Very sadly I will never purchase Dorico

It’s not ilok that Steinberg uses. You should read the the page Oscar linked to.

Even that is only for ONE TIME. If it happens again your screwed. I had a USB-eLicenser die on me and it was a nightmare.
Would you be OK with stopping your work days?

So did XLN audio, Native Instruments, Cakewalk and others. It saves a HUGE amount or grief for the customers and I suspect GENERATES less install/activation support cases. The XLN audio manager is a wonderful experience. STEINBERG, PLEASE COME OUT OF THE DARK AGES!

With one install for Dorico I would have to choose which work I can get done: Teaching with my laptop or composing with very large files on my desktop. I need to get both done.

I think some people use the term “iLok” like they use the term “Pro Tools”. :slight_smile:

I don’t know about the other software, but in my travels I have learned that Kontakt 5 is cracked, so I sympathize with SB sticking with the dongle, though I generally dislike it and the anxiety it causes.

Also, the 1 time zdt license replacement can be overridden by SB support if that happens to you.

Like, I only use Pro Tools when I work on my car’s motor?

Everything gets cracked. ilok has been cracked. Companies should cater to the paying customers.

That is incorrect, I would not know about the ilok, but the Steinberg key has not been cracked. My point is simply that I understand where they are coming from.

Whatever happens, do NOT go to a ‘subscription model’.

I’ve had to abandon software titles I like because ‘recurring subscriptions’ do not fit into the purchase order scheme of bureaucratic institutions like schools, or people working on grants and endowments. I personally find the ‘subscription fees’ fair enough; however, it can be a bureaucratic nightmare to get such purchases approved. The worst part is that subscriptions ‘limit’ the numbers and types of budgets someone like a high school Band, Orchestra, or Choir teacher can tap into for the purchase.

For all its faults, the nice thing about dongle-ware, is that I can buy it for a music program in a bureaucratic institution more like I would a ream of paper…from the ‘consumable budget’. Or, if it cost more than a certain amount I can order it with funds from the ‘equipment’ budget (like we would do for a new tuba) and put it on inventory…with a state inventory sticker on the dongle and everything. The ‘key itself’ is something that can be inventoried and accounted for with less ‘red tape’ than ‘password protected accounts on a foreign server’. It’s nice that the dongle can be ‘checked out’ and ‘returned’…similar to a library book, without giving away passwords or breaching ethics.

Once it gets into ‘subscriptions’, and/or can ONLY be itemized or budgeted as ‘software’, through the institution’s ‘computer people’…it’s a whole new set of eyes that have to ‘approve’ the purchase…PLUS, the number and sorts of budgets that can be tapped are seriously narrowed down.

In the USA, I dare go out on a limb and project that MOST band and orchestra halls in secondary schools do NOT get internet connections. If they get a PC at all, it’s usually the bare bones, 10 year old hand-me-downs that were worn out by the ‘typing lab’, and if there is internet at all, it’s firewalled to hell and back and NOTHING gets through without the approval of 20 different heads in 10 different departments. So…we have to use our own hardware, and get creative in finding ways to legally leverage any kind of ‘budget’ at our disposal to get these sorts of tools.

Sadly, I already had to move one ‘endowment’ built computer lab (the hardware parts) over to Finale from Sibelius because the whole ‘subscription’ thing pushed things into a whole new class of purchase, with a whole new ‘set of rules’…of which requests for ‘music software’ doesn’t even make the ‘priority list’ (Avid has since made some adjustments for the better, but too late now). Getting some of the states to approve music software from software budgets is about as pointless as trying to get an Arban’s method book for brass on the ‘state text book’ list so parents don’t have to sell candy bars and wash cars to get them. In many states, it’s not going to happen anytime soon that ‘music software’ gets on the list of ‘approved software titles’ that can be purchased with state money through the school ‘software budgets’.

I’m all for more and better ‘options’ for all different sorts of users. I just hope that some way always remains to simply ‘buy a product in a box’ either as a consumable (for lower priced products), or as a piece of major equipment (for more expensive titles), depending on what budgets we can shuffle around. From there we can slap an inventory label on it, activate it one time…then use it anywhere. The dongle does that rather well…so I hope it remains a ‘choice’.

Im not sure of the differences with a Steinberg key versus an Ilok dongle–but with the Ilok, it only needs to be physically inserted into the computer’s USB port when starting up the program, then it can be removed. At least thats how it works with the two licenses I have on it now, and I had never known this til the Synthogy (Ivory II) people told me…

Yes this is a PITA, but if the Steinberg key is similar, and only has to be in for when the program starts up, it greatly reduces the chances of breakage, and doesnt really tie up a USB slot, etc.

So must the Steinberg key stay in the USB slot for as long as we’re using the program?

Thanks Bob

PS If it counts for anything I’d ALSO like to see no key/dongle being used for Dorico.

I don’t know how Dorico is coded, but with other SB products the key needs to be in not only for startup but for operation as well. I’ve just come back from a session. Took the dongle with me. Brought it home. No big deal.

DG

Someone should make a robust little box with a USB hub inside to protect dongles. Just plug the box into your system to connect the (very safe) dongles.

One tactic that I have seen for protecting USB licenser keys is to use a very short USB extension cable of just a couple of inches in length. This protects the USB key from being snapped off if the side of the laptop is struck somehow.

I have just posted a statement concerning exactly how the licensing for Dorico 1.0 will work:

That announcement topic is locked, so we welcome further comments and discussion here or in other new threads.

I have to work on my laptop for teaching and my desktop for composing. So you are saying that the only way to do this is to use a dongle? And if the dongle is lost, stolen or broken (very real possibility in a school) I have to just stop all of my work until I get a new dongle and get it authorized?

I’m afraid that the answer to that, at least for the time being, is “yes”, unless you are willing and able to purchase a second license. You will at least need the USB-eLicenser in order to transfer the license between your two computers, even if the USB-eLicenser is not required once the license has been transferred to another computer.

We are not under any illusions that this is the perfect solution for all of our potential customers. As I wrote in the post I linked to, this is the solution that our management have decided upon based on the current capabilities of our eLicenser technology.

You can keep a backup dongle at home and/or a secure place at the place where you work. If you lose your dongle, just connect your backup dongle to a computer with internet access, go to your MySteinberg and activate Zero Downtime. You’ll immediately be able to continue using Dorico.

This will blacklist the old dongle, so if someone stole it they’re stuck with a useless purple pendrive.

What a terrible disappointment and such an unnecessary one. Well, maybe Dorico will lead as a new standard for a few years while someone else disrupts the market by listening to users more effectively. Who knows how this will play out? I only know what played out for me recently. I left Cubase a few months ago. I will buy Dorico cause it has promise. But v2 will depend on whether someone else hasn’t filled the same need with a better user experience. If it wasn’t obvious, having to deal with the eLicenser nightmare is a big factor for me. As someone with serious attention management issues, I have panicked too many times over fears of loosing a decade of my constant savings to this practice. I eventually gave up. Now, I only use it for a few things and I hope to replace them. I hardwired my life to not go through that anymore as much as I can afford to avoid. If you want Dorico to last, give me a reason to be loyal to it. Otherwise I’ll go with the best standing offer, which most certainly will change soon enough. The iPad 1 came out in 2010 and in only a couple years was disrupting markets. Steinberg is choosing to gamble Dorico on the only practices it knows. That’s not a recipe I trust to last. I’ll bite in round one. But I suspect this will only usher in more disruption than has already been seen. To me, that is seriously unfortunate.

There’s my input. Take it or leave it.

With respect,
Sean

This is for one time only per Steinberg. That’s not a solution for someone who carries a laptop to many different rooms and situations throughout the day. If I had to have a USB dongle sticking out of my laptop everytime I need to work it wouldn’t last a week.