KVR Audio

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:04 am

Holy crap this is bad. I bought UAD plugins during the sale and used the LX 224 in my live show. Turns out the plugins need an active internet connection to authorize? Now when I listen to the audio recording of my show it is dry without any reverb at all in critical sections.

I had reverb automation done so the reverb would have kicked in. I had supermassive and a delay as other sends, so that reverb masked it, or I'd have caught it during sound check.

The plugin just says "DAW Restart required".

UAD, please fix this

Please don't go around punishing legit users like this. Don't give the bad guys another reason to use cracked plugins. Please.

roman.i · Post by **roman.i** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:16 am

It is a known fact that many plugins require Internet connection to work.
It's not exclusive to UAD, but many other plugins use the same iLok technology.
For live shows you should use offline iLok dongle, not Internet connection authorization.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:21 am

roman.i wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:16 am It is a known fact that many plugins require Internet connection to work.
It's not exclusive to UAD, but many other plugins use the same iLok technology.
For live shows you should use offline iLok dongle, not Internet connection authorization.

There's a big difference in HOW they handle internet connection. Reason for instance, shouts at your face by asking you to log in or cancel loading at all. In fact, this is precisely what it did during the same live show.

After authorizing Reason, I could put my laptop to sleep, turn off wifi, resume and it was still working. The same sequence with UAD did not work, so yeah they're a lot stricter about this apparently.

Such a shame. The plugins were sounding good. Nothing I didn't have in my arsenal already but I was happy to use 'em. Count them as having lost a new enthusiastic user (this was my first intro to UAD) due to this mishap.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:23 am

Then I ask, what's the point of offering 2 activations? I thought I'll have one in my gigging machine and one in my studio. What's the point if it's just going to need an internet connection?

Waves at least offers an option to activate it to the computer. This is what I did and it ended up saving a lot of headache. Never thought I'd recommend waves over another manufacturer for their copy protection of all things, yet here I am.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:25 am

I even liked their support. They didn't honor my original request but threw in a coupon in good faith. I liked that. I wanted to support them more and was eyeing more plugins to buy. But I got royally screwed by their crappy protection tonight.

sqigls · Post by **sqigls** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:30 am

roman.i wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:16 am It is a known fact that many plugins require Internet connection to work.
It's not exclusive to UAD, but many other plugins use the same iLok technology.
For live shows you should use offline iLok dongle, not Internet connection authorization.

Sonnox and UAD
the only 2 companies in my iLok account i never use for this reason and a few others.
i understand the piracy issues, but 'cloud or dongle only' - nope.

roman.i · Post by **roman.i** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:37 am

It's a protection used in many plugins nowadays.
Read the specs next time to avoid being royally screwed again.

sqigls · Post by **sqigls** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:41 am

not my first rodeo

egbert101 · Post by **egbert101** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:59 am

Another happy iLok owner.

Frankie.T · Post by **Frankie.T** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 1:38 pm

Another reason to support plugins with customer friendly activation systems, aka SN or Key file (without Internet activation!)

These are the only companies that get money from me

vanerio · Post by **vanerio** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 2:26 pm

Frankie.T wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 1:38 pm Another reason to support plugins with customer friendly activation systems, aka SN or Key file (without Internet activation!)

These are the only companies that get money from me

Same here

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 2:34 pm

if you really want to use ilok shit live, maybe consider a separate "live show dongle?" Maybe one that only has a few necessary licenses? I know for sure im not taking a dongle with all my VSL shit to a gig. And i' definitely not counting on there being reliable wifi (though if you've got a data plan, there's always a mobile hotspot using a phone).

or just don't use ilok stuff on stage, lol. so much nuance is lost through most venues' PA/sound that you can probably get away with some old synthedit reverb from 2007 and nobody in thr audience would notice or even care

Bombadil · Post by **Bombadil** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 2:54 pm

I've had to deal with the same issue with VSL. Their new system installs iLock on my computer, but if I want to use it away from the internet, I need a dongle. I tried installing some stuff once, it failed. At 1.7 mb/sec download I don't feel like trying it again for a while.
Any installation system like this won't get any further Dinerii from me.
Any installation process that requires a fairly lengthy video explanation is another no-go for me.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 3:44 pm

The Live Rack was designed for live working, not really the native stuff. Shame they axed it, great bit of kit.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Sun Oct 08, 2023 4:03 pm

Some of y’all are missing the point.

If companies want to enforce stringent copy protection, yeah I can live with that.

When said copy protection isn’t detected, SCREAM AND FAIL LOUDLY. Don’t, for the love of god, fail silently.

Waves fails scanning when dongle isn’t present. Reason asks to login. There’s a UA Connect app in the toolbar. At the least they could have made it red or shown some icon there to indicate plugins didn’t load correctly.

PSA: STAY AWAY FROM UAD FOR LIVE SHOWS!!