Saw that Softube Fix Flanger was on sale for $20 at Plugin Boutique.
Had a previous version from R*R but decided to buy to support the dev.
Big mistake.
Now I had to go thru Ilok and since I had a UA Volt, no problem.
Couldn't sign in to get my download.
Called Visa to cancel my transaction but they said I had to contact Plugin Boutique first.
This may be my last legit software purchase and after the shit I've gone thru trying to be honest
Customers need to be rewarded for their support and purchases should not be made near impossible to download once paid for.

 

Last edited: Nov 12, 2023

You could've had checked their trial before, search for that info beforehand and yeah you should contact Pluin Boutique first, thats standard practice anywhere in the world, first get in touch with the resaller and then with the credit card company.

 

you should know your logins well enough before buying stuff i have 0 problems with ilok i suggest you to save your passwords somewhere safe like a pendrive

 

Congratulations. You're a member of a coveted minority group.

 

What he said
Thx for your advice...

 

Why do people want praise for buying stuff? Tell you mom, no one here actually cares.

 

Frankly, I now 100% boycott any company using iLok. I own Oxford, Eventide, and other iLok plugins, but I don't use them because they're iLok. I see it as exploiting the end user because the devs are packing their software with bloatware to avoid piracy. Well, guess what Sonnox... we all know know Inflator is just a subtle sine based waveshaper. Now I'm using free products to get a similar effect. And even thought I own Eventide Blackhole and a ton of other stuff... fuck you. I'm not using the stuff anymore. And I own legit Vengeance Avenger..... BUT because of Codemeter and them switching to proprietary formats, I don't even use it. I regret not buying legit Spire instead. I'm pissed that I wasted money on all these stuff. When I was dirt poor, I used 'warez because it was the only way I could make music. Then when I had money, I thought I should support any developer I could. But then I learned that some devs invest in all kinds of anti-piracy nonsense which bloats their software and creates a shitty end-user experience. And those devs pass that expense to the end-user. Look at Submission Audio that charges over 100 Euros for a fucking clipper. It makes me so upset. They have to pass that iLok expense to the end user. Fuck them.

In short... NEVER BUY ANY SOFTWARE THAT USES ILOK OR SIMILAR BLOATWARE PROTECTION SCHEMES. But find those great indy software devs that make good products and support them. Even if you try them first as 'warez... don't feel bad because you can't afford it and just want to make music. But when you can.... really support those devs that make great products. And stay away from any dev who goes down that dark road of using iLok, Codemeter, or any other bullshit.

The whole anti-piracy thing this just dumb... especially if you're on Windows because R2R will keep breaking down Pace/iLok.

And even if Soothe is amazing... I will always used DSEQ or another alternative simply because I will not support a dev that uses iLok.

And fuck Waves and their stupid upgrade plan.

 

Just buy it and keep the cracked version, tons of them work better once the copy protection is stripped out, anyway.

Nobody says you HAVE to use the legit version, as long as the Developer gets the money, that's all that really matters . . . .

 

I'll let you in on a secret, they half-ass the protection on purpose.

If you like something, then just pay for it and use the crack. All of these companies COULD develop their own copy approach, which would make things a lot more difficult, instead they just half ass it . . .

 

Wait, you were willing to pay 20 bucks FOR A F***ING FLANGER ??

It must be the greatest flanger in history, otherwise I don't see why people would pay 20 bucks, even if it's on sale. And how big of a price drop could it be?



...

 

Tested both Fix Flanger and Doubler Bundle (back when it was 13$ on audiodeluxe) and the Fix Phaser which is 10$ now on Plugin Boutique.
Well...I guess I don't understand something, but my stock Logic FX sound quite similar and are easier to use. Decided not to buy.

Still massively regretting not buying Model 84 when it was 45$, now it's 60$. Painful, but I'll wait and hopefully there'll be a Black Friday Softube sale (not the "Early" one, but an actual full sale) on Plugin Boutique in the last week of November. We'll see...

 

Why would you pay for something, keep it, and then not use it? That's not the most effective boycott, if that is your intent. Why wouldn't you just sell them and get some portion of your money back; or use them since you already paid for them?

Like you mention, no-one is going to listen to your track and notice you used Oxford instead of another plugin, (or whatever) on it. Someone would probably buy them and be happy to use them at a realistic price. I use iLok'd stuff and never have any problems with them. However, that's partially because of the developers implementation of iLok. UVI, as example, could not be any easier or smooth to deal with. Then you try something from other developer, as example Slate. You can see almost immediately why other people hate iLok; it is just as bad as you have always heard about.

A silent boycott at only your own expense doesn't make any sense.

 

I will never buy anything that uses iLok or it’s from iZotope.
I once bought an iZotope Exponential Audio R2 paired with a Stratus on sale.
Both secured by iLok.
I activated it on my hardware. A month later, iZotope moved the R2 to legacy.
In the meantime, I had to reinstall the system due to a disk failure. On the new hardware I can't activate the product I have, R2, because my iLok account sees another activation. I can't remove it by myself because, iLok and iZotope doesn't give a damn shit about my emails to support, so I have a legitimate R2 that I can’t use.

Never again!

 

I'm in the middle of a similar problem. I have a "borrowed" version of Kontakt 14 Ultimate, but I just got a nice deal on a S61 MK2 keyboard. I sure would like to keep using the Ultimate software, but if I register it in my name, I assume I can't use the Kontakt library of a different user. And I'm not about to register the device in someone else's name. A first-world problem for sure, but still..

 

I have several Plugins with ilok that were gifted by Plugin Boutique as rewards for other buy. I never used them.
And before buying anything there, I take advantage that they always put a detailed explanation about how to install. I always read it, if I see any intrusive protection, I don't buy.

But unfortunately, there are more traps. Like Avenger not being updated for 2 years and now charging 100 euros for an update (BTW, advice to those who are tempted to buy it, Avenger have to connect every 3 month to renew the license) , or Spire being completely abandoned, or Phaseplant which after doing very good updates, came in with a joke as one of the most awaited function, the granular oscillator. I could continue the list of devs who have no respect for their own customers, and we are completely disarmed in front of this, there is no law to protect us from those scams.

 

If you approach this the correct way, you shouldn't have problems. But you need to think out the steps before just diving in. Did you buy the S61 new or used? Also, this can depend upon your operating system/DAW too. I have a s49 mk2, but I am mostly using it as a very nice dummy controller. On Mac, Logic users install plugins as AU (audio unit) format. NI Komplete Kontrol doesn't recognize AU plugins. To use the plugins within the NI KK ecosystem, they need to be installed as VST3 format plugins. That's just not going to happen over Komplete Kontrol, because it will double the amount of SSD space on my mac plugins will take up.

It would probably matter more if I was using the S49 to play live somewhere; otherwise there is a 42 inch monitor on my desk I can look at. The amount of scheming these vendors do to create "Captive customers" is a joke.

 

Wait a min... so there's a "Legit" version of every plugin you download from sister site? And sometimes it comes with this "iCock" feature...
Is something that makes them plugins sound more analog? More AI?
Oh, you have to pay for it... fuck them

And fuck thrice Waves, Slate and Native Instruments while we are at it. I know, a bit OT... it just felt right.

 

I could support great plugin devs like Toneboosters, Audio Damage, or even Ohmforce that they decided to make legacy plugins free for everyone (even their newest plugins have no "iLok" thing, just simple activation and you're good to go), than abandoning it for the sake of new plugins, or just make all legacy plugs still monetized to the point of desperation of having a profit even they can't support for future OS(es), and who knows maybe some plugin devs does this decisive thing.


Anyways, DRM protection methods is very likely to be fishy, they can't listen "even no one", that needed to be rework or remove this hell schemes of protections, Update plan (eg. WUP), is I say the worst of "the worst case scenario to spend with", it's like you buy that plugin, after years of using they told you to need to renew or you buy again for new version at the full price or almost even you stack discounts for it.
Single "fuck you" to Update Paywall
Double "fuck you" to iLok
A triple "fuck you" to Waves as well

 

Since the early 90's , i had olearned my lesson about buying daw's or plugins , mostly because the company support , or the updates were all just lies to get you to buy in the first place. I purchased nuendo for my first serious daw ) ; "because I DETEST pro tools garbage !!" And man , way back then , steinshit had this 'printer type dongle' , that was nothing but a total pain in the ass !! And it eventually hurt my cpu speed , then one day it started messing up my hdd drive. Thats when I dound out about trying to get a replacement dongle and some kind of support from that lame terrible company.

So thru the years , Ive tried to stay away from any product - plugins that needed a dongle or a iLok , and only purchased retail plugs that I could use in my studio to make money when working. But , at the same time , most of these companies ( only a rare few were excellent ) , but most were just totally void of any real support. So lesson's learned thru the years , and many mistakes on my part i guess.

So , anyway , Ive only had one true purchase thru out the last almost 16 years that has been perfect for me. bought the retail Sequoia DAW and never ;looked back !! they have been the best tech support , updat support and even to call them ( state side ) , is just a breeze !! ive never had an issue with the company , "even when it changed hands to become Magix products !! " So I own also sound forge and several retail plugs from the company , everything just works , no head aches and always have great tech support when needed.

really , we all just figure out our own way , because we're all different in our approach to how we record or what we do in the studio. but i did learn to never buy anything with a iLok , or fake "lifetime" updates , because they all have a catch to them. And I will use a R2R version in my studio now and again , If I already made a purchase oif that item , plus I have a seperate HDD that is my private recording studio , full of nothing but Audio warez stuff to check out and see if I might want to but them for my studio.

 

I don't know of any other industry that accepts incomplete software products on a promise it ""will be fixed in the next update". If I buy something, I really don't want to hear from them again. It either completely works or it doesn't work. You wouldn't deploy a half-cooked version of an MRP/ERP system at a company that makes ice. (just couldn't think of anything easier).

Promises of great tech support are bullshit too. Why am I going to need tech support if the product works like it is supposed to? The number of times I have had to contact Apple tech support for a problem with Logic is Zero. The reason for even talking about back-end tech support is because of not enough front-end programming. Helpdesk employees are cheaper than programmers; maybe we will fix it later when enough people bitch.

"Upgrade paths" are another one. So this vendor is telling me I will not need to completely re-buy a different product that does what I want, when I figure out that this one doesn't? "Customer Loyalty" is another way of saying "Locked into this product". Would you buy a car if you knew that no matter where you drove it; it would only make it 90% of the way there? If there is even a slightest bit of trust involved, it will be either somehow exploited or an empty promise. Google Earth is a great tool for figuring out if a "Company" is really some fly-by-night joint. You get their company mailing address, plug it into Google Earth, and there is the little house that is the "corporate headquarters".