IK Multimedia creating unpurchased Custom Shop *.dlls

[Ultrasonic]

Good grief man. Just delete the damn dlls and get over it. What is it, 30 seconds of work? It would probably take you just as long to click which modules you actually own during an install process...

Keep deleting files within your Program Files and see what happens one day.

[Lee702]

Isn't there more interesting things to discuss? It seems this forum is dieing and many are singling out one company to attack.

[hibidy]

orly?

No, I actually don't think it's an attack. I think it's people voicing a concern over something they don't like. Funny how that works.

[Lee702]

Funny how there are only 8 threads with comments in effects forum yesterday.

[djscorb]

Sad thing is, I own plugins from dozens of different vendors but IK Multimedia is the only one I have any issues with. I find their marketing and custom shop scheme a huge turn off and haven't used one of their plugins in a project in at least a couple of years. I only own T-Racks Deluxe and a couple of singles, but what with their aggressive marketing and constant sales, in my head at least, the software has no value to me. I doubt I'd be able to sell it as I think most others feel the same.

I'm sure if I wanted to sell any of my u-he, Exponential Audio, DMG or Voxengo plugins then it would be very a different story.

The strange thing is, since not using any IK plugins I have gone down the ilok route and bought into Waves as well, something I never thought I would do but have found less issues with than IK's policies.

Something about the custom shop, bloated installs and the constant sales just seems to make their products seem hobbyish (like an app store or online games shop).

I've ranted in the past about everything mentioned in this thread but am pretty much over it now. I have accepted that my IK products have near zero resale value and haven't really brought anything lastingly useful to the table in terms of my mixing or mastering work.

I was kind of waiting for them to jump on an API2500 emulation (as requested by plenty of users on this forum), but in the end just bought the Waves one. The endless stream of EQs they are bringing out lately are the last things many of us need when there are such flexible options as EQuilibrium and even the new Slick EQ. Software with restricted control ranges to mimic hardware just doesn't make any sense to me.

Oh well, I am enjoying my current tools now I need little else and am not missing anything from T-Racks. I hope for the sake of other users IK makes some changes but I wouldn't hold my breathe!

Cheers

Scorb

[robotmonkey]

But what with their aggressive marketing and constant sales, in my head at least, the software has no value to me. I doubt I'd be able to sell it as I think most others feel the same.

Something about the custom shop, bloated installs and the constant sales just seems to make their products seem hobbyish (like an app store or online games shop).
Scorb

I think this pretty well summarizes a big problem with IK. A lot of the stuff they have done is coming from the arrogant short-sighted corporate mindset.

Custom Shop is a prime example. Someone higher-up thought that it would be a great idea to introduce microtransactions and app store into their products probably taking a cue from gaming world. But the thing is that everybody hate it in the games. It does not mean that people necessarily have stopped playing games but everybody loathes these practices in games. When you build your products on practices that make people hate you then people stop caring for your product. They might keep using them but if they get a chance they will move on to the next fad or thing when it comes around. If you build your products to nickel and dime your customers on every change you can then people just stop seeing any value in your product in the long term. This has been quite well researched in moral psychology on recent years for example.

[donato]

With all the other reasons current and former customers despise IK's business practices, it's amazing they'd do more to make them disliked. Of course, this also further demonstrates what they think of their customers.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Again, Custom Shop is a separate application that does not need to be open while using AmpliTube or T-RackS standalone or in your DAW (unless you are running a demo of the gear). This is to clarify again so unfamiliar readers will understand, as it does not appear that way from some statements above. You can also purchase gear for T-RackS outright without opening Custom Shop, you can purchase AmpliTube 3, AmpliTube Slash, AmpliTube Orange, AmpliTube Fender, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, etc from our site without using Custom Shop to purchase those products. Custom Shop can be a great convenience to open on a new computer installation or similar circumstances since you can restore all of your registered AmpliTube or T-RackS gear in a few easy steps and close it without opening it again if you wish.

Details about how Custom Shop works are available at http://www.amplitube.com/cs and http://www.t-racks.com/cs for those interested.

[Orbit-50]

Can the Custom Shop be uninstalled? If so, then those who don't want to deal with it, don't have to, and all is cool then. It might take a tiny bit of effort to uninstall, but only the software that was paid for and being used is all that will be left which is a good thing. It gives the customer a choice of not having the extra bloat that is not in use if they don't want it installed on their computer.


.-.

[jancivil]

Authorization Manager appears to be integrated with Custom Shop. I think the short answer to 'can't you just uninstall it' is NO.

I noticed that all of the TRackS things I had never bought, including one I believed was a gift, because I never opted to try it and it has worked for months in many projects, had preferences installed in both locations (incl user name/preferences) here. So I deleted them to see about your 'can you uninstall' idea. (I had already deleted Custom Shop application, expecting, no, naively hoping to never need it.) The result of that is, I no longer believe OptoComp was a gift (so why do I have it? why did it work all this time, if it is a ten-day demo? WTF. I DON'T DO TEN DAY DEMOS. I WOULD NEVER CHOOSE TO DO THIS.) and the CS versions of TRackS things I have bought began emitting a noise blast every few seconds.

THIS IS A CLUSTERFUCK. So, yeah, I have to reinstall CS in order to have things I have bought (instantiated in the CS version, which again I was not clued to by the name in the menu) restored to working and it begins to look like I have to launch a number of involved VE Pro frames and at least get rid of the one thing, at some point, for these to be viable templates, and I rely on this as my modus operandi, these are meaningful templates and channel sets. GOOD THING I'M DONE WITH THOSE ACTUAL PROJECTS!

FVCK IK.

[Orbit-50]

Sorry to hear that jancivil. That blows!!! Then it seems as if though you can not have the software alone without the Custom Shop installed.



.-.

[jancivil]

I'm not certain; I had to reinstall it because I have instantiated CS versions of things I bought which magically became demos from deleting the CS.plist (Custom Shop preferences list). I don't know what happens if you never instantiate as I did, maybe you can be rid of it. But the whole M.O. of this screws me, so be more paranoid about this if you have these CS versions.

I went ahead and deleted these preferences - not however OptoComp believing I had authority for it out of experience - because I want to know what actually is possible. I'm not likely to go and save presets for all of the CS TRackS I have instantiated, so I'm going to live with it.

You know, IK, there is direct competition for pretty much all of these plugins. I would look to NI for everything you're trying to sell me (if I were an avid buyer as I used to be. Many things just as good or better can be had for free today.). I don't need this shit.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Orbit-50: CVSTOM SHOP is installed as part of the product and is used for certain functions (demoing, restoring gear, etc) so it needs to remain installed but does not need to be run during use if the plugins unless you need to demo them. Hope that helps.

If you or anyone else has trouble running Custom Shop (or the plugins themselves) please let the support team know at http://www.ikmultimedia.com/support and they will happily assist.

[Orbit-50]

Thank you Peter.


.-.

[jancivil]

Orbit-50: CVSTOM SHOP is installed as part of the product and is used for certain functions (demoing, restoring gear, etc) so it needs to remain installed but does not need to be run during use if the plugins unless you need to demo them. Hope that helps.

If you or anyone else has trouble running Custom Shop (or the plugins themselves) please let the support team know at http://www.ikmultimedia.com/support and they will happily assist.

Yeah, you don't have to run it to use the plugins. So, where is the answer to 'do you need to have it installed'? That isn't the same question.

A problem was created here because of the whole MO. AGAIN: I downloaded and installed Amplitube 3 (which I was quite interested in buying, but given I had all of AT2 and no break, I kept my wallet in abeyance) in order to use the AT2 in x64. This was designed in a way - not one thing worked - to force Custom Shop interaction. Custom Shop interaction, through itself strictly speaking, put these things (which you can't be arsed to give consistent naming to; they are seen as TR3, not CS in the menu) in plugin folders so they appeared and I instantiated to see if 'TR3' was meaningful, which I have to have CS preferences present in order to work. It doesn't appear to be meaningful, it's just junk out of interacting with CS. That's just messed up.

As PR, maybe you could once acknowledge a complaint rather than this dance you do. Your friend will step in and talk about how you're under pressure. Not our problem.
You compound the issue by ignoring it and talking around it. I would want better PR people. At least do Bill Clinton "I feel your pain."