Now I Understand Why People Hate iLok

[Mushy Mushy]

One should not confuse number of plug ins with quality either. I am not sure how someone determines themselves as not missing out when they are incapable of even demo'ing an iLok protected plug in, unless they are clairvoyant.

There are so many options now that if you said I could no longer own my top 3 plugins I’m sure I could still find alternatives.

[Synthman2000]

Would they be as good ? Is the important question.

[Mushy Mushy]

Would they be as good ? Is the important question.

This is my point, yes they would. To rephrase your question as a statement you’re saying the best plugins are ilok protected which simply isn’t true.

Don’t get me wrong I am ilok’d. Only for Soundtoys and I love them to bits, but if you took them away from me I’d find a substitute in a heartbeat.

[fmr]

iLok2 user for 7 years now. Not a single problem in that time.

macOS or Windows?

Here, I am an iLOK user for over 20 years (both platforms). I never experienced a problem in macOS, except a failure in a key, that was still under warranty, but that Pace asked me to pay for shipment (which would end to be more than the price of the key - but that's another subject) but I had problems in Windows occasionally, as I wrote.

[wagtunes]

This brings up a very interesting question. How many plugins are TRULY so unique and amazing that they can't be replaced by something else for what they do and still have relatively the same quality?

For example, I use EWQL stuff for my orchestral scores. It's iLok. But there are several competing products out there that are just as good if not better such as Vienna to name one. So if I was really against iLok, I'd have an alternative where I wouldn't lose quality.

Conversely, there is no substitute for Vocaloid. As far as synthesizing a human vocal with the quality it has, nothing else comes close. It's no contest. So unless you're going to sing yourself or hire a singer, there are no options that are as good.

But how many plugins are like that?

Honestly, among all the VSTs that I have, I can't name ONE that, if had to give it up, I couldn't find a suitable replacement. Vocaloid is the only one with no other viable options at that same quality.

So yeah, with very few exceptions, I agree with the poster who said that there are replacements for everything. You don't need iLok to have the very best of what's out there for 99% of the things you're going to use.

[chk071]

doomsday is near, and that noone should use it, and we should boycott it. Like some kind of religious cult, really.

The difference being that the iLokalypse was very real, pretty recent, and literally doomed some professionals to lose a hell of a lot of money, and nearly their entire livelihoods.

The buzzword "iLokalypse" already speaks chapters about the seriousness of such claims.

If there was an article in a magazine, and they'd talk about the iLokalypse, i'd naturally ask whether or not they hired a advertising agency for the creation of the word, like in the cases where a "serious" computer virus surfaces. BTW, a serious bug in a software can also stop it from being operable. Would you seriously sue the developer of the plugin then, if you "lost a hell of a lot money", or "nearly your entire livelihood"? Or would you try to get the job done with another plugin? I call BS, TBH.

[Synthman2000]

This brings up a very interesting question. How many plugins are TRULY so unique and amazing that they can't be replaced by something else for what they do and still have relatively the same quality?

For example, I use EWQL stuff for my orchestral scores. It's iLok. But there are several competing products out there that are just as good if not better such as Vienna to name one. So if I was really against iLok, I'd have an alternative where I wouldn't lose quality.

Conversely, there is no substitute for Vocaloid. As far as synthesizing a human vocal with the quality it has, nothing else comes close. It's no contest. So unless you're going to sing yourself or hire a singer, there are no options that are as good.

But how many plugins are like that?

Honestly, among all the VSTs that I have, I can't name ONE that, if had to give it up, I couldn't find a suitable replacement. Vocaloid is the only one with no other viable options at that same quality.

So yeah, with very few exceptions, I agree with the poster who said that there are replacements for everything. You don't need iLok to have the very best of what's out there for 99% of the things you're going to use.

You can find out yourself.

https://ddmf.eu/plugindoctor/

You will very quickly find that not all plug ins are engineered as well as others. And if you can hear well you will find that our by listening alone. Of course this mainly related to audio processing (eq, dynamics etc) and effects processing (delay/reverb etc). Synths are generally quicker to hear if they float your boat or not.

[wagtunes]

This brings up a very interesting question. How many plugins are TRULY so unique and amazing that they can't be replaced by something else for what they do and still have relatively the same quality?

For example, I use EWQL stuff for my orchestral scores. It's iLok. But there are several competing products out there that are just as good if not better such as Vienna to name one. So if I was really against iLok, I'd have an alternative where I wouldn't lose quality.

Conversely, there is no substitute for Vocaloid. As far as synthesizing a human vocal with the quality it has, nothing else comes close. It's no contest. So unless you're going to sing yourself or hire a singer, there are no options that are as good.

But how many plugins are like that?

Honestly, among all the VSTs that I have, I can't name ONE that, if had to give it up, I couldn't find a suitable replacement. Vocaloid is the only one with no other viable options at that same quality.

So yeah, with very few exceptions, I agree with the poster who said that there are replacements for everything. You don't need iLok to have the very best of what's out there for 99% of the things you're going to use.

You can find out yourself.

https://ddmf.eu/plugindoctor/

You will very quickly find that not all plug ins are engineered as well as others. And if you can hear well you will find that our by listening alone.

Oh for crying out loud, I'm not saying that every single plugin in the universe is the same quality. I'm saying that for 99% of what's out there, there HAS to be an alternative that's JUST as good. And please don't give me the "Well this one measures 0.007 better on the plugindoctor scale" crap because most human ears won't hear that anyway.

But yeah, by all means. Outside of Vocaloid, which there is TRULY no replacement for (talk about a monopoly on the market) show me ONE plugin that I can't find something equally as good where the average human being can actually tell the difference and go "Oh yeah, absolutely. This plugin absolutely blows away everything else out there and there is simply no other choice nearly as close."

Give me ONE.

I'll bet my bank account (other than Vocaloid) that you can't do it.

How do I know? Because I own almost everything that's out there. My arsenal is beyond insane and the buying has to stop.

But go on, give me ONE.

[elxsound]

@wags,

You might want to retract that bet... And I do say this with a disclaimer acknowledging that this highly subjective topic

But I get the sense that you are speaking about instruments that require iLok vs effects that require iLok.

I can tell you right now that I have not found a replacement my soundtoys effects. I have found alternatives, but not replacements. I'm actually good with that anyways, because I do like my soundtoys plugins.

[wagtunes]

@wags,

You might want to retract that bet... And I do say this with a disclaimer acknowledging that this highly subjective topic

But I get the sense that you are speaking about instruments that require iLok vs effects that require iLok.

I can tell you right now that I have not found a replacement my soundtoys effects. I have found alternatives, but not replacements. I'm actually good with that anyways, because I do like my soundtoys plugins.

I have the whole Soundtoys package. I love it. And I'd say that would be the closest thing I have to "Please God, don't take this away from me" but no replacement for it? I mean no other plugins that do what they do? I mean they're not the only plugins of their type on the market. I should know. I have almost all of them. Sure, do a couple have some features that are hard to find in one plugin? Absolutely. But if push came to shove, I could dig into all the other stuff that I have and, with some degree of difficulty granted, get the same desired result. I wouldn't be totally up the creek without a paddle. In other words, they don't have a monopoly on the market. Vocaloid does. Nothing else does what it does. Period.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

doomsday is near, and that noone should use it, and we should boycott it. Like some kind of religious cult, really.

The difference being that the iLokalypse was very real, pretty recent, and literally doomed some professionals to lose a hell of a lot of money, and nearly their entire livelihoods.

The buzzword "iLokalypse" already speaks chapters about the seriousness of such claims.

If there was an article in a magazine, and they'd talk about the iLokalypse, i'd naturally ask whether or not they hired a advertising agency for the creation of the word, like in the cases where a "serious" computer virus surfaces. BTW, a serious bug in a software can also stop it from being operable. Would you seriously sue the developer of the plugin then, if you "lost a hell of a lot money", or "nearly your entire livelihood"? Or would you try to get the job done with another plugin? I call BS, TBH.

Call it whatever you want, but don't do so out of ignorance. A lot of shit went down with a iLok, a few years back, that demonstrated exactly why having all your software tied to a stick (...That's driven into frozen Winter shit), might not be such a good idea.

I avoided iLok for many years, and only acquiesced for 'Echoboy', but I'm willing to walk out on that shit in 30 seconds flat if I feel the heat

[Harry_HH]

I rather had just ONE well implemented installer/manager/authorizer, than 10 different from different developers.
Its pure mathematics, the more these different gadgets you have, the more likely, that some of them causes troubles with you DAW.

E.g. I just had to install XLN installer to get the RC-20 auhtorized/installed, you can´t define the location where its goes, it goes to your C-drive, and who knows what sfuff it lets in to your computer and what it does.

I hate these "managers".
iLok is one of the best working in this category.

[electro]

This brings up a very interesting question. How many plugins are TRULY so unique and amazing that they can't be replaced by something else for what they do and still have relatively the same quality?

Eventide Anthology X and Relab LX480.

[Armagibbon]

doomsday is near, and that noone should use it, and we should boycott it. Like some kind of religious cult, really.

The difference being that the iLokalypse was very real, pretty recent, and literally doomed some professionals to lose a hell of a lot of money, and nearly their entire livelihoods.

The buzzword "iLokalypse" already speaks chapters about the seriousness of such claims.

If there was an article in a magazine, and they'd talk about the iLokalypse, i'd naturally ask whether or not they hired a advertising agency for the creation of the word, like in the cases where a "serious" computer virus surfaces. BTW, a serious bug in a software can also stop it from being operable. Would you seriously sue the developer of the plugin then, if you "lost a hell of a lot money", or "nearly your entire livelihood"? Or would you try to get the job done with another plugin? I call BS, TBH.

Yea you try usin another plug at the 11th hour when you got it all tight and right and shit like that happens. I mean its like... yea cool got it done. Just gotta throw away 15min doin license transfers like I always do! Gonna go print it on the render box or send it to the other studio right? Guess what? Servers are f*ckin down or update f*cks all your sticks. Yea great now cant get anything done cus licenses stuck in limbo means I gotta do it all again with plugs that dont use ilok or whatever. Whats that? Client cant wait? Yea sure hold up just gonna do this f*ckin 16 hour project again in like 1 hour with free shit I never use...

Man dont even make excuses for that bs. We all gotta deal with it but thats all it is... dealin with it. Shit like that just shouldnt happen... but it does.

[Armagibbon]

I hate these "managers".
iLok is one of the best working in this category.

Yea when it works. Def prefer it to plugs that phone home and need internet all the time... man f*ck that.