Softube won't be making REs anymore :(

[boingy]

I'm a bit sad. I have quite a few of their RE:s, and they are indeed my favourites.

I also wonder what happens when yet another provider of stock plugins withdraws. Are amp emulations cursed? Are the Softube amps also on a limited license, like Line6's?

I think the stability of the RE tech is one of Reason's USP. I think Props shot themselves in the foot by caving in to demand and adding VST. Did they really see new users to the extent that such a decision was worth it?

I'm pretty sure VSTs will kill off REs, apart from a few niche things. However, not adding VST support would have eventually killed off Reason. You have to be a very, very big company to be able to ignore industry standards.

[QVprod]

I'm a bit sad. I have quite a few of their RE:s, and they are indeed my favourites.

I also wonder what happens when yet another provider of stock plugins withdraws. Are amp emulations cursed? Are the Softube amps also on a limited license, like Line6's?

Not the same thing. Softube is simply not making REs anymore. Not pulling their stuff out of Reason or the shop.

[tallguy]

Why in the world did they not split the EQs and Comp to make 3 distinctive plugins for better visualization and structure.. That's the only RE I haven't purchased because of its 3-in-1 design...

Haha, yeah. It does take up a lot of space. But I do find having the three together like that makes sense

[owlymane]

Why in the world did they not split the EQs and Comp to make 3 distinctive plugins for better visualization and structure.. That's the only RE I haven't purchased because of its 3-in-1 design...

Haha, yeah. It does take up a lot of space. But I do find having the three together like that makes sense

I see what you mean they're like inter-related in some sort. Good point

It's also kind of nice to see how much space its taking in your rack for the price you paid. Looks well worth it and deserved

[miscend]

I feel that RE’s now will be left to the Reason enthusiast. I for one would buy a RE over a vst anyday. The one thing I LOVE about RE’s is the fact they’re nicely laid out in your account page. With VST’s (often, not always) you’re going through a bunch of different vendors and that can cause chaos when trying to reinstall a bunch of them.

I simply feel secure when buying RE’s. I imagine myself installing idk, Reason 15, 3 computers from now and every single RE i’ve bought just lined up ready to go for a download. Hopefully some developers see the upside to them... Am I the only that buys them for this very reason?

The problem with REs is that you lose money when you invest in them. If I spend $500 bucks buying VST plugins, I know that I can always sell them in the future if I ever change my mind.

And in future it would be great to have all my REs as VSTs to use in other software. Props have already shown they have the tech to do this with Europa VST.

[ortxedys]

I feel that RE’s now will be left to the Reason enthusiast. I for one would buy a RE over a vst anyday. The one thing I LOVE about RE’s is the fact they’re nicely laid out in your account page. With VST’s (often, not always) you’re going through a bunch of different vendors and that can cause chaos when trying to reinstall a bunch of them.

I simply feel secure when buying RE’s. I imagine myself installing idk, Reason 15, 3 computers from now and every single RE i’ve bought just lined up ready to go for a download. Hopefully some developers see the upside to them... Am I the only that buys them for this very reason?

The problem with REs is that you lose money when you invest in them. If I spend $500 bucks buying VST plugins, I know that I can always sell them in the future if I ever change my mind.

And in future it would be great to have all my REs as VSTs to use in other software. Props have already shown they have the tech to do this with Europa VST.

Everything has a pro and a con. I think anybody investing into RE’s is aware of the fact they can’t be re-sold. But the fact they have a 30 day trial, is also a pro and it let’s us be sure that we’re commited to that specific purchase. I more rather be sure my plugin is fully backward compatible than being worried about making my money back on them. But I do get where you’re coming from.

Also, I do consider myself a Reason “enthusiast” and im pretty content with it. There’s a lot of folks round these parts that LOVE to worry about what they don’t have rather than focusing on the music itself. But hey, as long as there is passion for the product, (which ever way it presents itself) im confident Reason will be around for a while.

[ShelLuser]

Softube REs are among the best imo among few others like Lab:One, McDSP etc... so Softube's message is making me wonder about the future of REs overall. For them to completely stop selling REs means that it hasn't been profitable for them or at least not as much as selling their good old VSTs.

Or option number three: they simply want to cut down on development costs and thus aim for more profit. Supporting one standard (VST) is obviously less expensive than having to support two. And it's obvious that the Reason community has already learned about their existence (your post demonstrates as much) so now that Reason also supports VST... why bother?

Don't get me wrong here: I definitely agree that this is bad news for Reason users. I too prefer RE's over VST when working with Reason. I actually dislike the way VST support works in Reason (but that's mainly because I enjoy the way it works in Live).

On the positive side though: it doesn't look like they're removing their RE's. I may be mistaken but I could have sworn that iZotope was also supporting RE's but... no more (or they were never there).

[tronam]

The problem with REs is that you lose money when you invest in them. If I spend $500 bucks buying VST plugins, I know that I can always sell them in the future if I ever change my mind.

And in future it would be great to have all my REs as VSTs to use in other software. Props have already shown they have the tech to do this with Europa VST.

These days I've found the resale market for VSTs to be so heavily saturated that it's driven most prices way down to the point of losing most of my original investment. With all the frequent seasonal "flash sales" along with many vendors employing transfer fees it's only gotten worse, so I rarely consider being able to resell my plugins someday as a major value proposition. I dislike not being able to maintain long term project compatibility too, so I'd rather just be selective and discriminating about what I purchase after demoing extensively. The main problem with Rack Extensions is that it's a proprietary plugin format for one DAW that's different enough from industry standard formats to make the porting process nontrivial. I'm not aware of any middleware like JUCE to help devs make this process easier, so unless you're passionate about the Reason platform I can understand why many developers wouldn't find the effort worthwhile.

[boingy]

Buying software is *never* an investment. Buy it to use it. By the time you come to sell it it will probably be an old version and worth nowhere near what you paid.

You are not investing in your hobby or your job. You are buying tools for your hobby or your job.

[ShelLuser]

Buying software is *never* an investment. Buy it to use it. By the time you come to sell it it will probably be an old version and worth nowhere near what you paid.

I have to disagree with you on that one, but it heavily depends on your situation and how you're using things. In a professional setup I can easily imagine the A-List RE's to get picked up as an investment in the sense that it can save time to set up a trivial background track. Or... to stay more ontopic: buying another DAW to complement your current setup because it supports some features that your current DAW simply lacks (or which the other DAW can do quicker).

Like I said: in a professional setup this can easily be considered an investment: a purchase to help reduce production time, and as we all know time = money.

That's not saying I completely disagree with you though.. I've used my setup in a semi-professional way in which I actually got some payment for some of my services (mostly Max / Max for Live related) but that never weighed up against the thousands I spent on my software For me it's mostly a hobby as well.