KVR Audio

mike@manike · Post by **mike@manike** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:42 am

Those gui's are ridiculous, but looking at them.. are they perhaps not supposed to imply an unfinished work, ie with the squared paper and colouring pencil logo....

It doesnt really matter but I thought id point it out. Theres no way id ever buy anything that made ur mix more 'bitchin'.

Mike

kritikon · Post by **kritikon** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:07 am

Just because something is uncommon in your circle does not mean that it is uncommon everywhere. Just because you've never heard of something does not make it a lie.

Point taken, absolutely. Maybe I just haven't met those people that seriously do like iLoks. Are you really being serious, then? Do you really know people who would actually rather have all their s/w on an iLok than a simple reg code? I'm genuinely curious. See...I don't regularly travel around using my own s/w on other systems. The s/w I buy, I use on my own system. I would imagine travelling engineers would tend to use whatever is at their disposal at whatever facility they find themselves in, but I could be completely wrong in that. If there are people who have to use specific s/w for every project...then I suppose I can see that a dongle is actually a neat solution - certainly neater than carrying around a notebook full of reg codes etc.

Personally I would pick a studio for certain gear it already has that I don't have, or for their in-house engineer that I rate, rather than taking my own s/w with me. If I could mix and master with my own s/w...I wouldn't have need for a master engineer or a particular studio, would I?

So...does anyone really prefer everything on a dongle? I won't flame you. I actually quite like my Cubase dongle - I've become quite attached to it over the years - Cubase doesn't feel like Cubase without the dongle at the back - and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's never given me gyp, I've never personally met anyone who it's given gyp to that hasn't resolved the issue by tweaking something else in their system (i.e. it wasn't the actual dongle that caused the problem)...and if I'm being really brutally honest - it made me feel really smug that for a while the crack users couldn't use SX3 - I paid for my Cubase, and I don't want some freeloading kid thieving s/w that I saved hard for years ago, when I didn't have much money. Live and let live, but of course it pisses me off that crack users can do for free what I pay for. However...I don't see iLok providing that level of security, even for a short time. It simply doesn't (at least with PC s/w...dunno about Macs).

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:16 am

Comparing the Syncrosoft and iLok dongles is not quite as straightforward as it seems.

I would DEFINITELY buy software that runs on a Syncrosoft dongle because the Syncrosoft drivers are totally stable. I have never had an issue with them at all.

The PACE iLok drivers on the other hand have been known since they got released to be one of the most unstable sets of drivers ever ... and not much has changed until this day. If the iLok drivers were anything like Syncrosoft then I would probably have bought most the URS stuff by now.

I think that most people who like iLok must be on Macs, where the drivers are apparently a lot more stable.

I think most the Mac community loves their iLok, hence why PSP also adopted it in their latest update. On PC however, things are a different matter, I literally couldn't get the same latency figures after installing Antatres Autotune demo, audio start crackling .etc and that was JUST the drivers, no dongle attached. Waves installer gives me a BSOD as soon as it tries to install the iLok drivers.

As soon as I uninstalled, all was well, this is with a v4 release of Autotune, Waves v5, about 2 - 3 months ago.

But regardless ....

- EA plugins are NOT 350 $ plugins, their original pricing was about right
- The new GUIs are butt ugly
- This new person who has bought the company doesn't look all that professional so far

I think the point should be made that just because something uses iLok authorization, doesn't mean that it is of the highest quality ... think Blue Tubes

Cheers
Fots

StrangeCat · Post by **StrangeCat** » Mon May 22, 2006 2:22 am

The new GUIs are butt ugly
- This new person who has bought the company doesn't look all that professional so far

Wtf! Roger Nichols is a "World Famous Audio Engineer"! Who knows what the fate of these plugins are but there in the hands of a very good engineer now.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:21 am

I can't see the problem of pasting a few serials (even if it might be 50+) that'd all fit in one single textfile.
At least I can't see that to be a problem compared to the hassle I'll be running into should I ever lose my dongle(s).
After all, I only install a new system every 1-2 years whereas I'm using it on the road all the freaking time.

So, that's pretty much a moot point.

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:25 am

StrangeCat wrote:
The new GUIs are butt ugly
- This new person who has bought the company doesn't look all that professional so far
Wtf! Roger Nichols is a "World Famous Audio Engineer"! Who knows what the fate of these plugins are but there in the hands of a very good engineer now.

I mean, "professional" as in, the way he comes across to the end user of his "software". Check out his websites and you'll see what I mean. Also check out the new plugin names and GUIs and again, my point will hopefully be a little more clear. Also, check out his old plugin GUIs ... and his old webpages

I was not speaking of him as an engineer, but as a software developer. I believe that there is a huge difference being an audio engineer (dealing with top end pre-built equipment) and a DSP/software developer (coding C++, knowing a substantial amount of mathematics to code high end plugins) having performed both roles myself. Both things are very much mutually exclusive.

Cheers
Fots

Aleksey Vaneev · Post by **Aleksey Vaneev** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:45 am

soundpalace, I was also asking myself how this new owner is going to upkeep the plug-ins. But probably he hired the developers themselves - that's the obvious solution to that problem (and software upkeep IS a problem in a general case).

One particularly good thing about this acquisition is that a pretty strong developer has left this pretty small on-line plug-in scene freeing some space to existing developers. They are now probably heading directly to retail market where they'll face UAD and Waves competition (I don't know how they'll stand it considering Waves puts at least 5 full-page advertisements in all major pro audio magazines every month - you should know how much that costs).

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Mon May 22, 2006 3:53 am

At least you don't need advertisements, Aleksey, we are your advertisements!

I always praise you and Torben everywhere I go, because you deserve it.

Cheers!

Aleksey Vaneev · Post by **Aleksey Vaneev** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:18 am

fgimian · Post by **fgimian** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:28 am

DuX wrote:At least you don't need advertisements, Aleksey, we are your advertisements! I always praise you and Torben everywhere I go, because you deserve it.

Cheers!

ditto, I do the exact same !

Aleksey: you do make some very interesting points, I'm also curious to see how this engineer competes with Waves & UAD-1

I think Sonalksis also went the commercial route did they not ? Boxed products .etc ? I wonder how they're doing with that ... at least they didn't change their copy protection or double prices when they did this.

On a side note, keep up the great work Aleksey !!! I totally love Voxengo

:D:D

Cheers
Fots

sounddesigner · Post by **sounddesigner** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:53 am

soundpalace wrote:
DuX wrote:At least you don't need advertisements, Aleksey, we are your advertisements! I always praise you and Torben everywhere I go, because you deserve it.

Cheers!
ditto, I do the exact same !

Aleksey: you do make some very interesting points, I'm also curious to see how this engineer competes with Waves & UAD-1 I think Sonalksis also went the commercial route did they not ? Boxed products .etc ? I wonder how they're doing with that ... at least they didn't change their copy protection or double prices when they did this.

On a side note, keep up the great work Aleksey !!! I totally love Voxengo :D:D

Cheers
Fots

I think izotope went the commercial route aswell, they must be doing good because their now buying up small companies themselves (phatmatik pro,idrum, and possibly radius).

TotcProductions · Post by **TotcProductions** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:48 am

WTF was so great about the engineering on the Steely Dan albums anyway.

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:55 am

JMe wrote:
This is just a voice of reason, but I don't expect it will make much difference. It is much more interesting to be unreasonable than to be reasonable.

Sorry for jumping through some pages i still didn't read , but i strongly agree with that statement, this is something that needed to be pointed at especially here in kvr forums

Not about the thing that are said usually but the way they are and how sometimes it can be terribly rough

I often feel the need to walk through these pages protected with something looking like an umbrella made of inoxidable steel

egbert · Post by **egbert** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:56 am

TotcProductions wrote:WTF was so great about the engineering on the Steely Dan albums anyway.

Sacrilege!

PeterL · Post by **PeterL** » Mon May 22, 2006 6:05 am

I'm also very sad to say goodbye to EA plugins.

I hope my bought InspectorXL and Neodynium will work forever (also on future windows platforms)
or another developer release such a good thing (or better) someday.

I can't imagine that some customers have requested iLok

.
For me it's just an excuse of the company to do that.
At least they could offer alternate Syncrosoft dongle (or C/R) since there are many Cubase/Wavelab users out there like me.
When will they ever learn that every audio software will be cracked someday ?
I think iZotope also would have lost many customers (including me), if they had not changed iLok copy-protection to C/R.

I think Voxengo and Kjaerhus have the right price/copyright/quality. Please Aleksey and Torben: Keep that !

Elemental Audio been swallowed up...