Mm… Those are broad questions. Generally speaking, Eventide doesn't usually charge for software upgrades. One reason is charging for upgrades might make people feel like we're nickel and diming them. Another reason for that is that if you start charging for upgrades some people aren't going to want to upgrade and then you're going to have people using older software without the latest bug fixes and it turns into a headache for our support people.
We haven't stopped improving the existing algorithms. We completely rewrote the Looper for instance and gave that out for free for TimeFactor customers (or more specifically my colleague, Russ, completely rewrote the Looper). But we have been concentrating more of our energy on new algorithms as that's what more people have been asking for. Plus with some algorithms it's hard to do more than we've done with them already within the constraints of the embedded environments that they run in.
With regards to the larger hardware layout you mentioned of TF/PF/MF, one of the biggest complaints we had after releasing the H9 was that it didn't have the 10 knobs people were used to. A lot of people appreciate the smaller size of the H9. Almost certainly most H9 owners do. But there is still a sizeable chunk of users who like the tweakability of the 10 knobs (and the three footswitches). So, I don't think we're done with that layout or with designing algorithms with that layout in mind…
