Four mixes a month. At the lowest reported credit price, that is where Finalist 2's £8 monthly plan starts costing less than buying credits. Below that, credits win. And if you keep mixing for more than about a year and a half, the £149 option overtakes the subscription.
Finalist 2 is free to mix and charges when you export, so the real question is how often you export. This guide turns the three reported payment options into break-even numbers, flags what remains unconfirmed, and gives you a checklist to run before you pay.
What is documented, and what is not
Everything below comes from MusicTech's weekly plugin round-up (https://musictech.com/news/gear/new-plugins-this-week/), which covers Tim Exile's Finalist 2. Treat these as reported figures until you check them against Tim Exile's own pricing page.
According to MusicTech, Finalist 2 is a new version of the Finalist mixing tool, which was previously only available as a Reaktor patch. It runs in the browser or as a standalone app for Mac and Windows, and it handles up to 64 stems. You drop stems in, pick a starting point from categories such as Hype, Balance or Soft, tweak by hand, then export. Mixing is free, and you pay on export.
The reported pricing has three options:
- Credits from £2.50 per mix
- Unlimited mixes from £8 per month
- "Infinite exports forever" for £149
This guide makes no claims about how Finalist 2 sounds, because it relies on MusicTech's report, not hands-on testing.
The word "from" appears in two of the three prices. It suggests the quoted figures may be the cheapest tier, not a flat rate. That is the biggest unknown in the maths below.
Credits vs monthly: the break-even point
The arithmetic is simple. £8 divided by £2.50 is 3.2, so three mixes cost £7.50 in credits and four cost £10. If £2.50 is what you actually pay per mix, the monthly plan is cheaper from four mixes per month. At three or fewer, credits win.
Two caveats could shift that. If small credit packs cost more than £2.50 per mix, the break-even drops and the subscription pays off sooner. If the monthly tier you need costs more than £8, the break-even moves the other way. Confirm both before trusting any table, including this one. This pairs well with see also: gamessoundcon 2026: worth it for composers?.
The table uses only the reported prices. All figures are calculated, not measured.
| Mixes per month | Credits per month | Credits, 12 months | Monthly, 12 months | Lifetime (one-off) | Cheapest at 12 months | Cheapest at 24 months | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | £2.50 | £30 | £96 | £149 | Credits | Credits (£60) | | 3 | £7.50 | £90 | £96 | £149 | Credits | Lifetime (£149 vs £180 credits, £192 monthly) | | 5 | £12.50 | £150 | £96 | £149 | Monthly | Lifetime (£149 vs £192 monthly, £300 credits) | | 10 | £25 | £300 | £96 | £149 | Monthly | Lifetime (£149 vs £192 monthly, £600 credits) | | 20 | £50 | £600 | £96 | £149 | Monthly | Lifetime (£149 vs £192 monthly, £1,200 credits) |
Three mixes a month is the awkward case. Credits cost 50p less than the subscription each month, so the gap is trivial. The choice hinges on whether you occasionally spike to a fourth or fifth export.
When the £149 option pays off
Against the monthly plan, £149 divided by £8 is 18.6, so the lifetime price wins from month 19. At month 18 you would have paid £144 on the subscription. At month 19 you reach £152.
Against credits, the payback depends on volume, again assuming £2.50 per mix. The lifetime price equals 60 credits, so it pays back after about 60 exports in total. That works out to:
- Roughly five years at one mix a month
- About 20 months at three
- About 12 months at five
- Six months at ten
- Three months at twenty
Those last two figures make the case for heavy batch work. If you mix ten or more stem sets a month, the lifetime option beats credits within half a year. It beats the subscription from month 19 at any volume.
"Forever" needs scrutiny, though. MusicTech's write-up does not say whether it covers only Finalist 2 or future versions, whether it is tied to one account, or what happens if the service changes. If the browser version depends on the vendor's servers, that is a different bet from a plugin you install and own. Read the terms before treating £149 as a purchase in the usual sense.
Where a stem-based mixer fits, and where a DAW still wins
MusicTech describes Finalist as suited to rapidly prototyping different directions for clients, trying out ideas, and finishing work against a tight deadline. That points to a few clear fits: client demos, quick drafts of a track, and comparing starting points before you commit to a full mix. We cover related ground in go deeper on phobos vs polaris vs phoenix: which bt synth to buy.
What follows is inference, not tested fact. A tool built around starting-point categories and a handful of controls likely suits work where speed matters more than surgical control. A traditional DAW session still makes more sense when you need per-track automation, your own plugin chains, detailed recall for revisions, or a mix you will master and release under your name. Whether Finalist 2 can export in the formats and quality your release pipeline needs is one of the open questions below.
Workflow matters too. You presumably bounce stems from your DAW first, and a mix revised in Finalist lives outside your session. If you revise often, that cost may outweigh the few pounds in the pricing table.
Check these before you pay
Documented (as reported by MusicTech):
- Free to mix, pay on export
- Runs in the browser or as a standalone app on Mac and Windows
- Up to 64 stems
- Credits from £2.50 per mix, unlimited mixes from £8 per month, infinite exports for £149
Unconfirmed, so check Tim Exile's official pricing and terms pages:
- What counts as an export. Is it one stereo file, or does each format, stem print or re-render use another credit?
- Whether revisions cost extra. If a client asks for a tweak and you re-export, is that a second mix?
- Credit terms. Do credits expire, and does the "from £2.50" rate apply to every pack size?
- Monthly plan limits. Look for caps, fair-use limits, or a higher tier hiding behind "from £8".
- What "forever" covers in the £149 option, including future versions and account transfer.
- Export file formats, bit depth and sample rates.
- Browser vs standalone. Do the two versions behave the same, and do you need an internet connection to mix or only to export?
- Trial options. Since mixing is free, you can likely evaluate the workflow at no cost, but confirm that before relying on it.
Also read: dj.studio vs ableton live: which wins for dj mixes?
Which plan for which producer
Occasional hobbyist, one to three mixes a month: Buy credits. At the reported rate you pay £2.50 to £7.50 a month and commit to nothing. Use the free mixing to find out whether you like the workflow first.
Freelancer sending client demos, four to five mixes a month: Take the monthly plan, provided its terms hold up. If revisions count as new exports, the flat price becomes more valuable, but only if the plan has no caps.
Heavy batch user, ten or more mixes a month: The monthly plan is the cheapest option for the first 18 months, and the £149 option is cheaper after that. If you expect to still use the tool in a year and a half, and the terms on "forever" are clear, the lifetime option is the better value.
Release-focused producer who mixes in a DAW: Skip it for finished work unless you have confirmed the export formats and want a quick second opinion on a mix. The free mixing stage costs nothing to try. Pay only if exports prove useful.
The short version: credits for three mixes or fewer, monthly from four, lifetime if you will pass 19 months of regular use. Verify the export definition first, because every number above depends on it.
