@SP. So you are saying that I would still get to keep the plugins, like Essential FX (which I like) and not lose them? The monetary gap between core and suite is a bit more than that, I think. I use SFP for voice-over, interviews and audio-for-video, including some sound design--and audio repair. One of the main reasons I got SFP Suite was for audio repair, you get Spectra Layers Pro, which is important. But I upgrade SFP separately now. Since I am not a musician, maybe some of the other things would be lost on me.

@Former user You can only use the Essential FX plugins in SF Pro 15 Suite. You will not be able to use them in SF Pro 16. This is the problem of downgrading.

Wow, that sucks! Better to know now than later! I would be pissed off to lose it. The guy who did Essential FX, Sascha Eversmeier (I believe?) also did the Digital Fish Phones which is sort of legendary. It was another reason to get the suite. Then I found out the guy had left. If Magix rips that away from customers who upgrade, that would not be so nice. I got some nice results from Essential FX.

@Former user Like I said, if you use SFP 15 Suite you can still use them because they are bound to that version. Or you need to buy the Essential FX Suite separately, which costs about $200. Then you can use these plugins in any audio program that can load VST2 effects. In this case you could also load them in SFP 16.

In that case, I would carefully need to find alternatives for each plugin I wanted so as not to be bound to SFP suite. It would be silly to have to use two versions of SFP to achieve the results I wanted. If SFP 16 suite has something really cool that I can use, then okay, make the investment. But to rip away plugins that can easily be used in 16 is just stupid. You can, for example, have an older version of Essential FX work just fine unless the customer wants to upgrade those plugins too. Tsk tsk. Bad move, Magix. Let clients upgrade of their own free will, not because their tools are held hostage.

The other third-party apps (iZ's RX and Oz Elements, S'berg's SLP, ect ) from SFP-15 should still work in any host app or in a stand alone config (if applicable)., I am not sure about the Essential FXs, but other version specific Magix plug-ins work in other versions of SFP and some even work in SFAS and VP..
I can not say for sure though as I do not even have a beta test version SFP-16 yet. Neither am I aware of a publication target date.

@rraud You can already pre-order SF 16 from Magix. It comes out March 16th.

Yeah, I got the marketing emails. One of the saving graces of Magix is that they have these deal windows where you can get programs at an aggressive price. But suite will always be a big purchase. One of the cool things for a relative newb are presets with peripherals like Essential/Core/WizardFX, where you can drop down a menu and get an approximation setting for voice-over (for example) and then tweak. The on-board effects for SFP are probably sufficient, but if you don't always know what you are doing they are intimidating. Then you get to the level of the pro's who dismiss Essential/Core/Wizard FX or any of the 'Elements' stuff and get into the rarerified stratosphere of DMG, iZotope Advanced, among other tools. I am not rarerified, and don't want to lose my suite goodies if SFP core has something I want and an aggressive price.

@Former user The current upgrade price for Pro is $20 higher than usual ($199 instead of $179), for Pro Suite it is $50 higher than usual ($299 instead of $249). Did you get some other deal in your mail? If not, I don't think it is worth to upgrade for this price in the next months. I usually skip some versions, I currently use SF 15 Pro Suite and probably won't upgrade until version 18.

Magix does send deals that are hard to pass up. The only current one I know of is to buy 15 now and get 16 when it comes out. But that will not stop them from sending pre-order enquiries or other deals. It's all a matter of what they have in 16 that will make it a compelling sale. I heard of 'modern eq', which may be included in this version. That was one of the things previously missing, something comparable to the likes of Fabfilter (for example). A really good EQ is important. I picked up DDMF IIEQPro which is nicely priced. Other stuff is out-of-budget at the moment. The SFP on-board eq may do the trick for what I need, but they are a challenge for newbs compared to the other more user friendly stuff.

@SP. . so much for beta testing. I guess the first published build will be the beta test release.
There is Magix forum for the beta test teams but there is no activity in the SFP-16 topic whatsoever. Only a few posts on the SFP-15 as well, mostly by me. It appears the developers are not much interested in the bugs and behavior issues we come across.

hi @Former user, if you write sound forge support, perhaps they would get you a separate installer for the essential fx suite that you can use in other programs. never hurts to ask, and they've surprised me in the past with similar requests.