The end of Legacy plug-in upgrade offers?

De Pepper

Active Member
Just got a mail from UA saying:

"Dear UAD User,

At the end of this month we will be ending the-long standing UA Legacy plug-in upgrade offer. But before we do we want to give you one last chance to save.

Now through January 31st, you can Upgrade from your original 1176, Teletronix LA-2A, Pultec, and Fairchild Legacy plug-ins to the Collections for 99 € each when you use your 50 € January coupon
."

Just to be clear: After January all Collections will always be 299 regardless of owning any Legacy version? If that case I'll never get the Pultec... I always waited it out to be less than 74 EURO, but it never happened - and now even the 99 seems steep (Christmas was expeeensive :). Damn...

EDIT: Wonder why they'd end this anyway? It always seemed such a friendly and peaceful offer.
 
I wonder what they're doing...I'm thinking maybe new upgrades are in the works, or something like that.

I've ended up transitioning my pultec duties to waves and I actually just found the free PTEq-X plug in, which also sounds excellent.

Have to save DSP for the A800, ATR102, La2a and 1176!
 

LGK_Dude

Active Member
Just got a mail from UA saying:

"Dear UAD User,

At the end of this month we will be ending the-long standing UA Legacy plug-in upgrade offer. But before we do we want to give you one last chance to save.

Now through January 31st, you can Upgrade from your original 1176, Teletronix LA-2A, Pultec, and Fairchild Legacy plug-ins to the Collections for 99 € each when you use your 50 € January coupon
."

Just to be clear: After January all Collections will always be 299 regardless of owning any Legacy version? If that case I'll never get the Pultec... I always waited it out to be less than 74 EURO, but it never happened - and now even the 99 seems steep (Christmas was expeeensive :). Damn...

EDIT: Wonder why they'd end this anyway? It always seemed such a friendly and peaceful offer.
Got the email and came to post exactly what you have posted. I guess I wont be owning the pultec upgrade either, and IMO it doesn't make any sense at all to remove this customer friendly policy! Sure, it could be argued that you had x years to upgrade, but it was never said that these upgrade prices were temporary, and to now force us in a single month, right after most peoples excessive holiday spending, to either upgrade at a discount now or pay full price going forward is very odd. This sort of "price bullying" leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, and would have never expected it from UA. Tactics like these combined with the fact that native is getting MUCH better, and I'm starting to reconsider my UA purchases going forward.
 
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jnTracks

Venerated Member
Yeah I found this off-putting when I got that email a few minutes ago.

I've never picked up the fairchild or Pultec upgrades... was waiting on a sale+coupon to bring fairchild below $75 because I'd love to have a mix knob on that, but if it's the end of upgrade pricing and $99 is the best they can do for me I'll let it go.
Keep using parallel aux tracks to make my own mix knob. It's working for me just fine and I don't need to spend money on that.
 

LGK_Dude

Active Member
Same. I can buy myself one more plugin. Choosing between 1176 or fairchild.
Of course demo them and see which one you need, but IMO there are more native choices for 1176 or similar style compressors vs the fairchild. Again it sucks you are forced to choose between the two!
 

slamthecrank

Hall of Fame Member
was waiting on a sale+coupon to bring fairchild below $75 because I'd love to have a mix knob on that, but if it's the end of upgrade pricing and $99 is the best they can do for me I'll let it go.
Keep using parallel aux tracks to make my own mix knob. It's working for me just fine and I don't need to spend money on that.
Have you actually compared the "legacy" Fairchild to the mkII Fairchild???

I'd say that you DO need to spend money on that. $99 ain't much compared to what you're getting in return. If I didn't already own the Fairchild collection, I'd be hard pressed to find a reason not to upgrade before it became 3x as much to do so.
 

Serenity

Hall of Fame Member
Unless they have a really good plan I think it's an immensely stupid mistake to do that. It's already at the level where people question if it's worth the upgrade, especially with the good alternatives that are around these days. I think they will not only make less money this way but it will make the platform less attractive.
 

Don Schenk

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
...and to now force us in a single month, right after most peoples excessive holiday spending, to either upgrade at a discount now or pay full price going forward is very odd. This sort of "price bullying" leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, and would have never expected it from UA. Tactics like these combined with the fact that native is getting MUCH better, and I'm starting to reconsider my UA purchases going forward.
This ^^^.

Yes giving a a couple or three months warning would have helped, especially after all our holiday spending - including what we spent on family and friends. I suspect UA are stepping on their own company wallet by giving such short notice. It's not too late for them to reconsider the time frame.

:- Don

EDIT: In looking at the email, I realize the only MKII I don't have is the Pultec. I never use the legacy. Okay, watch me start using it how! Oh drat.
 
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Hoenerbr

Hall of Fame Member
This sucks for people! Thanks God I upgraded everything so I have no worries (With exception of the Trident which I never purchased) but for anyone else its terrible. Something has got to be up! Maybe Gannon could shed some light on this one!
Happy New Year?

This ^^^.

Yes giving a a couple or three months warning would have helped, especially after all our holiday spending - including what we spent on family and friends. I suspect UA are stepping on their own company wallet by giving such short notice. It's not too late for them to reconsider the time frame.

:- Don

EDIT: In looking at the email, I realize the only MKII I don't have is the Pultec. I never use the legacy. Okay, watch me start using it how! Oh drat.
 

Flim

Active Member
Upgraded 1176 and LA-2 are total different beasts comparing to the legacy versions in my opinion. I bought the analog classics right away when i got my first UAD card.
 

Kcatthedog

Hall of Fame Member
Funny, no email here but I have them all. Maybe its a targeted campaign ?

I understand the concerns/issues: change of approach, price hikes, very bad timing and agree but with UA be philosophically contrarian and think what aren't they saying and/or not saying, cus they never do.

So, we know they have twice over the last year let everybody have the lower bundle prices so you could buy 3 of the 4 for $399 some time next year probably or $133 each, lower than the current upgrade price. We, also know NAMM is a couple of weeks away and it seems very likely UA will introduce new gear and it may have some new deals and some new plugs or something.

I'd advise everyone to keep your powder dry, upgrading now makes sense as the mkiis are all an improvements and they have just given you a $50 coupon, but UA is always trying to add more value, not take it away, but transitioning ain't always pretty: lets give UA the benefit of a doubt, at least, I will !

UA NAMM 2016 was ho hum, I thing UA NAMM 2017 is shaping up to be very interesting. Remember Gannon implied as much, only a couple of weeks ago here, before he left early, you know, for his Christmas holidays , but I don't know shit, just specumalating ! :)
 

jigdagod

Active Member
I got another $25 in coupon so I guess I'll go ahead and get the Pultec since it's the only one I don't have yet. I always told myself I'll get it one day. I guess this month is that day.
 

machinated

Active Member
disappointing move considering I'd quite like to see a move in the opposite direction. I'd love there to be more options to upgrade plugins to bigger bundles.

I suspect this move is to do with what's to come so hopefully there's some exciting announcements coming.
 

ThomasM

Established Member
No mail here either, the only legacy plugin I don't have as Mk II is the Neve 88RS. Perhaps it's an EQ thing only?
 

sadkin

Venerated Member
dang, I picked up the LA-3 about a year ago with the anticipation that I'd enjoy a bit of 'legacy' discount on a seemingly inevitable MKII (it was on sale and had coupons, I can't say for sure but I know I got it cheap, maybe $24 or $49). In the interim, I had nearly also purchased the older, 33609, too, gambling on that redux as well. I know there are some real UAD 33609 fans here but I seem to get where I am going with others on the master buss. Glad I never took that plunge.

The only thing i've ever really used that tiny LA3 for is to compress a reverb on an aux.

:-/ happy new year!
 

DanButsu

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
I was thinking the same sadkin with the LA3A, never got around to getting it tho :( Maybe this means we're gonna see a whole bunch of mkIIs coming for 2017 and they want to maximize the sales. Lots goes into these developments, so many of the new mkIIs are really new plugins. But I agree it's a bummer for those that already own the legacy. There has to be some kind of kick back, or special introductory offer. Let's see which way they go with this!
 
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kosmoswy

Active Member
Sure a lot of complaining about upgrade pricing from a bunch of people who don't want a subscription model... #ducks
 

Cat5

Established Member
This is an odd move. I said in the other thread that a move to a different DSP system would be highly unlikely, but this "does" sort of feel like a fair warning before moving only newer plugins to an all new platform. UAD is pretty good at keeping their moves secret until they are ready to announce them, so anything is is technically possible.

Without some additional motive though, this seems like a really weird move.
 

Dirx8808

Member
Bummer! I got pissed when I saw this at work today too! I was slowly upgrading them... Did tha LA-2As a while ago and the Pultecs last month. I might have enough for either the 1176 or the Fairchild... if I dig the change out of my car seats... :( I suppose this just forces me to start using more of my Waves stuff?
 
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