Experimental audio effect (Free plugin) - very unique sounds!

[EffectiveFX]

I think it might be a good idea to make the registration process a bit more clear, at least to old guys like me. "Enter registration email" sounds to me like you are asking for an email address that has already been used to register and this step will communicate with your server to confirm that the plugin has already been registered to an email address.

Something like "Enter your email address here to register plugin" would have saved me several minutes of confused website searching. And also maybe including that as a part of the website's installation instructions as well. It doesn't seem to say that the registration process is done through the plugin and not the website. It just doesn't mention that important step at all (that I could find.)

This is great advice - originally it had to be done outside the plugin but I changed that part of the process and I'm realizing now that the information displayed to users did not keep up. I apologize for the confusion! Going to make that more clear on the website and (eventually) update Poltergeist itself.

Thanks for the advice - communicating this type of information clearly and easily is a lot harder than I anticipated.

[michat]

From what I've heared in your demo video, the possibilities sound great and I would like to get into it, but the plugin asking for an email address means an internet connection is required to get it running? Just asking before thinking about to download as my music computer does not have any online connection (which is intended that way)

[pough]

Thanks for the advice - communicating this type of information clearly and easily is a lot harder than I anticipated.

To effectively idiot-proof something requires at least one idiot. The good news is that KvR has plenty of us.

[nanostream]

Fellow idiot chiming in. I was a bit confused as well, but got it working somehow. More clarity would go a long way

Nice little plugin, glad I’ve finally bought it.

[EffectiveFX]

From what I've heared in your demo video, the possibilities sound great and I would like to get into it, but the plugin asking for an email address means an internet connection is required to get it running? Just asking before thinking about to download as my music computer does not have any online connection (which is intended that way)

Yes, an internet connection is normally required to activate Poltergeist. But if you PM me your email and OS I can build you a VST3 or AU that won't require it - just as long as you can port it to your music computer somehow.

I'm curious - have you run into many plugins that you're unable to use because they don't have offline activation?

[EffectiveFX]

Fellow idiot chiming in. I was a bit confused as well, but got it working somehow. More clarity would go a long way

Nice little plugin, glad I’ve finally bought it.

I'm glad you're enjoying Poltergeist, and very much appreciate your support!

[michat]

From what I've heared in your demo video, the possibilities sound great and I would like to get into it, but the plugin asking for an email address means an internet connection is required to get it running? Just asking before thinking about to download as my music computer does not have any online connection (which is intended that way)

Yes, an internet connection is normally required to activate Poltergeist. But if you PM me your email and OS I can build you a VST3 or AU that won't require it - just as long as you can port it to your music computer somehow.

I'm curious - have you run into many plugins that you're unable to use because they don't have offline activation?

That would be absolutely awesome! pm will be sent right away.
Some, not too many - and I don't remember which ones. I use an old NI Komplete where offline activation was possible. And the rest is mostly freeware without any kind of activation / authorization processes.
I use a laptop to download stuff and port it to my music computer via usb stick. Maybe I'm too old fashioned but none of my music computers since 2002 have had an online connection.

[EffectiveFX]

From what I've heared in your demo video, the possibilities sound great and I would like to get into it, but the plugin asking for an email address means an internet connection is required to get it running? Just asking before thinking about to download as my music computer does not have any online connection (which is intended that way)

Yes, an internet connection is normally required to activate Poltergeist. But if you PM me your email and OS I can build you a VST3 or AU that won't require it - just as long as you can port it to your music computer somehow.

I'm curious - have you run into many plugins that you're unable to use because they don't have offline activation?

That would be absolutely awesome! pm will be sent right away.
Some, not too many - and I don't remember which ones. I use an old NI Komplete where offline activation was possible. And the rest is mostly freeware without any kind of activation / authorization processes.
I use a laptop to download stuff and port it to my music computer via usb stick. Maybe I'm too old fashioned but none of my music computers since 2002 have had an online connection.

I really respect the way you do things! Definitely going to keep this in mind for the future - not to let the internet be a barrier to people using the effects.

[michat]

Thanks again for providing the plugin and modding it to be used without forcing to be online.

I took a first session and I'm very impressed! There's so much potential f***ing sounds up, smearing them, making them tonal, giving them space - absolutely great! Need to sit down to program and understand it in detail, but what I got out of it so far is amazing. I love dubby delays (got a self-built hardware 4 by 4 channel echo matrix using 3 head tape machines plus various delay pedals and BBD machines customizable via patchbay and a mixer) and I'm thrilled to bits thinking of placing Poltergeist in the feedback loops

[enroe]

I'm curious - have you run into many plugins that you're unable to use because they don't have offline activation?

Haha, that's interesting.

We — and many colleagues with DAWs and studios — have our
studio and DAW exclusively offline — without internet access. We
have a separate communication computer for internet access.

The main reason for this is: The DAW itself shouldn't be disturbed!
For complex projects, it's fatal if things suddenly start to stutter and
crackle. Even today, Windows 11 users would barely be able to
work because constant updates, which suddenly appear quite
randomly and unannounced, ruin the system. But we also want to
maintain control over our DAW computer.

A secondary reason may be that we primarily record audio directly
(guitars, vocals, bass, etc.) and then process it. We don't need any
fancy plug-ins for this, just EQ and compressors.

In addition, you are also inundated with free and internet-less plugins
(e.g. Airwindows "Chris" and many others), so...

So my (our) tip would be: Remove the internet activation completely.

Best regards, enroe.

[nanostream]

Keeping with German tradition, @enroe also composes his online postings offline in a Word 2000 document first

[EffectiveFX]

Thanks again for providing the plugin and modding it to be used without forcing to be online.

I took a first session and I'm very impressed! There's so much potential f***ing sounds up, smearing them, making them tonal, giving them space - absolutely great! Need to sit down to program and understand it in detail, but what I got out of it so far is amazing. I love dubby delays (got a self-built hardware 4 by 4 channel echo matrix using 3 head tape machines plus various delay pedals and BBD machines customizable via patchbay and a mixer) and I'm thrilled to bits thinking of placing Poltergeist in the feedback loops

Hell yeah! As a fellow modulated delay enthusiast, it makes me very happy that you're enjoying it. And would also really like to hear anything you make with it!

[EffectiveFX]

So my (our) tip would be: Remove the internet activation completely.

Best regards, enroe.

I wish. Unfortunately, this would either 1) burden the average user who prefers the convenient online activation or 2) risk allowing people to easily circumvent activation entirely and just use my plugins for free - my life's work is to invent as many new audio effects as I can and to do so sustainably I do need to make a living.

But I would hate for online-only activation to be a barrier for studios like yours, so it sounds like I need to research ways to implement offline activation for special cases, maybe in a way that's aided by a different internet-enabled computer?

[ztrauq]

So my (our) tip would be: Remove the internet activation completely.

Best regards, enroe.

I wish. Unfortunately, this would either 1) burden the average user who prefers the convenient online activation or 2) risk allowing people to easily circumvent activation entirely and just use my plugins for free - my life's work is to invent as many new audio effects as I can and to do so sustainably I do need to make a living.

But I would hate for online-only activation to be a barrier for studios like yours, so it sounds like I need to research ways to implement offline activation for special cases, maybe in a way that's aided by a different internet-enabled computer?

The way I've usually seen offline activation done:

-when selecting offline activation on the offline machine, it spits out a "challenge code" usually based on a hash of some unique machine component ID
-challenge code is entered on the software website on an online computer, which registers the challenge ID and returns a "response" activation code that is tied to the ID (so it can only activate the plugin on the machine that created the challenge code)
-response code is then entered on the offline machine to activate the plugin

While I do tend to let my music workstation have sporadic internet access for updates/activation, I am a little wary of activation that relies on a server for one specific reason: if the server/website goes down for whatever reason, the plugin can't be activated. I think it does generally work fine, but personally if I were doing online activation I would pair it with some sort of contingency plan so that in the event the business and activation server were discontinued, that customers would first be provided with a final plugin version with the discontinued activation process removed.

[NWSM]

Nice but no underground Linux support =)