marcL

Too late for me!

1 hour ago, Nick Blanc said:

Besides Native Access having trouble with installing something like Komplete in 1 go, I have little issues. The one gripe I have is that I delete the VST2's and it keeps saying I need to repair. That's a PITA.

I'm going to move my Kontakt Libraries to a different drive and tested this out with a couple of libraties. Worked very smoothly. I could do a mass action in NA were I can update the path for the moved products. Just move everything to a new drive, open NA, it says which are missing, select 'Relocate All' and you're good to go.

My logic says it shouldn't affect any projects which use those libraries, am I correct?

I did move some Kontakt libraries, too, it works! But I wonder why it is not possible to define the target location for each single library straight during installation? IMHO NI's idea to install such huge libraries in one location only is really stupid! But that are those big companies!

2 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

That's because Ni installer write a shitload of code to the registry.  

Not only to the registry, but also these folders with cryptic names in the ProgramData location. Many years ago when I first saw such folders in ProgramData I removed them, because I thought it's written by a virus, no professional can do something like that! Some time later I couldn't uninstall NI products anymore! 😄

3 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

off line authorization

I think we have to distinguish "real" offline authorization to challange response offline authorization.

The latter is better than no offline authorization, but a) it requires a lot more steps/work and b) it fails as soon as the server does not provide its service anymore (company gone or change of authorization system).

The former is very user friendly and future save. There are 3 different kind of this authorization: Authorization file, offline key or nothing required.

I just hope that they don't add iZotope and PA products to Native Access! That would be a horror! If they do we lose offline authorization and installation & update will be 10 times slower (especially if you install on more than one system).

27 minutes ago, Peter - IK Multimedia said:

If you have problems our support team can assist further with that.

No, they could not! They said it is no longer supported for T-Racks 5!

I don't get why APD always has those disk filling guitar bundles only!

I would like to choose 1 or 2 single guitar vsts (it's true for Sound Props and AcousticSamples)!

I can add:

• Acon Digital plugins, offline key
• Audio Assault, offline key
• Black Rooster Audio, offline key
• CableGuys, key file
• Dymai Sound, offline key
• E-Phonic, offline key
• eaReckon, key file
• Fuse Audio Labs, offline key
• GForce, offline key
• Joey Sturgis, nothing required
• Klanghelm, nothing required
• Kuassa, key file
• Martinic, key file
• PlugAndMix, offline key
• TBProAudio, key file
• Tokyo Dawn Labs, key file
• Toneboosters, offline key

5 hours ago, chris.r said:

Well, to me the T-Racks suite is great, if not a bit too CPU intensive, and I'm too long with these products now that I'm just used to all be bizarries. I think if you're new user then you might need to weight for yourself the pros and cons of having a good sounding and quite versatile suite of effects that will come with a convoluted way of installing tied to it. The download alone is over 2GB (edit: as you pointed out promptly). Guess the new IK Product Manager had been introduced to simplify the authorization process, at the same time bringing a harm to users like us that would want an offline method, you can't please everyone😂😔.

Regrettably it is not only the installer (download) that is that big! I could accept that. Even if you install only ONE SINGLE plugin you get over 2GB on your drive, the most are not the plugins files themselves (vst3/dll, you can delete the ones you don't need), but there is a common base (.pak) in "Program Files" that's about 1.7 GB!!!

It seems that IK has removed offline authorization secretly!

<rant> Generally I don't put their decision into question, but absolutely I have to comment the how! It seems that in their company the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. In the FAQ and in the documentations you still find the instructions for doing offline authorization! Also the support tells you some cloudy, abstruse things about offline authorization ("What App do you want to authorize? and you know that in the first step it is not relevant. - Newer products (available for a lot of years!) cannot be offline authorized anymore. - ...). IMO you cannot trust in such a company anymore! They are not capable to organize their things! I am just glad that I did not invest in their T-Racks lately (I nearly did)!

Also looking at their strange software implementations in T-Racks and Amplitude raises hackles! You always have to install the full package even if you only own a fraction of the modules (It is not only the installer, but also the installed files: 1 T-Racks module > 2 GB)! And they tell you the whole time that the product is updated when only new modules have been added!

And looking at such companies I wonder why some people attach importance to support? It's almost useless IMO!

Regrettably another company that gets on my "not-to-buy-anymore" list!</rant>

IMO CbB/Sonar is very rich in functionality and there are many things that can be done in so many ways! If you are new to it you maybe overwhelmed and irritated. But after some years you like this unboundedness. This is also the reason why I was/am missing things in all the other DAWs that I have been looking at (6 major daws).

On the other hand I feel that many things in CbB/Sonar have been added at a certain point, but the functions/modules have not been completed really. For example I like CbB's comping that allows that the comping clips can be edited and can have different split positions and so on. In other DAWs this is missing, comping is much simpler and limited. But the way it is in CbB is very complex and thus regrettably there are still bugs and incongruities!

9 hours ago, jngnz said:

The abandonware Kuassa one from many moons ago? I would expect extremely favourably, but I haven't tried either. I just got AuroraDSP Gorilla so I'll have something to play with.

IMHO the Kuassa amps and some of their fx is much better than significantly more expensive plugins of competitors! And I especially like their bass amp, it sounds really great! Also their guitar amps and overdrive are supreme, they come absolutely near the real stuff (NOT losing dynamics with drive)! But YMMV!

Ooooooohhhhh, please help me I have the Gibson syndrome!

Frankly, that had been really a shock and I was very confused at that time. I also had something similar some years before when my 8-track recorder was beyond repair and I lost some recordings. And now with the latest news I feel something like that again! It eats up a lot of energy!

"EU" says it already, End of Union!

42 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

Maybe if you would render all your tracks out as .wav....

I always do this and backup them. But this does neither save all your mixing information in the projects, nor does it help if you still want to use Splat or CbB.

34 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

Isn't that why an unlocked / one-time only activation version of Home Studio was made available (so that people would continue to have access to their projects)? 

The problem is that this only works as long as there are no hardware/system changes. As soon as your system id changes you are required to re-authorize and in this case you depend on the authorization server again!

For me this is a crucial thing, especially on my recording system that is still W7! Would I be able to install (I have installer backups) and re-authorize CbB if I once jump to W10? But also on my mixing machine, if I replace some hardware and the system id changes, is a re-authorize possible?

1 minute ago, craigb said:

It's kind of like "Free Beer Tomorrow!"  It's never free TODAY.  😉

It's a pity!

1 hour ago, craigb said:

This is all well and good, but will Next be able to operate a DJ turntable??? 🤔

Or will Next transform itself to Previous one day?

14 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Cakewalk as a company closed in 2018. My question to you is can you still use SONAR Platinum today? If the answer is yes, then you have your answer for the future.
Most ethical companies handle terminating events like that gracefully and we are no exception. When Cakewalk was shut down, we had escrow plans to unlock licenses for users permanently if it came to that. We never needed to, since BandLab acquired the software and keeps the license servers running even though we make no profit off of it. 

We are very thankful for your grace! 👍 And as we depend on it, we hope it will still be true in the future!

Frankly, I would prefer some sort of real offline activation (like Reaper, Audiothing, United Plugins, ...). I guess you think this is paranoia, maybe you're right! But I don't like too many dependencies for my music.

Paying for Sonar again (even after lifetime upgrade) is no problem, I understand this, you did a great job on the bugfixes and updates and this has to be honored!

1 hour ago, JohnnyV said:

@User 905133   where did you find this quote. I'm looking for clarification regarding the removal of the Activation time out?

Nowadays it is common that nobody talks about activation! The user has to find it out after he has paid!

1 hour ago, chris.r said:

Thanks. I was just sitting like that and wondering should I start making some music or update some software... thankfully there's that  

I think if you are on Windows, then you can skip updating (as usual)! 😄

25 minutes ago, garybrun said:

Example VST2 is soon obsolete.

Obsolete? There are not many DAWs that do not support VST2 anymore! On the contrary there are many that still support 32-bit!

Also there are still a couple of plugin providers that are not yet on VST3!

The price I would pay depends heavily on the authorization. I would be willing to pay a lot if it was a real offline authorization for what you get (without any updates). But I don't expect that happen having quite some experience with the "Bakers".

For a "new" Sonar (with some minor goodies and a modified look that I'm not about) that still needs the company's servers to be authorized on a new system I'm in doubt whether I should not leave the boat? I have been worrying enough time about my loved Sonar/CbB in the past years! Else it would require a real deal breaker feature to make me willing to really invest again (but frankly I don't know what it could be). That said, it maybe different if the price is minor.

45 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Unfortunately, they don't... The 6-month activation is embedded, so with the new SONAR release they can either force purchase or let CbB shift to DEMO mode on you.

This is actually the reason why I prefer real offline authorization (offline key, file). With this you do not have those annoying dependencies to the developer of a product and still can install what you have paid for on a new system (e.g. if I replace my last W7 system). Reaper is like that and I also have a couple of plugins like that. This lets me keep calm and sleep easy!

1 hour ago, User 905133 said:

and for allowing older users to continue to use Cakewalk by Bandlab in case they cannot make the transition to the new products.

The only question here is how long will we be able to authorize CbB if we do not jump on the new Sonar?