FabFilter User Forum
What happens with discontinued plugins?
So it seems that you (Fabfilter) have chosen your plugins not to be directly backwards compatible and rather provide updates to previous versions.
While I would appreciate if newer plugins replaced previous versions (and kept some "legacy code" for stuff that has changed), I bet you have your reasons to go this route and it would be absolutely fine if all plugins you ever released got maintenance updates to work on new OSes.
However, I have seen that there is a list of discontinued plugin versions (which is not that big yet but surely will grow over time).
Let's take Pro-Q1 as an example. While that still loads fine on Mac under Rosetta, it has not been updated to Apple silicon. The day will come, where Apple computers/OSes will no longer support Rosetta and Intel software. Will I then need access to an older machine to open projects using Pro-Q1? If so, this is not really a future proof strategy in my opinion. If Pro-Q4 was able to recognize Pro-Q1 instances and replace them while running in some legacy mode, this could save a lot of headache down the road.
And yes, I know that there are many other much less reliable developers who abandon their software and trouble will happen nonetheless. But you are one of the most reputable and sensible plugin developers and your plugins are basically industry standard, scattered in all their versions across millions of DAW sessions in the audio and music industry. I understand that you want to start fresh and without restrictions with each new plugin version and that implementing legacy code in a new plugin may be a difficult task, but I believe that a not insignificant part of your user base would appreciate if some time and budget went into developing such a compatibility mode for future plugins to open older ones. Or at least not discontinue older plugins and make sure they open on the most recent OSes.
Btw this should not read as a rant, I am very appreciative of all the work you do and almost all company decisions you make, except this one (hence I wanted to point it out).
Mirko,
I can't use a 3.5" floppy any more either Nobody supports it.
This is the nature of software.
I am facing this conundrum with other software.
My solution has been to capture everything I want/need/desire onto a computer, take the computer offline, and use it when I need to have access to some of those really wonderful old software vst's. Meaning this computer is no longer my workhorse. It is my instrument for those things I really want to keep that have been discontinued by various vendors. Just render out the wav, and be done with it.
This way I'll be able to use stuff for as long as the computer lasts
Hi Micro,
There are only a few very old plug-ins that we discontinued. Even though we have released Pro-Q 3 in 2019 we currently still update and support Pro-Q 2. Both legacy versions will keep being updated for the foreseeable future.