Tired of downloading VST hassleware!

[Klinke]

Wow, i'm really stupid and did it again

[tapper mike]

I have a unique position which has allowed me to acquire wisdom through the school of hard knocks

• Working for a Software company that provided add on tools
• Having several hosting environments and a vast collection of plugins
• Had a professional studio pre internet
• Worked as a professional musician being paid musician wages for other studios and Gigging in paying cover bands.
  Previously suffering from SAS, PAS and still occasionally GAS

Wishing and wanting does not make a reality. Set goals of what you want/need to do. If you can't write it down of paper then it's a fantasy a maybe someday wish that you'll never do. Do you have unfinished projects?
Finish them don't wait till someday. Don't worry that they wont be perfect and don't blame your tools. The great artists, writers and musicians always second guess their work after the project but they have a finished product.

Getting back to writing your goals down. Daily, weekly, monthly. Buy some post-it paper and a pen. Write with your own hand. Do not think of putting it in a document or reminder on your phone or computer. Put your goals where you have to face them

Many many years back I was a guitarist in a Rock and Blues band playing gigs in working class areas. Neither I nor my band were gaining the traction we needed. We had a hard time getting gigs, played our arses off and got only mixed responses from the crowds and local press. Then I got a Gibson Les Paul Custom. The crowd was very much "Buy American" working joes. It didn't matter that I loved my Samick, When I got the LPC everything changed. More gigs bigger turnout, The band didn't get better we were already tight. It was the tipping point for me. Granted today audiences are less aware of brands impact. Some people still shout "Buy American" then file into a walmart to buy import everything. Well one night as I was packing up my gear I'd locked up part of it in my car and went back for more gear I had still on the stage. It was enough time for someone (or a group) to steal the LP and other gear. I had no time for tears. I had a day job to go to and a gig the next night. Broke out the samick, When asked I stated the truth. People would ask me when I'd get a replacement LP. I'd reply "I dunno how much money do you have on you, maybe you can help me out as it's that important to you. Granted not the best reply But the important message of the story is that the show goes on. I never bought another Les Paul. Make the most of what you have. don't turn your life into a series of showstoppers.

Moving on to software and plugins.

I used to work for SWiSHzone. We produced several products for PC most of which were intended for SWF (flash) format output. We also provided both pay templates and free "open" swi's which were contributed by us as well as hosted user submitted ones. It was a great community where people shared projects and helped others.

The company went out of business five years ago. Flash will no longer be supported in Chrome in 2020 and most all other browser platforms have already stopped using the format. And yet people still demand support from a defunct company for a product that has very little capabilities even in a desktop environment. They demand that the product be updated to export to html5 which anyone who has any working understanding of actionscript and html source coding would laugh at. Software doesn't work by magic fairy dust. How do they contact us if the business is closed? Facebook. Who responds to them.... I do. The rest of the staff have moved on with their lives so have I. But if a post comes up asking how to get their software up and running I try to provide solutions. No, it never was developed for the mac environment. No it's not designed for VMware VMware was not developed by microsoft and regardless of the wishing or aggrandizing by evangelists who have little to no understanding of environmental conditions. It also won't work in Chrome OS or Linux. Never has never will and no one is going to rewrite the code. Hell the next development of windows could make the software incompatible with that. The future holds no guarantees learn to move on As Well Buyer be (a)ware You are the one who is making the purchase decision. Ergo you are the one who needs to understand what and where the product is capable and the environment you will be facing. Don't leave it up to fantasy do your research.

[SparkySpark]

Wow, for a 36 hour thread, this has caused quite a few reactions!

Some of you have suggested that I (and I understand it's not a personal attack from you, but just taking me as an example) can vote with my walking away from companies with hassleware, bloatware or crappy registration processes. That's fine, but I guess you didn't read my initial post (or perhaps I was just doing a bad job conveying it).

There are some problems that I would like to address with this thread. (If this is "another of those threads", then that would in itself be an indicator, wouldn't it? Like it's been in science for, like, ever - say: scientist after scientist claims the Earth circles around the sun.)

Problem 1. First world problem, definitions of bloatware, vote with walking away etc: Sure, you're right in all these departments, but what I referred to in my initial post was the fact that I at least hesitate to download things because I really don't want to go through these processes time and time again. This, in turn, is bad for small or medium-sized devs: the music software market is so saturated that these companies (having little or no financial muscles or perhaps not even a corporate structure) desperately need people to download and try out their software. That is what I illustrated with Verberate 2: I haven't used it, or any of that company's products, and as I already have reverbs I like, I don't want to go through the bother of downloading also this one. I'm pretty sure this applies to nearly everyone of us. So yes, it's a first world problem; we're all spoiled with free or low-cost great sounding music software, but it's the way it is... at least for people like me (and subsequently for many, many devs, which in turn hinders the growth of new music software).

Problem 2. First, in response to one specific post: I'm very much not saying everyone should use iLok . The problem I see with a lot of different registration processes is that - as I previously stated - it makes moving to another computer more difficult. Like one person said here: "it took a week to reinstall the stuff". I personally change computers rather often, as they are leased. I would very much have preferred if I had ONE application listing all my products and saying: "Check every of your registered products that you want automatically installed and re-registered." I mean - who wouldn't like that?

And three other comments:

1. Regarding money: I appreciate that someone has to pay for this system. I still argue Steinberg - having developed the entire VST standard and releasing it to their competitors! - could do this, and in the process, they could benefit from it. For example, let's say the software in question could also have a list of every application that can be installed using it. Steinberg could place their own products first, to attract more users (so for a DAW, everyone would see Cubase before Studio One, FL Studio etc). Propellerheads is in a similar situation.

2. Regarding how difficult this is to program: I am a PhD student in computer science; have worked as a university lecturer in programming for eight years, and have served as a marketing manager in the music software industry. Having also worked as a professional programmer of admin applications for the PC platform, I honestly wouldn't label this a difficult task - especially as Steinberg has already programmed it.

3. Regarding the last post above: not sure it's a comment on my idea, but I agree with you there is no certainty a software company survives for long (which is kind of related to my first point above). However, given that we now live in a cloud community, it would be a breeze to have a central repository for all music software (similar to download.com or so), where the old and forgotten software could live on. I'd love to have a few old VSTis back, but I can't find them easily. Heck - in seven years time, we will probably do the Stadia thing anyway (as in run our software on servers). I think this should be the most viable argument against a centralised "killer app" - we'll soon end up there anyway.

Hmmm... what else? Oh - thanks for the tip re the Verberate 2 freebie. Just install and enjoy: that's a great company.

[AdvancedFollower]

I don't see the issue personally, 170mb is nothing

The Times They Are a-Changin'. I remember one of my first computers came with a 170 MB hard drive (the first few didn't have a hard drive at all), so the copy protection alone would have used up that entire drive.

Having recently re-installed all my plugins from scratch, I've come to appreciate download/installation assistants however. It's annoying that each company has their own, as opposed to e.g. games where you just need one platform like Steam to download games from many different developers. However it still saves a lot of time compared to manually installing hundreds of plugins, each with their own slightly different installation program. Clicking Next-Next-I Agree-Next-Browse-Next-Finish for 3 hours isn't exactly fun. With "software centers" like those from Arturia, Waves, PA etc. it's just a few clicks to install and activate all plugins from that company in one go.

[SparkySpark]

I don't see the issue personally, 170mb is nothing

The Times They Are a-Changin'. I remember one of my first computers came with a 170 MB hard drive (the first few didn't have a hard drive at all), so the copy protection alone would have used up that entire drive.

Having recently re-installed all my plugins from scratch, I've come to appreciate download/installation assistants however. It's annoying that each company has their own, as opposed to e.g. games where you just need one platform like Steam to download games from many different developers. However it still saves a lot of time compared to manually installing hundreds of plugins, each with their own slightly different installation program. Clicking Next-Next-I Agree-Next-Browse-Next-Finish for 3 hours isn't exactly fun.

No, I so agree - it isn't!

(Men det är väl kallt och mörkt i Sverige nu, så du har väl inget bättre för dig? )

[tapper mike]

#Sparky,

I apologize. When I saw comments made by others and you I conflated your earnest posts with others I've read in the past where by unnamed individuals had made a habit of looking for excuses rather than focusing on solutions. My comments weren't solely directed at you but spread out to others as well.

I have more to state however this is not the time.

[SparkySpark]

#Sparky,

I apologize. When I saw comments made by others and you I conflated your earnest posts with others I've read in the past where by unnamed individuals had made a habit of looking for excuses rather than focusing on solutions. My comments weren't solely directed at you but spread out to others as well.

I have more to state however this is not the time.

Thanks, means a lot to me.

[crimsonwarlock]

Recently, I had to reinstall all my software and sound libraries on a new music production computer. It took me a full week to transfer the files and re-authorize them (I have a big collection!).

.....

I just wish I could transfer all my plugins just by copying/pasting them on my new computer.

This is why I use only freeware that needs no activation, so not even stuff that comes with a free registration. My whole studio setup is basically a set of directories on a secondary drive. So even if I have to reinstall the OS, I just have to reinstall hardware drivers and I'm up and running. Same with moving to a new system; just plugin my secondary drive or if that fails just copy back the backup I have for my whole setup (which is, again, just a set of directories).

[SampleScience]

Recently, I had to reinstall all my software and sound libraries on a new music production computer. It took me a full week to transfer the files and re-authorize them (I have a big collection!).

.....

I just wish I could transfer all my plugins just by copying/pasting them on my new computer.

This is why I use only freeware that needs no activation, so not even stuff that comes with a free registration. My whole studio setup is basically a set of directories on a secondary drive. So even if I have to reinstall the OS, I just have to reinstall hardware drivers and I'm up and running. Same with moving to a new system; just plugin my secondary drive or if that fails just copy back the backup I have for my whole setup (which is, again, just a set of directories).

This is something I'm considering doing myself. A lot of commercial plugins can be replaced by free alternatives, but not all of them. I can't live without good saturation plugins and most of them require some kind of activation.

For the sample-based plugins that require activation that keeps deactivating themselves, I'm thinking about multi-sampling them dry and create my own personal clone. I rarely use the built-in effects that come with piano/guitar plugins anyways.

[crimsonwarlock]

I can't live without good saturation plugins and most of them require some kind of activation.

If you go 'all freeware' like I did, and start digging around for good free alternatives, you can find really good stuff for just about everything. A very popular free saturator is Klanghelm's IVGI but I don't like that one as it won't give me the results I want. My current go-to for saturation is AXP Softamp 3od which is very VERY good (and has oversampling if you need it).

The only small issue I encounter is that I also switched to 64bit plugins, which does limit the available range of free stuff.

[SparkySpark]

You kind of validate the point I'm trying to make here - going freeware just to make things easier is of course an argument that shouldn't need to exist. When I come to think about it, it's in effect saying that we pay for being "hassled".

(If you need a DAW that doesn't require installation, I'd recommend MuLab, in my mind the most fun and inspiring of all DAWs. It's not free, but there is no installer or otherwise; you can run it from a USB drive.)

In any case, I was surprised to hear SampleScience could make by with everything but... saturators! Goes to show how much the music of KVR members differ, which in turn is great. (I mean, it's not like everyone's into four-on-the-floor at KVR .)

[Jace-BeOS]

Yes, it’s a hassle. Yes, software is bloated and unwieldy for customers who actually BUY it. Yes, EULAs and disclaimers of warranty are a violation of - oh, wait, you weren’t taking about licensing BS. How about bugs as SOP? No? But why? There are so many more reasons to hate this business.

It’s been bad mostly from day one (once commercial software was the norm) and has been getting worse, what with the convoluted anti-piracy & install manager tools and the abusive subscription model...

This is the computer industry. It sucks. It has mostly always sucked, except many of us were tricked into believing in it because “WOW COOL!” Some of us woke up (but still have to use this shit).

There’s very little say any of us have in how it goes because the free market is a myth and corporations rule us. This is to say: “yes, I agree, but I can’t do shit about it”. If the USA ever gets its act together, maybe we can start regulating this pile of abusive opportunists. It’ll be a long time in coming, since there’s so much bigger shit going down.

Except you don't have to use it

So I should just stop using computers?