Trapped into the Ilok trap

[guitronimo]

Good day!

Great... So i trapped into the Ilok trap aswell - thanks for that one!

I just purchased a secondary VEP license, because i wanted to preserve my old setup in studio where no Inet is available for Ilok Cloud.

It was mentioned somewhere that i need to convert my eLicenser Server Projects to work with VEP on another couputer that uses the Ilok stuff.

1.) How and where do i do that?

2.) If they are converted then. Does it mean that i cannot use them in my studio anymore when i have modifed them?

Thanks in advance,

Geronimo

[guitronimo]

Sorted myself....

Sorry i am very disappointed.

But first i must say that i do understand the move over to ILok, not only because of the uncertain future of the eLicenser.
And i must also say that i was about to buy one ILok anyway because of some other plugins that i want to move over from HW to USB.

Nontheless to me it feels like a rip off. And i am sorry to say it the hard way.

Allow me to explain why:
When you are new customer and you inform yourself about a product. Then this ilok thing is totally fine. Even the Cloud variant is fine and nice to have. Because when i bought VEP 7 i had a license but still needed to buy a eLicenser to use it - there was simply no cloud. So no worries here, thanks for this feature.

But for someone whos using VEP 7 for quite a while now its simply not obvious during purchase of an additional license, that its not compatible to the main license. And thats simply what it is -> It is incompatible.

To make it compatible and to use both licenses simulataneously without the requirement of Internet you Need to buy two new Dongles / ILoks. And thats something the website MUST clearly state during purchase of an ADDITIONAL LICENSE - but it does not! Especially since the website knows when i have purchased my first license. In fact i havent even heard of Ilok move regarding VSL until today.

Sure i could have had informed myself better by watching 40 minutes of videos. But i was not about to buy a NEW Product. I bought a secondary license to a product i already have a major license for.

!!!! To me it is absolutely not obvious that there is this major Change in VEP7!!!!

But then again even the videos dont say that both versions are incompatible. Instead they just say that its super easy to convert - see how easy it is.

So here is my suggestions for your website:
- Startpage should definately have a Hint to ILok stuff, simply because your customers have a right to know about this change... ITS MAJOR
- Purchase of prodcuts should display a list of compatible license models. Then this whole thread here would have not existed and i bet if i dive deep through the forum there will be others having same problems.

Please dont get this post wrong. I love your products and the unparalleled love and care you put into it. I am coming from sw development myself and i know how hard it is to satisfy all. But lets just be honest to your customers.

Thanks

Geronimo

[guitronimo]

And the disappointment doesnt end.

32Bit support dropped... Nice. That also isnt mentioned clearly. Remember we still talk about VEP7 not VEP8 where i could have been aware. 32bit support was the main reason for buying VEP.


I want to give back the additional license of VEP 7 that i purchased today!

And i like to know how i can preserve my eLicenser version VEP for the future.

Thanks.

[Andreas8420]

@guitronimo said:
And i like to know how i can preserve my eLicenser version VEP for the future.

Hi! Please contact our sales team for a refund of the license you purchased today. sales@vsl.co.at

As for your existing eLicenser product licenses:

Steinberg announced the end of eLicenser years ago. You can continue using your existing eLicenser licenses as long as your eLicenser key is functional.

Please find more information about legacy license handling here:

https://www.vsl.info/en/tutorials/faqs/eLicenser-legacy

Best,
Andreas

[guitronimo]

I don't want to sound disrespectful here. But you can't blame it on a third party here. VSL has made itself dependent on Steinberg. Precisely because Steinberg announced this years ago, VSL could have reacted much sooner. Basically, I had initially bought a doomed product, thats what you telling.

I simply don't understand why VSL invests years in a product that is very popular because of its features, but then quietly removes parts of it without much notice. And i only can hope that at least one of your employees brought this to a point in some teammeeting.

I have even less understanding for why 7.1 was not immediately called 8.0 then? At least that would have provided transparency for your customers. Especially to those who bought 7 for its features. version(dot)subversion(dot)revision.

Well then. This conversation is going nowhere. There will certainly be company policy reasons for this.

Many of us would be happier with a subscription than giving up features that we have used for years. There are also 1000s of hours of creativity involved here.

Again not disrespectful, just disappointed. Especially since i stand between the chairs in chosing libraries for upcoming projects.
Sincerely!

Geronimo

[guitronimo]

Little Edit: Doesnt even matter if eLicenser or ILok. iLok could have been 1:1 drop in replacement.
And the Ilok thing still isnt the shoot out criteria here. The problem is transparency!

[Paul]

Hello guitronimo,

Just reading up on your experience, thanks for sharing.

I get your points and they are all valid. Rapid changes that also affect development efforts are hard to predict and anticipate, and whenever we have to drop a feature (certain OSs, 32 bit support...) it is usually after a long struggle to keep things working.

You could of course stay on older OS/software and stick with eLicenser to keep your setup working, but there will always come a point where this is hard to sustain.

I hope you find a workable solution.

[guitronimo]

Thanks Paul for replying this.

Unlike alot of other players i am really not against the move over to ILok and i am glad that VSL made that move, especially in times where eLicsenser future is uncertain. Its sad that eLic is dropped because it feels like someone is taking it away from me. Nothing else in my life i took more care of than that feaking dongle, you may understand that. (accept for family of course).

My messages here should only encourage you guys to possibly overthink some of the moves the product took.

Maybe you can think of writing a patch that makes 7.0 be happy with an Ilok then every possible problem is solved for so many of us.


Anyway, there is one thing i need to tell about this whole situation and thats one of the main reasons why i was so upset. And possibly you dont know about this.

When i installed 7.3 yesterday on my computer (i did that via Vienna Assistent - great tool btw.) it wasnt able to even open my eLicenser projects. There was an error message that these servers are not valid or so. Non of them worked although they are pure 64 bit versions.

Only after
- deinstalling 7.3
- installing 7.0
- reinstalling 7.3 manually from file

I was able to open them accept for SY Player which i think i can fix somehow.

Not sure why this was / is and if its working properly now. I just tell you because i read another article of someone who had same error messages but he didnt reply how he fixed it.

Anyway... Sorry for so much text! Be sure i stick with you. But please.... make 7.0 ilok conform - somehow! I think i know the answer already 😕

Geronimo

[guitronimo]

Ok the synchron player actually works.

Its just confusing because it cant load the Epic orchestra and the Big Bang Orchestra which are licensed to the eLicenser.

If i disposite this stuff now to the ilok.
- will my other computer still work with the eLicenser and 7.0?
- will the big bang orchestra aswell as the epic orchestra then STILL work on my 7.0 machine?

I sort of need a solution for these projects as fallback. If something fails then my recent production is toast 😄 Thats why i am precautious here.

Thanks

[Paul]

Hi again,

The newer iLok versions of our products will NOT work with VE Pro 7.1, it's all or nothing in combination with VE Pro.

For now, I strongly suggest to go back to eLicenser and VE Pro 7.0! This will keep on working for as long as the eLicenser Control Center works on your OS.

And you are right, there will be no VE Pro 7.0 that works with iLok.... Sorry to have no better news there.

[guitronimo]

Thanks for your reply.

I think i stated this wrong. I try easy words.

Is there any chance for me to move only Epic Orchestra and Big Bang Orchestra to the new ILok version without touching the VEP7.0 license?
That would help me massively as i use these both libraries for sketching alot.

The 32bit and VEP 7.0 then could stay on one computer for my old projects which dont rely on any of those libraries.

Thanks

[guitronimo]

*Solved*
So for others who run into the trouble that i ran into.

1.) VEP7 with ilok is something that you want have! Its great, new Vienna Assistant is mega!
2.) For preserving 32bit support (not that its much required these days) i found a solution in JBridge which runs independently from all Vienna / Cubase stuff

3.) If you deposit your licenses over to Ilok. Such as VEP7.x and their free Libraries like Big Bang Orchestra and Epic Orchestra, your eLicenser Version will still work. You can even dare to make Maintenance in the License Control Center. That was my last question actually.

The only problem you may run into is that with installing VEP ILok version on your host computer, your host computer is not able to talk to your VEP 7.0 machine anymore although your eLicenser and VEP7.0 run just fine on your Server System.

In order to connect your old VEP7.0 Server you need to install 7.0 Client on the Hostmachine, which then gets rid of the 7.3 plugins... This certainly was NOT necessary VSL!

And its a bit of a shame. The Client - which runs on the Hostmachine should have no trouble talking to prior versions as long as there is no major update. I can only highly request VSL to fix that with sort of compat plugin. This must not be - for sure!

Then again, when using JBridge to preserve my old projects its not really required, all it takes is to convert the 32bit vst's to 64bit.

Hope this helps somebody.