Hy everyone!
This is my first post... please be kind

INTRODUCTION:
I have cloned my OS x on additional partition on my primary SSD. In this way, for example, i can demo reset S-Gear 2. It seems that S-Gear 2 writes something in the MBR (Master Boot Record... or better, in the GUID) to fix the demo period. Each partition has a different MBR, so, re-cloning the clean OS and re-installing S-Gear Demo on the clone does the trick. Everything works fine! The date resets, the presets are saved, Logic Pro X remembers the plugin's settings on the tracks. I just need to bounce (in place) the tracks, create a track alternative to save the D.I. guitar clean version and go on. The SSD speed of the cloned OsX is identical to my clean OS so i can't tell the difference.

WHAT ABOUT SOUNDTOYS?
Would this method work to reset SoundToys 5 bundle demo? From what i've read, you need a free iLok account and the iLok License Manager installed on your Mac to use ST5 demo. So the point is: are iLok free licenses based on hardware ID? Or could i just create another free license account, reinstall everything on a cloned OS (from a clean OS) and restart the 30 days demo period?

From what i've read, iLok should not track you from the hardware to generate an ID. Maybe, a specific developer could use a machine-based ID through iLok licensing...?!

Did anyone here use this method to reset ST5 demos?

I won't even try to install them for now: if ST5 demos are machine-ID based, i'm afraid of burning the one and only 30-days demo that'll be ever possibile for my machine.


NOTES
• I already have a free iLok account, that i've used to install the free Eventide Channel. So even if the method above works, i think i could not use Eventide Channel and ST5 demos toghether for more than 30 days... but that's not a big problem.

• INB4: i see a "machine" voice in the License Manager, but i don't think that it necessarily means iLok ID is machine based, just that a license file (somewhere) is stored on a particular machine.

• I have no iLok usb, and i've never had one.

• I've installed ST 4.0.2 32bit "AZ'ed version" and tried to resurrect them in 32lives, but only some of them work in LPX (and not Echoboy, the most wanted ).

• I don't have a studio, and i make no money from music. Mostly on a G.A.S. Syndrome

• SPECS: Mac Os X El Capitan 10.11.6 - Logic Pro X 10.3.3


thanks everyone

 

Last edited: Sep 5, 2018

update:
it seems that iLok does indeed track the hardware to generate an ID... but still, it's not clear if every developer uses the same scheme.

This should be tested on a spare Mac machine, but the plugin itself could track hardware ID, and have a kind of timebomb that needs to "call home" and check the demo free license after a month. I can even speculate that the developer can change his mind and change policy over time, if anything can "call home".