I'm not quite sure what you mean. I just know that we've seen loads of cracks of all sorts of software that install all sorts of malware. I've once had to reinstall Windows after tryinga crack of my own software. So technically, yes, you're statement was wrong, a plugin can access the file system and other system routines like any other exectuable binary.

I haven't ever seen any of us audio software developers adding any malicious code though, and I wouldn't ever imply that.

What I was trying to say is that if there is code in a .dll that will render a PC useless then it's not a VST, its a virus. It's malicious by design, therefore someone who's used cracked software deserves what they get.

The notion that Tone2, or any dev would put malicious code into their software is complete nonsense. More than likely they ran a cracked version.

I've seen false positives before, but they are almost exclusive to the installers. But in the actual .dll, well the people cracking the plug-ins must be pretty messed up to put in stuff that would render a computer disk useless.

that's awesome!

Yes, agreed.

But sometimes it's simply a bug, and possibly the reaction of a user. If the application gets stalled by an otherwise benign bug (as has happened to some of our users) and the user simply turns the computer off, then data can get lost or corrupted. This may offer a possible explanation as to what could have happened, and which then maybe was falsly attributed to erratic behaviour of the plugin.

Indeed, would be a shame to see a dev lose business over the ignorance or small mindedness of someone who just assumed the worst, when the truth is, its completely unrelated.

I think it must have been about 12 years ago, there was this supposed Virus synth emu floating around the net. It was a Virus all right. It was a .dll file, and it would pull up a blank wrapper. I started to notice that after I installed it in my VST folder, other .dll's were disappearing. That's right. Poof. Just Gone. No trace. I deleted said plugin and it stopped. So, yes you can put things in an innocuous file that can really screw things up.

Absolutely true. A dll file can be and can do almost everything... it's just a piece of software that can be executed. The point here is that there is no reason for a developer to do something like this

No. Not trying to imply that. Tone 2's been around since I can remember. But that was some crazy stuff. More than likely what happened was the demo timed out and the mouse was over the logo, in which case your browser will try to open because it thinks you want to go there. The firewall choked or whatever and you get instant crash. Like i said, I've got 3 T2 synths and I put them through the wringer almost on a daily basis, and they haven't hiccuped.

@Osiris: read the post by Bastiaan on the previous page on the subject...

Let's be serious - developers, other companies want to make business by selling their products, not by destroying our computers. If such thing happens then it's a really bad coincidence, and quite often it's also caused by inexperienced user who doesnt know how to (correctly) use computer.

Computer is not a hammer (yea, china hammer may break too ) - it can freeze, it can ie. turn off for no reason (or because of some system / hardware failure, ie. you don't clean often, and your desktop computer is full of dust and it overheats). User should be aware of it. If a lot of users install everything on C: then no wonder, their computers my crash heavily one day. If you have serious hobby then your organisation also should be serious which means ie. one partition / HDD for system, the other one for DAW / Samples / Plugins. If you use old system then it's also no helper. I remember that in Windows XP one corrupted, specific file (caused during "hard reset") was enough to force some inexperienced people to reainstall whole system, or some would even do format C:

I really don't like XXI century people attitude - "it's theirs fault, not mine". Computer crashed ? It's theirs fault - it's computer manufacturer's fault, it's microsoft's fault, it's plugin developer's fault. It's everyone's fault but not me. Such attitude really sucks.

ps. also we spend hundreds of dollars / euros for new plugins. It's not a bad idea to skip one plugin deal and buy HDD instead and make a backup once a month. Am I doing backups ? no and that is why - if one day I'll lose all important data it'll be my all f* fault (well, I have some partial backup on laptop).

ps. and I dont care if some plugin requests an outbound connection to validate my license or something. Why ? People post their private crap on facebook (ie. what they ate on breakfast ;p or who did they have sex with), yet they're afraid of some plugin sending some packets ? Do you really believe it ? it's called being a paranoid bastard who uses warez More often it's just a trojan added gratis by some crack (or rather crack-wannabe) group

Just bought it

+1

I missed your post hakey, sorry. I'll address it now.
I used your first reaction to those clips. In later posts you had time to reflect, but it's the first reaction which is the one that counts. But, I do have to say that you do know your stuff, as you did point to the clip (second part of it) as being that of a real analog. So respect (friends?)

Also, my post talked about lots of other people. For example, pdxindy said just after hearing the Sh2 that:
"I've listened to every user example posted in this thread since its release and most have some harshness and artifacting" (page 64).

etc.

I hope you (and everyone else) don't mind this little excursion of mine. It was just meant to illustrate that it is not that easy to judge what is or isn't analog, or 'pleasing' analog. I mean, if one sound from one synth can be regarded as coming from a VA and a hardware analog synth all at the same time, then it does illustrate how our perception of sound can be misleading. It also shows that high resonance in analog synths isn't as milky as some would have thought. It can be piercing and very strong. And in turn, a VA resonance sweep can be more pleasing. It all depends, on how, where, what time of day, your astrologic chart, and the tea leaves pattern in your cuppa.

I said 'most have', not all have... most is meaning more than 50%... I was not referring to your SH2 audio though, as I suspected that was not Saurus (being too alias free). I wanted to go try to duplicate it before saying so and never did check.

it is easy to make sounds that are not harsh too... just avoid certain functions like FM/AM noise, feedback, filter FM, high Resonance and Drive and basically every sound will be clean... those ones just need more cpu to control aliasing in general and even so, some sweet tones will no doubt be found there too... Those are the controls I tend to gravitate towards so I am going to find a higher percentage of unpleasantly aliased sounds than another user might.

Give me a high quality mode and super high quality mode that crushes my cpu and I will be happy