VPS Avenger new license system is a complete mystery

[adamj]

The new copy protection ruined it for me too. I've been a software engineer for almost 2 decades. I have to deal with buggy, obtuse software all the time. I'm pretty good at figuring things out and "hacking" my around problems. I have never seen anything like this copy protection system. It is probably the worst I have ever encountered. It's like enterprise software developed for the government by the lowest (most unskilled) bidder, who ignores user experience concerns and over-complicates everything to drag out the project and make more money.

Like many/most of you, I struggled to get the damn thing to work when I upgraded to 1.5. Then I struggled when I had to refresh after 3 months, at a time I just wanted to get some work done. Infuriating. It's made me stop using Avenger. I'm definitely never buying a product from them again after the money I invested in Avenger + several expansions, with no inkling that this would happen.

I feel betrayed and disrespected.

I predict they are going to lose much more money over this then if they had done nothing to try to stop piracy. Guess what? You can't stop piracy. Someone's going to crack it eventually. People who weren't going to pay aren't suddenly going to start paying. They'll just go elsewhere. The only thing they accomplished is pissing off all their paying customers and driving many away. That's a recipe for going out of business, and if they don't wake up and course correct, they'll deserve it.

[dusted william]

has anyone gotten this working? I still haven't upgraded from 1.4 and I'm scared!

[adamj]

has anyone gotten this working? I still haven't upgraded from 1.4 and I'm scared!

Yeah, I did get it working.

IIRC for the initial 1.5 installation they had some instructions that work if you follow very carefully. I glossed over it, because who reads installation instructions anyway? It shouldn't be that hard. The software is so unintutive I made a mistake and had to start over a couple times. You can't tell if you're doing the right thing or not until the end and Avenger either works or it doesn't. With their instructions I was able to sort it out. At that point I was mostly just annoyed.

The bigger issue is it really isn't obvious what to do when when the 90 day license refresh is needed. I had to fiddle with it for at least 20 (30?) minutes and wasted a lot of time trying different things that weren't working. It seemed like Avenger's authorization system was broken. I think I reinstalled the whole thing at one point and it still didn't work. I worried my license was corrupt and I was screwed and it wasn't going to work on my computer again. It made me very angry and completely killed my motivation for that music-making session.

I eventually got it to work, but I don't remember exactly what I did, so I expect I'll have this problem again in 90 more days and get angry again, which is why I lost interest in this product.

There's some step-by-step instructions earlier in this thread (and apparently on reddit) that can help. I bookmarked it in case I need Avenger working in an older project at some point.

If you're on 1.4, I wouldn't upgrade unless you really want some 1.5 features or need a bug fix. Clearly the situation has been upsetting a lot of people. The new features were not worth the hassle IMO.

[dune_rave]

Luckily I have no problem with avenger, but currently i write for another reason.
I just want to say, if someone wants to sell his licence, i would give a pigments licence for that( + mini filter + rev plate) ,
but you must qualify for this with having at least 4 expansion i don't have. (i have avenger and would do this trade for new expansions, and exps cant be transfered alone, just with the plugin)

[VariKusBrainZ]

+1
Another pissed off user. Haven't updated since this ridiculous development. I don't understand how this isnt considered illegal. And they moved to one of the worst and little known systems!!!! I mean if Reason uses it it must be shit, the Props are renowned for making bad decisions when it comes to users needs and requests.

Why don't they change the CP on all their other plugins ?

[VariKusBrainZ]

Exps cant be transfered alone, just with the plugin

Too hilarious

[Trancit]

...I don't understand how this isnt considered illegal.

Very easy: the version you bought works like before...
Noone forces you to take free gifts in form of updates... you bought the plugin as it was and not any future updates... many plugins out there were never changed from their 1.0 release... isn´t this criminal???

And they moved to one of the worst and little known systems!!!! I mean if Reason uses it it must be shit, the Props are renowned for making bad decisions when it comes to users needs and requests.

Hear hear...
Codemeter protection always worked flawless (as much as it is possible with software) and it is the only, really the only copy protection method which was never been cracked before as they changed to this method...

[Hanz Meyzer]

What makes me constantly angry are the frequent crashes of VPS Avenger on all my mac machines, even after clean install. And the very poor performance due bad cpu spikes. I could live with the CP, if it at least had revalidation each year instead. But with that ignorance of these guys, I will avoid to use it anymore, because I also can't be sure if my projects still will load in 5 years. Maybe the developers locked out old versions then. Very poor customer treatment.

[revvy]

perhaps because all their other plugins are e-licenser protected and never were C/P

I believe e licenser is also considered a form of copy protection.

I guess some who bought Avenger did so in light of the fact that it didn't use eL.

[teilo]

I mean if Reason uses it it must be shit, the Props are renowned for making bad decisions when it comes to users needs and requests.

It's worse than that. They took the system that Reason uses, and made it worse by setting up their licenses to expire every 90 days, even if you authorize to a dongle.

And when I tried to re-up my license after 90 days, it used up another activation. I have one of the three left that came with 1.5.

And it's sad because Avenger is a great synth. I can only hope the bulk of their user base abandons them until they get a clue that their loyal customers are not their enemy.

[VariKusBrainZ]

perhaps because all their other plugins are e-licenser protected and never were C/P

I believe e licenser is also considered a form of copy protection.

I guess some who bought Avenger did so in light of the fact that it didn't use eL.

Exactly, my point being why didn't they go with eLicencer.
I originally bought Avenger thinking it was eLicencer as I own their effects and assumed they would use the same c/p.

They have gone from eLicencer, to serial, to Codemeter

Fanboys feel free to justify that

[mgw38]

I mean if Reason uses it it must be shit, the Props are renowned for making bad decisions when it comes to users needs and requests.

It's worse than that. They took the system that Reason uses, and made it worse by setting up their licenses to expire every 90 days, even if you authorize to a dongle.

That is actually the most annoying part. And it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[Kumal]

So many things that don't make sense with this product and the company handling it. Glad I never invested in it. I only hope for the ones that did the cp doesn't change again with v2.0, maybe to something even more aggressive...

[dreamvoid]

Codemeter protection always worked flawless (as much as it is possible with software) and it is the only, really the only copy protection method which was never been cracked before as they changed to this method...

Yes, I had Codemeter working fine with Samplitude Pro on PC and Reason on Mac. The problems I had with it were introduced with Avenger! My CodeMeter dongles were to old - or need updates. Bought a new CodeMeter dongle (55,-€) and got it to work with Avenger, just in time to being introduced to a silly re-authorisation system for dongles every 90 days. Had then problems with authorisation failures while working. Re-authorisation with V-Manger worked fine though.
During updating my old Codemeter dongles, one (the one with Samplitude) was rendered useless - WiBu (Codemeter makers) were of no help and rejected service, they just pointed me to the software maker. Imagine that you can have different protections on one Codemeter and have to contact all companies, because a function WiBu implemented fails. Anyway, Magix replaced the faulty dongle at no cost (even in the shiny metal version), not even postage, very quickly - that's what I call service!
VPS caused one problem after the other. No clear documented ways how to to what and why - arrogant, condescending answers, if any. And, most importantly, a protection scheme that is implemented AGAINST the legit user, not FOR them. They even communicated the mistrust against the legit users and compared them with gamers, who seem to be a bunch of idiots and dishonest people to them.

[lectropunk]

I didn't realise reason was like avenger with codemeter. I really hate codemeter as I used avenger in nearly every track but jumped ship as I hate codemeter. How bad is reason with codemeter??