Dongle / Pace / CR Free Plugs - what is your short list?

[EnzymeX]

I'm cleaning house. All my hosts and plugs that have any kind of hardware dependent authorization, whether dongle or internet based, will be weeded out over time - and the sooner the better.

Some of these plugs I really like - Ableton Live and WaveArts plugs, for example. But I don't care. I plan to learn and use only plugs I can continue using on a new computer long after any given software company has gone out of business.

My (kind of) short list follows. I'm curious what plugs other folks are using that are free of oppressive protection schemes.

My Hosts:
Project5 / Sonar (replace with Reaper someday?)

My VST's:
Voxengo (free and paid)
Kjaerhus Classic/Gold Series FX
Some Tbt
Mr. Donald
Effectizer
RetroDelay
Ambience
FreeVerb Too

My VSTi's / DXi's:
DR-008
Dimension
ManyStation
ManyGuitar
Slayer
Tau Pro
Vanguard
eJ / Toxic
ComboSister
ZR-1
Mr. Ray
Mr. Tramp
Organ one
String Machine
ORGANized Trio
MDA ePiano
KWOP7
JP7A

[Cordelia]

Good idea, I'm doing the same. I'm hoping Reaper can someday replace Sound Forge, then all will be well. My list is similar to yours, with the addition of the slim slow slider plugs, some of Ugo's VSTis, H.G. Fortune's free synths, and FLStudio 5.
Sometimes I wish I'd never started all this in the first place, but there are a number of jobs I would never have gotten if it weren't for software. Sound Forge, with it's audio restoration/noise reduction tools, has paid for itself many times over.

[fgimian]

Some to add...

VSTs
Sonalksis
most PSP products I believe use serials

Instruments
Propellerheads Reason (CD Authorization, no issues)
u-he Zebra / Filterscape

If you happen to come across an auto-tune type tool with "graphical mode" that doesn't use terrible copy / protection, please pm me. Melodyne uses challenge / response which is why I have bought it yet.

Cheers
Fots

[Crandall1]

For what it's worth, all of our products are simple serial only, and site licenses on top of that. We're violently anti-dongle and anti-PACE.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Same here, only a username/password. Once purchased, our products will work until MS Windows dies...
Dongles are just a hell for users, and it costs a lot to the company, so you have to pay for it in the end!

[ravasb]

Ohmforce products like symptohm:melohman are serial number registrations.

[spacefox]

Exluding Tracktion, all the stuff I own is dongle and C/R free.

energyXT
ERA
sfz+
Wusikstation
BFD
Guru
DR-008
Sonic Charge MicroTonic
Foorius
Extreme Sample Converter
(and a bunch of sample sets)

Also the stuff I intend to buy soon is similarly protected: Phrazor, Liveslice and perhaps some Voxengo stuff later on.


C/R is also one of the two reasons I don't own Live. The other being it costs shit load of money, and I'm broke.

[Amberience]

www.xt-hq.com

[Bradster]

Amen brothers! (and sisters?). Power to the plug people.


Rene Cebellos rgc:audio (pre-cakewalk) stuff like z3ta+ and Pentagon II is wide open and all of the post-Cakewalk instruments like Dimension Pro and Rapture are serial number.

All LinPlug
Rob Papen's Blue
Propellerhead (though not technically a plug)
Maxx Claster (Toxic series)


*****

I thought I had read that PSP was going straight from serial number to dongle?

R.I.P. Elemental Audio.

[Hink]

yeah, stop using software you have paid for that uses protection you don't like...that'll show em...brilliant

Sarcasm aside, I have a fair amount of software and I'm not using much freeware at all...only AVOX uses ilok...everything else is no in trusive, asspain or lame protection...this includes (but not all that I own)

FL6
AA2.0
eXT
Vsampler
DFHs
DFH1
lot's of voxengo
Sonar5
G-force retro pack
B4II
Sytrus
Camelphat

and much more I dont feel like straining my brain over

my only rule is, I wont buy a dongle to demo anything..fwiw when and where I grew up we didn't need to lock our doors....I hate the fact that I have to now...it's a pain in the ass having to fumble with keys for my car locks when my arms are full of purchases...I don't like having to lock a bike up when I run into a store for some h2o...I really hate listening to car alarms going off all the time because people fear theft...I don't like cameras pointing at me everywhere I shop to ensure I don't steal...I would like to pay for gas after I pump it so I don't need to make two trips to the cashier....along the same line, it would be nice to get my food at the drive through before I pay them (not that it matters much)...I would like to go into the bank who I trust with all my money and not have to use a pen chained to the counter because I can't be trusted...but none of those things will change and I can't go without food, shelter, transportation...I hate being herded like elephants through turnstyles to make sure I pay my fare..certain things I find very offensive I have to put up with because some people are even more offensive and too dishonest to care. I suppose I could spend my time complaining about the need for security, but then I want to spend my life happy...not some miserable hermit sitting in a rocking chair with a 12 gauge defending my property.

The same holds true for software, even though I really do not suffer from protection issues even having to save all serial numbers, passwords and codes (which I would have to do with hardware to because if it ever got stolen I need it for the police report) that's the way it is...just like I'm not going to go without shelter over a hate for not trusting people, I'm not going to deprive myself from the benefits of protected software over their protection.

It's got to be obvious even to the blindest people on the subject that because the protection causes troubles with their system doesn't mean the problem lies in the protection. In fact you only here about the problems, not the successes. A lot of dongled software is being used these days, it must be working for someone. So if I buy software and there is an issue, I think common sense suggests that the protection is conflicting with something in my system. If the protection has a conflict perhaps one day something else will too...so why blame the protection, find out what the issue is and fix it...it could be as simple as moving your video card to another slot...and who knows you might even learn something a long the way...yeah it sux having protection...yeah it's a pain in the ass if you get a new pc or hard drive...but then so is installing all the software again...so I just cope with it...this constant complaining is going to be the joke catch phrase of the future...btw at the turn of the century I didn't have any of this computer stuff...I wonder what I will own five years from now and I'm not going to get upset worrying about it

fwiw,
like I said, I would not by a dongle for trying something...but I would be willing to put a deposit on a dongle if they would be willing...

[Cheeso]

For what it's worth, all of our products are simple serial only, and site licenses on top of that. We're violently anti-dongle and anti-PACE.

I thank you...and I will thank you further by buying one of your products later.

[spacefox]

Hink, there's one basic flaw in the "hate to lock the door" analogy. You lock your own door, to protect your own property.

Now, if I told you I want you to inconvinience yourself to protect my property - you'd tell me to f**k off, and rightly so.



Dongles and C/Rs are annoyances that I prefer to avoid. I gain nothing from using those protection schemes over others - so it is a disadvantage. You could decide it's a matter of little importance and it will not weigh in against the app's advantages.
Like price, support or even shipping cost - it can be a factor that affects our choise. Luckily we have enough options so we can avoid dongles and such if we like.

[Hink]

Hink, there's one basic flaw in the "hate to lock the door" analogy. You lock your own door, to protect your own property.

Now, if I told you I want you to inconvinience yourself to protect my property - you'd tell me to f**k off, and rightly so.



Dongles and C/Rs are annoyances that I prefer to avoid. I gain nothing from using those protection schemes over others - so it is a disadvantage. You could decide it's a matter of little importance and it will not weigh in against the app's advantages.
Like price, support or even shipping cost - it can be a factor that affects our choise. Luckily we have enough options so we can avoid dongles and such if we like.

you're 100% rught of course...I prefer not to have to deal with it either, that was my point...but then by now I think it's safe to say

ok we get it, protection sucks

(not yelling at you) fortunately I have completely by luck been able to do well without protection for almost everything and the one thing is not used daily...still I think just the thought of oneday having to re-install all this software sucks just as much (even if it doesn't even use a serial number)...and you're right there are plenty of options...still it beats the hell out of spending hours recording to a cassette tape only to come up with a nice demo of mud, hiss and noise, or worse....have the tape break....

[spacefox]

still it beats the hell out of spending hours recording to a cassette tape only to come up with a nice demo of mud, hiss and noise, or worse....have the tape break....

Or going for the river to get yourself drinking water...

[james0tucson]

still it beats the hell out of spending hours recording to a cassette tape only to come up with a nice demo of mud, hiss and noise, or worse....have the tape break....

Or going for the river to get yourself drinking water...

The times when I can haul water from a spring and chop firewood are the high points of life, its most memorable moments.