AF authorization madness

[deerwolf]

I purchased AF, have the card with my serial and activation code, but haven't been able to use it in almost one month. Why?

I bought a new machine, and was very excited to see how AF performed on it, however I have yet to be able to try it, after weeks of trying to contact technical support and trying to get clear on the archaic authorization system Arturia uses.

From what I understand the only way to get the license off my old machine is to purchase a USB dongle (circa 1993) to transfer the lisence off the old machine, and onto the dongle. My question is, whether or not after I transfer onto the dongle I can transfer it onto my new machine's hard drive or will it have to remain on the dongle? In other words, do I need to use the dongle now forever because I installed the license onto one machine already? That seems absurd, and if that is the case I would surely expect to receive a new activation code. Performing with a laptop I certainly do not want to have some silly plastic key taking up one of my 3 ports, it's not even an option. If it didn't come with a dongle, it doesn't need one, and I don't expect to need one all of the sudden.

My advice is if it says "dongle" on the box, run. Or else you will be like me, in the middle of a session and unable to load all your tracks for weeks. Ableton is the only company to ever get software authorization right, and I purchased it happily, I wish everyone would just copy their authorization system exactly.

[Antoine]

Processed through the regular Technical Support way.

[deerwolf]

Antione helped me out through this, thanks again, I'm up and running.

I look forward to more Arturia products as I think they are tending towards a better dongle-free system in the very near future. Sonically, I think Arturia and PSP make the best plugs hands down, but them dongles...

One cool feature I would like to suggest would be to in addition to a soft authorization solution to put a dongle inside the keyboard hardware of e.g. the analog factory experience so that I could run it on any machine that I had my keyboard plugged into... ?

Also, I am still curious about my question though if anyone wants to answer it:

After one transfers a soft-license back onto a dongle can they then transfer it onto another machine's hard drive (for dongle free operation) or will they always have to use the dongle?

[Sean W]

After one transfers a soft-license back onto a dongle can they then transfer it onto another machine's hard drive (for dongle free operation) or will they always have to use the dongle?

In our current product line, Analog Factory 2 and MiniMg V2 licenses can be transfered back and forth between the Soft eLicenser (on the hard drive) and the USB eLicenser (dongle) using the License transfer Wizard in the License Control Center.
This should also be the case with all the new updates coming this fall for the rest of our software instruments line.

Just don't forget to transfer your licenses back to the dongle before reformatting your hard drive!

For the record, Syncrosoft is one of the most common music software authorization system. It is used by Steinberg, Korg, IK, Tascam/Gigastudio, Rob Papen, VirSyn , Vienna, etc  (all the eLicenser dongles from those brands are compatible with Arturia licenses). The USB eLicenser dongle is cheaper than the iLok dongle, and there's no fee to transfer a license (iLok charges $25 per license transfer).

[deerwolf]

Thanks Sean, that information was surprisingly hard to find.

For what it's worth, I still like Ableton's authorization system the best (which is entirely online) and I also think it would be great if some kind of hardware key could be embedded into your hardware instruments so that someone who has the hardware instrument, has the software at their disposal wherever they go with it. Not sure if that's possible but just adding the idea to the conversation.  back to synthesizing at 88.2khz...

[Sean W]

For what it's worth, I still like Ableton's authorization system the best (which is entirely online)

Well, some users do not want to connect their music computer to the Internet at all. The USB eLicenser dongle allows authorizing the license on the dongle using another Internet-connected computer, and then connecting the dongle to the music computer where the license can be used right off the dongle. (transfering the license to the music computer's hard drive for dongle free operation would require an Internet connection)

No software licensing system is perfect, and we understand it can be a pain, but that's the best way to garantee continued development and free updates to registered users.
This new Syncrosoft Soft-eLicenser/USB-eLicenser combination appears to be the most flexible.