I never used to be a fan of program updates. I would only update something that had a major list of improvements and such. Now, however, I look on a weekly basis for plugin and instrument updates. I think for me, part of it is because I’m running all 64 bit and am looking for those performance improvements and small but annoying bug fixes, or maybe a few more samples to add to the list. I find that 99.9% of the time, the updates are smooth, and don’t affect my current stability at all, something I used to be really afraid of messing with.
So I was wondering. If you have a working system, do you update your plugs / instruments on a regular basis, or are you happy with your system as is and prefer not to mess with it (excepting major improvements of course).
I don’t update much at all, for fear of my whole system locking up … it’s an oldish XP, an old sound card, old UAD (on PCI!) card - I’m afraid if I put something in there with a driver that just wants to look around my system and “tidy up” I would be hosed eternally.
I’m really nervous about updating my Melodyne … as much as I’d like to, I think I won’t … I think it was on this forum that someone said they upgraded Melodyne, it invalidated their previous license, and he can’t work on any of his old projects. The horror, the horror …
I install all updates as soon as they are available including windows never had a problem, onwards and onwards.
…me too, it’s like a compulsion. I’m slightly cautious about Cubase updates though, and l’ll wait a couple of days for the early adopters to report back.
I update everthing related to security issues in windows or other progs.
other than that I am wary.
For instance I seldom get in on a x.0 version of cubase even though I just did that now on this release.
A bit OT:
Allthough I love the new comping feature and the new soft amp of c6 I’ll probably use c5 until I build a new all 64bit computer.
This because I still use winxp 32bit. and although C6 tends to work just fine within winxp it can not be fully trusted
I’ve had some weirdo shutdowns with C6 that does not happen with C4 or C5.
I actually jumped C5 and went straight from C4 to C6 but since I downloaded the c5 demo just weeks before c6 came out I also have that too now. IMO c5 is big huge and stabil. It also supports waves vst3 (c4 does not)
So I guess the only thing I will miss from c6 is the comping thing which makes life so much easier for me as a producer when working with amateur vocalists.
Very true. I use midi on occasion, but still like to play most of my stuff. But for instance, the play engine for EWQL was just updated, and fixes multiple midi sticking notes. I find an update like that very useful. Voxengo as well, their last update added some cool visual layers to their GlissEQ. Those kind of updates and additional stability (like BFD2) are mainly what I’m looking for. Though I think BFD2 went backwards on their last update.
When I got new computer I upgraded SL to C5 due to attractive upgrade pricing and I due to new synths and effects included in C5. Naturally I needed to update my other plug ins to work onIntel mac at the same time. I’m still running the first version of C5 at 32 bit and do not need to update - everything I need is there and I do not have problems with RAM usage. And the next step would be going to 64 bits which would mean updating or buying new plug ins as well. The parts of the C5 reported buggy or broken are the ones I do not use in first place and I can work with old GUI…
…so, no updates for me for coming few years. And if Steiny is following their old strategy upgrad from C5 to C7 will cost the same than C6 to C7 so I can save something here.
I always do free updates from Spectrasonics , Steiny and Native Instruments. Spect. and N.I. have lead the way in offerring incredible value and functionality in there product updates for free. Other like Refx are an absolute embarrassment in terms of what they charge and what you get when updating (Vanguard died a quiet death because of this). I will no longer update Reason,since Prop. has locked going forward with this into buying Record; I feel like I never get value unless I buy the whole package from them . For all intents and purposes Reasin 4 is a dead product as far as they’re concerned.
I’m quite up to date with Windows Updates, Cubase and Samp but I mostly wait for a “quieter” phase to update and with major Updates like WIN-7 or 5.5.3 to 6.x always ghost both drives (work/sys) before updating.
I am holding off on updating to 6.02 (still on 6.00) until I’m sure that it won’t cause my XP computer to reach out and strangle me to death while I’m trying to edit tempo points, and the last sight I see on this earth is Captain Steinberg doing this: .
Err …, I mean until I make sure reports don’t start coming in that XP computers that were running 6.00 or 6.01 well are having a hard time with 6.02.
while I’m trying to edit tempo points, and the last sight I see on this earth is Captain Steinberg doing this: 
.