Hi people, first post here.

So I've started out a few years back with all cracked software and through the years till now I've decided to start buying the stuff I actually use. I've got Cubase Pro 8 and I love it to bits, I've go a few of my fav plugins like valahalla reverbs and others which I was more than happy to pay for.

I also have tons of other cracked plugins and synths and... I also have many crashes

I'm going the legal way anyhow - I've got this habit of buying every month or so, one of the plugs/synths that I really use a lot.

I guess my question is for any of you who run only purchased/legal setups - do you think it runs more stable with less crashes?

 

It really *really* depends on what plugins you use. I would also note that it also depends on the amount of plugins you use. e.g. the more different plugins you use from different companies, the greater possibility of crashes. With time you can increase the stability of your setup when you find out which plugins crash your DAW and stop using them. Well, that's what I do anyway. I never look back at a plugin that crashes my DAW and my creativity no matter what plugin and brand it is. I just dump it or wait for a more stable version to use it. Regarding cracked plugins versus legal, I wouldn't say at all that legal plugins are more stable. Actually I would say that cracked ones are usually more stable, and easier to install, too, but again - it all depends... from your hardware to OS and drivers, OS setup, to your DAW and plugins you use. It all matters to a lesser or greater degree.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Oct 10, 2015

Hi and welcome

Its hard to say as I switched to mac around the same time that I started buying my stuff so never tried that out on a windows system.. I personally think my setup runs better now for me with fewer crashes but that could be down to many factors.. Maybe it's because I don't have a shit load of plugins installed.. Maybe it's the OS (don't flame me lol).. Or maybe it's because the plugins themselves have been updated and have less bugs in them and are more stable now.. I agree with sinewave, I doubt cracks make things less stable (in most cases anyways). Either way though, its good not to have to worry about time bombs any more, and if things do go wrong you can get support from the developer.

 

Last edited: Oct 10, 2015

It is usually not the case that the illegal version is more unstable, but the question of "legal or illegal" still plays a major role for troubleshooting.
The thing will illegal software is that you can never be 100% sure that maybe somehow the fact that it's not the legit version is the cause of your problem. And because most technical issues are dealt with by process of elimination you will get to the point where the question is "do I invest more time into troubleshooting or is the illegal version the reason it's not working?".
I think that many people encountered problems with cracked software and were sure that the crack is the cause while it actually wasn't.
So while "all legal" might not be that much more stable it really does help with troubleshooting.

Spoiler: click me for a bit more rambling and explanation that might not even be that relevant but I still wanted to mention

So let's say your problem is a plugin-crash and you have a list of the most probable causes (usually determiend by search engine results or frequency of the question asked) where 1 is the most probable cause, 2 the second probabe, 3 the third probable and so on.
Now somehwere on that list is the fact that your plugin is cracked. An example would be.

1. outdated DAW
2. wrong audio driver
3. problem with your OS
4. plugin cracked
5. virus
6. hardware problem
7. etc etc
8. ...

And now you try different approaches for the things mentioned on the list, starting by 1 (for this example updating your DAW, then the 2nd would be updating your audio driver and so on), but even though you tried all solutions up to number 10 (or 15, or 30) on your list the plugin is still crashing.
As a user of the illegal version it now seems likely that the reason for the crash is the crack so you give up.
While if you've got the legit version the crash might still occur so you know you need to dig deeper and try more solutions.
Of course I have no data to prove this thesis, but I think this is aprt of the reason why illegal software is often associated with being usntable.

 

running warez only since 2005, NEVER had any problems.

 

It's not so easy give the right answer. Anyway, consider this: a cracked version is an original version modified to bypass the protection(s). Sometimes the crack procedure has side effect the user cannot know until the worst scenario does not happen (crash, lost of data etc)... It's your choice.

 

Plugins never crash but DAW yes.

 

I have most of setup legal by now, and my experience might not help you much, but anyway, it's worth mentioning that since I've used Pro Tools 11 legit, no issues have arised. Every previous cracked version has been buggy with the exception of PT 7.4 M Powered (win) and PT 10.3.9 OpenSSH for Mac.

 

fact ! the K: ones are definitely more stable in fact some of the k: by hackers has been fixed,modified , Enhanced for Devs Ect...
there is only one draw back of buying plugs ! it drains your wallet fast, Yes the Devs need to be supported for there time and effort ! However some plugs such a s Waves for example are over 1,000? seriously? its Buggy software and not a Sexy Hardware Synth with pretty lights and keys sitting on your desk or keyboard tier.
plain rip off targeted at Hollywood or fools that have Millions to spend, My Point is though Support Your Devs

 

I buy originals - they all crash no matter what you do.

Software developers need people like us to spot bugs so they can fix it.

On the other hand think about the amount of plugins you install when they are warez VS. install only the ones you really buy.

You get the idea

 

Cracker teams do some amazing stuff. I am in a predicament at the moment because all of the software I am currently using for my studio has been purchased. 9 times out of 10 I will use cracked audio software to test it and see if it is worth buying. If it is, I buy it. If it isn't, I delete it. It has come to my attention that reputable releases by teams like R2R have been more stable than some of the purchased versions. Sometimes all of the legal security countermeasures can slow you down as well. So in terms of stability, cracked has the potential to be more stable than legal.

 

Running all legal versions here, but ran with warez for years. Similar to you I just bought stuff every month until I had my main "go to" plugins.
But I've had to use cracked versions when the official one crashes or don't load. A number of times... and the exact same version!

But I agree that having 20 or so bought plugins vs 30,000 downloaded plugs helps stability or troubleshooting. More so, it helps creativity as I'm not wading through every synth/EQ known to man or beast just to sketch an idea down.

 

Plugin is the reason that DAW crash yes try a Daw without any third party plugin and you see it will almost never crash thats for sure

 

In my opinion if you make money(or you r rich) then you must buy them to help the developers.

 

I think we all can help developers.. I dont make money from music and I'm a single parent who is far from rich, but if I use, like or want a plugin I will save up for it.

 

Like everything in this world, it's always a matter of 50-50.

Are developers pure angels? When setting a price for their plug-ins, do they think 5 minutes about the 70% of poor users or the young guys? Of course not.
There is a bastard pretentious dick of german developer that said 'if you are having issues with buying things like food, etc, you should maybe stop wanting to make music'.so, According to him, if you don't make 4000 euros per month, you should stop your passion about music. If you are poor, don't even consider wanting to make some music... just leave that to true humans who live in a healthy country and have a good healthy life.stop dreaming of learning and making some music, and return to your mine or fields.
behaviors like this, make me want to punch these guys until they have lost 30% of their blood, and then, I would still spit and shit on their head. Am I gross?

That's why most devs prefer 'OK, I'd rather sell my plug-in to 2000 studios, at 250 euros, than selling it to 15'000 guys, at 20 or 40 euros.'
Where is the pity? Where is the conscience? Right, there is NONE.
Valhalla could sell their reverbs at 99 euros, if they wanted. But at 40-50 euros, they are reaching a large demographic who can't buy a 200 euros Breverb or a 400 euros Tsar (softube).
And I'm sure they are selling dozens of copies, EACH DAY. Just like Duda does with Lfotool or Chtulhu.

Internet is like that. Like everything, there are compromises.
A dev can use the Juce thing, can copy 90% of the code from places like Github, they can download Tobybear source codes for vst hosts and other plugins/filters/everything. They can even pay 500 or 1000 euros for a freelancer to code some parts of the app, and there we have, the plug-in can be sold at 149 euros.
No need of a warehouse. No need of 50 employees, no need of a huge office, no need to pay thousands euros on ads, a few hundreds euros for Google ads + KVR, and it's fine. No need of huge expenses.
A simple blog with a free Cart system is enough.
Selling on Internet doesn't cost 1% of what a restaurant, kebab, keys, shoes, books, etc store + all the associated costs would... cost.
Everything is just so much easier. No taxes, nothing. 100% of benefits, 0 problems.

With all this simplicity, the whining Devs WOULD still want 100% of people to buy a legit version? What else? They want everything for them, without any compromises?
Once a copy of a plug-in is sold... it is sold. The cash is in the bank account.but the buyer. .. does he have any kind of warranty it will work flawlessly? CAN he be sure he will make a hit with it, or it will improve his work flow by 200%? Why is that plug-in eating up 50% of a 4GHz cpu, when other similar plug-ins only need 0.1% per instance? Is it a proof that the dev didn't do a good job with optimizing the code? Hell YES.

What about that 35 euros sound bank, with only 64 presets (sound designers slowly went from 200 patches to 150... then, 128... then, 100.. then, 80... then 64... then, 50 (synthmaster soundbanks, 15 euros for 50 patches, with only 5 to 10 usable ones). It's not rare to find 32-patches sound banks. . And most of those 100-patches soundbanks, the demos use the 10 best sounds... and when you buy it, you realize 90% is deja-vu crappy sounds. Shit, 35 euros, or even 20 euros.. is a LOT of money.

So, devs would like 100% of the benefits, without 0 contraints or compromises? They want EVERYTHING, without giving away THE TINIEST THING? They want to exploit 10000% of what Internet allows them to do, have, etc, but they don't want people to try to save some cash here and there?

I think many devs should be grateful for everything they can get from Internet, instead of whining like little pussies because 10 or 15% of people are using a Warez version.
Even if you ONLY sell 70% of your copies to legit users, how much % would you be selling, without internet? 10%? 15% ?
And after those 15% of sales, you would still have 80% of charges, like stores, offices, material, employes, taxes, etc etc.

So, whining devs, should they be thankful, grateful, and thank GOD and GOOGLE each day, for letting them sell AS MUCH AS 60 - 80% of all the used copies, instead of focusing on the a 10 or 20% of Warez versions?

Or should they whine on forums, because there are 15% of people who are using a Warez version?

Be happy with all you got and get, sensitive smelly pussies.
Again, thank GOD, BECAUSE these last 4-6 years, with the GUETA thing, I am sure there are 2 times more people doing EDM and POP music... and that makes hundreds thousands EXTRA POTENTIAL BUYERS. If you can 'ONLY' double your sales thanks to those extra wannabe musucians, FEEL HAPPY AMD GRATEFUL about that, even if 20 or 30% of those young guys won't buy everything they use.. for now...but those brats and pirates, they may end up being your clients, in just 2 or 3 years.

AGAIN, BE HAPPY with what you got and could get. Stop chasing the 15-20% of Warez users, and instead, have some champagne and THANK AND RESPECT the 70-80% of legit users who have made you quite RICH.

 

So is your setup more stable then?

 

i recently reinstalled my windows 8, cubase, and have only installed 1 or 2 plugins of each genre: 1 or 2 reverbs, 1 or 2 compressors, etc.
because, after all, with the stock simple cubase compressor, + the nice cubase 1176 emulation, do i need another 35 compressors ?
the same with reverbs: there are already 3 or 4 nice reverbs inside cubase. do i need the 95 different reverbs in the market? same with delays.. to add a simple ping-pong effect to a sound, is the delay inside cubase enough, or do i need Echo, spring verb, and 35 other delays ?
i decided to only install what i have bought, and a few other warez plugins, but only a few. tired of searching for a plugin on the 200-plugins list.
i feel like with less stuff installed, cubase works better. since 2 or 3 weeks, cubase hasn't bugged, frozen or rebooted a single time. cross fingers.

i think with less stuff installed, whether legal or not, the DAW will thank us. YES, i would definitely say MY SETUP IS MORE STABLE

 

Everytime I do a fresh Windows install, the amount of plugins I install goes down. Warez allows you to hoard whatever you want, but the trick is to keep only whatever you use ;)

Also, I find Reaper plugins awesome. They're definetely NOT pretty but they surely do the job. I don't use Reaper anymore but I have their plugins pack installed. The multiband compressor is really good.

 

BFD3 legit has all the bugs cracked version also has...