Matthew Sorrels

In case it wasn't clear to everyone this CS release does contain new instruments that aren't in/weren't in SampleTank 4 MAX before. So even if you do have MAX you do want to get this. And that means you have to get a serial number and enter it into the authorization manager.

There is a little folder icon in the upper left corner that switches to folder view. It's a lot more useful at browsing, especially SampleTank 3 instruments.

I updated and installed the CS sounds, mostly seemed to work OK. But now in folder view when I select SampleTank 4 MAX I'm seeing the various categories but there is also a SampleTank 4 folder that appears to duplicate everything above it. I don't remember that before. I've rebuilt the database completely.

I think their management is using the Mac OS change as the excuse to also shut down the authorization server. Right now if they kept running the server/everything like it is now they would still have to tell every Mac customer there are no 64-bit versions of some of these plugins (so no way to run them) and the ones that do have 64-bit versions there is no 64-bit version of the Service Center, so you can't auth/use those either. I guess rather than do that they are just shutting it all down for everyone. They seem to think they have legal cover on this with their EULA. Though I'll admit I think they may be a bit optimistic on that.

As long as you have installed and authorized it now, unless your computer changes, it will continue to run. But you won't be able to install it on a new computer. Also if your computer changes too much (Windows Updates?) it could cause the hardware id to change, which would de-authorize the software. I don't think it's server issues that are causing them to do this. More like the fact none of it will work on the new Mac OS, coupled with they don't want to deal with supporting it. There are an infinite number of other (better) solutions they could use in this case. Some of which requires some combination of either changing/updating software they may not be able to easily recompile/rebuild/recreate or removing encryption on files, that they may not be able to do legally. Suppose they had a tool that would remove the encryption on the EastWest libraries, making them plain Kontakt libraries. EastWest might not be so keen on them giving that away, since it would fully unlock their product. I doubt they can make the old Service Center run on new Mac's without a lot of dev work. Dev work on a product they may not even be able to compile that is 32bit (you can't run that on a Mac now). Given all these headaches to support things that aren't bringing in any money it's not a big surprise they are just killing everything. They could have designed Native Access to better support their original copy protection. Maybe. I doubt we'll even know for sure what tipped them this direction. Some sort of unlock generator might be possible (if pirates can do it, they could do it too). Or they could fix Kontakt to not block products protected by the old license scheme. For the plugins those are all NI products, in theory they could just rebuild them to not do challenge-response and just take a serial number.

This thread (a very good thread to read) on the NI forum talks about an early version of Spitfire's bespoke library using just a serial number for authorization inside Kontakt and it not working https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/ni-stop-activations-on-legacy-libraries.376981/page-2 EvilDragon says this: Not sure that's so good for you Larry. ? Maybe you'll be spared, but it sure sounds like the serial number is fed into a challenge-response system. The truth is that any challenge-response based copy protection system can and will go offline. Unless it's just a serial number or something stored 100% in a dongle, when the company stops issuing responses, your product will no longer be re-installable. For me this list of things NI is killing is a at least a thousand dollars worth of stuff. Sadly it's not even close to most I've lost because of companies not continuing to run authorization servers (Autodesk is still winning that by about $2-3k) Given the state of software products I don't see this one changing into something I like anytime soon. More likely it will lead to more and more subscription products, rather than companies going with copy protection that can survive the company going out of business/shutting-down. But I love software to much to avoid products just because their copy protection isn't ideal. I would have still bought all these products had I been told that in 2020 they were going to off line the authorization server. I do think NI could have done better though.

The VST2 versions of Fabfilter plugins don't support custom resizing like the VST3 versions. In the VST2 version you can select a pre-defined size, but there is no resizer. In fact I'd say most of my VST2 vs VST3 issues boil down to two things: MIDI and GUI resizing. VST3 has really bad MIDI support. So a lot of the things plugin developers do with MIDI are much harder (though not really impossible). So things like MIDI generator plugins almost always the VST2 version is better. VST2 resizing the plugin GUI requires the developer jump through a bunch of hoops. VST3 has some sort of support for that, so there are often big differences between plugins in how the VST3 version will let you resize and the VST2 won't. The only plugin I swear by the VST2 version though is Sampletank 3. Sampletank's VST3 implmentation is at best buggy. Sampletank 4 has gotten better but I still don't trust it. IK Multimedia and VST3 don't mix.

B4 and B4 II are NI's old organ VSTs, not Battery 4.

It's not the current Chris Hein Horns, it's the original first volumes. Anything that uses the old NI Service Center for an authorization.

VST3 plugins shouldn't let you choose a directory to install to on Windows. That's the way it's been designed. They are only supposed to be installed into Program Files\Common Files\VST3 Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3 With Program Files being the Windows PF directory, which oddly enough doesn't have to be C:\ but is usually. Plugin developers are encouraged to install their other files in the various user and app data directories. Cause otherwise there is a good chance it won't work.

All of the Zero-G libraries have been re-released by Zero-G without being Kontakt Player Instruments. So they now require the full version of Kontakt and aren't authorized libraries anymore. I assume if you had any of them from when they were full on Kontakt Player libraries you would have to get Zero-G to give you the new version and would be required to have full Kontakt.

Is that serial number entered into the old NI Service Center app? That's what is going away, the server it talks to.

Does the library show up in the library pane inside Kontakt? If it does, then it has to be auth'ed. If it doesn't show up as a library in Kontakt and requires the full version of Kontakt then you are fine. Some Kontakt instruments do a serial number request as part of the instrument (home brew copy protection). I didn't think East West did that though, but it's certainly possible. My Stormdrum and Choirs however are full on Kontakt instruments designed to run in the player version of Kontakt 2 and require a challenge-response auth.

Nope, you won't be able to auth any of the locked East West Kontakt instruments after May 31, 2020.

For GPO5 I think you are safe, but if you (like me) own the Kontakt version of GPO, you are out of luck. Here's the list of products there aren't modern day versions of that I'm losing: Stormdrum East West Stormdrum Intakt East West Symphonic Choirs East West Garritan Personal Orchestra Garritan CM Session Computer Music Future Loops Future Music Vokator Native Instruments NI Spectral Delay Native Instruments Pro-52 Native Instruments Pro-53 Native Instruments B4 Native Instruments B4 II Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio Native Instruments FM7 Native Instruments Kompakt Sony ACID Pro Native Instruments (Along with a bunch of early versions of Absynth/Kontakt/Battery/Guitar Rig/Reaktor/Komplete as well) Of the list the things that hurt is Vokator and NI Spectral Delay. I bought jBridge just to keep those two. Garritan doesn't offer any upgrade offers from the Kontakt version (I sent them email asking a few years ago), which kind of sucks. Stormdrum I guess I could get the Play version of. The Choirs I have the Play version of. Pro-53/B4 is kind of a loss. I got Traktor DJ Studio back in the day as part of the first Komplete deal but I don't think I've ever really used it (nor even have it installed).

So to set this up, configure you MIDI channel to send MIDI Channel 1 but set the input to the track to Channel 2 on the MOTOR. Then in MT Powerdrums use the MIDI learn (switch at the bottom) to teach it what each of the pads should trigger

The pads come in the main MIDI device but on channel 2 (not 1). So you have to route that/deal with that. You might be able to change that in the keyboard's on board setup panels as well (for example make them channel 1 also, like the keys)

They fixed some of the Windows issues, so it's at least usable. But it still takes way too much memory, loads very, very slowly, unloads even slower. Yes that seems crazy but if you try to exit Cakewalk or close a project with a full set of BBCSO instruments full loaded it may take 5+ minutes to close. The sound isn't/never has been the problem, it sounds great and has very good articulations. The player however is at best two versions (at least 24 months of serious dev work, which it's not clear they are doing) behind being a $1k piece of software. The UI was designed more for style than function and really just doesn't get the job done either. The engine and it's features (or lack of them) is very weak. Unlike when it first shipped you can actually load a full template (if you have a lot of RAM and a large/fast SSD and are willing to wait a long time) and play it inside Cakewalk (or any DAW) without too many problems. I get the impression on Mac it's better, though it's not clear how much. At the end of the day a good full orchestra will cost, but this one at full price is double what it should be. The Spitfire reality distortion field is very strong though. Most people who spend $700-$999 (intro price to full) will avoid saying "Hey, this kind of sucks". But it does. You can use it and perhaps get good stuff out of it, but it's not very good in terms of price/value/quality.

Using iLok without a dongle means that if anything happens to your computer hardware (hard drive/motherboard failure) or even some OS upgrades you will lose all your iLok licenses. And the only way to get them back is to go to each company that issued them and get them to give you another license -- iLok can't help you. And companies don't have to help you either (though most will). With a dongle, with or without the zerotime insurance, you can send it back to iLok and they will repair/replace it. It might cost (not sure exactly the terms) and take a while but the companies don't have to get involved. If it's lost or stolen though you're out of luck. Physical dongles don't break all that often, unlike hard drives/computers and as long as you still have it, you'll get your licenses back. With machine licenses that's not true. iLok using the machine licensing may be a time bomb just waiting to go off.

The short answer is yes, people do still use the MIDI FX plugins.

They are doing the same thing they did with other libraries. An intro price with the expansions that haven't shipped included for free. They sent out an email to subscribers with a video (I think the link below will take you there). Says it's going to be $99.99, retail is $139.99 and if you buy this early offer you'll get those paid expansions for free. I did this with Taiko Creator, I suspect I'll be doing it with this. Though PercX covers similar audio ground, I like keeping things in Kontakt. https://insessionaudio.com/products/drumatic-creator/

New version is almost twice as big as old one (8.62 GB vs 4.34 GB). They both can co-exist (the new one has a new file name). Might be why the "upgrade" didn't work. They added a new Electronic and Synth FX catagory on the top level. Many of the sections can now be dragged out as .wav files, which you couldn't do before. But not everything (the Atmospheres and Scenes are still only UVI patches, which is sad because those are the best stuff--though at least Scenes may just be collections of sounds from the rest of the library, not sure. Most of the musical patches aren't drag-gable either). This was one of my biggest complaints about it, I couldn't include it with my normal .wav sound effects library (and search tools). Though single dragging out all those .wav files might take a lifetime.

I gave up on the UVI Portal upgrade and I'm just downloading it from the website directly. Says it's 5.5GB and it's going to take 2-3 hours given how slow the direct download is running (on my crazy fast gigabit fiber). Sigh. Update: On the website there is a drop down for the download link, has a choice of Primary, US Standard Link, Asian Mirror and Torrent. Primary is crazy slow, but if I pick the US Standard Link it's much faster. Says 14 mins remaining...

I've had this for a long time, but the update keeps giving me archive extraction errors. And the change notes aren't really very detailed on what the new sounds and layout are. Still for this price I'd say it's not a bad deal on a sound effects library.

I can't help but think Toontrack's relationship with dealers (the fact they actually have boxes) played a part in their closing the upgrade window for SD2 to SD3. I think they may have did this with SD1 to SD2 as well. The idea that owning a previous version of a product always entitles you to a discount on the next one perhaps isn't great for the companies involved. Yes, I know blasphemy. But it's also a factor in the economics behind the rise of subscriptions for software. This idea that software is constantly improving but every customer wants all that for little to no cost can be a problem. Having to constantly grow your customer base because all your existing customers gave you money years ago and now won't contribute to your income can be really tough in small pro-focused niche markets. What they have done is basically a limited time upgrade discount offer. Along with complete ending of all sales of the previous version. It's not very customer friendly, but I don't think it's that far off field. The product needs to be worth it's full normal retail price, even to previous customers.