Lexicon announces Native Reverb plug!

[frankymax]

Well it finally happened! I think it's gonna list at $1,899, though. Sheesh, that's a lot for a plug in but this may be really good.
http://www.lexiconpro.com/product.php?id=163

[David Polich]

$1899? No single plug-in bundle is worth that, period. That's more than a
new MacBook Pro.

Where did you get the info on the pricing?

[billf]

Well it finally happened! I think it's gonna list at $1,899, though. Sheesh, that's a lot for a plug in but this may be really good.

The only plugin that would be worth that price would be the Guaranteed Top 40 Instant Platinum Hit plugin, in which case I'd buy one because the ROI would be sweet. But for a reverb? No thanks.

[frankymax]

it was posted on gearslutz as being listed at $1899 via Audio News- here's a link to the post:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-prod ... undle.html

scroll down to post #12

[Armageddon]

Or, you can just shell out $200, buy a cheap Lexicon USB audio interface and get the Pantheon reverb plug. I'm sure this is probably a lot more comprehensive, but the Pantheon plug was supposed to be "classic Lexicon sound" as well. And for $1,800, you can damn near just buy a mid-range Lexicon hardware processor.

[billf]

And for $1,800, you can damn near just buy a mid-range Lexicon hardware processor.

Exactly. And the hardware version won't be subject to having to buy overpriced updates and dealing with copy protection and DAW incompatibilities and so on. Lexicon is great, but charging almost $2000 for a plugin is going to severely limit their market reach.

[Shooshie]

I read the entire forum thread to which Frankymax linked us, and it was interesting, but failed to convince me that there is a product in that plugin that even suggests that the $1899 price tag is reasonable. The guy who wrote the code for the original hardware also wrote the code for the plugin, and he was participating in the forum. I got the attitude from him that they're being forced to do this by the market, that it's exactly the same as what's in the box, and that he doesn't care if you buy it or not.

So, I listened to the demos. Indeed, they had the smoothness and beauty of the Lexicon hardware. The plugin obviously works, and does what the box can do. But Lexicon's decision makers are apparently extremely out of touch with the market they are entering. It's my opinion, but the L. hardware sounds a little aging to my ears, as if it was designed on and for hardware that ran slowly by today's standards, though it was excellent for its time.

I heard nothing that made me worry about Altiverb's stature in the acoustic-space simulation market, which is to say, right up there at the top.

$1900 for a native reverb in a market where you can get IRs for every space imaginable for virtually nothing, which run on a grand piece of software that costs $500 or so? They must not be very serious about this. I'll take Altiverb any day.

Shooshie

[HCMarkus]

$1895 intro price... $395 by sometime next year. Lexicon will extract the big bucks up front, then go for market share once the blush is off the rose.

[billf]

$1895 intro price... $395 by sometime next year. Lexicon will extract the big bucks up front, then go for market share once the blush is off the rose.

It will be a special for $185 on dontcrack.com this time next year.

[Shooshie]

I wonder if there are operable demos you can download? I have something like 98 presets of the L480, sampled for Altiverb. It would be very instructive to see if there is $1900 difference between the sampled IRs and the algorithms themselves. If I recall correctly, the sampled gear IRs were free for the downloading, including some amazing plates uploaded by Wendy Carlos. If Wendy Carlos is excited about sampling reverbs for Altiverb, and is using them in lieu of the hardware units themselves, then what's left to get excited about in a duplication of the algorithms themselves?

[frankymax]

I just read on the Gearslutz forum that someone at AES got a 30 day demo on an iLok of the plug in and he compared it to his PCM96 and claimed it did not sound as good as his hardware 96- but he did say he didn't spend more than 20 minutes with it. Shooshie, I think your idea of A/B-ing with the sampled IRs lexicon reverbs in Altiverb would be an interesting test.

[Frodo]

I agree in this day and age that $1900 is insane for anything other than a new computer!!

Lexicon is late to the AU/native game and perhaps is trying to tap into the ProTools price levels and brand name fetish in an effort to make an auspicious debut in a new arena.

We're seeing companies like Nomad factory slash prices from $3k for a 27-plugin bundle down to $249. Altiverb, a most excellent accomplishment of a plugin, has an AU price of under $600 (street price of about $530).

I agree-- give it a minute. Lexicon won't be able to *give away* its plugins no matter how great they are because the quality of hardware effect emus is way higher than what it was 5-7 years ago.

Powercore has great stuff, but even they are borderline with their price points.

I believe we're at a crossroads here. Developers hope to rake in big bucks for products which now--- as per users' needs--- just don't demand 4-figure price tags.

When I think back, there was this wonderful new product on the market--- Sony came out with a hardware convolution plugin for many thou$and$. I can't even remember the name of it right now because Altiverb appeared for a few hundred; it sounded and worked amazingly.

The question here is what is software "worth"? Where the question was once entirely associated with quality, that debate is long over. There are INCREDIBLE emus on the market these days. For Lexicon to appear late in 2009 with an $1800 "anything" is, IMHO--- naive on their part. They may make a few bucks on PT users, but for the broader market in THIS economy?

I don't question Lexicon's quality, but they are about to learn a huge lesson in fiscal integrity.

[HCMarkus]

Yeah, Sony and Yamaha each had convolution hardware... cost thousands, and you got like four rooms. People were going "Whoa!" when they heard the stuff, but it wasn't long until AudioEase rocked the Altivec (remember Apple's "Velocity Engine" - think G4) with its amazing software. It is truly amazing the bang we get for our bucks these days, and yet, there was always something satisfying in a new piece of hardware.

[BKK-OZ]

Lexicon have made some great stuff over the years, but I don't think they are the same company that they used to be.

I for one will never buy anything from them again after they promoted* their MX series of 'verbs with as coming with a plug-in interface to manage settings, parameters, etc. To this day, they haven't released a final UB version of their plugs (even though the gear has been out for 2+ years now).

Have a look at their company-run forums to see how they ignore (absolutely, completely) their customers.

*and still do promote...to this day people will be buying MX series unaware that Lexicon haven't released final versions of their plugs.

[billf]

The question here is what is software "worth"?

Short answer: whatever the market will bear. I just don't see it happening for Lexicon at $1899 per pop.