Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[wayford]

The 99$ Soundtoys 5.4 Bundle (Academic) +10$ discount voucher from Soundwater is probably the best VST deal I have ever gotten.

Are we allowed to transfer/sell the effects we got from Soundtoys as promos the last few years?

Very happy for you, sucks I can't get it, cause I am in the wrong country and only applying to universities...But I guess then it wasn't made for me anyway.

The promos (the "little" plugins) - some of them allow for transfer and some don't. For example, my Little Plate license is non-transferrable. Just check that in the iLok license Manager.

As for the academic bundle, it absolutely is non-transferrable.

[wayford]

[martinjuenke]

Exactly!

[holmer]

Wtf is UA Connect, I wanted to get the UAD freebie, now I'm supposed to download this.

[martinjuenke]

Wtf is UA Connect, I wanted to get the UAD freebie, now I'm supposed to download this.

There are no freebies, you pay with your data and your mail address.
Spam ahead!

[Harry_HH]

Wtf is UA Connect, I wanted to get the UAD freebie, now I'm supposed to download this.

There are no freebies, you pay with your data and your mail address.
Spam ahead!

In the addition to this: UAC has a feature where you are forced to update always the latest UAC version - and it may happen, as for me, that some of the new UAC versions are not compatible with your DAW+PACE.
Conclusion: your UA plugins stop working.

I have tried to get support for this challenge from the UA support since June - without result.

[Teksonik]

I'll add that UA Connect wants to load at start up but that can be disabled (on Win 10 at least). However as soon as you load a UAD plugin it will load UA Connect, it will run in the background, and it will keep an open internet connection even after you close your DAW. You need to manually shut the UA Connect .exe down to stop the constant up/down flow of data.

UA Connect.png

It's just another example of bloatware and developers taking liberties with our systems. I suppose the argument will be "it's for copy protection" but if that's the case why the need for the iLok bloatware as well?

The thing is that I probably would have purchased the vast majority of UAD plugins since I'm a hopeless plugin collector (or hoarder) if they didn't require all the bloatware. Too many alternatives that don't require the bloat.

I've got the UAD stuff installed on a test system but it's not bloat that I would want to install on my studio system if for no other reason the issue mentioned above this post.

So they're losing sales by trying not to lose sales.

[audenso]

It's just another example of bloatware and developers taking liberties with our systems.

Could you please clarify what specific liberties you're referring to regarding the installation of a program that runs as a background process? This approach has been a common practice in software development since the early 2000s.
UAD plugins run offline using a dongle. If you have any concerns you might just block the traffic from UA Connect using a firewall of choice

[Uncle E]

Century Tube can be machine authorized. After you install it, I believe you no longer need UA Connect and can remove it.

[seangm]

It's just another example of bloatware and developers taking liberties with our systems.

Could you please clarify what specific liberties you're referring to regarding the installation of a program that runs as a background process? This approach has been a common practice in software development since the early 2000s.
UAD plugins run offline using a dongle. If you have any concerns you might just block the traffic from UA Connect using a firewall of choice

I just renamed the UA Connect executable and now it never runs. UA Connect isn't needed to run the plugins and it's a PIA because it update itself in the middle of sessions randomly so that was a deal breaker for me. Renamed executable and no more UA Connect issues.

[kidslow]

I agree with Teksonik. Any process that runs on my computer and stays resident at all times, simply to "protect" the IP of the software manufacturer, is taking liberties.

[holmer]

Ok, thanks guys, I'll be living this life without the UAD freebie.

[t.o.t.s.]

It's just another example of bloatware and developers taking liberties with our systems.

Could you please clarify what specific liberties you're referring to regarding the installation of a program that runs as a background process? This approach has been a common practice in software development since the early 2000s.
UAD plugins run offline using a dongle. If you have any concerns you might just block the traffic from UA Connect using a firewall of choice

I just renamed the UA Connect executable and now it never runs. UA Connect isn't needed to run the plugins and it's a PIA because it update itself in the middle of sessions randomly so that was a deal breaker for me. Renamed executable and no more UA Connect issues.

I did the same here. Works perfect.

[soundbylaura]

Thanks for the UA heads up. Deleting all the Connect stuff now.

[Teksonik]

It's just another example of bloatware and developers taking liberties with our systems.

Could you please clarify what specific liberties you're referring to regarding the installation of a program that runs as a background process? This approach has been a common practice in software development since the early 2000s.
UAD plugins run offline using a dongle. If you have any concerns you might just block the traffic from UA Connect using a firewall of choice

You answered your own question. I have over 1,000 plugins on my studio system that don't require "the installation of a program that runs as a background process".

Almost none the developers I've done business with over the decades feel the need to install background processes in order to use their plugins. I'll just keep supporting those developers.

Imagine what a mess it would be if every developer installed bloatware at their will. Luckily it's just a few entitled developers who think they have the right to do anything they wish with our systems.

The end user should not have to block anything. If you think they should then all you're doing is defining UA Connect as malware.

Look if you don't value the security and stability of your studio system then by all means bloat away but all you're doing is encouraging such behavior from developers.

Like I said I probably would have purchased the majority of UAD plugins if they didn't require the bloatware but I'll just keep ignoring them and keep using plugins from developers who do respect the end user. I do have the UAD freebies installed on a test system but that's as far as it will go for me. The bloat is not something I wish to put on my studio system.

You do what you wish, all I'm doing is trying to let people know what they're getting into by installing a couple of freebie UAD plugins. Then they can make up their own minds if the bloat is worth it or not....