FabFilter

dudes, I love these plugins and I use them a lot.
but seriously, these new features should have been an update for those of us that have already spent a ton on the previous plugins. this is the first time I've ever been actually bummed with fabfilter...

bad form.

I agree! I just bought Pro-Q 2 maybe 2 months ago! Now they want almost another $70 from for an incremental update.....Feeling a bit shafted. might consider voting with my wallet and not purchasing another plugin from fabfilter again.

Totally agree! This reminds me of Avid and Waves...if FabFilter start the same strategy, they will lose tones of home producers, who actually bring the most amount of money for them, since everybody loves they stuff...but as we see with Avid and Waves...they lost so many customers, because of their update plans. I agree, that it´s just unfair for existing customers to pay 50% of the original price to update this plugin...so you spend 225$ and the guy who bought it today 150$...please...what? What is this??? I support Native Instruments because they have the best update plans for existing users...the prices are super fair. This is why they build this huge fan base! The most important thing we should not forget...if you bought 3 years ago the Q2...how many people you have told, to get this great plugin? Even if that were 3 people...this 3 people told another 3 people and so on...so only because of you they made so much out of you alone...and after 3 years you have to buy the half plugin once again? Me personally can´t take this seriously...

Cheers!

Well I don't know about free, but $90.00 to update, it BS
I feel they are squeezing the blood out of a turnip with that.
Come on...like to stay current, but this constant squeeze of our pockets when we supported them, to begin with, is getting old

I don't know about free either, but agree that the update pricing for Pro-Q 3 is outrageous...

But you know what? These little protest forum notes won't matter in the least because FabFilter has of course done the cost/benefit quantitative analyses and concluded (no doubt correctly) that the revenue generated by the current policy exceeds the revenue lost by the comparatively small number of customers who become alienated and refuse to buy.

And besides, those who do become alienated tend to be the people who have less money to spend anyway, so why would it even matter? As long as the deep pockets are happy...

Hi guys,

I'm sorry you feel this way about it. Keep in mind that we've done only two major version updates since releasing Pro-Q 1 in 2009: Pro-Q 2 in 2014 and Pro-Q 3 in 2018. Since the v2 release in 2014, we've added many small features in free updates. So it's not like we're trying to charge our customers for updates every year. We've put a lot of work into Pro-Q 3 and we wouldn't be able to justify all that work if it was a free upgrade.

And of course, you are not required to upgrade of course. We are going to keep Pro-Q 2 up to date with bug fixes to make sure it will continue to work with new Mac/Windows and DAW updates.

Cheers,

Two major updates in 9 years, when you put it that way, does sound much more reasonable. I am new to FF, and this left me with the impression that this was more of an annual thing or more, amounting to a de facto subscription service. I'm happy this is not the case.

The processing tools themselves are superb, and I appreciate the non-intrusive CP: no dongles, 3rd party drivers or any of that crap. FabFilter does get most everything right IMHO.

It just stings to spend what for some of us is a lot of money, only to have the product become legacy in 64 days and have to pay a relatively high price AGAIN to stay current with the EQ, and it rather saps my enthusiasm for building the collection of plugs as I can afford them. That's all.

I have to weigh in on the side of Fabfilter here. Most other plugin companies (I’m sure you can think of some big names here) would have release it as a completely separate product with no upgrade option at all. If you don’t need the new features, there is no need to upgrade at all. Just keep using Q2 as you did thus far and you haven’t lost anything.

my problem is not with that fact of asking for money when it comes to updates. It is about buying a full priced product and 2 months later a "major" update gets released with no grace period of time to receive the update for free. in my opinion there should be a 90 day grace period from purchase date to honor a new clients who have invested into your products. Had your company posted a notification that a major update was in the works, I would have purchased, had you stated I would have been taken care of. Most companies offer a 90 day buffer. it is the right way to do business in my opinion. now I am left feeling undervalued as a customer. you shouldn't have to give everyone who purchased the product previously the update for free, however, the way in which this update process is currently being addressed is not conducive to customer loyalty. The bottom line, these are not small value purchases and should be treated as such. This approach has me seriously doubting I will ever purchase any other products from your company in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Nobody said it should be for free. Pro products costs money of course, and FabFilter is a top plugin company, it’s only a little bit sad, that for already customers the update feels as much as buying a new plugin, that’s all.

errrr, there was a grace period and it was two months.

Yes it's always somewhat shitty when that happens, so really I feel for you, trust me, I've been there (Pro-C to Pro-C2). But terms as "undervalued" and "not conducive to custumer value" just seem hyperbole to me. It's been four years since the last point update, come on.

Update: Fabfilter honored my request and gave me the update for free. I emailed them directly and they were very friendly about it. I feel like a valued customer now. And yes, grace periods do exist. It is a sound business model. I greatly appreciate them honoring such a model.

@Nathan. Did you had to be this dramatic about it?

Fab Filter reward loyalty, just buy more plugins and you will get a better discount on upgrades. As an Everything Bundle, with Pro-Q 2 upgrade, owner, it's only £46, which is nothing compared to the £200 you would need to spend on Sonnox's dynamic EQ, for example, to have access to a similar feature set.

As a long time FF customer, the thought crossed my mind that it should be a free update, but all things considered...
The FF plugins are insanely useful!
I know that there isn’t a project that i work on that I don’t use multiple.

The pro q 3 is no exception here.

I guess when you’ve spent plenty money on marketing hype, it’s a lot easier to spend it on tools that just work.

I’m not sponsored by anyone or represent any company, just a VERY satisfied user of the FF tools