marcL

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>

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!

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.

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?

It's a pity!

Or will Next transform itself to Previous one day?

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!

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

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

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.

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!

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

No, but I own only K6 Full and I see no need for me to upgrade!

Except me! ? I think it's not worth installing K7 Player! I would never think of the freebie, 'cos I still will be using K6 Full!

It's a pity that the new eggs are not available in Europe (shipping...). There are only old eggs here! ?

This is absolutely update terror!

Accusonus: IIRC that is only half the truth. Where they were very greatful with the ERA bundle (you got the whole unlocked bundle if you just had one ERA plugin), there was nothing for Regroover (maybe other plugins, too). And don't forget that in their case the company just left the plugin business and did not go belly up, i.e. somebody had time to do this unlock. In other cases the employees could lose their jobs very sudden and even if there had been the will to provide an unlock, it could fail. And machine authorizations are not only delicate if a company disappears, but also if they change something with their authorizations or don't support legacy authorization anymore (I had this twice).

There is just one single case where it would be an advantage to use iLok: If iZotope would go belly up (I know, it is not so likely for such a big company, but still not impossible), then it would still be possible to use their products on a new machine with iLok, whereas with machine authorization your lost! This is one point that many here ignore, machine and online authorizations will only work for new machines as long as the company exists or supports this!

Exactly! I have a similar issue with a Nugen Audio plugin. The time when I had bought it (and their plugins are not cheap!), it had iLok protection. No problem for me, I have dongles on my 2 major machines! But now they changed their authorization to challange/response. Like this I cannot update my plugin anymore!

Yes it is, but I always ask myself whether I really need so many plugins? ? Having a lot of plugins of one provider you are right that if your system is online, then an install manager maybe convienient! On the other hand all those installation managers make it worse if you have an offline system or you have only 1-3 plugins of that provider. That's why I like vendors like PA that have an optional install manager!

Although I already had a couple of limiters, I grabbed this one! ? The combination of the different modules is very interesting and may not only help to shape the whole mix, but maybe also useful to curb tracks with a jumping loudness. And not at least: I like the carefree installation and authorization of TDL!

By the way, if each plugin provider would have an install manager, then I would have 134 such beasts on my system! ? That means I would have to update each manager minimum 3 times a year learn how each one works find out how I can use them with my offline machine have an additional disk for the install managers (ok this one is a bit exaggerated ?) scroll in a huge program list if I wanted to run something scroll in a huge list if I wanted to uninstall something This is my 2 cents to the increasing population of install managers, but YMMV! In one point I agree with the manager lovers, it is much better to check plugin versions in an install manager than automatically in the plugin. But there would be 2 other solution to this: Have a proper version/changelog on the plugins' homepage (my preference, 'cos I want to know if it's worth the update!) Have the possibility to run the version check manually in the plugin.