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Not A Deal - My Experiences As A New IK Multimedia Customer


husker

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16 hours ago, Olong Johnson said:

This is not a complaint, just an observation. I built a new computer this year and experienced the joy of reinstalling all my DAW software, 15+ years worth of stuff. Without question, the most convoluted install process was with SampleTank 3 & 4 and the legacy IK programs. It took several tries before I got everything installed properly and in the correct folders. I wrote down the procedure in the event I should live long enough to ever have to do this again...

Thanks for sharing! I started doing the same with most of the software I install on my recent PC starting with all the Windows 10 tweaks and quirks. Typically I first run the installer inside sandbox to see what will actually happen on my disk. Believe me in about 90% of cases there are errors and fails or unwanted behavior within the installation processes i.e. the installer won't allow me to choose path and just install plugin to an arbitrary place or install there but will add a subfolder there without notice (for example I'd like to install all "AAS" plugins to 'Cakewalk\Vstplugins\AAS' folder and it'll install then to 'Cakewalk\Vstplugins\AAS\AAS' - some will do it, some other won't and you never know until it's done), or it will install things plus spam the whole disk with many 32-bit and AAX versions en masse. Or in my worst case the installer asked where to put the plugin, it then installed all dependencies and presets along with the uninstall files in there, and the plugin itself where the presets and dependencies should go. Go figure out. And don't even get me started  on how many strings are written in the registry with each installation, uninstallers created (and all over the place!) or attempts for overwriting the drivers (pace) or redistributables. In some cases there's just a tiny little file that needs to be placed in the right folder and that's it, why the need for the executables and uninstallers, it takes more space and time than the little plugin file alone.

As to IKM, I'm still using the legacy way of installing and authorizing their software, the old good Authorization Manager, since I had it already installed on disk, not because it's less convoluted and such, but just because I long time learned the whole process and didn't want be bothered with learning all the steps you wrote but I realize one day they will finally terminate it in favor of the new PM so I saved your post for that day :D. For now I'm still doing fine without the PM. Oh I had to install it once because I couldn't find the old way to register new TR5 module, that I bought recently, into my account. Guess they've taken down the website for it, oh well but I could use a spare laptop - no need for even more 'crap' on my main production machine, right? ?

Edited by chris.r
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4 hours ago, antler said:

@Peter - IK Multimedia My experience with the IK Product Manager has been fairly smooth. There is one piece of constructive feedback that I will offer that in my (and maybe some others') opinion will bring IK's level of professionalism up to that of IK's competitors: please ask your team to explore the option of digitally signing IK's product installers/binaries.

YES.  I will push this again.  I've mentioned this countless times.

6 hours ago, marled said:

Sounds arrogant, does it not? More and more I am buying inferior products from those lesser companies, because they are much more professional and their installation and especially autorisation processes are 1000 times more customer (musician) friendly!

I don't like those bizarre, intransparent online monster product managers that first have to update themselves each time you call them! And almost none of them is not doing things that some users don't like (useless installs like avid stuff)!

Well, I prefer iLok over all those limited, provider specific online autorisations. When my laptop Windows breathed his last I had almost no problem with my iLok autorisations, but a lot of trouble with those latter!

With regard to Apple: I hate that so many devs were engaged with their stuff and did not work on other things, see many changelogs!

 

Replying to the implication that other companies that are in our space directly are more "professional" or similar with factual information should not appear arrogant.  Sorry if that read that way for you, hard to convey subtleties like that in text and I understand how that can be misinterpreted.  Just like the claim that OP wasn't saying that we were a lesser company, but it sure did read that way. 

3 hours ago, husker said:

Just for Sampletank, you have to use both a Product manager, a separate sounds download, and a separate authorization manager. 

You can use only IK Product Manager without Authorization Manager for SampleTank 4.  And yes, sound library installs are separate, that should make a lot of sense so that people can update either the plugin/software or the sounds separately.  It would be a nightmare to do all of it at once if you just wanted to update the main app/software.

Edited by Peter - IK Multimedia
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3 minutes ago, Peter - IK Multimedia said:

You can use only IK Product Manager without Authorization Manager for SampleTank 4.  And yes, sound library installs are separate, that should make a lot of sense so that people can update either the plugin/software or the sounds separately.  It would be a nightmare to do all of it at once if you just wanted to update the main app/software.

Not in my case.  I had to use the old authorization manager to get the SampleTank 4 libraries to work, as well as the Syntronik libraries into Sampletank.

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2 hours ago, bdickens said:

I just can't imagine that this all goes so smoothly and painlessly for me simply because I have such a charmed life....

In fact, I think I should sue William Bell and Booker T Jones for the royalties they owe me:

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love that show.  Some of the things they did with musical numbers were amazing.  This take off of the Music Man is one of my favorites:

 

 

Edited by husker
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On 8/29/2021 at 7:46 PM, bdickens said:

Open the product manager, click on the product you want and go make some coffee

You are correct, and yes, I did that. We're talking about Syntronik Deluxe here. PM claimed I was "installed" and "authorized"
but some patches were greyed out and double clicking them sent me to Authorization Manager, not the PM
I found the answer in the FAQ Peter referenced here https://www.ikmultimedia.com/faq/?id=1353
You still have to "register" the product.
Only mention this in case some poor bus-turd is scratching his/her head just like I was...

t

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