Free Xpand!2 on DJWORX

[sbangs_air]

Ref the Dreaded iLok.

As a company, we actually completely moved away from iLok however our professional users resoundingly requested that we brought it back as it is a big part of their workflow. While there are a number of near militant Ilok haters the silent majority seem to prefer this solution.

Copy Protection certainly a complicated issue as old as computers themselves. It's ultimately up for the end users to decide what solution fits their workflow. Sadly it is a necessary evil.

This solution is called EDEN and is not your traditional iLok setup of old. It's very flexible it allows for anon unlock (No account required, Account based soft unlock (The advantage being you can move licenses at any time) and the optional support for a dongle if using many computers. Eden uses next to Zero resources.

We have well over a million users using our products on Eden without issue.

There is also $4000 worth of gear up for grabs through DJWORX if you would prefer to just take part in that its open to anyone in the world. The intention was to provide something everyone can enjoy. This product has real value and this is a genuine deal to anyone who receives it.

[bmanic]

Thanks for the heads up on this..

However, I have to say the sounds are pretty cheesy.. 90's workstation cheesy but not in a good way. Haven't found anything usable yet. I'd never ever pay any money for this, that's for sure.

[SampleScience]

Thanks for the heads up on this..

However, I have to say the sounds are pretty cheesy.. 90's workstation cheesy but not in a good way. Haven't found anything usable yet. I'd never ever pay any money for this, that's for sure.

I agree, it has a really 90s sound to it. However, in context I'm sure it sounds really good. I've heard cheesy sounds sound really good in the right arrangements.

[bmanic]

Actually, I have to agree with you. I judged it a bit too soon. These do indeed fit very well into dense productions.. on their own it gets very corny sounding. I just made a little track using Xpand2 only and it immediately sounded like a late 90's/early 00's soundtrack from a computer game. This could be a good or a bad thing.. not sure yet. Good part being that I don't have anything like this installed.

[ghettosynth]

Ref the Dreaded iLok.

As a company, we actually completely moved away from iLok however our professional users resoundingly requested that we brought it back as it is a big part of their workflow. While there are a number of near militant Ilok haters the silent majority seem to prefer this solution.

Copy Protection certainly a complicated issue as old as computers themselves. It's ultimately up for the end users to decide what solution fits their workflow. Sadly it is a necessary evil.

This solution is called EDEN and is not your traditional iLok setup of old. It's very flexible it allows for anon unlock (No account required, Account based soft unlock (The advantage being you can move licenses at any time) and the optional support for a dongle if using many computers. Eden uses next to Zero resources.

We have well over a million users using our products on Eden without issue.

There is also $4000 worth of gear up for grabs through DJWORX if you would prefer to just take part in that its open to anyone in the world. The intention was to provide something everyone can enjoy. This product has real value and this is a genuine deal to anyone who receives it.

Yep! Please don't underestimate the value of license management for even non-professional users. It's just my hobby but I still overwhelmingly prefer to have my licenses somewhere other than on my hard drive. No technology is perfect, but iLok is working reasonably well for me and I like the cross vendor consistency.

[Zexila]

Heads up for any interested 10.6.8 and Logic 9 users, it works in x64 mode, but one needs to install it manually using Pacifist (everything except protection bits/license manager and etc, so app and content), download legacy iLok license manager from the official site and move library from installer manually wherever one wants on his HDD, Xpand will ask for it on opening and you can locate it there. All works nicely, so yeah, if there's anyone out there in this shoes, go for it.

[pc2000]

Thanks for the heads up on this..

However, I have to say the sounds are pretty cheesy.. 90's workstation cheesy but not in a good way. Haven't found anything usable yet. I'd never ever pay any money for this, that's for sure.

I agree, it has a really 90s sound to it. However, in context I'm sure it sounds really good. I've heard cheesy sounds sound really good in the right arrangements.

The funny thing for me- is how their ignite music app- has far better quality sounds than the modules the sounds supposedly comes from IMO. They sound like solid GM sounds. Xpand2, has a loFi sound by comparison.

Excerpt: "Ignite includes over 275 instruments, many of which are taken from our renowned instrument collections - including Strike, Structure, and Velvet.

[Numanoid]

The funny thing for me- is how their ignite music app- has far better quality sounds than the modules the sounds supposedly comes from IMO. They sound like solid GM sounds. Xpand2, has a loFi sound by comparison.

Ignite costs $50 to buy, while Xpand2 costs $1 or is given away

So what's weird about the most expensive plug sounding best?

Maybe you got Ignite bundled with a midi-controller, but you still paid money for that controller, so it aint really free for anybody.

[Psyclapse]

I too wasted a dollar on xpand!2. I bought hybrid3 a while back which worked fine but I didn't realise Air have since adopted iLok. I don't like installing unnecessary drivers as drivers can silently cause untold problems but I wouldn't class myself as a militant objector to protection stuff either (Ive already got an eLicenser dongle). But the iLok sw just wont work on my Win7 PC. I had the same experience a year ago with soundtoys. Tried to demo something and couldnt get the iLok sw to work. Same again with xpand!2. It kept tripping the Windows FW in 'bonjour' (whatever that is) and complained it couldn't reach the iLok server (even though I kept adding a FW rule for it). Couldn't find anything online to help so in the end rolled back. When you're apprehensive about installing a driver and the installer doesn't even work you tend to get cold feet.

A shame because I was up for spending 100 bucks+ with soundtoys last year and 75 bucks with Air this year. But there's a limit to how much time I'm prepared to waste faffing around with iLok and there's no shortage of music gear I can spend my money on without all the pain.

[pc2000]

The funny thing for me- is how their ignite music app- has far better quality sounds than the modules the sounds supposedly comes from IMO. They sound like solid GM sounds. Xpand2, has a loFi sound by comparison.

Ignite costs $50 to buy, while Xpand2 costs $1 or is given away

So what's weird about the most expensive plug sounding best?

Maybe you got Ignite bundled with a midi-controller, but you still paid money for that controller, so it aint really free for anybody.

Some of you guys are quick to get emotional. Let me point out that I made no recommendations that anyone get ignite! Besides that... ignite is not a vst, so that makes no sense that I would bring it up for that purpose. My comment was based purely on the statement of Xpand 2 sounding cheesy. I have Xpand-2 as well as Structure, so it was funny to me that the sounds in ignite seem to have a higher end sound than the modules it's sounds were sourced from.

There's nothing to analyze or pick apart from what I said. Merely an observation and purely my opinion. The sounds in ignite may be just as cheesy to someone else actually.

BTW: If I remember correctly... ignite was originally free when first introduced?

[Numanoid]

Some of you guys are quick to get emotional.

Because I commented that Ignite is more expensive than Xpand2 at the moment

Is that emotion ?

[Numanoid]

I agree, it has a really 90s sound to it. However, in context I'm sure it sounds really good. I've heard cheesy sounds sound really good in the right arrangements.

I think that many of the up and coming early twenty somethings these days may not have been conceived if back in the 90's their parents didn't have a jolly good night out rocking to such cheesy sounds first

[pc2000]

For convenience, here's a recap of our statements

The funny thing for me- is how their ignite music app- has far better quality sounds than the modules the sounds supposedly comes from IMO. They sound like solid GM sounds. Xpand2, has a loFi sound by comparison.

Ignite costs $50 to buy, while Xpand2 costs $1 or is given away

So what's weird about the most expensive plug sounding best?

Maybe you got Ignite bundled with a midi-controller, but you still paid money for that controller, so it aint really free for anybody.

I used emotional, because it's clear to see that your statement is out of context to my comment. This gives the impression you skimmed over what I said, and instead went with an emotional reply to put me in my place it seemed. Sometimes we can read into things that's not there, but upon reading again... get a better perspective. I've had my share of doing that, so it's kool!

[Numanoid]

For convenience, here's a recap of our statements

The funny thing for me- is how their ignite music app- has far better quality sounds than the modules the sounds supposedly comes from IMO. They sound like solid GM sounds. Xpand2, has a loFi sound by comparison.

Ignite costs $50 to buy, while Xpand2 costs $1 or is given away

So what's weird about the most expensive plug sounding best?

Maybe you got Ignite bundled with a midi-controller, but you still paid money for that controller, so it aint really free for anybody.

I used emotional, because it's clear to see that your statement is out of context to my comment. This gives the impression you skimmed over what I said, and instead went with an emotional reply to put me in my place it seemed. Sometimes we can read into things that's not there, but upon reading again... get a better perspective. I've had my share of doing that, so it's kool!

Not sure I am getting your point here.

I replied that the most expensive plug may very well provide the best sound, I don't get what is out of context about that?