50% off Steinberg Absolute 3

[Echoes in the Attic]

Whoa whoa wait. I don't care about Groove Agent or The Grand. I just want to use Halion and the other synths. Are you telling me that as an Absolute owner, even if I'm only using Halion, Padshop Pro and Retrologue for example, these will not run with the soft elicenser? If I don' thave the Grand or Groove Agent installed, the soft elicenser is fine right because those products I want can use it?

I'm not using a dam dongle and I'm not waiting a year.

[Kypresso]

I'm not using a dam dongle and I'm not waiting a year.

It does say on the steinberg absolute 3 webpage that a usb licenser is required.

So i guess its buy a dongle or wait or sell.

[cowby]

sorry guys, one quick question just blame me on not reading the PDF in a detail way.
I couldn't find any way to resize the UI of Halion 6 and I also couldn't find how to init a patch say on Dark Planet. Any hints?

Thanks!
Cowby

[Romantique Tp]

Whoa whoa wait. I don't care about Groove Agent or The Grand. I just want to use Halion and the other synths. Are you telling me that as an Absolute owner, even if I'm only using Halion, Padshop Pro and Retrologue for example, these will not run with the soft elicenser? If I don' thave the Grand or Groove Agent installed, the soft elicenser is fine right because those products I want can use it?

I'm not using a dam dongle and I'm not waiting a year.

Absolute 3 is a single license. This license has code for stuff that requires an USB-eLicenser to work, so this license needs to be in a dongle. That's why they added one to your cart when you bought the crossgrade.

Note that there's nothing confirmed about the new piracy protection method and the Groove Agent and The Grand updates. This all might happen way earlier than I'm predicting. I assume that they might want to have the new protection ready before either the next version of Dorico (which has been in development for a while) or Cubase 10.

sorry guys, one quick question just blame me on not reading the PDF in a detail way.
I couldn't find any way to resize the UI of Halion 6 and I also couldn't find how to init a patch say on Dark Planet. Any hints?

I think window resizing is only available in the VST3 version.

Dark Planet, Hypnotic Dance and Triebwerk are libraries with varied content (they use a mix of the internal synth engine, samples, sliced loops and one shots), and probably wouldn't have very useful Init presets.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Damn. I guess I made a mistake. Well I’m about to be without a computer for a couple months and haven’t registered yet so I guess I’ll wait until I get everything set up again and if it’s still the same then it shouldn’t be hard to sell an unregistered absolute, as I could just send the license info (seeing as that’s all I have so far).

[Obsolete236871]

They're also planning to use a new piracy protection system for all of their products that wont require the dongle and will be more user friendly than the Soft-eLicenser. I don't know which will be coming first, but you'll most likely be able to move your current licenses to the new system.

I hope Steinberg doesn't repeat the mistake of NI and switch to an online-only copy protection scheme that requires constant internet access. Especially Cubase Pro has many professional users who made a conscious decision to leave their studio computers separate from the world wide web and an universum of malware.

[chk071]

They're also planning to use a new piracy protection system for all of their products that wont require the dongle and will be more user friendly than the Soft-eLicenser. I don't know which will be coming first, but you'll most likely be able to move your current licenses to the new system.

Wow, that's great. Can you link to the source of those statement? First time i hear about it.

P.S.: Wouldn't mind an internet authorization at all. Better than having two dongles sticking out of my USB hub.

[chk071]

They're also planning to use a new piracy protection system for all of their products that wont require the dongle and will be more user friendly than the Soft-eLicenser. I don't know which will be coming first, but you'll most likely be able to move your current licenses to the new system.

I hope Steinberg doesn't repeat the mistake of NI and switch to an online-only copy protection scheme that requires constant internet access. Especially Cubase Pro has many professional users who made a conscious decision to leave their studio computers separate from the world wide web and an universum of malware.

Not that i'd want to start a big argument from here, but, i always wonder how those "professionals" get new Cubase updates, or new Cubase versions on their island system computers. From your argumentation, it'd also already pose a big problem to plug any external hard drive, or USB stick in those computers, because that could already infect them with malware. At the very least, i find this argumentation questionable.

Note also that eLicenser already syncs your licenses with the internet. It isn't a requirement to use eLicenser protected software, BUT, some eLicenser protected software requires the latest eLicenser, for example, so, you'd need have that installed as well. I'd imagine doing all that without an internet connection proves a major PITA.

[rasmusklump]

The main reason for me to use cubase in the past was the dongle with my licence on it. So far I never had to be online to install a new PC with cubase.
If they get rid of the dongle and goe to some c/r system like N.I. I save a lot of money as I stay on 9.5. Since it has already the console1 integgration there will be nothing new I need anyhow.

[Obsolete236871]

Not that i'd want to start a big argument from here, but, i always wonder how those "professionals" get new Cubase updates, or new Cubase versions on their island system computers. From your argumentation, it'd also already pose a big problem to plug any external hard drive, or USB stick in those computers, because that could already infect them with malware. At the very least, i find this argumentation questionable.

Note also that eLicenser already syncs your licenses with the internet. It isn't a requirement to use eLicenser protected software, BUT, some eLicenser protected software requires the latest eLicenser, for example, so, you'd need have that installed as well. I'd imagine doing all that without an internet connection proves a major PITA.

Downloading latest eLicenser version from the web and transferring it to the offline studio PC doesn't take a lot of effort.

Malware is one serious issue. And no, there is no malware that will mysteriously land on your own external hard drive out of nowhere! Unless you plug your external drive into an already contaminated system, it should be safe. Even if you managed to get malware from an external hard drive(which is something that happens very rarely), then most malware will not be able to cause any harm. Most malware is programmed to use the active internet connection of the infected system to either steal data, download additional malware and infect additional parts of the system or to secretly send stolen private data (eg keystrokes) to someone etc. On an offline system there is not so much malware can do.

Also, I didn't say anything about not having an internet connection. Everybody does nowadays, if not at home, then somewhere else (work, friends, school, relatives). So downloading a 20mb update to the latest elicenser software from somewhere to a clean USB-drive and installing it afterwards on an offline PC, is really not a big fuss.

Another major issue that slowly more and more people acknowledge and get aware of: it's really beneficial for any work-related or creative process to be able to shut off distractions. An offline system is ideal in that sense!

If you feel fine with using an online system for your music, that's okay. I just don't think that it's a wise decision to force all users into that paradigm, especially not if there are alternatives: the previous authorization system of Native Instruments was offline-capable: one could download the necessary software to an external drive, install it on the audio computer and authorize with serials. Why does Native Access not offer this option?

Many other authorization schemes from other developers also have both on- and offline capacity. Why switch to an inferior system that is not compatible with a whole range of music production environments (think rehearsal rooms in former industrial buildings, studio garages, street performances and so on)?

The main reason for me to use cubase in the past was the dongle with my licence on it. So far I never had to be online to install a new PC with cubase. If they get rid of the dongle and goe to some c/r system like N.I. I save a lot of money as I stay on 9.5. Since it has already the console1 integgration there will be nothing new I need anyhow.

True, that is the big advantage of the dongle. I'm fine with every solution that doesn't require me to have constant internet access though!

[Obsolete236871]

Double Post

[chk071]

Malware is one serious issue. And no, there is no malware that will mysteriously land on your own external hard drive out of nowhere! Unless you plug your external drive into an already contaminated system, it should be safe.

Which was exactly my point. At some point, you'll have to plug in your external hard drive into a system communicating with the internet, which may or may not be infected, and that could well land on your hard drive.

Anyway, i merely wanted to point out that such island systems also can't be 100% secure. My opinion on the matter is that the biggest security risk is the person operating the system, so, i don't see an issue with a machine connected to the net. A hundred security precautions won't save you from the human factor.

[Obsolete236871]

Please re-read my argument, since I wasn't finished with my edit when you already replied. An "island system" is much safer - even when a malware manages to infect it (from an infected online computer --> external drive --> "island system"). Besides security, there is also the huge issue of distraction.

[rasmusklump]

To be precice: I don't have a problem to go online but I have a problem on relying on a company (especially Steinberg) to issue me a new response code in 2 or 3 years....

[chk071]

Please re-read my argument, since I wasn't finished with my edit when you already replied. An "island system" is much safer - even when a malware manages to infect it (from an infected online computer --> external drive --> "island system"). Besides security, there is also the huge issue of distraction.

I still think the operator of a computer is a hundred times more relevant to security stuff than the computer, software, or measures like "cutting the line". A responsible user doesn't need to cut the line. That's way exaggerated, IMO.