Pluggo Technology Moves to Max for Live
Effective immediately, Cycling ’74 will discontinue sales of prebuilt Max-based audio plug-in packages. This includes Pluggo, Mode, Hipno, and UpMix. We will still continue to support current users as best we can, but there will be no further development on either the plug-in packages or their supporting technology.
This was not an easy decision to make, and we know it will disappoint some users. We had originally hoped to update our plug-in building technology to work with Max 5. However, we have had to face the fact that it is simply not cost-effective to support three different plug-in specifications on two different platforms, particularly given the increasing absence of standardization of host platforms we have observed over the past several years. Supporting our Max/MSP-based plug-in technology involves trying to make the entire Max environment run inside another host application. This was never a simple matter to begin with, and it has only grown more challenging with time.
We have decided instead to focus our development efforts on a single application, Ableton Live, where we can work directly with the developers and exert some influence over the host environment. Max for Live, announced this past January, offers the key ingredient, interactive software development, that reflects our company's mission in life. With Max for Live, we've used our ten years of experience creating plug-ins to improve every aspect of our development system, adding new user interface tools, sample-accurate automation ramps, and flexible parameter definition and storage options.
As part of our Max for Live development, we have begun to revive the highlights of the Pluggo audio effect and instrument collection, and a couple of screen shots below show examples of our efforts to date. Our Pluggo-inspired devices will be freely available for use with Max for Live, and in recognition of our loyal customer base, we have arranged with Ableton to provide Max for Live discounts to plug-in customers. Details will be announced when the product is released later this year.
- Dec 09 2009 | 5:38 amhi
- Feb 03 2010 | 2:00 amI completely rely on Degrader for my production in MOTU Digital Performer. I have NO idea what to do now. I'd be willing to pay for that one plugin alone what I paid for the whole suite.
- Feb 11 2010 | 10:01 amHow about Max for Digital Performer, or Max for Logic. Why ableton? I hate ableton live. I bought ableton suite 8 just because I knew max for live was coming, but had to sell it as it was not the way I like to work. I have a Max 5 license, but would love to use it as a pluggin in DP.
- Feb 11 2010 | 10:00 pmHi Filament, I believe this article will help to articulate our motivations for choosing to partner with Ableton on this project.
- Feb 14 2010 | 3:41 amSo why can we download the Pluggo 3.6 demo from your site, but have no way of purchasing it ? I love the plugins, and want to pay for them and get the 'challenge - response' authorization, but cannot. It's kind of a tease. I also want to use them with Digital Perfomer.
- Feb 14 2010 | 6:29 pmWe have to keep the downloads available to people who purchased Pluggo before it was discontinued. Alternatively, you can download Pluggo Junior and use it without authorization.
- Apr 13 2011 | 12:38 amMe too! I Love Max and I hate live. How about the option to export patches as vst or other Plugins? Max should be a flexible tool. In cooperation with live Max is not flexible enough.
- Apr 14 2011 | 7:38 amthis is entirely rubbish. ableton live is a bit of a toy for stupid house musicians. no offence :) - why did you have to integrate it with a sequencer? seems to me the whole point of software like this is as a modular effects unit, why does it need to be inside a sequencer!? im a registered user of pluggo which is making funny noises on this mac for some reason (no funny noises its not supposed to make) and i think you should have gone the plogue route of supplying a vst or au version of it so you could plug it into any sequencer. really bad decision.
- Apr 14 2011 | 10:43 amHi Kris,If Pluggo is making an intermittent buzzing sound, it most likely means that it is unauthorized. Pluggo authorization instructions (for current owners) can be found here: https://cycling74.com/support/auth_pluginsIf you have any trouble authorizing, feel free to drop a line to support for help.
- May 23 2011 | 5:00 pmI can see where they're coming from, two major OS's, countless DAW hosts, RTAS, AU, and VST...oh, actually Win and Mac VST..good luck with any .dll converters for using Windows only VSTs in OSX..rolling dice. More choice often equals more complications. All of those factors (plus piracy), must be a nightmare for such a small company. Pluggo was, what, $200 for more than 100 plugs, most of which were infinitely useful & easy to use? Great deal, really. This sort of thing happens, and most companies don't even say they'll return your calls, it's just tough tit-tay. Won't name any names, but was a certain software company whose suite of far fewer plugs with mostly cludgy interfaces cost me way more and they left me in the cold with no upgrade path and no support. Their Not-So-Intact VST was abandonware mere months after I paid $100 for it, too. It was also awesome seeing AbysmalSynth repackaged as a "bigger" synth with the UI that Abysmal should have had from the start. Shame, some of their products sound very nice. A software company that actually responds to people and offers software with great UI's, great sound, with a great price deserves some patience. This is more like Legacyware than Abandonware, it's obvious they're still fielding questions from people who bought their products.The comment about Ableton only being for stupid house musicians made me laugh...that's kinda like those who say Image Line's FLS is only for techno weenies and beginners. I may not like FLS's workflow, but it's a full music production suite that will do anything the end user takes the time to learn how to do. People use Ableton for all types of music. Among all DAWs, Ableton is the one that offers the most modularity and routing with the least amount of fuss.The partnership with Ableton seemed like a wise move to me. It would be really cool to see a Live Lite For Max version of Ableton Live for those who just want to use Max by rewiring Live to their main DAW, but I don't know if the guys at Ableton like Cycling74 THAT much. Ableton is solid on both Windows and OSX, so Ableton can deal with that area while Cycling74 can concentrate on porting all the Pluggo plugs everyone loved to Max For Live and providing support.
- Jun 17 2011 | 7:55 pmLet see; Pluggo, Radial, Hipno, and Mode all gone the way of the dinosaur. I love Hipno, one of the coolest plugins in the world. Not only does it bother me that I dropped money on all of these, but the fact that I would have kept buying your products had there been such a scorched earth appoarch to a business deal. Makes me not interested in buying into Ableton at all, who knows in a couple of years maybe that will be dumped as well!! I don't have much trust in Cycling 74 or Electrotap. I have waited a long time before I said anything to see what would shake out. I'm sure niche industries are difficult but I would think Ableton could have made money selling Hipno as a standalone under the Ableton name!
- Oct 22 2011 | 1:48 amHello all: me to, I don't want buy Ableton, a product for a certain type of music, that I don't want to do. I like Hipno, and I want to see this product alive. I think it is easier to update than to develop this product, so it is not so hard to update it.I am a paying customer, who must keep old machines and old DAW to make it work. I think that to have abandoned this product is a betrayal of those who gave you money, it's something dishonest. I'm sure the question lies in the problems between your two companies and not the lack of public interest. If Cycling74 applied a bad trade policy, well, send in the garbage of history, and choose another distributor! Or, offer these products to enthusiasts who will update them for free !!!!!
- Nov 12 2011 | 10:27 amWow. I was going to buy Max 6 because I wanted to be able to design my synthesizers to use in the DAW of my choice. I HATE ABLETON WITH A PASSION! I honestly think this is a horrible choice and Cycling 74 is going to lose a ton of loyal users. Native Instruments is gonna get a lot more business. The Upside to this is that I can probably find Pluggo somewhere for free .... ^_^
- Feb 11 2010 | 10:01 amHow about Max for Digital Performer, or Max for Logic. Why ableton? I hate ableton live. I bought ableton suite 8 just because I knew max for live was coming, but had to sell it as it was not the way I like to work. I have a Max 5 license, but would love to use it as a pluggin in DP.
