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Sonivox Vocalizer Pro and Twist


Larry Shelby

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Heads up: I recently had to reinstall a bunch of SONiVOX instruments and it took several hours to get the procedure right. The SONiVOX setup programs force installed an ancient iLok driver based on tpkd.sys that crashed Windows 10 after reboot. I ran the startup troubleshooter to make the machine bootable again but the troubleshooter had to reset the machine to an older state, before installing.

The process that worked for me in the end was:

1) Install the SONiVOX product(s) and DO NOT REBOOT

2) In the Control Panel "add/remove apps" find the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed

3) Open the registry and find the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed. Set the start type to 4 (disabled). Note: I used the registry editor because I had opened it while troubleshooting the issue, but probably this can be disabled using the Service Control Manager instead, and that would be a better idea.

4) Uninstall the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed and reinstall the latest iLok driver

5) Reboot

Edited by Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann
Make it clearer that the iLok driver that should be removed is the one with tpkd.sys
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That's odd, because the SONiVOX install directions that I have used previously first pointed me directly to the iLok website to register for an account, download the latest iLok software, and then activating the new license on my machine via iLok. That was all before downloading and running any SONiVOX installer.

So I do not recall SONiVOX ever installing anything iLok related. But even though that was a few years ago, those instructions are still current at my dealer (Plugin Boutique).

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57 minutes ago, Mesh said:

Abacab, have you been able to use Vocalizer Pro in Cakewalk? I've had it for years, but due to all the issues, never been able to use it. (not sure if it's worth the hassle) ¬¬

It works fine in CbB! Setting up this vocoder is a special arrangement that requires a separate MIDI track for note input to play it, as well as a live or recorded audio input source to mangle.

  1. Start a fresh Cakewalk project.
  2. Insert a fresh audio track and a MIDI track. Vocalizer Pro goes into the effects bin of your audio track. Enable MIDI input on the plug-in. Important!
  3. Set the MIDI track input to your controller, and the MIDI track output to Vocalizer Pro.
  4. Now put some sound into the audio track. You can drop an audio clip and loop it to test. If using a clip, hit play. Otherwise any input signal from a mic or instrument would work on the audio track. Use input echo = on in that case.
  5. But you still won't hear anything on the audio track output! You can test this by bypassing the plug-in, and then you should hear the original audio source.
  6. You will need to play some MIDI notes on the MIDI track to trigger the Vocalizer plug-in. The MIDI notes open the gate in the plug-in that allows processed audio to flow to the audio output. You can simply play some notes on your controller, or add some notes via the piano roll.
  7. Now have fun  and experiment with the various Vocalizer presets and see how many ways you can mangle your audio!

 

Edited by abacab
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1 hour ago, abacab said:

I do not recall SONiVOX ever installing anything iLok related

It is silently (and unconditionally) installed. You do not see any iLok installer dialogs, but you see it if you look in the Control Panel add/remove programs after installation, and it is installed even if you already have a later iLok driver installed. The tricky part is that the latest iLok installers do not uninstall the old one. Maybe some older iLok installers did? If that was the case, SONiVOX install folllowed by iLok install would have been ok.

BTW, other people are having similar issues (e.g., https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=239002)

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37 minutes ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

BTW, other people are having similar issues (e.g., https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=239002)

The OP in that thread references Vocalizer Pro 1.3

Edit: I am running Vocalizer Pro 1.3, build 2.3.0.16, installed in 2016 from Plugin Boutique.

 iLok says: "we moved on from TPkd.sys more than 5 years ago, and our recent License Support/iLok License Manager installs do not include it. There is a recent build of Windows 10 that does seem to have a lot of problems with the old TPkd.sys file".

So the reference is to the installer from SONiVOX being the cause of the problem now. They have not updated any of their older products in years so this was bound to eventually happen.

Edited by abacab
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46 minutes ago, abacab said:

The OP in that thread references Vocalizer Pro 1.3

I am running v2.3.0.16 since 2016.

Looking at the SONiVOX site, the version it mentions is 1.3 https://sonivoxmi.com/products/details/vocalizer-pro

My account at pluginboutique only offers 1.3 for download

Can you post a link to a page showing a later version?

Anyway, it's very easy. After installing the plugin, take a look in add/remove programs. If there is anything mentioning TPkd, get rid of it. If there isn't, then there's nothing to do

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1 hour ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

Looking at the SONiVOX site, the version it mentions is 1.3 https://sonivoxmi.com/products/details/vocalizer-pro

My account at pluginboutique only offers 1.3 for download

Can you post a link to a page showing a later version?

Anyway, it's very easy. After installing the plugin, take a look in add/remove programs. If there is anything mentioning TPkd, get rid of it. If there isn't, then there's nothing to do

I guess you did not see my edit 2 hours ago.

I had to dig into the info panel with the plugin running to find my actual version. 1.3 is the version, and the other numbers are the build number. So there is apparently no later version.

Just something in the old SONiVOX installer that conflicts with today's computers that they should have removed a long time ago.

A good reason to be wary of un-maintained software!

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5 hours ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

Heads up: I recently had to reinstall a bunch of SONiVOX instruments and it took several hours to get the procedure right. The SONiVOX setup programs force installed an ancient iLok driver based on tpkd.sys that crashed Windows 10 after reboot. I ran the startup troubleshooter to make the machine bootable again but the troubleshooter had to reset the machine to an older state, before installing.

The process that worked for me in the end was:

1) Install the SONiVOX product(s) and DO NOT REBOOT

2) In the Control Panel "add/remove apps" find the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed

3) Open the registry and find the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed. Set the start type to 4 (disabled). Note: I used the registry editor because I had opened it while troubleshooting the issue, but probably this can be disabled using the Service Control Manager instead, and that would be a better idea.

4) Uninstall the tpkd (iLok) driver just installed and reinstall the latest iLok driver

5) Reboot

Wouldn't it be simpler to just download the latest iLok driver/software.  Then, after step 1, simply install that over the top of the older installation.

That, theoretically, should save the steps 2 to 4 ? - (Including the dreaded registry edit)

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17 minutes ago, Promidi said:

after step 1, simply install that over the top of the older installation

That was one of the first things I tried, and I still had the bluescreen. The new iLok driver got installed in addition to the old one, not as a replacement

18 minutes ago, Promidi said:

the dreaded registry edit

I posted what I did because that's what I know worked. I didn't check the service control manager but, if it shows up there then it should be the preferred way to disable it.

Something that seems unusual is that even after uninstalling, the entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TPkd is still present in the registry (and the machine has been shutdown and restarted quite a few times since I uninstalled)

By the way, I do like the SONiVOX plugins and that is why I went through the effort of figuring out how to make them work. Yes, it takes a small amount of additional effort compared to other installs but I hope it doesn't discourage people from grabbing a good deal!

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  • 1 month later...

Appreciate the post, had the same issue and searched in Google to see if I was alone. My experience differed however when it came to solutions. During the boot issues I just needed to hit Troubleshoot > Startup Repair, Windows was able to fix itself all 3 times it happened during my testing.  After installing Vocalizer Pro 2(and not restarting) there was also no iLok entries visible in the services  or add/remove section of Program Features however the tpkm.sys was inside the C:\Windows\System32\drivers folder. After running an iLok update(i tested fresh install and got same result) the installer actually removed tpkm.sys and it was no longer on my computer, at this point I restarted and had no issues.

 

Good luck everyone and thanks OP 

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  • 3 months later...

First off download and sign in to the newest ilok...#2-When installing Vocalizer Pro, Twist and Wobble- select NO to the PACE software install and DO NOT RESTART your PC just yet. Install all WITHOUT PACE . #3- Go to add/remove programs and find PACE and uninstall any pace version under version 5  ..#4-now restart your PC—- PACE 5 and above are needed as to not crash your system! #5-If there is no PACE under version 5 installed just restart your PC and you should be good to go. Thanks goes to Inmusicbrands.com for the fix ??

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25 minutes ago, No Name said:

First off download and sign in to the newest ilok...#2-When installing Vocalizer Pro, Twist and Wobble- select NO to the PACE software install and DO NOT RESTART your PC just yet. Install all WITHOUT PACE . #3- Go to add/remove programs and find PACE and uninstall any pace version under version 5  ..#4-now restart your PC—- PACE 5 and above are needed as to not crash your system! #5-If there is no PACE under version 5 installed just restart your PC and you should be good to go. Thanks goes to Inmusicbrands.com for the fix ??

When I see all that trouble then it‘s better to skip.

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