Hey there, I just saw this in a stream from Virtual Riot:


(img function doesn't work for me, see attachment)

I don't actually even listen to his music but I know he is quite successful and really, really good with his productions and really fast but this brings me to my question:

Can I have my DAW online? While using some legit plugins but mostly ones from the sister site?

Virtual Riot makes money with his music but even he uses the sister site but his DAW seems to be online because he uses some plugins that need cloud access as well. I tend to leave my DAW blocked by firewall and just occasionally open it for a few seconds if I need to verify a legit plugin for example. How does every do this? I'd love to use loopcloud in my DAW but I don't since I'm afraid other plugins (or the DAW itself for that matter) will call home...

 

Use a firewall.

 

firewall and hosts file. you have to block the daw, the plugins, the standalones.

if something goes outbound and calls home successfully, it will result in your plugins being deauthorized. it can be a pain in the neck to reinstall them. use Revo to reinstall cleanly.

Or is your concern leaked data? What if I open up a new text file and paste plaintext information into it from the local Whitepages phone book?

 

Sorry I don't understand the statement about the phone book, my English isn't the best . My concerns are just voided licences and charges. Especially if I have both legit and test version from the same company.

Currently I'm using a dedicated firewall to have Ableton.exe blocked. The pluging are just a dll/VST3 and have no way to communicate other then through the DAW, or I got something wrong? I'm not using standalone.

You mentioned blocking the individual plugins. How can I block all plugins except my legit ones that need internet, for example loop cloud and so on? I also bought the DAW if that makes it easier. Thanks for your help, I think I'm just missing something here.

 

These concerns are valid. Many people worry about any telemetry information being sent out. While that is not a good thing either, it is often thought by people to be more menacing than it really is. So by phone book, I mean any random source of data someone can put in a text file. I do not think they even print phone books anymore.

Do you know how you can click a plugin and it will open your browser and go to the plugin's website? The plugin itself may be blocked from accessing the internet, but your browser will still go to the website? That is because the outbound traffic just switched to your own unblocked browser. That traffic is now associated with a different PID (process ID) number. The source of the outbound data has been changed. Programmers are technically pretty smart people, as a generalization. Do you think after you have installed someone's application or plugin, they have no way to get a little data out to the web, past your firewall? You would be assuming a few things. Not all people believe that two wrongs don't make a right. But three lefts do. https://www.cynet.com/attack-techniques-hands-on/dlls-and-ways-they-can-hurt-us/

 

Thanks for your detailed replies. I actually hope the plugins won't call home any other way then using the host DAW. by the way, if they do, can they transfer much more information then my IP? Do they get my name or email from my Ableton account data?

So you reckon there's no way to have just a few selected plugins online and block everything else? Too bad, guess I'll be using loopcloud standalone and I was thinking about buying xln life which needs internet to analyze the samples, I can probably launch standalone to load samples and then use the plugin offline though.


I wonder how Virtual Riot does it? Or maybe he just uses AudioZ to search for presets, I doubt that..

 

If your firewall supports it, I would always select "paranoid mode". Then you will be asked every time a program wants to access the internet. Yes, it's a bit of work at first. But the firewall remembers which programs are allowed access. As a result, the messages will become fewer and fewer over time.

Apart from that, it always depends on the crack if a program can go online. With a real emulator (e.g. Silk-Emu for Steinberg products) you can also allow a software to go online without any problems. Usually the teams write in the NFO if the software has to be blocked.

Regardless, I would only allow a program to go online if it is absolutely necessary. (Because otherwise it won't work or something).

Theoretically, any information on your computer can be transmitted because the software is on your computer. (Unless, of course, it is encrypted, in which case no one can read it.) It's unlikely that a reputable software vendor would do this, but it's possible.

 

I thought about it and came up with this idea:

Right now my firewall is in paranoid mode, I need to manually accept every process that wants to call out. But why isn't there an even more hardcore mode that I can switch on for individual programs? So hardcore I'd have to manually accept each IP my DAW wants to connect to. That way I could let it connect to Ableton and for each of my legit plugins that need connection I'd just add the host.
Wouldn't that be technically possibly?

 

Well you could change out hosts files right? (above my paygrade, and I'm sure someone will properly school me how I am wrong and all good)..

I know that's what you were supposed to be able to do with GasMask etc, but I've read some contentious posts talking about how it didn't actually do so or rather wasn't clear as to what it was actually doing or whatnot, but my memory on specificity on that is a little hazy...


But yeah, sure, I would like an easy mode to super lock it all down except for a few select items that needed online authorization or whatnot... as I'm generally offline anyways... but sure, there are some that do need to call home..

 

Nearly perfect! Just not this part:

Unless you are like a software company who's name starts with a "T", and ends with a "One2'. It's beyond possible, it's fact. Some developers have been found to pass Windows telemetry information in cleartext even.

 

Yeah, all apologies aside and whatnot, and it's been awhile, I don't forgive Tone2 for the nonsense.

That was some evil shit.

 

Okay I'm using simplewall, seems to be possible to block everything for my DAW, except a list of IPs. Need to find the IP of the servers and... I guess I have to make sure not to use legit and trial versions from the same company to minimize risk. I will just open loopcloud for now because I pay monthly and then I want to buy an xln plugin that needs internet.

I can try later. Any rejections, or could this work?

 

Last edited: Mar 25, 2024

stay offline with your daw/audio computer.

 

Production machine is 100% legal so no need to worry about that $hit

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 27, 2024

I wouldn't use a system that HAD to be online all the time with K'd plugins on it at all.

It's one thing to, say, have to login to Roland Cloud or something every few weeks or months, and there are ways to do that without compromising yourself or system kinda, but it's a completely different bag having to use UAD or something, which I believe HAS to be online ALL the damn time.

Even those here that really know what they are doing ,and have knowledge and abilities far above my paygrade, wouldn't recommend that, nor would do it themselves.

Unless there is something I am missing here... no go...

 

I suspectpect that RolandCloud Manger is scanning the system from time to time. I see it consuming over 100% CPU sometimes even when no plugin is running. Other musician friends reported the same.
So that time using the cracked version would be better no freaking RCMService
That's not how somone should treat paying loyal customers, I am about to sell that stuff
[EDIT] 100% CPU only happens when you block its network traffic

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 31, 2024

you would need more specialized firewall and DNS resolver in order to block specific network interactions, not just whole program or whole website online access,
windows firewall and windows hosts file isn't enough imo, better look into something behavioral-based like NetLimiter (Windows) or LittleSnitch (MacOS),
that way you can also pinpoint malware easier eventually,
it's also interesting to observe how devs treat activation differently
- coolest devs let you activate "offline" with your own legit file, or even provide full installer licensed already, never really asking for internet access to validate, it's a 2-way trust between dev and customer,
iLok for example requires online access itself to validate/update licenses on your iLok stick, so DAWs themselves can access stored licenses offline without additional authentication

 

Yeah, I hate that.

Have read elsewhere about that as well.

I have Roland Cloud, and I haven't used it in years as I haven't been using anything (so nothing against it to say necessarily), and I just installed it on a new machine a couple days ago, and I haven't noticed that, but I will keep my eye on it absolutely.

Hell, honestly, I DO buy software I end up using and relying on. Not all, but hell, "try before buy" and whatnot is great, but I try and do my part and buy things I end up loving and using as bread and butter... from Soundtoys to Ableton to Valhalla to NI etc and on for the most part...

But as you said, sometimes I DO continue to use the k'd versions, as they aren't crawling up my ass with scanning my system or eating up cycles all the time with constant pinging home etc....

Granted, with newer machines, this is less of a drag in practice, but philosophically f'd, and I don't need Roland Cloud up my business...

 

I try to avoid google where I can, but now my bought Roland software requires sending packages with unknown data to microsoft (even tho i use macos) and google-analytics.
What kind of data is analysed? My favourite dildo brand ?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 31, 2024

100% agreed.