Backup or second elicenser- and performance?

Hi

Just a general question on the elic dongle. The one I have I have had a long time now and I always wonder what to do if it were to break or go bad? what do you all do?

Is it possible to buy a second one and load your licenses and if so, how is this done? and where do you get it?

Mine is still fine but was just thinking about it and wondered what you do if it goes bad?

thanks!

Sorry to hijack, but adding to Trock’s question, I have an old style Elicenser, would a new one have any positive effect on DAW performance? If so could I swap onto a new licenser and keep the old one as a spare (I know I would need to switch the licenses, I am not expecting a duplicate of the licenses)

Yes, buy a new one and either keep it somewhere safe or transfer your licenses onto using the eLicenser Control Centre and instructions linked below (about half way down).

You can just drag and drop the licenses from one USB-eLicenser to another. Old eLicensers rarely stop working without warning, but if you want to be 100% safe it’s fine if you buy the new model and transfer the licenses as soon as possible. The new dongle should last a very long time.


Cubase SX 1 era eLicensers (those really long ones) had severe performance issues. Switching to the latest model should make many actions considerably smoother, basically as fast as your computer can handle.

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Awesome, thank you all so much!

Yes, time to replace I think!

Just upgraded my first generation USB dongle from SX1 (2002) and noticeable speed increase. CB loads at least 2X as fast. Definately worth replaceing if you have the first (really long) USB dongle.

Thanks NickCC.

I have a long style version for sure, I think it was purchased in 1998 for Cubase 3.5 (pre SX1). So it’s coming up to 20 years old

Is it true that the latest eLicenser dongle (or Steinberg dongle) version 4 outperforms the older models, to the extent that it’s noticeable using Cubase?

Does anyone have any evidence of this?

Steve


[mod note: merged post into thread]

See above.

Not on performance of Cubase itself… Only at start up, for some.

The much faster startup is just where the difference between the Cubase SX 1 dongle and new models is most noticeable. The lag caused by the ancient Cubase SX 1 dongle affects pretty much every part of the application to some extent.

Thanks for that. I apologise to all for missing this before I asked my question. It looks like a new dongle would be a sensible move for me.

Happy Xmas and New Year to all.
Steve

I have just now swapped out my Mk1 licenser for the latest - Mk4. Copied across licenses, ran Maintenance, registered new dongle at My Steinberg. All took just a few minutes.

I think I can see several areas of improvement.

Cubase start up was 20s, now 11s
White flashes before Steinberg VSTi GUIs open appear shorter.
CPU %. Difficult to judge, but I feel there is some useful improvement maybe 5-10% better.
Project opening times are definitely shorter too. Project close was always good for me, but now very fast.

All in all, money well spent and I have my old licenser as an emergency spare.

eLicensers have a 2 year warranty so I get a new one every two years. Admittedly, this is mainly for my VSL licenses which don’t have the most friendly replacement policy.

Further to my previous posts, I have been using Halion Sonic SE today, patches now load in a second or two since new eLicenser. I am used to waiting 10 seconds or more. Groove Agent SE is also much faster. Who knew!

So I am guessing that most or all Steinberg vstis are checking with the eLicenser as they load. this benefit alone, over time justifies the upgrade.

Yes, I agree. Since I upgraded to Artist from Elements (this October), I wonder that something (all) was loading much faster. But upgrading to Pro (this December) had no changes in load time. Maybe reason is that there is no Pro Dongle? :smiley: