Why I don't use iLok and other Horror Stories

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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This story requires just a bit of history. About a year ago, I bought a key controller on sale and a part of the deal was that it came with a free piano plugin. Due to time conflicts and other issues, I never got around to installing the plugin. I have a dozen other first-rate piano plugins, so I didn't really miss it.

The other bit of information you need to understand this story is this. My hard drive went south a few weeks ago which meant rebuilding all my music software. As I was picking through all the plugins I have, I noticed that piano plugin sitting there in my plugin folder. If I had any understanding of the clusterf*ck to come from installing it, I would have just passed it by.

The first problem was the install files were corrupted. No problem. I retrieved my back up copy. It was also corrupted. I tried my originally downloaded files. No dice. I should have let discretion be the better part of valor at this point but I pressed on. I contacted support and received a new set of download links. Remember that this is a sampled piano plugin so we are talking about over 6 GB of download. I download the files and kick off the install.

Knowing that a 6 GB install is going to take a while, I go and do some other things on line. The install finishes and I go into Sonar and try to look at it. No plugin. I checked the VST search paths and it should be in the list.

I reinstall it this time watching the process. As it finishes I see a little note saying that it has installed PACE and I need to reboot for it to show up. Fine. I reboot and go back into Sonar. Nothing.

Now this is exactly the reason why I have avoided iLok and the other license managers. I didn't want to mess with them. Again, I should have walked away at this point, but I have a character flaw. Once I start something, I have to finish it. Also I have been a tech guy for 40 years now, so how hard can it be to fix this? Famous last words.

I fired up the iLok License Manager. Error. Can't access the server. OK, to the web site support page. I read the first solution, and that was to find the PACE process and check its status. I look and there is no PACE process. This was not one of the situations the support page had anticipated so there was no solution. Lacking other ideas, I decide to uninstall and reinstall one more time.

When the reboot is done, I check the processes, and sure enough the process is right where is should be and it is even running. I go back to the iLok License Manager, and Error. Can't access the server. WTF?

I dig deeper into the support page and it says the problem has to been with the proxy server. I don't use a proxy server. As I am reading, this page is telling me I need to go into the bowels of the operating system and make changes to the settings there. OK, I go in as administrator and fix things like it says.

I fire up the iLok manager, and finally it comes up. I log in. I am then staring at the activation page. It is asking for a 200 digit activation code. I search through to dozen or so emails I've received and finally find the activation code. I put it into the activation page. Success.

I go back to Sonar and look at the VST page. Nothing. I am ready to give up at this point. I start doing some work on the Insert Plugin menu, and suddenly a window pops up saying it has finally found the piano plugin and I need to configure it. I click on the pop up and it brings up an entire web page full of information it needs to authorize the plugin. More searching through emails to find the information. I enter the data and it is authorized.

I go to insert the plugin into a test project, and there it is. I try it out, and it is a nice plugin. It has a good sound and can be usable in some upcoming projects.

Start to finish, it took me longer to install this free, add-on plugin than it took me to install all of Komplete 9. This is why I will NEVER buy software that require iLok or any other licensing scheme like it. I don't want to encourage them.

A quick note to Developers...If a person has to go into the operating system of his machine to make your product work, you are on the wrong track.
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Amen Brother! I am so frustrated with ilok that I'm thinking about giving away 1000s of dollars worth of software just to be away from the ultra time sucking, morale sucking, muse sucking scheme.
The companies that use it HATE musicians.
I could have activated cracked version faster than the month long saga I'm going through with pace ilok.
Asus CM6870 3AB, i7 3770 Ivy, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD, 7TB Internal, Windows 8 64bit Pro,RME Firface UC, Reaper. Ableton Live 9, Sonar X2, Maschine.

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Seems to me that you had a lot of corrupt backup stuff. I would say that's part of it too.

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UltraJv wrote:Seems to me that you had a lot of corrupt backup stuff. I would say that's part of it too.
Yep, and sorry to hear OP had such problems but i have two ILOK dongles with alot of licenses (80+) and never had such issues. Installing/Registering takes a minute, most of the time less.

PS. 200 digit activation code.. Really? How that can be when you only have place for something about 30 digits afair in your license manager?
Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.

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riley4reason wrote:Amen Brother!
I can't resist :borg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM

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Numanoid wrote:
riley4reason wrote:Amen Brother!
I can't resist :borg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM
:lol:

.-.
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Alienware i7 R3 loaded with billions of DAWS and plugins.

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Something like this?
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To each his own. I'd like all the time back that I've spent authorizing C/R plugins every time I either upgrade my studio computer or decide to do studio work on a different machine. With ilok/elicenser I just install a driver and move the dongle. In many cases I can just copy the plugins over.

Granted, I really don't see the advantage of using either with the software only driver, that's like having the worst of both sides. For everything else though, I'm on a strict serial or dongle only policy with all new software. I'll still consider upgrading software that has switched to C/R if I use it regularly, but, I'll probably start looking for a replacement.

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I also had a bunch of plugins with a controller keyboard - haven't even downloaded the piano one yet although I'm sure I'll get round to it - don't use piano very much but it'll be nice to have a good one at hand.

My heart was in my mouth when I saw the pace drivers being installed for the ones I have downloaded, and I expected a bunch of problems to surface afterwards.

I know pace track record is not the best when it comes to cocking systems up, but....Touch wood - no problems at all so far!
Q. Why is a mouse when it spins?
A. The higher the fewer.

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kvr number one ilok hater and whiner forum. :dog:

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Daimonicon wrote:kvr number one ilok hater and whiner forum. :dog:
So true; the only one who whines in this thread is you.

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why do people get so uppity when others say they dont like ilok/pace? its weird.

theres a whole thing going on in another thread where im getting bombarded on all sides because i had the nerve...the audacity...to say i wasnt buying something because it uses pace/ilok.

and i only mentioned it because i had previously stated my enthusiasm for the product (before i knew it used ilok), and wanted to amend my statement.

its not like i went in there and just spouted an entire anti ilok rant.

whats wrong with people?
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chaosWyrM wrote:why do people get so uppity when others say they dont like ilok/pace? its weird.

theres a whole thing going on in another thread where im getting bombarded on all sides because i had the nerve...the audacity...to say i wasnt buying something because it uses pace/ilok.

and i only mentioned it because i had previously stated my enthusiasm for the product (before i knew it used ilok), and wanted to amend my statement.

its not like i went in there and just spouted an entire anti ilok rant.

whats wrong with people?
Uppity? I think that you're reading too much into the responses. When people rant about iLok, I like to share my positive experiences and give the reasons for it. I like dongles, I want devs to use them, so I like to share how and why they are a much better solution for me than C/R.

YMMV.

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ghettosynth wrote:
chaosWyrM wrote:why do people get so uppity when others say they dont like ilok/pace? its weird.

theres a whole thing going on in another thread where im getting bombarded on all sides because i had the nerve...the audacity...to say i wasnt buying something because it uses pace/ilok.

and i only mentioned it because i had previously stated my enthusiasm for the product (before i knew it used ilok), and wanted to amend my statement.

its not like i went in there and just spouted an entire anti ilok rant.

whats wrong with people?
Uppity? I think that you're reading too much into the responses. When people rant about iLok, I like to share my positive experiences and give the reasons for it. I like dongles, I want devs to use them, so I like to share how and why they are a much better solution for me than C/R.

YMMV.
well i dont think im reading too much into the responses. could i be wrong? of course...but really...the comments are replete with sarcasm and ad hominems. people are cray cray over there.

its cool if you want to express your positive experiences, and im not talking about those kinds of posts. i would point out though that the "it works great for me" line of logic is flawed. its awesome that it works great for you...but that doesnt change the fact that it doesnt work great for other people. it also doesnt change the fact that some people simply dont want to use it, because it doesnt work so great for a lot of people.

and thats not even getting into the various and sundry other (valid) reasons people might choose to stay away from it.
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chaosWyrM wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:
chaosWyrM wrote:why do people get so uppity when others say they dont like ilok/pace? its weird.

theres a whole thing going on in another thread where im getting bombarded on all sides because i had the nerve...the audacity...to say i wasnt buying something because it uses pace/ilok.

and i only mentioned it because i had previously stated my enthusiasm for the product (before i knew it used ilok), and wanted to amend my statement.

its not like i went in there and just spouted an entire anti ilok rant.

whats wrong with people?
Uppity? I think that you're reading too much into the responses. When people rant about iLok, I like to share my positive experiences and give the reasons for it. I like dongles, I want devs to use them, so I like to share how and why they are a much better solution for me than C/R.

YMMV.
well i dont think im reading too much into the responses. could i be wrong? of course...but really...the comments are replete with sarcasm and ad hominems. people are cray cray over there.

its cool if you want to express your positive experiences, and im not talking about those kinds of posts. i would point out though that the "it works great for me" line of logic is flawed.
No, if I were making a statistical argument that because it works for me, it works, you'd have a point, but I'm not. I'm simply asserting my preferences. I don't care about whether or not it works for you or anybody else. That said, I think that as often as not, it's simply user error.

The argument that I do make, and is not refutable, is that dongles are really the only way to have a hardware token for your software that isn't intrinsically linked to your PC. So, I much prefer that if vendors feel that it's necessary to link software to hardware, that they link it to a simple piece of standalone hardware rather than to any particular PC.
its awesome that it works great for you...but that doesnt change the fact that it doesnt work great for other people. it also doesnt change the fact that some people simply dont want to use it, because it doesnt work so great for a lot of people.
It also works great for "a lot of people", so you're really not saying anything.
and thats not even getting into the various and sundry other (valid) reasons people might choose to stay away from it.
And your assertion does not change my valid reasons for preferring dongles. I'm not sure who you're trying to convince here, nor of what, but if you want to convince me that I shouldn't like dongles you're going to have to do much better than what you're doing.

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