I work all over the country, often abroad, and my Cubase dongle travels with me everywhere. That causes me some concerns. Not only do I worry about losing my dongle, but many times I have had to drive the 20 miles back from my other studio base to pick up the dongle I forgot to bring.
I refuse to pay the full amount for a separate second license, yet I would be happy to pay a reasonable amount for a second dongle and a duplicate, or ‘associated’ license - even if it needed an online check each time to make sure I wasn’t running Cubase on two machines simultaneously.
How about it, Steinberg? I’m offering you money here! You make a bit of cash for a second ‘associated’ license, and I can get more sleep without worrying about losing, or forgetting, the dongle I have now - everyone wins!
Another thing the system allows is to have a trial license on a separate dongle which you “start license usage time” when needed.
But if the problem is forgetting the dongle (which I have done!) how would another license on an other dongle help you? You would needs hundreds of them placed strategically all over the continent for you to avail yourself of their use. Kidding aside, my ‘emergency license’ is an Elements license that resides on the hard drive.
I wouldn’t need hundreds of dongles, just one that remains at base and another one that travels with me.
A 25-hour license isn’t a real solution, and to use the ‘Zero Downtime’ option you need a second dongle anyway. Why can’t I just buy that second dongle and have it store a second copy of my full license?
If Steinberg are really suspcicious that I would use my second dongle to run two copies of Cubase cheaply then impose an online check on me - I can live with that.
What are the chances you’ll forget to grab the second one?
Don’t get me wrong there is no sarcasm in my question, I just think that if one can forget to pick up one thing so one can easily forget to grab another one. There is only solution for this sort of cases - dongle free software, but I don’t think it will happen to Cubase soon.
It will be attached to something that travels with me (e.g. keys), so will never be forgotten. If I lose it I can replace it, but at least my main rig will be safe back home.
Thank you both for your thoughts - it’s nice to see someone thinking!
I wanted to add- You can find legit licenses on ebay, for cheap. Then you have two regular licenses with no futzing. An online verification system would cost a fortune in developer hours to implement. Plus there’s the real possibility that the license server could be down at the moment I try to log in to use that license.
I for one, would not want to buy something that makes me dependent on having live Internet. That surprise would be even worse than the surprise of not having my usb-key upon arrival at a gig.
Then course, there’s Cubase Elements, no dongle needed.
So disappointing that this still hasn’t neen reasonably addressed. I’m with you, The Elf. For me it’s a simple matter of wanting to do a bit of work at home when inspiration hits. But I guarantee that sooner or later I’ll be where the dongle isn’t.
Been using some form of Steinberg since the Atari ST Cue Beat or whatever around the late 80’s. But copy protecting WaveLab did it for me and I moved to SONAR for the past 10 years. That, like Sony Sound Forge, etc. could be installed on as many machines as you like provided they weren’t used concurrently. Refreshing not to have to even think about it. Ended up giving a hell of a lot of money to those companies.
I was actually excited about doing a Prodigal Son and coming back to Cubase. Then I saw the dongle.
I’d settle for something like what the clever folks at Celemony do with Melodyne: move to another computer and a few menu clicks later, you’ve deauthorized one computer and authorized another.
Canadian Copyright Act added nice provision allowing for a personal backup copy. It’s simply a fair thing. But it was toothless legislation because it didn’t apply if the software had a ‘lock’ on it. Close.
Adding even 1 more dongle/license like The Elf suggests wouldn’t cause the Steinberg company to collapse or lose its Intellectual Properties. I’d pay too (though it feels like a bit of a kick in the arse).
There are a lot of us SONAR expatriates looking for a new place to land. Some nice software out there. But I hope Steinberg is the one that sees it as a golden opportunity to grab new customers.
In closing this pathetically long screed, I wanted to ask about the ‘Zero Downtime’ license. When it says “…permits you to submit one online request for a Steinberg Zero Downtime license…” Is it really saying that you can only do the procedure once? C’'mon Steinberg. I’m not the enemy
The eLicenser dongle is used for full piracy protection. It’s not just a basic form of DRM. Melodyne for example gets cracked hours after a new version is released.
You can request Zero Downtime multiple times, but if you’re losing the dongle more frequently than an old man with alzheimer’s, then they’re going to investigate because you might be scamming people by selling your Cubase and then deactivating the dongle by activating Zero Downtime.
People selling licenses is the reason why receiving 2 licenses will never happen. The dongle makes it too easy to sell the second license.
If you need a second copy of Cubase for cheap, then buy it used from someone with good feedback.
I don’t see what would be so difficult in selling a registered Cubase user the ability to hold his license, or an associated license, on two dongles. Anyone would think I was asking for the moon!
But I don’t accept your reason. There are plenty of ways it could be managed without risking piracy and I’ve even put one forward. It’s not impossible - just something that nobody seems willing to do.
People selling licenses is the reason why receiving 2 licenses will never happen. The dongle makes it too easy to sell the second license. <<
If this accurately represents Steinbergs/Yamahas position then it’s really frustrating. There will always be thieving magpies in the world, unfortunately, but that’s a fact of life that most businesses account for. If they think that a dongle makes it too easy (which I confess I don’t really understand) then they should use a different system, though the reality is that nothing is perfect. One simply has to be realistic and also take their customers needs into consideration at some point.
Looking around, I’m hard pressed to find another company that makes it this hard on their customers… even the Big Money Makers: Adobe allows a couple of systems, Avid Pro Tools allows 3, PreSonus Studio One up to 5, Sonar and Sony as mentioned are unlimited, etc. etc.
If Melodyne is quickly cracked, it doesn’t seem to be affecting them all that much.
Another fact of life is that most people have more than 1 computer these days. I have far too many but I’d be happy with 2 installations: 1 for the studio, and 1 for home/the laptop. I just don’t think that’s asking for much.
The dongle is the thing that pisses me off the most about cubase.
As a travelling music producer/DJ i don’t just work in my studio but also while on tour…
iLok have managed to solve my issue, a stack of my iLok plugins have allowed my laptop to be activated as a local activation.
This allows me to keep my iLok in my studio PC and while im on the run with my laptop, the plugins are activated for my laptop without the need for the dongle.
Thanks codeblack, but I just checked the ilok website list of supported software and of the 118 listed I’m not seeing Cubase. Were you able to get this going?
+1 This would not only be great for travel. But I also have two separate computers, one upstairs and one downstairs. I’d like to freely move between the two computers, so if I get an idea or want to experiment, I can just get on the nearest computer and do it and not have to worry about where the dongle is. I, too, would be willing to pay a little more money for a secondary license/computer use like this.
I was going to say the same thing. That’s not really a solution, it’s more like putting a band aid on a bleeding artery.
Exactly, i was talking about iLok enabled plugins.
for the last few years i no longer need to travel with my iLok as i have stored the licenses on my laptop and the physical iLok is plugged into my studio PC… so the only huge annoyance right now is the cubase dongle, can’t tell you the amount of times i’ve forgotten it at home before a long tour abroad, or taken it with me on tour, come home, the next day drove to the studio (50mins no traffic) to start my day realising i’ve left it in my suitcase at home…
It’s a first world problem, yes, but it is extremely annoying when you need to work and are trapped abroad with no way to do so.
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