Sales, Billing, Offers

Sometimes when you buy a piece of software you get access to it in multiple formats. Which might make you wonder why the iOS version of a SWAM instrument must be purchased separately from the desktop version.

It’s NOT because the apps are significantly different. They’re not. The SWAM engine is the same in both versions. There is no difference in audio quality, and even the user interfaces are the same.

It is true that a few advanced parameters can’t be adjusted in the iOS version. If you really want to know exactly which parameters those are, you’ll find them listed in the User Manuals at https://audiomodeling.com/manuals. But, other than that, the versions are identical.

“Fine,” we hear you thinking, “then….why the separate purchases?”

We are the explainers, and we are going to explain – here and now – three very good reasons that is the case.

1. While the instruments themselves are the same, on the iOS we only sell individual instruments, not the bundles that are available in the desktop versions. The different packaging of the instruments makes it complicated to combine the versions in a single purchase.
2. Anything for iOS brings Apple directly into the equation. iOS products are sold through Apple’s App Store, and the licensing system is entirely different for iOS products.
3. Our desktop versions DO include compatibility with quite a few formats for macOS and Windows: VST, VST3, Audio Units (macOS), AAX, NKS. There is quite a bit of time and work consumed in creating these compatibilities, fixing bugs with all of them, and maintaining them as the operating systems and the formats themselves are developed and change. Look – see that programmer over there with the tired look and the dark circles under her eyes? She’s the poor soul who has to do all that work, and she NEEDS to get paid enough to take herself out to dinner or shopping once in a while. That’s only fair.

So, there you have three perfectly fine reasons that we really have no choice but to have iOS and desktop versions of SWAM instruments be separate purchases at different prices. We hate to trouble you with all of these details, but we fully appreciate your need to understand why we ask you for your hard-earned money twice for each instrument. But look at the whole picture: where else can you even find software instruments as lifelike and fun to play on either desktop computers or the iOS?

We do try not to make the financial hit too hard and to make sure you are really, really getting your money’s worth. Because we are hoping to be able to go home and take our life partners out to dinner this weekend so that they’ll forgive us for spending so much time working long hours developing SWAM instruments for you to play. That’s only fair.