Superior Drummer 3 Upgrade Discontinued?!

[Stefan]

Hi, I have received a sales announcement saying: END-OF-SALE ANNOUNCEMENT....

Hi,
I have received a sales announcement saying:
END-OF-SALE ANNOUNCEMENT.
Attention all owners of Superior Drummer 2: The Superior Drummer 3 Upgrade will be discontinued on December 31, 2018. Don’t miss taking advantage of the heavily discounted upgrade pricing. Upgrade today!

I hope you are not really serious with this intention. You are forcing me to upgrade now and disable it later – this is unfair! You shall not do that! I have already invested into you, do not say it will not count any more! If I am not ready to upgrade now do not force me! Leave it up to me when I upgrade!

Stefan.

Stefan Sebechlebsky, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Hi,
I have received a sales announcement saying:
END-OF-SALE ANNOUNCEMENT.
Attention all owners of Superior Drummer 2: The Superior Drummer 3 Upgrade will be discontinued on December 31, 2018. Don’t miss taking advantage of the heavily discounted upgrade pricing. Upgrade today!

I hope you are not really serious with this intention. You are forcing me to upgrade now and disable it later – this is unfair! You shall not do that! I have already invested into you, do not say it will not count any more! If I am not ready to upgrade now do not force me! Leave it up to me when I upgrade!

Stefan.

Stefan Sebechlebsky, Bratislava, Slovakia.

23

Thanked by: SCOTT KATZ, littlesicily, A former customer. and 20 others.

Topic

[snorhyvel]

I’ve just also read this thread. I’ve also just bought a used version of SD2 in the believe that I could upgrade it to SD3… Very bad…

1

Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge

[ilter]

Tergo wrote:

I’ve read my way through a couple of these pages, and am finding myself agreeing with the people feeling betrayed. Here’s what I feel most have failed to articulate.

It’s fair for a company to offer introductory upgrade pricing when they have a new product out, the fact that the pricing ends doesn’t bother me. I’ve let that timer run out many a time and was happy to pay more to upgrade a product when the time was convenient.  The difference is there was still an upgrade path to thank me for being a customer. I still felt as though my investment in that company meant something to them. Toontrack is treating us all exactly the same as they would any newcomer, and that’s a jagged pill for most to swallow. They’re saying it means nothing to have purchased SD2 and have helped them develop their new platform.

And I don’t doubt SD3 is worth $400, I can’t imagine how difficult it is to record and package thousands of samples in an industry-leading, intuitive plugin format. I just know for me it’s not worth $700.

It’s true they gave 8 months notice, I honestly wasn’t paying that much attention. Even if I was, $200 is still a lot of money to spend on a new version of something you already have. I haven’t even paid SD2 off the Sweetwater card yet. Kudos to those who were able to take advantage of it, I made the silly assumption there’d be some slightly less favorable path forward if I chose not to, to at least pay off SD2 first.

Also true that SD2 still works. It’ll have to for me because I can’t bring myself to reinvest in a company that says “what have you done for me lately?”

Exactly my sentiment.

It is UNBELIEVABLE.

ToonTrack, please do not treat your customers like Avid does.

Just like many others wrote on previous pages, I didn’t know there was no upgrade path for SD v2 users!

Music Producer, Mixer
Certified Pro Tools Instructor
& Creative at Apple
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilter/

1

Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge

[pettma]

Seems like shooting your self in the leg not offering the upgrade anymore. I will just continue using v2 since it can’t be upgraded to v3. Too salty to pay the full price for v3 since I own v2.

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Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge

[Wolfgang Schur]

Just thought it might be time to upgrade to SD3 and saw this. Ok, it’s no advantage for me that I bought SD2 (among lots of other stuff from Toontrack). What they achieve is, that of course I now evaluate what’s on the market. Maybe my next drums will be SD3, but maybe I try something different this time.

I guess I was too slow, but trying something new can be inspiring anyway.

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Thanked by: Ben_4 and Bartholomew Boge

[Antonio]

No man, it’s not you who was too slow. Customers don’t expire. In my case, what they have achieved is that I have stopped buying Toontrack products completely. There are some good deals these days, I can’t say I am not tempted, because everything Toontrack makes is great in my opinion. But, as an expired customer, I made my decision.

There are several other good products out there, like Steven Slate Drums, BFD3 and Superior Drummer. If I need more, I’ll invest my money on them.

• This post was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Antonio.

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Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge

[Fotay]

The product was released on 9/17. Should I still buy this now or is version 4 right around the corner? It seems like the upgrade path with @Toontrack Gets expensive.

 

Thanks

[Swurveman]

Viktor wrote:

Superior Drummer 2 will still work on your computer and you can continue using it together with your SDXs and the SDXs/EZXs that were released before SD3. But since Superior Drummer 2 is a product no longer available in the webshop and “no longer exists” (at least not as a purchase option) it will not be supported forever.

Hey Victor,

I have spent $885.00 with TT, starting with DFH to SD2 and EZX’s and SDX’s. I will not be extorted to pay full price for SD3 after my investment in your company. The day you stop supporting SD2 will NOT be a day I buy SD3. It will be a day I will turn to Slate for my future. I already use Trigger for live drums. Their samples sound great. You cannot piss on investors, extort them, instead of incentivize them, and expect them to be loyal. Are you really this stupid?

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Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge

[Chad]

Chiming in here too since I just went to upgrade and found this out. Plain and simple – this is a misstep, Toontrack. You have a built-in customer base with plenty of other options that now has no loyalty incentive. The ripple effect may take time, but this affects every one of your repeat customers and it will ruin your relationship with a lot of them (as shown in this thread).

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Thanked by: Ben_4, Bartholomew Boge and ilter

[Alien Graffiti]

So it is true – there is no upgrade path from SD2 to SD3. Gross. At Steinberg, for example, there is always an upgrade path, even if it is more expensive to skip several versions – but it does exist.

But what I think is really cynical: If you use EZ Drummer, you get an upgrade discount. Whoever uses the more expensive product SD2 gets nothing.
Really? Where’s the logic? That’s cynical.

I just wanted to use Black Friday and buy one or two SDXs. Then I saw Rock Foundry. But it’s not in sale and costs regulated 159 €. Also, the requirement is SD3. Damn – now I have to pay 159 € for the SDX and change my environment. BUT – I really want this SDX for a project I’m working on right now.

THIS IS NOW A REASON TO UPGRADE FOR ME – and not because it’s cheap. Any upgrade to my recording and mixing system must ALWAYS have a damn good reason. It’s not primarily about the money – it’s about the improvement I can achieve by upgrading versus upgrade costs and effort and risk.

BUT – I couldn’t believe it when I found out that there is indeed no upgrade path!!!! What?!?!

That would mean now that I don’t pay 159 € for this SDX, but 508 €. Is it still possible? If I would see an upgrade path for say 180 € or 210 €, I would do that now. In any case, the price should be lower than the upgrade for EZ Drummer customers.

But it doesn’t work that way. So why don’t I upgrade now? Because of the cost? NO!!!! But FROM PRINCIPLE!!!

Probably I would have got myself with a decent offer also still two SDX from the Sale. 2 x 95€ makes 190 € plus 159 € for Rock Foundry makes a total of 349 €. If there would be an SD3 upgrade for 180 – 210 €, the shopping cart would end up with 529 – 559 €.

And that included SDX Music City SDX has no added value for me, because I would never use it in my productions.

Toontrack Sales Manager – so you could have earned up to 559 € on me today if there had been an upgrade path from SD2 to SD3.

So I don’t pay a cent.

3

Thanked by: Ben_4, Bartholomew Boge and ilter

[ilter]

Sorry, I couldn’t get that ‘more mint’ solution.
Care to elaborate?

Music Producer, Mixer
Certified Pro Tools Instructor
& Creative at Apple
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilter/

[graouli]

Komplete Kontrol 12 ultimate Collector’s edition : normal price 1599 €, for people who own previous versions of KK ultimate : 299.50 € !!!!!!!!!

[Bartholomew Boge]

This entire controversy is inane on so many levels.  By denying SD2 customers from a reasonable upgrade path, these are the short and long-term ramifications:

 

1. LOWER REVENUE.  I cannot believe that the sales revenue to be generated by people who agree to REBUY this software at full pop will exceed the revenue of all those who would have upgraded at the discounted price. I would wager this was break-even at best, a net loser at worst.
2. UNNEEDED CONTROVERSY. Before this, Toontrack had a very good reputation, based mostly on the quality of the product itself, but also on the general vibe the company exudes online. In a very competitive market, name brand perception and loyalty are very desirable assets. Sometimes a piece of software can be released with some odd bug in it, but a well-managed PR campaign can mitigate the damage to a brand if the customer base has faith that the company has their best interests at heart. The sad thing about this issue, however, is that the debacle is ENTIRELY SELF-INFLICTED: not due to some unfortunate error or unforeseen circumstance, but by the intentional will of the company’s leadership.
3. LOSS OF TRUST. Music professionals who DEPEND on drum sequencer products will now think twice about committing to the Toontrack product line, and with good reason: the company has expressed a profound contempt for its user base.

It’s not too late to save your reputation, Toontrack.  Do the right thing.  Maintain a reasonable upgrade path for your products.  Every day you delay in doing so more of your user base are choosing to become “former customers.”

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Thanked by: Ben_4 and ilter

[Mark Anders]

Regarding lower revenue. To me, the bigger issues is all of the extensions, whether MIDI or EZX/SDX.  I get sales emails on a weekly basis with all of these extension packs. They look great. However, I have been converted from a customer to a former-customer, and as such have no reason to buy anything more from Toontrack.

That to me is the biggest mistake for them. It would be one thing if it was a 1 time purchase, but to have the upgrade be the thing that allows you to keep buying more products, why they would not do everything to keep you as a paying customer is mind boggling.

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Thanked by: ilter and Bartholomew Boge

[Antonio Davila Santos]

So, this is still alive! Toontrack should get a few grand if makes an upgrade for us…

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Thanked by: Bartholomew Boge and Ben_4

[madfiddler]

If it’s any help, FXPansion have 40% off BFD3 atm, taking it to £167 (UK) – and they have a very clear upgrade path for all customers.

[Author]

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