I will often buy what i think is very good, and some stuff is not good i dont even keep as a cracked!
Libraries a bit different, i will buy some products from A company and use some cracked not legit i.e one company i own four legit libraries but use a couple non....

 

Always buy whatever I use after I tried it if I am going to use it regular *yes*

Have a seperate machine with totally legit stuff on that any work is done on & won't install anything non-legit on it.

I do have a seperate laptop that I try 'warezed' stuff out on but in the most it gets deleted once I tried it. I do also have a drive with some old stuff on that comes out once every so often.

For me personally is 'counter productive' not to support the developers etc.

There a very fine line between staying in business & going under.

Not saying piracy was responsible as 1.55.0 not out but if a company like Camel with such excellent products can go under/be on the verge so easily then for new developers in must be a minefield.

Simple fact is they need to make a return to carry on making products & paying the bills. It that simple.

In just my opinion all software used commercially or on a regular basis should be legit bought.

Every Dev can go under in todays commercial climate (Even NI maybe in 2000 years!) so it really rings true that we must support the developers as if we fail then all the up & coming ones will fizzle out & get forced out of the marketplace by those that all ready have a 'stranglehold' on the market. This will lead to a lack of spontaneity & new versatile products that regularly priced in a sterile platform etc.

JMO also & no rules so it really is up to the individual

 

To be honest i have only bought software that wasn't cracked or can't be and I needed it for work or a serious project. I think that if you're making a living with a software and can afford to buy it you should. I think it's time that MS Office was free or came free with Windows if you buy it. And Windows should be very cheap, the only way to get it free is with a new PC, which is actually very good, everybody in the world on PCs uses it. The best thing to come out of warez is they gave people the ability to try software - forget the before yuo buy bit, that's irrelevant to 99% of people who warez, but the ability to try it for as long as u like is great. If the crackers wanted to do a good service to develeopers they should build a time-limit into the crack, the 'try' maybe 3 months, and i think that would be great for everybody and a really sincere gesture to the devs, not to mention a reiteration to their original idea, whcih was of course the 'try before buy' - this was the absolutely only thing the original crackers wanted, to give people a chance to try it, but for longer. It got stupid, the 'try' became forever and the software became free, stolen actually, let's not kid ourselves. So, i would say to the crackers to be fair and sincerely kind now, and build in a time-limit to the cracks - three months or six months use, after that you have to buy it.

 

Ive bought a lot of software that i originally used cracked versions of. Infact i have no cracked software left now.

The reason i prefer to use cracked versions and not demos is because i work full time and music is my hobby. This means a 30 day demo will usually run out before ive had a chance to use it more than twice. This is not long enough for me to realise weather its usefull or not.

I will also not spend £100- £300 on a plugin or plugins if i havnt had the chance to know if its useful. My main Daw, Cubase 8, i could never learn that in a month. No way. so companys need a usage limit on the demos in my opinion not a day counter.

Companys like DDMF have got it right with there prices, good quality, no stupid bells and whistles at a price where people will be willing to take the risk in a purchase and can afford.

 

I am not going to go in to details on what warez I have used on a public forum but I am proud to say that I own 100% of what I use, sure I still have a few warez on my old trusty test box but overall I'm done with warez. All the good developers have step up a lot over the years by giving everybody a fair amount of time to test a product. I see no real reason for warez in my case

 

Yep, I always buy things I know I'm going to use constantly. In the past I've bought many plugs I wish I could have refunded the licence for because I impulse bought. Now I am a (little) bit wiser!. But If you are going to start buying somewhere, start with your DAW first!

 

Couple problems here:
While I'm sure many of you have purchased products after warezing, you're probably in the minority. Most warez users probably won't purchase anything. Furthermore, which products? Cubase and Pro Tools are probably doing OK in sales - something less general probably isn't.

Secondly the problem with audio is that there is quite simply a never-ending amount of solutions for making music. I've purchased heaps of hardware recently, along with some sample packs and am using cubase LE without much problem. Hardware/some software can be purchased as 'used', which means no profit for the original creators.

And guess what - there's also freeware that can provide all sorts of synths, apps and plugins that provide sounds and tracking and recording and mastering etc as well.
I just started messing with Sunvox the other day and even for being a free 13MB 'chip tune' tracker the synth, sampling and composition capabilities are astounding ! Very capable of making fat sounds and deep tunes on its onboard stuff alone.

So ultimately I think I think music developers are partially crazy to do what they do, given the financial risks, but it's a continuing reflection of the music-making industry at large, which has wide public exposure but limited revenues.

 

Based on the opportunity to test drive full software I have brought every item I use. Proud of my Cubase heritage and happy to be a legitimate user. Have brought every plug in that has proved its worth and intend to continue. I would most likely not have brought half of the VST's I own if I had not had the chance to test them to their full capacity.

 

I agree. DAW first. Picking the right DAW that complements your workflow is tough, especially when someone is new to the audio scene. I went:

3 years k'd Reason -> 1 year 1 k'd cubase -> 1/2 year ACID Pro -> bought Pro Tools (regret) -> bought FL -> 1 year k'd Ableton Live -> 1 year k'd Logic ---> Finally settled on Ableton and Logic.

A lot of these software/plugins require time & consistent use to truly realize whether or not they are worth the buy (more that what a lot of demo/trials allow in my opinion). Especially with the high price tags on these some of these software, I'm glad warez give me the chance to determine true worth before buying.

 

On my legit cubase 8, I run a fully loaded (70 plugins UAD octo board and a dozen extra synths and sampler. I use warez as a sandbox. Whenever something catches my ears...then i buy it, preset bank, FX, synth, samples. So the flow can keep running... And when something is too expensive then i wait for a project i sell to cover it. My philosophy. Every work needs a reward, for developpers just as much as musicians...
Basically we just use 1% of the warez at our disposal but it's still very useful to try a full version free of charge. And yes, i tend to avoid ilok stuff (despite some good stuff like slate)...elicenser is enough for me yet.

 

Idem

 

Generally i wait that i can afford some special offers/bundle. but i look also how the company treat their customers. Ik multimedia, for example, i have some plugins, but i'll never buy new stuff from them.
I would like buy fxpansion stuff, but if oneday, i change my mind want to resell my license, it's pretty expensive(their commission).
And their is some company like ableton where i have a legit version, but i will upgrade only if the update worth it. because Live 8 to 9 is thin, some stuff disappear, and the software crash a lot.

For the moment, i love native instruments, their policy, plugins etc

 

hmmmm... this must be a very rich community... everyone is buying everything...
I am struggling to buy just a set of replacement hammers for my old Roland A-90

Just one bundle and its price

 

Haha, yeah, you'd think everyone on this forum was a millionaire. They buy everything and curse you if you don't! I think it's just a case of monkey see, monkey do though... People want to fit in and apparently the new "thing" is to talk about all the software you bought and feel elitist for doing it. I mean c'mon... who the fuck really cares what software you paid for and didn't pay for? Just because you bought a piece of software doesn't mean you're some special snowflake all of the sudden. Good for you, you bought a product with real live money. Meanwhile, the whole world does that everyday, multiple times a day. But on this site, making a purchase is like winning a grammy and everyone should bow to them for spending their money.

 

hey we got a real rebel over here guys...

 

lol, im just a student and i don't work and i consider myself as "poor", however i buy some music stuff ... i don't spend all of my money in party, liquor , etc like all of my friend. i prefer to "invest".
And For me buying a software/plugins is important, because the great tools that you use today wad made buy a lot of R&D by developpers. and all work deserves payment. I mean if you compare a tool like a compressor of 15-10 years ago and today, it's like the day and the night.

Also, buying a plug oblige me to not download too much of plugins. Because the vst(cracked) list available is limitless and too much of plugins decrease your productivity and creativity. And i don't trust you if you tell me a thing like; "you know, i use like 5 digital eq"

so, guys seriously , wait the black friday or special offer and go buying your plugins that you prefer.

 

No not yet

it took me one year to save up for my laptop that i have the last 5 years
and three years to save up for my music pc,

i know it would not be over people like me downloading and not buying there plugins
that any of them went down as i never had the money in the frist place to buy them,
warez gives me a chance to do the best i can at fulfilling a dream and a even better chance
at buying what i use if i can make some good tunes with it one day,

the way i look at it
warez creates a chance for the poor and that can have its own return for the developers in the future,
if you make money from your work
or even have the money to buy the plugins you use and dont you are a lowlife
and these are the sort of people that ruin it for the rest of us and give warez a bad name,

in saying that the people on the dance floor dont give a shit as long as there happy,
so just look after the developers if and when you can,so they can look after there families and us,

 

My thoughts exactly...
This guy is pouring water inside the titanic and still hopes for a fast rescue...

 

Sure do, got to support the software you love and want to see developed further, its a no brainer
that said I used not to trust quality of a lot of digital stuff, so the little I used to afford to spend hopefully made products what they are today, usable if still not a lot of the time as good as they could be, why I support the one's doing a good job for me
Only exception is if I bought the original and they want a hefty upgrade price while not adding a great deal extra for the upgrade price, It can be insulting