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Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

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lars.dietrich

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Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 6:19 am

Perhaps I am the first one who accidentally saw these "news": Hauptwerk VI has been released - and you want us to pay another 99 USD for the update.
Of course there are some minor improvements, but an expensive paid update only 11 months after the big release of Hauptwerk V?
To be perfectly honest, I was a loyal and understanding customer. Unlike many others I was perfectly fine with the paid update for Hauptwerk V, since you did a big step forward, and it was the first update after more than 8 years! So I was definitely willing to pay the price to get this new (apparently) future-proof version and to support the business.
But: Of course I assumed, that you will support your customers with free updates for a few years, until you release the next "big" paid update. But not for only 11 months?!
Moreover one is more or less forced to upgrade, because you clearly state in the Release Notes:
"Unless you have purchased (or have been supplied with) an upgrade to this version, v5.0.1 will continue to be supported for a maximum period of 12 months from the date you purchased a license for it (either a new license or an upgrade), but there will be no more v5 releases or development, and we reserve the right not to assist with issues that would be resolved by upgrading to the current version.
This means, my support ends in a month from now, and even errors and bugs will not be fixed anymore on 5.0.1. This is a shame! It looks like you want to force your customers to change into a subscription.
Please rethink your pricing policy ...
Regards,
Lars
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Anto800

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 6:40 am

I bought Hw5 against my will, I did it just to protect the dozens of licensed sample sets. I was hoping for several update releases for Hw5, at least to fix the delusional section of the multi-channel, instead I find myself with a new version and more money to spend. I hope this is a joke, if it is not I find this commercial policy extremely violent and not very attentive to loyal customers. On my own, my experience with hauptwerk continues (with what I have), but I consider my relationship with Mda ended.
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ostrovitch

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 6:59 am

After 11 month a paid update? Why not? It's what compagnies as Steinberg, avid etc...are practicing.
But their updates are full of new functionalities.
For Hauptwerk 6, to pay this price, at least I would expect a more user friendly mixer, comprehensive for a human,
and/or possibility to store sampleset caches on more than one location. :|
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IainStinson

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 7:19 am

I understand the concerns of others about the cost of the upgrade to Hauptwerk 6.

Now a rant...

I think it is important that future development and support are funded. This can be achieved by moving to a rental model or by offering versions with additional features and on going support which customers can buy. MDA are offering both options. The perpetual licence is probably better value for money and of course gives you an asset with some value.

How much pleasure / benefit do you get from Hauptwerk? If it is costing around $100 a year that’s less than $2 a week. How does that compare with the cost of a TV subscription? How many coffees would that buy from a “coffee shop”?

How does it compare to the cost of a sample set? It has always ‘troubled’ me that many sample sets cost much more than their host platform, Hauptwerk. We need a supported and evolving platform to protect our investment in sample sets.

Professional, high quality Software development and support is expensive. Developers and support engineers need to be paid. Hauptwerk is very high quality. Hauptwerk is a niche product. Think about the number of licenses purchased and do the arithmetic. Can this sustain the development and support customers want?

Whilst there are community developed alternatives, they don’t come with formal support and they don’t offer the same level of functionality. I don’t think I would want to invest in expensive sample sets for these. (I say this as a recently retired IT professional who has been able to fix bugs in well written open source programs.). I do not want to have to bug fix, I want to play the organ.

Apologies for the rant.
Iain
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Anto800

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 7:37 am

Sorry Lain, but I don't agree with your position. I went to version 5 forcibly to protect my licensed sample sets, I spent money, I found myself with a badly designed, hastily made, unintuitive version. To do the right thing: a new version is released, I pay to buy it, and I benefit from all the update patches to fix this version. As a manufacturer, I can't afford to release a new paid version with two new features and an attempt to fix the previous version's problems. This is violence, violence against loyal customers.
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Thomas344

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 9:13 am

It is a shame! It's a rip-off! I feel screwed. And 2021 then 3 more updates?
Cheeky. That's all I can think of. Even if many people are upset about my contribution: I don't care ;-)
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giwro

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 9:53 am

Iain is correct.

I’ve used a lot of professional audio software over the years, and in those cases there’s nearly always a yearly update. Price ranges all over the place, but usually is in the $99-149 range.

And, in those cases there are the same wringing of hands and pearl-clutching when users feel like the company in question has not done enough improvements to warrant the version increment, or their favorite feature wasn’t included, or, or...

Or how dare they do this? They’re just trying to make money off of us!

Um. It’s a business. That’s what businesses do.... successful ones, anyway.
Jonathan Orwig
Coon Rapids, Minnesota USA
http://www.evensongmusic.net
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chr.schmitz

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 10:11 am

I second Iain and Jonathan. Hauptwerk is a high-quality software product for a tiny community. Software development and support is time and money consuming. 100 US$ per year seems to be a very reasonable fee for such a niche product. I really appreciate that this update with many long awaited features took not again 8 years! And I hope that this is an indication that the development continues to progress.

Chris
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Doug S.

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 10:19 am

I fully agree with Iain. Hauptwerk is a true work of genius developed with an insane amount of work for a highly limited market. The pricing to me is very reasonable compared to other software I use. I can't wait to get this upgrade.
Doug
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IanPounder

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 11:44 am

I also agree with Iain and Jonathan.
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lars.dietrich

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 12:11 pm

There was exactly one bug-fix update from 5.0.0 to 5.0.1. Would you expect, that after 5.0.1 you step to 6.0.0 as a paid upgrade? Everyone can decide on their one, if the changelog is worth to be called a (big) functional upgrade ...
Please to not misunderstand me ... I am willing to pay regularly (more regularly than the 8 years in the past) for a new version, but not every few months. I know many software companies that have a regular paid upgrades, some even on a yearly basis, but with a big difference: The support for a version does not end at the moment the new version is released, but only after e.g. two years (and they still provide fixes for the "old" version like adaptations for new operating systems during this time). And after that time you can still upgrade to the same prize (that would mean Hauptwerk 5 --> 7).
I would feel much better if Hauptwerk would be more open to what they plan. I have never ever heard of a software company, that surprisingly releases a new version after such a short period of time and immediately stops support for the predecessor.
By-the-way: I also don't know any software company which immediately removes all downloads, like the installers, manuals and so on from their homepage and replaces them with the new version.
Currently I am highly unsettled, if I can trust in Hauptwerk, or if I am at the mercy of their obscure business policy.

@Iain: I really like your comment and mostly agree with your statement, especially when it comes to prices for sample sets compared to the "working engine". And I also agree with you on community developed alternatives ;-) I used it for two months, bought Hauptwerk Basic ... and few months later Hauptwerk Advanced. But nonetheless it is not fair to loyal customers to force them into such an uncertain dependency without clear statement, how the longterm update and support strategy looks like.

Regards,
Lars
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RichardW

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 12:34 pm

Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?


Apologies for the 11 month delay.
Version VII will be out in January and you won't believe our new pricing structure!

Sorry, my cynicism is kicking in and I can't control it.

Regards,
Richard
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einer_von_weitem

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 3:24 pm

lars.dietrich wrote:I was a loyal and understanding customer. ... Currently I am highly unsettled, if I can trust in Hauptwerk, or if I am at the mercy of their obscure business policy.


Of course you can't trust them. That much has been obvious ever since the disastrous mishandling of the release of v5. What is happening now shows that they repent nothing and have learned nothing. (Except perhaps that their customer base will accept more or less any treatment, however high-handed and unfriendly.) You may have been loyal to MDA. They are not loyal to you. They could not care less.

None of the "improvements" offered by v6 would be remotely useful to me. But of course I am still perfectly happy with v4 anyway. Yes, I WOULD like to help keep this software going, including financially. But not as long as the current management remain in charge.
My Hauptwerk recordings on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJu6YY ... XMA/videos
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engrssc

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 4:29 pm

Is there any valid reason why V6 was "snuck" in? I don't like that sort of thing. We are not juveniles buying the latest video games. Sorry, folks. For now, no support from me. :oops: If this is to be the future business model, count me out. :x

Rgds (sort of),
Ed
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Purator

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Re: Hauptwerk VI - paid update after 11 months?

PostThu Nov 19, 2020 4:44 pm

I have to admit that some of the features offered in VI are great. Especially not having to set up all the pistons and displays again when loading a new organ. But then again, on some other programs this would be version 5.1, not 6.0.

Also I want to point out this section from the Release Notes:
[Important:
however, note that at most 32 MIDI IN ports (and at most 32 MIDI OUT ports) can be enabled
simultaneously in Hauptwerk version 6+, so before migrating to v6+ please ensure that you don't have
more than 32 MIDI IN ports, or 32 MIDI OUT ports, enabled, otherwise any MIDI settings for the
additional ports will be cleared during the migration, with corresponding warnings logged.

I have to admit that there might be very few users who have more than 32 MIDI ports, but the simple fact that the number of possible MIDI ports has apparently been reduced just raises an eyebrow. Furthermore I really wonder (for several years now) about all the awful lot of magic numbers in Hauptwerk. 32 MIDI ports, 64 favourite organs, and so on. While I do understand that fast and memory saving data structures are vital when it comes to real time processing (as it is done when an organ is played) I cannot understand that such structures obviously are still favoured when it comes to the user interface. And do not get me started on the "Config_0" to "Config_3". This actually amazes me - four absolutely identical files that read their own filename to find out which config they shall load. Now I do not want to sound too harsh and I do want to acknowledge the work that has been put into Hauptwerk and all its features like the wind model, the reverb, and so on, especially by Martin Dyde who started this as a one man show. There might some day have been a reason to do it like this, just like hard coding the paths into the executable in past versions - but with all due respect, if one of my developers would present me a solution like this today I would tell them to seriously reconsider their life choices. (Martin, please do not take this personally as I have no idea what business constraints might have kept you from implementing a better solution!)

I’ve used a lot of professional audio software over the years, and in those cases there’s nearly always a yearly update. Price ranges all over the place, but usually is in the $99-149 range.

Just because everybody else does it... or it is customary... does not mean it is good or should be accepted. You know, it was once very customary to burn witches, and, well, everybody did it. Did not make it right, though.

And then... just one more thing... 2020 hit artists all over the world very hard. This year I have not played a single wedding (usually at least 10 during the season), the two concerts I was able to play were visited by about 50 percent of the usual crowd. So, just let me put it that way... I really hope the $99 is not the Black-Friday-Price.
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