Does anybody understand the Arxan lock on PA software and how it affects the DAW?

I get a lock regularly and I can't figure out if its PA stuff or some other piece of software or my hardware causing issues.

It will lock up for about 5 minutes doing things like shortening a midi loop which should use a few bytes. I can unlock the freeze by scrolling through my Behringer X-Touch channels and banks but sometimes it takes a while.

My CPU sits at maybe 40% when the locks happen but reading about the PA Arxan protection not using any CPU when its going mental it sounds like this might have been my issue.

 

I have a fix. Use a non-PA plugin

 

I don't think it's related to PA, it looks more like an error or a driver or hardware problem. However as a legit PA user, I can say that these plugins work superbly and without any performance drop. Don't really believe what R2R says, witches always tend to exaggerate. Hundreds of thousands of users and professionals work with PA without any problem.

 

It seems to have come recently and I started using legit PA recently

The other side of hundreds of thousands of people using without issues is that people get silenced and there's a vested interest in not destroying the value of something you bought, that you can sell. So I wouldn't take it as a given that it is credible based on silence...

They found these issues and they've seen that PA are doing something. What we know for certain is that these measures aren't in our interests. If these companies had our interests at the forefront they'd be using protection like serials and not putting in timebombs or forcing online etc

 

That's right.

Well, that's the thing. I read carefully R2R info and they said their release this time isn't faster than the original because it just takes too many hours to remove that shitload of protections. Compared to, for instance, many iLok R2R releases.

You're also in the right track when you say they exaggerate. From what I gather some of the problems they describe are worst case scenarios. Like the runtime exception hell (unwindling) which is well known to C++ coders.
It's true that it also takes some small constant performance hit but that's way in above my head.

Anyways, I agree that the performance hit isn't so big. It always throws you off (me the first) to know how much shit is going under the hood while reading R2R description of the protections.
But they're still very good and usable plugins, some more than others like always.

 

..."R2R exaggerates"? Are you sure about that? Have you the minimum level required to prove (with real logs, numbers and statistics) what you both lightly affirm?

R2R have examined and disassembled deeply the product before writing that in their *.nfo, based on their long experience. If they say that there is performance problems with the protection of Pa plugs, it's because there really are.

The best, perhaps, to be convinced of that could be to compare the performance of legit pa plugs with other equivalent protected plugs from other brands / vendors.

Whatever, they have no interest to tell us shit. During their long and great history, they have many times proven their integrity.

 

either way, problems like OP described are not normal by PA standards.
reinstal, look if you have all the MS libs installed.
look for a sys restore point (what was effected)
then try installing again

edit:
incidently the new one just dropped

 

Thanks. Could be related to anything and I'm considering a fresh install

Totally agree. I trust r2r more than I trust PA... Its sad that Devs feel untrustworthy these days

 

Thanks that's useful. That's probably about as much as I use, but I seem to get the locks after maybe 40% CPU in Ableton and it seems maybe after using a track for a while, which might mean a lot of loading and unloading, which might be triggering what r2r is talking about. If you don't go as crazy as me it might not affect you. Often a track that has been locking will play fine on a clean load on a new day, but later on it starts to lock, like it has done this access check thing too many times

 

I never saw it (and my friend didn't see it) so it didn't happen.
Anecdotal experience means very little when it comes to the overall performance of these plugins (or anything else in the world, of course).
The way to determine the overall performance is via polling, and complaints on the internet are one source of data for that.
As for the idea someone put forward that people are being "silenced"... yeah ..sure.. the bodies will never be found
Unlikely anyone can silence reports of problems.
Where is the "eyeroll" emoticon?

I am downloading and will see what's making so many keyboards all sticky.

 

Wow, I see the confusion here... R2R never, ever said that there is bugs or crashes. They say: these plugs could work far much faster, with less RAM / CPU consumption... if there was no protection at all, or at least a far less over-bloated multi-layer protection, what ARXAN is, in fact.

As an example, I think about two legit plugins I have bought, where the protection is a simple serial: I have noted no slowdown nor CPU spikes, the old 8th gen 6-core i7 8700b of my mac mini is never hot as hell, even with dozens of instances of these plugins.

 

The plugins they are discussing are Windows-Based and mostly .DLL files (dynamic linking library). The way so much is handled is different, so we shouldn't really expect a good direct comparison between them. Unless R2R bothered to elaborate sometime, who else is qualified to discuss, or dedicated enough; to measure differences? My Mac-based iLok cloud stuff does not bother me at all, even on my laptop. You'd need to compare something broken/retail on the same machine to even start looking.

 

It's a mac mini 2018 (intel-based) where I removed macOS from, since years now I work exclusively on Windows 10. I hate how the apple OS have evolved, I hate almost everything they have done with it => Windows 10 only.

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2022

I mean you would need an un-k'd/un-patched, unmodified original retail version and then the "fixed" r2r version to compare performance between the two of them; on a computer running MacOS. If you aren't even running MacOS then you are in an even bigger hole trying to comment on it. unqualified at best.

 

That's not the point. The point is that @Gyorgy Ligeti said:

My point is: R2R never said that there could be crashes. They said: the ARXAN protection of the PA plugins is eating too much resources... for nothing.

They could run much, much faster with an simpler, more efficient, optimized protection. That's all.

There's nothing more to say.

 

Well confusion will be forever present here, because a lot of people don't read, and they talk nonsense as they want.
Like you have said Team R2R never mentioned crashes etc, because if crashes happens in their release then it is a bad crack, but they have said that they removed layers of protection as much as they could but still over bloated plugins can cause performance issues like the legit ones, and slow down DAW and user environment.
BTW I am not interested in PA plugins, but this thread just catched my attention and those non constructive comments.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 

And who introduced CRASHING issues except some people in here.
Where did R2R have said that plugins can cause crash over protection to be exact with this ARXAN thing?
Just say where and I will shout my mouth!
Nowhere, so please this comments are misleading...


THANKS TO GREATEST OF ALL TIME R2R FOR ALL GIFTS WE GOT FROM THEM OVER PAST DECADE

Obviously we simply don't deserve to have them (and sadly that might happen very soon), but to have some mediocre crackers with whom we could never see iLOK stuff and this complex ASSXAN THING, not to mention Steinberg collection, TONE2, UHE etc.

Same warning applies for example to EMPIRICAL LABS AROUSOR, their latest release, where they have said protection got stronger with many protection layers added, so it will be heavier on some CPU's and will impact on overall performance.
No crashing at all, which was true, so I got back to previous release as they advised in their info.
PLEASE READ and try to understand!

PS. Over 11k releases, a waste amount of plugins, whole VST market is available from them FOR FREE, and after all feel yourself essential to have PA plugins, working LEGIT, then go buy them with all protections mentioned!
Then send tickets about bad performance, wait for response, and after all, support your favorite developer which doesn't care about your workflow!

HELLOOO IT'S FREE, A GIFT, OVERHAULED FOR OUR WELLBEING, SO PLEASE BE JOLLY AND THANK THEM INSTEAD!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2022

Sending you my best, happy vibes... have great times!