Thanks for the quick reply Antoine, but I have to admit that I am quite disappointed with this copy protection scheme you have chosen to adopt.
I don't have any live gigs very soon so waiting for a month to transfer licenses does not bother me much. However having to carry the USB dongle to every gig does. They are easy to misplace, lose, break etc..., especially in a bar/club environment. I understand that this was probably a cost effective solution for you guys, incorporating the syncrosoft technology into the keyboard does not sound trivial at all, but this is a prime example of how the copy protection hurts legitimate users and not the pirates. I really don't see the point of having an extra layer of copy protection for hardware.
I have a few suggestions that you might take into account for future updates. I am sure these would make the Analog Factory Experience a much more competitive product, particularly with respect to other hardware synthesizers.
There might be a special version of the analog factory software that only works with the Arturia keyboard. When launched, it would check the midi interface connected and quit if it cannot find the Arturia keyboard. This might have the slight disadvantage that if in the future I decide to use the software with a different controller I would not be able to, but then I could choose to adopt the syncrosoft protection scheme. I think giving the users this kind of a choice - either software that works on all platforms with the syncrosoft key or software that only works with the included keyboard - would be a big plus. I'm not a coder myself but it seems to be that such a modification to the analog factory software would be quite simple and easily be downloaded as a patch.
My second suggestion is about the software e-licenser. I think there should be way to transfer licenses through syncrosoft's server. We all upgrade our computers every 2-3 years, so what's going to happen then? Locking one computer indefinitely is quite meaningless when in five years or so all those computers will end up in the trash bin. Maybe you could modify your agreement with syncrosoft to allow software transfers, but still keep it limited it to a single computer at a given point in time.
And finally, if you insist on the USB dongle to transfer licences, then you should include one in the box. I use logic as my main sequencer and mostly rely on NI plugins, and so I don't have a syncrosoft key already like other cubase users might. Now I have to go through the trouble of ordering one, and besides inconvenience this also increases the cost of the Arturia Factory Experience, making the advertised price slightly misleading...
To end on a positive note, analog factory sounds great and I plan to use it for many years to come. That's why these issues are important to me and possibly other users who have invested in your products.
Thanks,
Umut
