there are very few sales (I remember once, maybe twice a year), so definitely keep an eye on them,
speaking of education, FabFilter offers 50% educational discounts: https://www.fabfilter.com/shop/educational-discounts

I wonder why you consider them too expensive? FX Bundle (second highest) includes basically everything you may need, and yea costs 759€ (compared to 299€, regularly 499€ iZotope Ozone 9 Advanced for ex.) but you don't need to pay for it ever again (unlike aforementioned iZotope Ozone, which costs the money EVERY major upgrade for often very minor improvements - that's what I consider expensive) unless a brand new plugin appears (yea don't get confused, for ex. Pro-Q2 is totally fine, and the Q3 is a big overhaul, not just an update)

 

Comparisons aside, I think they're expensive because they're just very good, market law.

 

bought this few months ago with ed discount .. never regretted

 

The Ed discount makes sense - so you're right - the students are covered, so that's proactive - and correctly so, I forgot that I had noticed that you're a cx for life, it's like FL Studio, so that is true. Well, it's strange times - if they dropped it temporarily to student pricing or something right now and advertised for a week on KVR...

 

took a look... "proof that you're a music teacher" - so if you do tutorials on youtube, does that qualify? I doubt it, right?

 

or say you get Bitwig certified trainer status or ableton certified trainer status - ok, not sure if there's a cost incurred to get that... probably for ableton it might be steep... how about that?

 

informative read, btw - first time I ever heard about apulsoft... enjoy! https://www.admiralbumblebee.com/music/2017/12/05/30-days-without-Fabfilter-products-pt2.html

 

I went through your exact same process on Mac. The issue is that the Fab Filter plugins don't 'call home' -- indeed from before installation to after white noise, they never 'reach out' to a Fab Filter server for verification. That means blocking incoming or outgoing internet traffic doesn't matter. The only thing the timebomb'd plugins do is generate white noise after 10 minutes, and open fabfilter.com.

I suspect Fab Filter added this code to their plugins: If a valid key is inputted, verify the checksum of this plugin; if it's different than the original checksum, send them to fabfilter.com's pirated page. In essence, any slightly edited Fab Filter plugin will now timebomb to the website, though they are not 'calling home' for verification, since that verification is all internal.

Hope that makes sense! That's where I ended up. I'm rocking the Nov 2018 versions now (Q3 v3.0.1) without the sidechain key. If I really want it, I'll pay the $200.

Cheers!

 

I tried that version on a fresh install. Can confirm it DOES NOT work.

Also tried it with Little Snitch and internet off -- the plugins still tried to open fabfilter.com's pirated page. I'm convinced the code for verification is inside the plugin (via checksum comparison).

 

Couldn't agree more. SSL Native is subscription-based now for $10/mo. Slate Digital for $10/mo. Plugin Alliance for $25/mo. Why not FabFilter for ~$15/mo? Or buy the entire bundle for ~$250? Either of those sound rational to me...

 

you're right - Kush Audio, Roland Cloud - it's quite reasonable. Even Reason Studios aka Propellerheads offer a subscription model for the Rack Extension plugins, different levels depending how many you want at once. It's hard to find tho, seems they kinda want to push rent-to-own more. A lot of developers got real incl. Mr. Lennar - reasonable solutions that are feasible to those who *really need* that plugin.

On that note, too, I'd mention quickly, I know, off topic, but in Reason there are the Rack Extension versions of several "famous" VST synths like Spire and Rob Papen stuff - but at a fraction of the cost of the VST - but you're getting the same sound, the same presets, etc. - take a look in the Reason shop to see what's there... SugarBytes is even there in RE format on some stuff...

 

Just out of curiosity, why would you open an internet browser if your computer is permanently offline?

 

Hahaha, good one, but tons of software documentation is in HTML format for starters. Not to mention the real problem is the white noise.
Oh, important, it also deletes the presets!

 

[Edited]Forget it. It was originally a VR release updated in the same topic by the R2R one[/edited]

Be careful. I just read in rutracker someone reporting what it seems to be the timebomb with Pro Q v3.0.1 version (goo-translated):

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2020

it does actually, it's a fixed hyperlink task to be opened in default internet (.html) browser,
that's why the problem with popup (and white noise) is NOT related to firewall rules or computer being online

 

He's joking, that playful old fart...

 

Fabfilter Total Bundle 2018.11.30, at least on OSX but it should work on win too

 

if you are on Mac you don't need a tip because fabfilter suite for Mac don't have this problem no time bomb at all ... I use all day with my system online and I have no problem at all ( I have legit little snitch )

 

it does

 

or you have the version of r2r which doesn't work ...only cashmere version work perfectly... if cashmere version don't work you have no luck in life