Princeton VST Reverb - Those who haven't bought it

[greendoor]

PACE is the kiss of death. But as for Princeton 2016 - it has taken me a long time to understand this, and now I understand what it is good for, I want it! I would pay good money for it, if it didn't have that damned challenge/response.

So - now I have the big job of converting all the settings I love into convolution impulses. Fortunately, they seem to convolve well.

[kylen]

I would pay good money for it, if it didn't have that damned challenge/response.

greendoor - what about the Princeton Pace challenge/response is going to destroy my computer or otherwise cause trouble. I picked this one up because I didn't see a problem - T-Racks and a bunch of other plugs have challange/response - what is the problem with it that will hurt me (might be too late!).

[zimba]

Actually PACE has been behaving itself on my system since installing the new drivers over a year ago, and disabling hyperthreading. before that it would lock up my system, and cause other problems.

But even with the two PACE apps working fine now, there is still the threat of what you do if a company goes belly up and you cant reauthorize your apps. Even though this hasnt happened to my knowledge, just consider what happened to Aardvark and then consider if they were a software company with CRs.

[hoffy]

I would have voted for the option: "f**k Paying, I use Warez"

=)

[harmony gardens]

To me, Pace was somewhat of an issue, but I mostly have enough good reverbs. I have the stuff that came with Sonar and Project 5, Dreamverb and Realverb from UAD, Voxengo Pristine Space Light, Sir, several other good freebies, and Anwida Spazio. I was in on the Spazio GB, and it didn't do that well, (perhaps because it was DX only), but I like Spazio a lot.

At any rate, my initial thought when I saw the GB was "oh, another Reverb". I tried the demo, and was impressed, but I didn't feel like it would do anything THAT significant for me, even at $100, since I have other good options. I want to add another GIG of RAM, and I preordered Philharmonik, got into the GPO GB,,,,,and I have a client who owes me $1700 and isn't paying. (GRRR) I guess for once I mustered enough self disipline to resist. I was sort of proud of myself.

[greendoor]

the threat of what you do if a company goes belly up and you cant reauthorize your appsThat's the guts of why I will never buy challenge/response if I don't have too. I have so much software, and knowing that I have to rebuild/upgrade my PC fairly often, it's a nightmare to keep track of all the dongles and codes, and having to authorise online (I HATE going online with my MUSIC PC) is just the last fkng straw. Screw them! There are plenty of good guys selling good software with no such abuses attached. Buy their stuff! Kjaerhus, Voxengo, ArtsAcoustic, SonicFlavours, etc - thank you and keep up the great work. And I trust nobody pirates their stuff - that would be a great shame.

But for the companies that don't trust me and evidently don't want my money, i'll just have to be happy with convolution samples of their products.

[Paul G]

To me, Pace was somewhat of an issue, but I mostly have enough good reverbs. I have the stuff that came with Sonar and Project 5, Dreamverb and Realverb from UAD, Voxengo Pristine Space Light, Sir, several other good freebies, and Anwida Spazio. I was in on the Spazio GB, and it didn't do that well, (perhaps because it was DX only), but I like Spazio a lot.

At any rate, my initial thought when I saw the GB was "oh, another Reverb". I tried the demo, and was impressed, but I didn't feel like it would do anything THAT significant for me, even at $100, since I have other good options. I want to add another GIG of RAM, and I preordered Philharmonik, got into the GPO GB,,,,,and I have a client who owes me $1700 and isn't paying. (GRRR) I guess for once I mustered enough self disipline to resist. I was sort of proud of myself.

Dale:

I'm so proud of you too!

Paul

[Kraku]

Why haven't the devs done such a copy protection system that the legal buyer's name would be encrypted in 100 places of the plugin. Now if the buyer leaks the plugin out in the open, the devs knew who to blame.

About the Stereo Room being a "one trick pony": For me it's just a good thing. I never buy overly complex effects/instruments, even if they sounded really good. The workflow is really important for me. I only buy stuff that do one thing and they do it really well. Stereo Room is a perfect example for others in this philosophy.

Now, when's the plate reverb out?

[kylen]

the threat of what you do if a company goes belly up and you cant reauthorize your appsThat's the guts of why I will never buy challenge/response if I don't have too. I have so much software, and knowing that I have to rebuild/upgrade my PC fairly often, it's a nightmare to keep track of all the dongles and codes, and having to authorise online (I HATE going online with my MUSIC PC) is just the last fkng straw.

OK - I was just curious. For me it's more the reputation of the company while they are in business - in my world a company going out of business isn't too far fetched. While they're alive and well I expect them to behave and support their products. I have already had major run-ins with Arboretum and Diamond Cut over keeping their plugins working properly - I lost - time, money and trust.

The Princeton folks are unproven in that regard so far but stepping outside their own palace walls into KVR for discussions is a notch up for them IMO.

I hate rebuilding PCs too BTW - if I was smart I would just ghost the thing to be safe...I haven't tried that yet so I don't know if that will piss off Pace (assuming the ghost image is simply copied back to the original computer only).

[Frippertronix]

So...it looks like they lost $7000 so far. Bummer.

I think PACE light is fairly tame. I have Tracktion 2 and use some of the freeware that causes crashes with full PACE and so far no problems.

As far as the quality of the plug---some of the presets put it in a bad light since it does not do a good hall or even a large club. As Alan stated, it does a sweet, lively short tail room that has a plate feel, it has a good two band EQ, and for $100 its "one trick" was worth it for me.

Good thing I didn't know about the evils of PACE until this and the other recent threads came up or I might have made it a tally of 71.

[Frippertronix]

the threat of what you do if a company goes belly up and you cant reauthorize your appsThat's the guts of why I will never buy challenge/response if I don't have too. I have so much software, and knowing that I have to rebuild/upgrade my PC fairly often, it's a nightmare to keep track of all the dongles and codes, and having to authorise online (I HATE going online with my MUSIC PC) is just the last fkng straw. Screw them! There are plenty of good guys selling good software with no such abuses attached. Buy their stuff! Kjaerhus, Voxengo, ArtsAcoustic, SonicFlavours, etc - thank you and keep up the great work. And I trust nobody pirates their stuff - that would be a great shame.

But for the companies that don't trust me and evidently don't want my money, i'll just have to be happy with convolution samples of their products.

I hear you and agree that the copy protection schemes are often a pain in the glutes, but to react to a couple of your points---

I would be astonished if any company that had licensed a bunch of c/r plugs to people would go out of business without sending emails to all registered users issuing non c/r keys. Just make sure you stay on their mailing lists.

Personally this often mentioned "horror story" sounds like an urban legend to me. Anyone hear of one example of this happening?

As far as going online on your music machine (or any other critical working PC; a bad idea for any reason), all the times I've gone online to get response codes I've done it from another computer. Either they emailed me the code or a keyfile or gave me a link. The option was there to go direct from your PC and have them reach in and fondle certain sensitive parts to license the plug , but there was always an alternative offered.

[Frippertronix]

PACE is the kiss of death. But as for Princeton 2016 - it has taken me a long time to understand this, and now I understand what it is good for, I want it! I would pay good money for it, if it didn't have that damned challenge/response.

So - now I have the big job of converting all the settings I love into convolution impulses. Fortunately, they seem to convolve well.

Got to admire a bold man.

Yea, it became obvious to me somewhat slowly too, but they are kind people with a 30 day unrestricted demo---a sign of their confidence in their product.

At first I was like you---what is the hype about with this little unit? I was trying to get it to do all the standard reverb duties. It was like "What no freakin' hall?? I...don't get it. Where's the hall???"

But then I started mixing with it, mostly on tracks, and I just felt the tight, musical ambience and that sort of drum room snap it gave could be harnessed to so many purposes. PACE or no PACE, I'm glad I grabbed it on the G/B.

Thank God it doesn't use Super Shitty PACE From Hell like smelly Waves.

[Meffy]

I would be astonished if any company that had licensed a bunch of c/r plugs to people would go out of business without sending emails to all registered users issuing non c/r keys.

Prepare to be astonished. :-( Sad to say it's happened at least once. Bitheadz customers are out of luck these days. I think they went out of business some time last year.

They were the first soft-synth company I ever heard of. Back around 1994 or '95 I considered buying their Retro AS-1 modular soft synth. I'd never seen anything like it before. As it happens, I didn't buy it because I couldn't get the demo to work on my computer. It was probably my own fault, but I'm still glad I didn't get stuck with software I'd not be able to re-authorize any more. True, I'd have had ten years of use, but leaving customers in the lurch as they did just ain't right.

P.S.: I see audiomidi.com is still selling two Bitheadz products as "blowouts." If I paid $145 for Retro AS-1 today and found out tomorrow that I could never use it, I'd feel like blowing something out... and when we skunks blow stuff out, that's NOT good!

[Frippertronix]

I would be astonished if any company that had licensed a bunch of c/r plugs to people would go out of business without sending emails to all registered users issuing non c/r keys.

Prepare to be astonished. Sad to say it's happened at least once. Bitheadz customers are out of luck these days. I think they went out of business some time last year.

They were the first soft-synth company I ever heard of. Back around 1994 or '95 I considered buying their Retro AS-1 modular soft synth. I'd never seen anything like it before. As it happens, I didn't buy it because I couldn't get the demo to work on my computer. It was probably my own fault, but I'm still glad I didn't get stuck with software I'd not be able to re-authorize any more. True, I'd have had ten years of use, but leaving customers in the lurch as they did just ain't right.

Do you know for sure that they never issued any permanent keys or emailed anyone to warn them?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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