How many of you guys are still iLok-less?

[ballstix]

I've been, mostly under principle, going without an iLok for as long as possible. I feel like I can still get a fair amount of quality plugs (Toontrack, DMG, FabFilter, Voxengo, PSP, etc), but I like what I've used of Softube's plugs, and some others that require an iLok. Are there any plugins that you guys have that are absolutely vital to your mixing that require the damn thing? And would you be able to make as good of mixes without iLok-required plugins?

I realize a lot of people don't see the inconvenience, but it's naive to think that it was invented in the end user's best interest. Plus it's 50 extra bucks.

 

[greyskull]

More or less all of them for me!
And Pro-Tools 9!

 

[006]

Waves. Slate. Line6. List goes on.

We all know every business is out to make money, bottom line, but what you get is worth the $50 price tag. If you get the Zero Downtime as well that can be absolutely invaluable if you are a professional.

 

[::XeS::]

In my opinion ilok is awesome. You can carry a little usb key with you everywhere with all the licenses and the procedure is standard.
How annoying would be a different registration procedure for every plugin?

 

[The Unavoidable]

I don't use one, becuse I've never had to but I wouldn't be oppossed to getting one if necessary.

 

[AHChris]

Loving the ilok fo sho!

 

[LeSedna]

I thought ilok was evil until i got one.

I understood its power when i first reinstalled windows. 100% transparent, so easy.

 

[exoslime]

+1 for ilok love

like LeSedna says.. you will be glad if your plugins are registered via ilok when you need to do a full system reinstall

 

[ballstix]

I'd have little to no problem with the iLok if it were free (or if it were optional). Sure, authentication processes are inherently silly given that they generally affect legit users more than they "defend" devs from pirates, but if it really is that transparent, then it isn't an issue. But paying some middleman for a port-stealing POS dongle? Wouldn't it be even safer to have some sort of cloud-based account to store registration info on? That would eliminate carrying around a physical device, and could (presumably) be free. And I don't see why a bunch of registration info can't be synchronized with any old USB stick if you were skeptical of the cloud system.

Ugh. How many professionals even pirate software, anyway (dumb question )?

 

[Trevoire520]

port-stealing POS dongle?

Buy a USB hub and it shouldn't be a problem at all. I've only got 2 usb hubs and have no bother with using my ilok, control surface, audio interface, keyboard, pen drive all at once.

Wouldn't it be even safer to have some sort of cloud-based account to store registration info on? That would eliminate carrying around a physical device, and could (presumably) be free.

Could be cool, but then surely your DAW would have to be connected to the internet to work? (don't flame me if i'm talking pish, I don't know much about this cloud stuff)

 

[ballstix]

Well, it'd be nice if it were just a one-time thing, so that you connect to the internet once and then your stuff's all verified. Of course, the mentality that most developers have is to obstruct users if it seems like it will prevent piracy (debatable), such that they'd want you to be connected at all times, so in that case that you'd still have the generic USB dongle that'd be more like $5 instead of $50 as an alternative method.

But in any case, I'm just blabbing about what could be, and I guess I'm still not convinced I need an iLok. Are there really any Waves plugins that don't have any alternatives? Slate stuff does sound good, too, but Superior and random samples from here and there are pretty comparable.

 

[fatalforce]

Just upgraded to ilok2 for vcc. And I've had no problems so far. I like Ilok because it's a nice blanket of security for the developers of the software. It's still a BS charge though.

Not to hi-jack but I do have my original ilok for sale

 

[AllanD]

Still no iLok here.

 

[Skaldir]

I thought ilok was evil until i got one.

+1
exactly my toughts

 

[BLUElightCory]

Love my iLok. $50 is not much for the convenience it offers, especially if you're working in multiple studios or switching machines.

 

[LeSedna]

The whole point of iLok is to be a special physical dongle, making a crack more difficult to do since it's hardware based. If it was just a file on any USB device, it would still be just a file, so it would be totally useless. And it works 100% offline : the plugin will opens if it's plugged, as simple as that.

Since ilok1 is now being cracked by some skillfull crackers (more than kids using crack software or dunno what), they have released ilok2.

The drawback is it's not free, but that's also their way to be paid cause they are a company who provided this hardware based solution. From their side, it's totally fair and normal, it's commercial.

The down and sad thing in the story is that, if you think of it, YOU are paying your client part of the cost of the product (I guess the sofwtare developpers pay them for the service as well) for the crackers. With no pirating, maybe it would have existed but just as a license holder without that complicated encryption, and it wouldn't cost you so much, if it ever existed.

 

[GeertSamuel]

Bought it about 1.5 years ago. Thought, 99 slots will go a lifetime. Allready at 43....haha.
Loving it, works really easy.

 

[Ascendant]

Never really needed one, got my interface for POD Farm (which I haven't used in months), and that's about it.

 

[D20]

no iLok here.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Love/hate relation for me
I have 3 ilock (2 constantly in use) but since I like organization I need to buy 2 more (1 for put my PT8 backup licence and 1 for put all trial/demo licence