KVR Audio

Peter - IK Multimedia · Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:44 pm

bill45 wrote:I would like to see separate installers for Custum shop and authorization manager,updates.Sometimes even after installing the autherization manager update, it still asks to be updated

The work flow of the Authorization Manager and Custom Shop installs has been forwarded and I'm trying to make sure the cases I've seen and read about are all clearly explainable and reproducible. This helps me hash it out with our Support Manager to make sure I'm not failing at describing these things, etc. So we're listening here and I do appreciate a lot of the constructive comments I've heard in the many threads this past week or so.

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:06 pm

Peter - IK Multimedia wrote:T-RackS Custom Shop will NOT remove previous plugins you may have from T-RackS 3. Just to make sure that is clear.

Beauty! That is a nice piece of intelligence for an installer to have. Upgrading soon...

Brian @ IK Multimedia · Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:13 am

This is just a rehash of the AmpliTube Custom Shop thread from a year and a half ago. We already dispelled the misconceptions there.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:56 am

just want to say that munchkin is not a serial whiner ime, sometimes stuffs happens...

munchkin · Post by **munchkin** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 1:46 am

Hink wrote:just want to say that munchkin is not a serial whiner ime, sometimes stuffs happens...

Thanks Hink! In this case I seriously found the installation process confusing.

If as Brian says this was all sorted out in another thread that's news to me because I didn't participate in that thread. A simple PDF included with the installer about whether or not to install the custom shop, QT and any other bundled stuff would be helpful for those of us who do not participate in every IK Multimedia thread here at KVR. The PDF with the installer covers none of this and is all about authorization. I don't remember being given an option to install the custom shop either. I really don't need or want the custom shop.

This is the installation process as I remember it:

1. I opened the Auth Manager which then had to be updated.
2. After downloading the new Auth Manager and installing it I then entered the serial number.
3. I was then able to download the plugin installer and install the software. The installer had to close Acronis OS Manager to proceed (never happened before during an install so somewhat worrying.)
4. It then asked whether I wanted to install QT (even though I have the latest version installed.) I agreed just to make sure the plugins installed correctly.
5. The installer finished and told me to reboot.
6. I rebooted and then had to update the Auth Manager again before I could authorise the new plugins.
7. Couldn't find the individual plugins in my VST folder so I thought they hadn't been installed. Posted my frustration on KVR. Eventually worked out by myself that the new plugins are accessed via a shell in the VST folder.

I still don't understand what, if any, connection the custom shop has with the plugin install or whether it can be uninstalled. Despite being lectured at (in a very trollish way) to read numerous other threads, no one has pointed to an FAQ on IK's website that explains any of this. I don't see why customers should have to trawl through threads on an unrelated forum when this should be available as a IK FAQ preferably accompanying the installer.

Obviously, very thick people like me (and a few others @ KVR who I won't name - but you know who you are) who have been installing and using software for years need this extra little help. How difficult is it to produce a walk through for us thickos?

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:11 am

yeah, what the deal with that?

Oh........it's an IK thread...........sorry bout that..........carry on......

Integratron · Post by **Integratron** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:47 am

T-rackS CS installed perfectly for me... Right alongside T-rackS standard. I like the special pricing IK has for the upgrades! I take all the defaults and always install the latest Authorization Manager with any IK product. T-rackS CS picked up all the models from standard and CSR - perfect!

I think the system is terrific. It gives users a chance to try the UI and listen to the modules before purchasing. What could be better than that! Works perfectly for me and oh, BTW, I think the British Channel looks fine... what's all the fuss.

Brian @ IK Multimedia · Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:31 am

OK, there are some different issues here, munchkin.
From how you describe your experience, perhaps replacing 'intrusive' with 'confusing' would have been more accurate. That's not really the way it was designed to go, ideally.

We envision the installation process going more like this:

Download the free T-RackS Custom Shop installer from your User Area
Run T-RackS Custom Shop installer, which includes updated Authorization Manager and Custom Shop application
Demo new gear, become awed by awesomeness, shout "I NEED this NOW!!!!"
Purchase your T-RackS CS package or upgrade
Run Authorization Manager, and register/authorize T-RackS CS serial
Run Custom Shop application, and restore your T-RackS CS gear. This will install 32 & 64-bit 'Singles' plugins of all your T-RackS CS models, including CSR, if you have it registered to your User Account
Rejoice!

Brian @ IK Multimedia · Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:39 am

The "Restore My Gear" process is an important one, which it looks like you have yet to do. Once you do it, you will be able to use all of your T-RackS CS processors as individual plugins outside the T-RackS CS shell.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:42 am

Integratron wrote:T-rackS CS installed perfectly for me... Right alongside T-rackS standard. I like the special pricing IK has for the upgrades! I take all the defaults and always install the latest Authorization Manager with any IK product. T-rackS CS picked up all the models from standard and CSR - perfect!

I think the system is terrific. It gives users a chance to try the UI and listen to the modules before purchasing. What could be better than that! Works perfectly for me and oh, BTW, I think the British Channel looks fine... what's all the fuss.

Always one in a crowd..........

munchkin · Post by **munchkin** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:53 pm

Brian @ IK Multimedia wrote:OK, there are some different issues here, munchkin.
From how you describe your experience, perhaps replacing 'intrusive' with 'confusing' would have been more accurate. That's not really the way it was designed to go, ideally.

We envision the installation process going more like this:

Download the free T-RackS Custom Shop installer from your User Area

Run T-RackS Custom Shop installer, which includes updated Authorization Manager and Custom Shop application

Demo new gear, become awed by awesomeness, shout "I NEED this NOW!!!!"

Purchase your T-RackS CS package or upgrade

Run Authorization Manager, and register/authorize T-RackS CS serial

Run Custom Shop application, and restore your T-RackS CS gear. This will install 32 & 64-bit 'Singles' plugins of all your T-RackS CS models, including CSR, if you have it registered to your User Account

Rejoice!

Ok, I've changed the title as you're right it's the confusion that is the problem. But I still think the Custom Shop should be an optional install. If I need more plugins I can d/l them from your website. The Custom Shop feels like having the front end of your shop on my PC. I'll try the "restore my gear" option to see if the plugins appear separately in Reaper. But I don't see how that's possible without re-installation because only the shell has been installed in my VST folder - not the individual plugins.

My installation experience was different because I thought I had to input my serial in the auth manager (as I've done every other IK install) to download the software. As this system is new to me it seems helpful to include a walk through for those of us who aren't used to it.

UPDATE:

Pressed "Restore my gear" in the custom shop and nothing happened.

Having looked at Custom Shop a bit more I have to say I find it very confusing regarding Amplitube 3. I thought when I bought Amplitube 3, Fender & Ampeg SVX bundles I owned all of the amps but apparently not. I thought the amps in the Slash bundle were included with the three I already own but I don't seem to own some of them. Perhaps it's the Metal bundle that's included?

Honestly, trying to work out which amp goes with which bundle is incredibly confusing. I've held off buying some of your products in the past because, after reading threads on KVR, I was under the impression that some of the Amplitube bundles covered others and I didn't want to duplicate purchases. I think this is the problem with relying on KVR threads for information because often it's either wrong, contradictory or confusing.

If there was some way of knowing in Custom Shop which amps are included in which bundles and which amps aren't part of a bundle without having to read all the marketing blurb for every amp then that would be helpful progress.

Brian @ IK Multimedia · Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:45 pm

When you hit "Restore My Gear" did you do it from the T-RackS side of the Custom Shop?

XL · Post by XL » Sat Dec 15, 2012 4:18 pm

I must say that this whole IKM stuff is a bit glitchy. I have used a Win7 x64 machine and could not use T-Racks3 for quite a time since Cubase 5/6 crashed upon scanning them. But that is history.

I have set up my machine completely new with Win8 Pro x64, no upgrade installation, only one user account with administrator rights. I have installed Cubase 7 x64 and Reaper x32 and x64, the latter just to prove that my current IKM problems are not Cubase-related.

I installed Amplitube 3.9.1, ARC 2, and T-Racks CS, have successfully run Authorization manager, have restored all my gear in CS for both Amplitube 3 and T-Racks. Everything worked fine.

Now, when I start Amplitube 3 stand-alone (x32), nothing happens. The mouse pointer flickers two times and that's it. I can make it run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode, but I do not need the stand-alone version at all. Same with "T-RackS CS.exe".

When I start Cubase 7 x64 or Reaper (both x32 and x64), they crash during start-up while scanning any IKM plug-in. Reaper says: "Plug-in '...' executed invalid operation during scanning."

I am using loads of other stuff, like Waves, UAD, NI, Steinberg, Toontrack, Arturia, GRM, Izotope, Scuffham, u-he, Softube, FabFilter, etc.

EVERYTHING WORKS FINE BUT THIS CRAPPY IKM SOFTWARE (and none of those other things has yet been expressly released as suitable for Win8). There is not even an alert telling me what is wrong with the IKM stuff, like "This and that file missing" or "This and that Windows function missing" or whatever.

Peter - IK Multimedia · Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:10 pm

I have have used Cubase for years and I know our Obi has used Reaper for a long while, and we're both plugging away (pun intended) nicely with IK plugins. I can't speak for Windows 8 because I'm not an early adopter of OSes on my main recording machines nor am I in Support/Testing so... While Windows 8 isn't yet officially supported our staff has had great results so far with the testing. So the moral of the story would be to please open a support ticket if you haven't already and I'd probably leave out the all-caps thing about "CRAPPY" software but that's just me. They can be reached here: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/support

They may have information for you, and we'll have official news on Windows 8 in the near future.

XL · Post by XL » Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:20 am

I think that you miss the point. There are still some plug-ins out there which are very complex internally but do not write anything into registry, are not installing third-party software like QuickTime, are not consisting of a bunch of modules which need to be installed one after another and which seem to communicate in a complex way. When I examine what Amplitube3.exe does upon start-up in Sysinternals Process Monitor, I really don't know what to say.

For example, check this out, though it does not describe my problem:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=367916

Do we have to become programmers to make things work in a simple Windows environment?

I do not want a support ticket. Thank you. I am simply going to use other guitar amp sims and other mastering FX.

T-RackS CS - Confusing Installation & Custom Shop