad for business.

FWIW, I do go out of my way to thank helpful support people, so it's not entirely thankless, at least not for those I talk to. And when I run across good service I make a point of spreading the word about the experience to promote that approach and to help the company. I have a long history of promoting (and painfully defending) SSL, and I suppose I expected more. They don't owe me for that, but they DO owe me a longer lifespan than what Duende has offered, or some sort of plan for moving forward with their products.

[Eric Lambert]

As an update: nothing is being done by SSL to address this issue. I've received a sort of send-off email, so that's that. I can't risk this occurring again, and since several of their "current" plugins (v6 versions) also will not load, my company and our staff will discontinue SSL usage and begin working backward to replace existing SSL instances with alternatives to prevent the next occurrence of obsolescence. These broken current plugins are a sign that the next issue may not be far off.

[noah330]

This is terrible news. I have a bunch of their plugins and use them often. I started with the Duende PCI card back in the day.

I really like channel strip, buss comp and x eq. I had just bought the new tape delay.

I don’t think IM going to upgrade for a while.

[audiolex1]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

As an update: nothing is being done by SSL to address this issue. I've received a sort of send-off email, so that's that. I can't risk this occurring again, and since several of their "current" plugins (v6 versions) also will not load, my company and our staff will discontinue SSL usage and begin working backward to replace existing SSL instances with alternatives to prevent the next occurrence of obsolescence. These broken current plugins are a sign that the next issue may not be far off.

Hey Eric,

I thought that SSL moved off the "v6" and went to V2 or just 2.

I had the Native Bundle v6, that I was able to get the newer Channel strip and bus compressor 2.

Is it possible those who bought the v6 will get the same update to 2 as the bundle?

Which versions of the v6 will not load?

I've not heard that SSL is not great at customer service, and I just realized what they are doing.
You can register your plugins with SSL, ONLY if you buy directly from them.
Probably why I got the v2 upgrade for the bundle.

However, if you buy from 3rd party sellers, you cannot register your software with them, so if there is any upgrade path it would seem they would be locking out all 3rd party sales upgrades.
Meaning, the money you spent would mean you would need to purchase again from SSL in order to use the updated plugins.

Maybe I am wrong, I am just guessing, but if that is the case, then it is probably the worst business model ever.
Like you, I am sure most users in that situation would never buy another SSL plugin again, no matter how good it is.

Bets on how long the software end of SSL ends, or the company is bought up from a larger company?
Anyone? Bueller?

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by audiolex1

Hey Eric,

I thought that SSL moved off the "v6" and went to V2 or just 2.

I had the Native Bundle v6, that I was able to get the newer Channel strip and bus compressor 2.

Is it possible those who bought the v6 will get the same update to 2 as the bundle?

Which versions of the v6 will not load?

I've not heard that SSL is not great at customer service, and I just realized what they are doing.
You can register your plugins with SSL, ONLY if you buy directly from them.
Probably why I got the v2 upgrade for the bundle.

However, if you buy from 3rd party sellers, you cannot register your software with them, so if there is any upgrade path it would seem they would be locking out all 3rd party sales upgrades.
Meaning, the money you spent would mean you would need to purchase again from SSL in order to use the updated plugins.

Maybe I am wrong, I am just guessing, but if that is the case, then it is probably the worst business model ever.
Like you, I am sure most users in that situation would never buy another SSL plugin again, no matter how good it is.

Bets on how long the software end of SSL ends, or the company is bought up from a larger company?
Anyone? Bueller?

Yes, the versions with "2" at the end of their title are newer than "v6." "2" was a free update for me as all five copies that we own were purchased direct from SSL.

The issue is with the originals, called x86 in your plugin folder. If you used those in a session (and many people did), and now use Monterey, you're SOL.

I don't remember exactly which v6 plugins won't open but there are two or three. Vocal Strip and either X-Comp or X-EQ, and another.

[gthm]

I'm confused, it seems like they are actually promoting their plugins like hell with these insane sales, why would they abandon any single plugin from their fuller than full line of gems? Am I missing something?

[smurfyou]

They're not abandoning the plugins. More like abandoning the users that bought previous generations of the plugins. Lack of any compatibility path is a big deal.

[unkJE]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

They're not abandoning the plugins. More like abandoning the users that bought previous generations of the plugins.

Hi Will
As much as I appreciate your fantastic UVI Falcon 2 cheap upgrade info, I feel that "abandoning" is a rather loose choice of words, especially when SSL made Native V6 a free update for existing Duende Native V5 owners:

https://support.solidstatelogic.com/...tive-downloads

Originally Posted by smurfyou

Lack of any compatibility path is a big deal.

EOL is a bitter pill – we all hate having to find substitutes and the extra work this entails.


However, as many Professionals would have made oodles using Duende, this Thread did manage to bring back some childhood memories:

Back in the 50’s, I used to get up before dawn to help deliver milk by horse and cart. When the horses were replaced by vehicles, many observed that free manure for their gardens was no longer available on the roadway.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by unkJE

Hi Will
As much as I appreciate your fantastic UVI Falcon 2 cheap upgrade info, I feel that "abandoning" is a rather loose choice of words, especially when SSL made Native V6 a free update for existing Duende Native V5 owners:

https://support.solidstatelogic.com/...tive-downloads




EOL is a bitter pill – we all hate having to find substitutes and the extra work this entails.


However, as many Professionals would have made oodles using Duende, this Thread did manage to bring back some childhood memories:

Back in the 50’s, I used to get up before dawn to help deliver milk by horse and cart. When the horses were replaced by vehicles, many observed that free manure for their gardens was no longer available on the roadway.

You're correct, I forgot about them replacing the licenses. It's just a bummer about session recall. I guess we're about to go through a big period of that when M1 native comes around. We'll all have to keep an old cheesegrater to open archived sessions. Just like PPC.

Waves gets a lot of (somewhat deserved) flack but I can open a PT5 session with an RTAS Waves plugin and it opens right up. Even the Digirack plugins won't do that.