It really isn’t that expensive compared to other packages, like the current 80 Deutscheuromitsteuerndrin is what some simple vst plugins might cost you. If you manage to find someone with a “used” license, you need to know that every license lasts for a certain number of versions until it needs to be renewed for version updates. A “freshly bough” license lasts longest ofc, as some speculate for some unknown number of years.
Now the demo is very, very permissive. Only rendering, rewire and like this are limited. It is very fair I think. You can really get into the program just by using the demo for another while, for free. You can save all your work, and ofc use this work later on when you bought the license. Why not just try to just use it for a while, until you are very sure of this kind of special software being your thing or not? I also think the community here is friendly to demo users in case of questions. Now when you got these killer tracks worked out that you don’t just want to capture the live output, but render in hq, or are at the point where you need to render elements for advanced techniques you know it is time. I’ve also used the demo this way quite some time until I knew the program was worth the price for me.
Have to agree with everyone here, For what it does it is very cheap and definitely worth every penny, in fact even after using it for a short time myself, I already think it is worth much more. If it’s a $$$ thing, I understand, I don’t have much of an expendable income too.
My advice would be to just save for it and use the demo until then. As previously suggested, the demo is quite functional.
What I also found a big selling point is the awesomeness of community here, the people are so helpful and encouraging and in a way help to make Renoise what it is. Browse through the forum and you can see what I mean. Coupled with Developers that listen to their users and are working hard to give us what we want, again makes it worth every $, even more.
Personally, I’d also just buy the full license directly from the Renoise team. If nothing else, this also gives you the maximum amount of security and safety. I understand buying used when licenses cost several hundred euros (I once sold my Bitwig license, so I’m not saying there is anything wrong with trading licenses), but when something is as inexpensive as Renoise, and you get several years of updates with it (this is a cost saving - a used license will not have the full length of free updates attached to it), you might as well avoid any risks and hassles.
In any event, welcome to the Renoise family! What Linux distro are you using?
I can really recommend a Renoise license buy as the best invest in software I ever have made. If you wanna support this great team, maybe you can consider to buy a new license. Upgrade policy is very transparent and friendly. Renoise is in fact a DAW which can compete with most major daws in many ways - maybe not all. But there are also lots of unique features, other daws totally missing or now starting to copy…
Also, only Renoise has such a strong community and forum. Lot of knowledge and friendly people around here.