Not a deal : Customer Friendly Activation Developers Appreciation Thread; Collection of Vendors and Solutions

[ralfrobert]

This thread is here to collect solutions that have ...

1. ... uncomplicated and future-proof offline authorization, ...

2. ... are well supported and maintained ...

3. ... and get active support and updates.

One may be interested in having solutions like this to build a future proof environment. 

Overall quality and design / user experience may be important considerations, too. 

Please feel free to add products that you think fit this description. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by ralfrobert

[ralfrobert]

As a start:

Reaper - license key for activation, reasonably priced, active community, top notch functionality, stable as hell.

Acon Digital Acoustica - license key, great for restoration and editing, also bread and butter stuff.

TAL Software - license key, great synths, reasonably priced. 

[chris.r]

Harrison - DAW: nice workflow for mixing, license is file on disk - awesome, editing tools are being actively developed... I stuck on an early version but historically they used to offer a very good upgrade price so I probably will be looking for upgrading at a point, plugins: there is a problem as their plugins crash my Cakewalk to desktop, but hey, who said I can't use other tools:

Audiority - no nonsense license file, updated, some good vintage stuff there

AudioThing - license file, updated, nice selection of plugins and instruments

Boz Digital Labs - serial, updated, anyone need recommendation? we're missing the Pro Channel versions, Mr. Boz!  

Final Mix Software - I think these come without any authorization, just install - like Hornet and Sknote

Hornet - no authorization, great selection to choose from, updated

Klevgrand - serial, updated, nice stuff there both, the instruments and effects

Melda Production - license file, updated, versatile suite of plugins

Overloud - great plugins, I think you can authorize directly from the plugin online but you've given an option for offline method and to authorize to an USB stick

United Plugins - license file, updated, well worth looking into plugin selection and great prices on intro sales

[chris.r]

Plugin Alliance does allow for a simple license file for their whole suite (it's one of methods possible with them): first you have to create a machine ID for each computer, once it's there in your account then you only need to activate them for every new plugin that you bought and then at the bottom download a single consolidated license file and replace the old one with this new on your disk

Applied Acoustics Systems - does allow for serial then challenge/response (basically a challenge-response offline activation method)

Airwindows free for all  

Edited July 6, 2023 by chris.r
for more clarity

[ralfrobert]

And  I forgot : Voxengo.  Great quality,  serial,  well maintained,  no-nonsense style.  

The same goes for u-he.  

And I would like to welcome Fabfilter to the club, too. 

Edited June 13, 2023 by ralfrobert

[Starship Krupa]

Having a license key doesn't always mean that the product doesn't also phone home during the registration process.

[ralfrobert]

Just now, Starship Krupa said:

Having a license key doesn't always mean that the product doesn't also phone home during the registration process.

Do you have any details on the products mentioned above? 

[chris.r]

10 minutes ago, ralfrobert said:

11 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Having a license key doesn't always mean that the product doesn't also phone home during the registration process.

Do you have any details on the products mentioned above?

Right. Erik, to the point 😄 let's put them down here (and make it easier for everyone). Those from my list I tried at least to check and confirm in their FAQs, so they should be all fine for offline.

Edited June 13, 2023 by chris.r

[ralfrobert]

11 minutes ago, chris.r said:

Right. Erik, to the point 😄 let's put them down here (and make it easier for everyone). Those from my list I tried at least to check and confirm in their FAQs, so they should be all fine for offline.

I will do the same when I find the time. 

[marcL]

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

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

There are also products which phone home to generate activation files. Presonus software works that way. While you don't have to necessarily log in to register their software, you have to enter a machine ID number in their server to have a license file you can download.

[audioschmaudio]

Losing my valuable software due to online authorization no longer working? New fear unlocked 😨

KV331 uses license key files for Synthmaster. Very good synth, by the way, in my opinion.

SampleScience has no authorization at all, same for New Nation and Digikitz

[Starship Krupa]

6 hours ago, ralfrobert said:

Do you have any details on the products mentioned above? 

I don't, offhand. There are monitoring tools in Windows that allow you to see what's phoning home. I use Resource Monitor.

I once ran it while launching REAPER, and sure enough, it phoned home. It was an unregistered installation, and I'm sure it would have worked fine without being able to phone home, but still, you never know.

[chris.r]

7 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

I once ran it while launching REAPER, and sure enough, it phoned home...

Sometimes it could be just 'Automatically check for new updates' ticked.

[kitekrazy]

Title should be changed for better understanding.  Independence plugins are Magix products.

[PavlovsCat]

Interesting thread. Thanks for sharing this info, everyone. Also,  man do we buy a lot of stuff (me included). 

[ralfrobert]

5 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Title should be changed for better understanding.  Independence plugins are Magix products.

Do you have a suggestion for the title? I am happy to change it to avoid misunderstandings. 

[kitekrazy]

8 hours ago, ralfrobert said:

Do you have a suggestion for the title? I am happy to change it to avoid misunderstandings. 

off line authorization

[marcL]

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.

[chris.r]

12 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

21 hours ago, ralfrobert said:

Do you have a suggestion for the title? I am happy to change it to avoid misunderstandings. 

off line authorization

customer friendly activation developers appreciation thread?