What is your primary daw and how proficient are you with it?

[KevWind]

I personally have been using an iLok since PT started requiring it, and also have never had an issue. I do remember there was an iLok issue for a period of time , that some people had. I do not remember the exact particulars but if I remember correctly 2 or 3 specific things had to have occurred at more or less the same time, and in a certain calendar time frame (or something like that) for the problem to manifest. But it seems they got it sorted out, and have been running smooth for a number of years now.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by KevWind

I personally have been using an iLok since PT started requiring it, and also have never had an issue.

Those that have had issues have complained about the difficulty and time involved in getting them resolved.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Those that have had issues have complained about the difficulty and time involved in getting them resolved.

For $30, a user can buy Zero Down Time coverage so if they break their iLok, they'll be again up and running quickly.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Those that have had issues have complained about the difficulty and time involved in getting them resolved.

Could be, I was simply offering my personal first hand experience. So for me iLok is not a reason to not choose PT. YMMV

[phcorrigan]

[

Originally Posted by jim1960

For $30, a user can buy Zero Down Time coverage so if they break their iLok, they'll be again up and running quickly.

Yes, for an additional $30/yr. Look at the 1 star reviews on Amazon to see what can happen if you don't pay this protection money. "Nice software you got there. It'd be a shame if something would happen and you couldn't use it."

https://www.amazon.com/Software-Auth...ustomerReviews

Adobe, Presonus, and others have solved this problem without resorting to dongles. Oh, and I don't have to pay Adobe and Presonus additional protection money.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Yes, for an additional $30/yr. Look at the 1 star reviews on Amazon to see what can happen if you don't pay this protection money. "Nice software you got there. It'd be a shame if something would happen and you couldn't use it."

https://www.amazon.com/Software-Auth...ustomerReviews

Adobe, Presonus, and others have solved this problem without resorting to dongles. Oh, and I don't have to pay Adobe and Presonus additional protection money.

You say, "Yes, for an additional $30/yr." as if I left that out when, in fact, I led with it. That additional fee is not to get your problem resolved; it's to get it resolved more quickly. So if you're someone depending on your studio for a living, you can get up and running again quickly and not have to shut down for some number of days. It's not some kind of extortion as you seem to be implying. If you don't pay for ZDT, you're still going to get your problem resolved, just not as quickly.

Your reference to 1 star reviews is also a bit misleading. The current version of iLok is iLok3. If you go to the product page for iLok3, you'll find the product has a 4.5 star rating. Only 7% of its ratings are 1 star and 81% are 5 star. Your negative opinion is clearly in the minority.

I own an iLok and an iLok2. Both have worked without ever giving me any trouble. The first one is nearly 20 years old (still plugged in and running because I have a couple of licenses on it I still need.) and I only have the second because Pro Tools required an iLok2 at some point. Over the years I've read stories from people with the iLok blues. In almost every case, the story started with user error ...usually involving damage done to the dongle that could have been avoided had some reasonable care been taken.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by jim1960

You say, "Yes, for an additional $30/yr." as if I left that out when, in fact, I led with it.

Yes, you led with $30, which, if a one-time fee, might be reasonable, but paying that every year gets expensive. You also say the problem will be solved without paying, but the costs incurred without it, if something does happen, are pretty substantial.

I'm glad you're happy with iLok, and also glad you've never had an issue. I will still avoid software that requires it.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

I'm glad you're happy with iLok, and also glad you've never had an issue. I will still avoid software that requires it.

Never had an issue with iLok, and it's pretty handy for moving between computers. I have 107 activations on mine, so I'd be giving up a lot of software I depend on if I didn't use iLok. I guess some of them offer other licensing mechanisms, but I'd end up with a mess of different licensing setups. iLok makes it all nice and convenient and consistent.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Yes, you led with $30, which, if a one-time fee, might be reasonable, but paying that every year gets expensive. You also say the problem will be solved without paying, but the costs incurred without it, if something does happen, are pretty substantial.

I'm glad you're happy with iLok, and also glad you've never had an issue. I will still avoid software that requires it.

Which is of course your prerogative, and as a "personal" subjective choice is valid. But that's all it is,,, a "personal choice". Just like Mac or PC, personal subjective choice ............period

Given the vast majority of commercial recording and mixing studios, ( the one group who's livelihood actually depends on reliability) and probably 10s of thousands of private users around the world use PT and or iLok, so choosing to use iLok, is also a working, functional, and valid, personal choice......

And just to clarify (given the 2 nd hand, hearsay, type wording of your posts), sounds like you have never actually used Pro Tools or iLok,,, correct ? But are willing to instruct those of us who have, (some for many for years without problem), about how it is not reliable and expensive ? Interesting

[Wengr]

Been using Samplitude since the 1990's.
Upper intermediate?

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Wengr

Been using Samplitude since the 1990's.

Upper intermediate?

Is Samplitude still 100% machine code? Back when it came out, Samplitude was the only DAW that would run smoothly on the 486 CPUs of the day.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by KevWind

And just to clarify (given the 2 nd hand, hearsay, type wording of your posts), sounds like you have never actually used Pro Tools or iLok,,, correct ?

I have had over thirty years experience with software protection dongles. If I can avoid them I will. I'm not telling you what to do.

[Gordon Currie]

I currently use:
Acid Pro - expert
Cakewalk/Bandlab - expert
Sound Forge Pro - expert
Studio One Pro - intermediate

Throughout the Nineties I worked at Microsoft in their Multimedia division. It was an amazing time as we were the first in Seattle to beta test Pro Tools (which started out as a 4 track recorder!).
One co-worker (Curtis Palmer) left to start Sonic Foundry (Sound Forge, Acid, CD Architect, Vegas) and another (David Johnson) wrote and sold CoolEdit as a shareware app, ultimately selling it to Adobe, who released it as Audition.

My usage has changed a lot over the years. 20 years ago I used a lot of MIDI and virtual instruments, but these days it is 95% audio.

As for the iLok - it definitely went through some rough spots and hatred. To be fair, a chunk of that was due to spotty support from the OS - in particular Windows, which was a nightmare for media in general until Windows 7.
The iLok issues largely receded in the last decade.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Given the vast majority of commercial recording and mixing studios, ( the one group who's livelihood actually depends on reliability) and probably 10s of thousands of private users around the world use PT and or iLok, so choosing to use iLok, is also a working, functional, and valid, personal choice......

This of course is my perspective. ZDT is an amazing bargain for those it’s primarily intended to serve and a luxury for those perhaps less in critical need but simply want the peace of mind and can comfortably afford it. It is distilled, merely insurance. Not purchasing ZDT, as have been mentioned, does not mean the problems won’t be fixed.

As an example of how much of a bargain it can be, we have four Pro Tools bays and except for the summer months are running three shifts per room, per day. If hypothetically an iLok key went down in any of the bays, for say four days, that would force us to either rent an off site bay (which I always hate being plopped into unfamiliar territory) or pay for twelve shifts of free lance engineers. Twelve shifts of freelance engineers at the very low end of the pay scale would be roughly $6600.00 at which point of course $30.00 seems insanely cheap insurance. Granted that doesn’t apply to most of us here in our home studios but ZDT isn’t focused on the home guy/gal as much as the critical scenarios where there’s a bit more on the line.

For the record I’ve never once seen an iLok go sideways except for an instance where one was physically dropped, bounced and as a result the metal flange loosened from the key. For me, and if I could, I’d love to have virtually everything on my iLok. There’s just so many advantages to centralized authorizations.

[lkingston]

The thing is, I have rather simple tastes in technology. I use one sampled piano, some favorite sample libraries, a favorite reverb, a favorite compressor. All these are available on my iPad without intrusive copy protection.

Right now my iLok sits unused in a drawer. It’s loaded with licenses to PC software I haven’t used in quite some time.

I can do all the same stuff with Auria and Audio Units plugins on my iPad (just so long as the track count doesn’t get too high). It works exactly the same as the various DAWs I’ve used over the years on my PC. It’s just more convenient.

The same thing with video editing. I use Luma Fusion. There are some things like 3D transitions, 10 bit color, and alpha layers that I can’t do, but I have no problem doing projects without them.

I have a 10TB networked drive that I move projects on and off of. It all works amazingly well.