Sylenth1 cannot be run on a virtual machine (fixed)

[garryknight]

I updated to the beta of version 3 VST for Windows via the email route and installed it into C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins to use with my 64-bit version of Studio One v3. On starting up Studio One it scanned this folder and put up the message "Sylenth1 cannot be run on a virtual machine". Needless to say it isn't running on a virtual machine, it's running natively on Windows 10 version 1151 build 10586.36 - the most up-to-date non-Insider build.

What's worse is that, having put up this message, I couldn't dismiss the dialog. I had to go to Task Manager to kill Studio One then restart it. Studio One then added Sylenth1 to its VST blacklist and so it was able to run properly, albeit without Sylenth1.

I'm going to have to revert to version 2.21 but I'd love to know how to get the beta working.

EDIT: I've now got version 3 running. See my post at the top of page 4 of this thread for details.

[andrew71]

I have the same problem on Windows 10, but with Cubase 8.5 64bit. I mailed support and was asked to try turning off Hyper-V (which I don't use but the services are installed but not running). It didn't make a difference to me unfortunately.

It is a beta though, so problems are to be expected...

[chk071]

If you don't use virtual machines, you can also try to turn off Intel virtualization in the BIOS. No idea why Sylenth1 would be affected by that or Hyper-V though... quite unusual.

[andrew71]

Disabling Intel Virtualisation in the BIOS fixed the problem for me.

[koalaboy]

Disabling Intel Virtualisation in the BIOS fixed the problem for me.

That's not fixing a problem - that's working around the problem by disabling other system settings that are not related to the VST.

Whilst it may let you use the product, it's not an acceptable answer.

[garryknight]

It's certainly not an acceptable fix from my point of view. I use virtualisation to run Ubuntu now and again. I don't want to have to keep going into the BIOS to turn it on and off again. Thanks for all of your replies, everyone. I'd like to see some imput from Lennar Digital, though.

[andrew71]

Disabling Intel Virtualisation in the BIOS fixed the problem for me.

That's not fixing a problem - that's working around the problem by disabling other system settings that are not related to the VST.

Whilst it may let you use the product, it's not an acceptable answer.

True, but as I said before, it is classed as a beta at the moment. I've already fed information back to Lennar Digital so hopefully it will be fixed in the final release.

[chk071]

Disabling Intel Virtualisation in the BIOS fixed the problem for me.

That's not fixing a problem - that's working around the problem by disabling other system settings that are not related to the VST.

Whilst it may let you use the product, it's not an acceptable answer.

True, but if you don't use virtual machines, you won't need that feature anyway, and as a bonus, you can use the new Sylenth1 version, if you have the problem described in the OP.

[garryknight]

I've already fed information back to Lennar Digital so hopefully it will be fixed in the final release.

Thanks.

[Lennard]

After having some thoughts about the issue, we decided not to change this. There is a reason why Sylenth1 will not work when Virtualization is enabled on a computer, caused by the copy protection. Most users will not be needing virtualization anyway, and whatever we do, unfortunately we can not make everyone happy.

Another option would be using a hardware dongle, but that would force all our customers to use one. Most of them will prefer to disable virtualization instead, which 99% of them aren't using anyway (actually if you don't use virtualization, it's recommended to disable it either way for security reasons, which is also why it is mostly disabled by hardware default).

I hope you understand and I'm sorry if this causes discomfort for you.

[Nielzie]

I'm afraid more than a few current customers will not be happy about this.. even from a principle standpoint it seems wrong to implement a copy protection that only works when you disable a normal OS feature.

There must be other options that would not have to include a hardware dongle. What about C/R with some kind of hardware ID check? Aren't there other software companies that work with such C/R too (without the virtualization problem)

[Lennard]

There must be other options that would not have to include a hardware dongle. What about C/R with some kind of hardware ID check? Aren't there other software companies that work with such C/R too (without the virtualization problem)

Sylenth1 v3.0 already uses that.

[garryknight]

After having some thoughts about the issue, we decided not to change this.
...
I hope you understand and I'm sorry if this causes discomfort for you.

No discomfort, no. It means I won't be able to upgrade to version 3 but I have plenty of other synths.

That Sylenth1 won't be able to work with, as Nielzie points out, "a normal OS feature" makes it look like crippleware. An unfortunate move, IMO.

[Nielzie]

There must be other options that would not have to include a hardware dongle. What about C/R with some kind of hardware ID check? Aren't there other software companies that work with such C/R too (without the virtualization problem)

Sylenth1 v3.0 already uses that.

Hmm but somehow Sylenth1 v3's C/R system has this problem where other systems do not seem to have it. Please take some more time to investigate, might very well be worth the investment in the long run

[Lennard]

Hmm but somehow Sylenth1 v3's C/R system has this problem where other systems do not seem to have it. Please take some time to investigate, might very well be worth the investment in the long run

This has nothing to do with the C/R system. It's also not a bug, it was done intentionally.