Scott E said
As someone who's done software development and has recorded many layers of drum samples (neither of which was for Toontrack), I can appreciate the time, effort and knowledge that it takes to do both.
I was actually wondering about that; how many hours it would take to write and test the software versus how many hours it would take to make a sample library as big as something like Avatar, not forgetting that it was recorded in a studio which of course has its own fees as well.
I respect the fact that you see the software (without the library) to be worth the current full price, but let's face it: I can get a very competitive library from another company for $99, before discount. That's a third of the current price. Why? Because that company actually gives away their software (the "player") for free, and it seems to hold its own as well.
This all leads me to the belief* that, at the very least, the Superior Drummer software alone doesn't constitute the full price, but probably half of it (around $150) while the other half belongs to Avatar. I'm comfortable with paying that much for the software, but I'd rather the other half went to an SDX instead, is all I'm saying. If that's not the case, then I don't think it would be worth it anymore, not in today's market anyway.
* Though I think at some point we'll have to admit that we don't know how Toontrack structures its businesses and finances, so we can't really compare them to other (bigger?) companies and therefore judge their prices based on that.