NI have announced they will no longer activate discontinued products

[JJ_Jettflow]

"No apparent reason"

It's in the thread title. A factual summary of an announcement by the developer.

I thought the idea of a music-related forum was to talk about music creation and production; not a place to come and whine and whimper about what software company does. They stopped making parts for my 1997 Dodge. Should I go into a dodge forum and start crying like a baby about it?

People should worry more about making better music and less about the gear they use...but then they would have to apply themselves and practice and actually learn about what they are trying to do instead of just f**king around.

There's a guy over on the NI forum trying to get a €5000 string library to work. Plenty of people here will have significantly more than $100 of investment "protected" by NI activation servers.

When I was a student, $100 was a serious amount of money to spend on a hobby purchase. You don't know people's circumstances.

I still have my copy of Intelligent Music's M and I can't run that either. The software is no longer supported. The company folded and the Mac I ran it on is obsolete. I have a copy of Aldus Pagemaker too... the same thing.

Along with a ton of other software since 1984 that I can no longer use and I am sure it is worth over $5000. Who should I cry to?

[ehdyn]

I still have my copy of Intelligent Music's M and I can't run that either. The software is no longer supported. The company folded and the Mac I ran it on is obsolete. I have a copy of Aldus Pagemaker too... the same thing.

Along with a ton of other software since 1984 that I can no longer use and I am sure it is worth over $5000. Who should I cry to?

https://cycling74.com/products/m

[Sascha Franck]

I still have my copy of Intelligent Music's M and I can't run that either. The software is no longer supported. The company folded and the Mac I ran it on is obsolete. I have a copy of Aldus Pagemaker too... the same thing.

Along with a ton of other software since 1984 that I can no longer use and I am sure it is worth over $5000. Who should I cry to?

These are irrelevant comparisons.
In case of the affected NI products, there's no technical necessity that they won't run anymore - apart from the Service Center authorization server being shut down. Otherwise, these very products would still run pretty well on many very recent Windows systems. And quite obviously, they would still run well on older systems. Now, as we all know, there's good reasons why you may have to reinstall a system, you might not even want to trash an older system instantly in case you don't need anything else but the features provided. NI is putting an end to this, at least regarding their stuff.

As a real life example of my own: Until just around 3 years ago, I shared a rehearsal room that also doubled as a demo "studio" with two friends. I put my old Windows XP machine in there, so everybody could do recordings and what not (no internet stuff, there wasn't any connection). There was a very old version of Komplete (3 or 4) running on that machine. And it was just working fine. Nobody ever needed anything more modern just there as we would all usually take our recordings to other places to do whatever with them. In case the situation hadn't changed (we had to leave the room), this machine would still be used daily.
Now, if that machine had been broken, I simply would've replaced the broken component but otherwise reinstall everything every bit the same. And it would've been possible easily, too - except for the NI stuff. And that is just ridiculous.

[goldenanalog]

'After May 31, 2020, the use of Native Access is required to activate and manage your NI products.'
- i don't think that the above date is arbitrary - NI started their 1/2-off 'Summer of Sound' sale the following day (6/1) in 2017 - they've done virtually the same sale every year since then, altho the start date & length of the sale has varied in 2018 and last year -

[dionenoid]

Are ppl really complaining about this ? KVR is a bizarre place sometimes.

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

[szurcio]

Are ppl really complaining about this ? KVR is a bizarre place sometimes.

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

Well, most of us did upgrade to newer versions (I have Komplete Ultimate 12, for example) but the old products are in some ways irreplaceable and unique (Spektral Delay or Vapor, for example). If you treated those software products like real musical instruments, you would understand it. An older hardware synth (even "obsolete" by modern standards, without MIDI capabilities) can still have some unique sound characteristics that can't be replaced with modern hardware. If you are simply a "producer" as opposed to a musician and you treat music software in a purely utilitarian way as an equivalent of, say, word processors, then I get it: I wouldn't mind if MS Word 97 could no longer be used. But don't take it for granted that others think the way you do.

[Sascha Franck]

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

In a nutshell, you advice people to trade their '59 Les Pauls in favour of a 2020 Ibanez because it's more up to date. Do I get that right?

[Stryves]

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

In a nutshell, you advice people to trade their '59 Les Pauls in favour of a 2020 Ibanez because it's more up to date. Do I get that right?

You got it right. That's why people are not happy.

[dionenoid]

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

In a nutshell, you advice people to trade their '59 Les Pauls in favour of a 2020 Ibanez because it's more up to date. Do I get that right?

No, you missed the part where it was about long discontinued software and not guitars. Apples and oranges.

[Sinisterbr]

Some long discontinued products and everyone here had the chance to update/crossgrade/upgrade many, many times already. Don't blame NI, blame your own greedy a** for not spending a few bucks for updates for some old products, for at least the last 10 years.

In a nutshell, you advice people to trade their '59 Les Pauls in favour of a 2020 Ibanez because it's more up to date. Do I get that right?

No, you missed the part where it was about long discontinued software and not guitars. Apples and oranges.

It's not just plain software. We are musicians. These are our instruments, and we have a special relationship with them. Many of them are somewhat unique for us, and we want to keep them with us for how long we can. Much like a '59 Les Paul, yes.
What NI is doing is IMHO absurd.

[JJ_Jettflow]

I still have my copy of Intelligent Music's M and I can't run that either. The software is no longer supported. The company folded and the Mac I ran it on is obsolete. I have a copy of Aldus Pagemaker too... the same thing.

Along with a ton of other software since 1984 that I can no longer use and I am sure it is worth over $5000. Who should I cry to?

These are irrelevant comparisons.
In case of the affected NI products, there's no technical necessity that they won't run anymore - apart from the Service Center authorization server being shut down. Otherwise, these very products would still run pretty well on many very recent Windows systems. And quite obviously, they would still run well on older systems. Now, as we all know, there's good reasons why you may have to reinstall a system, you might not even want to trash an older system instantly in case you don't need anything else but the features provided. NI is putting an end to this, at least regarding their stuff.

As a real life example of my own: Until just around 3 years ago, I shared a rehearsal room that also doubled as a demo "studio" with two friends. I put my old Windows XP machine in there, so everybody could do recordings and what not (no internet stuff, there wasn't any connection). There was a very old version of Komplete (3 or 4) running on that machine. And it was just working fine. Nobody ever needed anything more modern just there as we would all usually take our recordings to other places to do whatever with them. In case the situation hadn't changed (we had to leave the room), this machine would still be used daily.
Now, if that machine had been broken, I simply would've replaced the broken component but otherwise reinstall everything every bit the same. And it would've been possible easily, too - except for the NI stuff. And that is just ridiculous.

Who cares? Life goes on. Better things come along. If you are that tied to your gear, what kind of music are you making?

[JJ_Jettflow]

I still have my copy of Intelligent Music's M and I can't run that either. The software is no longer supported. The company folded and the Mac I ran it on is obsolete. I have a copy of Aldus Pagemaker too... the same thing.

Along with a ton of other software since 1984 that I can no longer use and I am sure it is worth over $5000. Who should I cry to?

https://cycling74.com/products/m

So? Even if I could run it, I wouldn't. It would be like playing Pong on my old Quasar TV set. It is history and better things have come to replace it. If my '79 Chevette still ran, I wouldn't drive it either.

[ATS]

[Sascha Franck]

No, you missed the part where it was about long discontinued software and not guitars. Apples and oranges.

The software still works. As do old guitars.

[Sascha Franck]

Who cares? Life goes on. Better things come along. If you are that tied to your gear, what kind of music are you making?

I'm not tied to any gear but that's irrelevant and the kind of music I make is of as little relevance.