Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

What is the Pulse Downloader, and why are we using it? (w/ Video Tutorial!)

Andrew Aversa

Andrew Aversa

Lead Developer
As of now, all of our instruments are now delivered using Pulse Downloader (or just Pulse, for short), a free cross-platform application that downloads & extracts virtual instruments, sample libraries, plugins, etc. It can be compared to Continuata and similar applications. Since we've been fielding a lot of emails about it, I thought this would be a good thread for a public discussion.

Who makes Pulse?
It's developed by the fine folks that run @VSTBuzz. We (ISW) are not the developers nor do we have a stake in it. We pay to use it like anyone else.

What exactly does it do?
Once you have a Pulse account, you can enter a product code for a product that uses it. This adds the product to your personal library. You can then download (and not long from now, update) that product from any computer, after an OS reinstall or HD crash, etc.

Products are downloaded and extracted through a continuous, stable connection, eliminating any problems with managing multiple RAR downloads, merging, incomplete files, and similar issues that we've seen from hundreds if not thousands of customers.

Lastly, this process invisibly watermarks your copy of the purchased product (regardless of format - Kontakt, VST, HISE, etc.) This is an extremely lightweight form of piracy protection that has literally 0 impact on the end-user as it takes milliseconds to perform and doesn't affect performance in any way. IMO, it's far superior to methods like dongles or always-on DRM that can be quite intrusive.

Why do I need an account to use it?
Unlike Continuata, Pulse stores all your downloads in a central account. Similar to Native Access, once you log in you will see all your Pulse-enabled purchases from multiple developers. So if you have 10 libraries from 4 different developers, they will all show up in your Pulse account for easy re-downloading.

What data does Pulse retain?
Pulse does not store or handle any kind of billing or payment info. That's done strictly through the developer of the products you purchase. All Pulse (securely) stores is your email, password, and the stuff you've redeemed/downloaded using it.

Who else is using Pulse?
Red Room Audio, FluffyAudio, Production Voices, and Wavelet Audio among others. It's a relatively new platform but I'm very enthusiastic about its growth and adoption. Imagine having dozens or hundreds of libraries in one place, that you can download or update in a single click, without searching through previous emails, logging into multiple developer websites, re-entering serial numbers, etc!

Can I still get manual download links?
Speaking for us (ISW), we can still provide these on a case-by-case basis if necessary for any Pulse-enabled products. We think it's by far a better solution though.

Any other concerns or questions?
Let's discuss them here!

How to Use Pulse (quick video tutorial)

Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
I got something recently from Wavelet audio, and it used Pulse. I was discouraged to use yet another download manger. Companies like IK, Spitfire, NI and many others like to install their own "Centers" that handle product downloads.
I used Pulse to download my Wavelet product, then uninstalled Pulse.

If it helps copyright protection, then fair enough. But it does create another thing to think about when purchasing. And psychologically too... I was thinking, "I just bought from Wavelet,... who exactly is Pulse?" I actually Googled Pulse to find out more about it, because I try to be conservative about what I install on my computer.

A few companies have offered free products this Christmas. Partly out of generosity, partly with a view to expand their database of customers. There have been a handful of freebies I've passed on because another install of some kind of download manager is needed.
 
Pulse seems like a fair compromise to me. I continue to be very annoyed with another synth developer for switching to CodeMeter, but I do appreciate companies’ need / desire for copy protection, and Pulse’s approach (at least from what I presently understand, based on the above) seems reasonable to me. And an ISW bass freebie is certainly a strong inducement to get me to check it out!
 
Another application to keep track of, another account with password garbage to keep up with, another harvesting attempt of user data.
Useless. Nuisance. From a user perspective simple old fashioned download links are all one would need. If it is a bigger, more complex download we can use our own download manager. My 2 cents.
 
Wunderhorn said:
Another application to keep track of, another account with password garbage to keep up with, another harvesting attempt of user data.
Useless. Nuisance. From a user perspective simple old fashioned download links are all one would need. If it is a bigger, more complex download we can use our own download manager. My 2 cents.
Click to expand...

First:

An enormous number of users do not find manual RAR downloading, extracting, and merging to be an easy process. Sure, if you are an experienced composer and computer-based music maker, it's no big deal. But, as our tech support team can tell you, many people are not in that category. We receive daily emails with issues like the following:

* How do I extract a RAR file?
* (Keka, Unarchiver, etc) does not work
* My download is corrupted
* I don't know how to merge multiple extracted folders

Keep in mind we have answers to these questions on our site, but that doesn't stop the regular occurrences of people extracting multi-part files wrong, repeatedly having connection problems, and countless other problems.

Second:
Your data isn't being "harvested". I don't see how a simple user/password login is "garbage". As stated, the reason for there being an account system on Pulse is that so you can access your downloads across all the developers who use Pulse.

Let's say you have to reinstall 20 libraries from 3 developers with an average of 5 RARs each. With Pulse, it's just a click for each library to redownload and install. Normally - and I had to do this recently - I'd have to log into 3 different developer sites and manually download 100 files, one by one, and extract a minimum of 20 files.
 
I think there is no "right" solution for this. I can follow all your arguments but still I am really not pleased to have to make a special folder for "download apps" lately just to distinguish from my "musiktools" where there is something lik native access, kontakt......

As long as there was continuata, fine, now 8dio downloader, pulse, all the vst only working with dedicated download app, daws with download app.....

And I dont talk about something like the spitfire app/downloader which is just not working at all (at least for me). I had no problem with pulse so far (got lots of libraries from wavelet audio, triple spiral audio, now your stuff) but I have to agree on this feeling that you have to spent more and more time to keep up with all this stuff (downloaders, accounts....) instead of just making music.

And when you multiply this with the resellers who have to inform you about this and just cancel their direct download archives (like timespace some years ago)....Of course, if you have the download code saved somewhere and could find it if you need it...

Hope you get this user site of it. As I said, no better solution, but I must say I am really happy that two of the main sites where I buy stuff (vstbuzz, who is behind pulse it seems, so I am afraid that wont last long, and kontakthub) still have their archives where I can download the stuff again if I have, like lately, have to change system from win 7 to win 10. With the library sizes its just impossible to have a backup of evry library you ever bought. And if in the case you need it you have to think which code from which downloader....

But it seems thats "the way it is". Could be worse then pulse.....
 
zircon_st said:
Let's say you have to reinstall 20 libraries from 3 developers with an average of 5 RARs each. With Pulse, it's just a click for each library to redownload and install. Normally - and I had to do this recently - I'd have to log into 3 different developer sites and manually download 100 files, one by one, and extract a minimum of 20 files.
Click to expand...

Downloading and extracting 100 files is not that big of a deal if you use a download manager program and have some practice with winRAR. If the downloader utility works perfectly, of course it's way faster. But it only takes one error that requires you to ask on forums or contact support, to make the downloader utility the more time-costly option to troubleshoot, and IF something breaks there, chances of you solving the issue on your own are smaller than for the manual download issues that you can have. At least if you're a generally tech-savvy user, which I understand most of your customers are not. My general level of trust in these kinds of utilities is low. The forums are full of complaints about every single one of them that I can think of.

I downloaded pulseSetup.exe for that bass freebie, but I have to admit, there is a strong resistance for me to "install stuff". I haven't installed it yet. Not sure if I will.

@pulsedownloader: I would much prefer your tool to be a portable app, and if it functions via online account and login, I don't see why it needs an install at all? Also why does the download link on your site point to " https://pulse-updater.herokuapp.com/ " - another toplevel domain and not explicitely to the file that I'd be looking for when I want to download. What is Heroku? Is it something like Akamai, because I've had issues with their stuff in the past and getting passed around from one domain to another and then yet another feels bad for me as a customer.

In the end using pulse was what made me not install that free bass library after grabbing the license key.


KarlHeinz said:
but I have to agree on this feeling that you have to spent more and more time to keep up with all this stuff (downloaders, accounts....) instead of just making music.
Click to expand...

This is so true! I haven't enjoyed this last "sale season" because all this crap feels like filling out tons of obnoxious paperwork. The activation process for iZotope freebies is one of the worst imho. Feels like it takes a crazy long time just to get a single free thing running.
I'm leaning towards unsubscribing from every single audio newsletter again and escaping from this madness.
 
MartinH. said:
In the end using pulse was what made me not install that free bass library after grabbing the license key.
Click to expand...
I've passed up on a few products because of their download management. I'd not buy any IK stuff because they have an elephant of a manager. And I will not buy anymore Waves products ever (unless they get rid of Waves central).

The product would have to be crazy good and I would have to really need it to put up with such managers. I put up with Native Access, I put up with Spitfire (because they are top class), I put up with VPS Avenger's codemeter because Avenger is an out-of-this-world synth...
 
I do not have a problem here, although I do agree that yet another thing that requires a username/password is a tad annoying. EVERYTHING nowadays requires a username/password, and if you have products from many different sample library developers, and if you do online banking, and if you have an ebay and paypal acct, and if you post on several forums, and if you have a product that requires tech support and need to create an account with a username/password in order to send a request, and you have... the list never ends.

But let me ask you, @zircon_st - why not invest in your own downloader. It doesnt have to be as elaborate as Spitfire's, which shows you all of your products, but the 8Dio one is kinda nice. No frills, just enter the code, and download. Is investing in that really prohibitively expensive? I mean, won't you, at some point (even if it's a few years down the line), eventually recoup the cost of paying for Pulse?
 
I've used Pulse a few times, and I've had no problems so far.

My hope as a user is that the less that developers have to deal with tech support, the more energy they can invest in making great products. If Pulse helps you achieve that result, then more power to you.

Other than that, it's six of one, a half dozen of the other as far as I'm concerned.

Best,

Geoff
 
My problem with these downloaders is that most of the time I don't need to download the library again, I just need to move it from one drive or pc to another. And what is becoming a trend by developers is they are actively making it difficult for us to do this. They want you to redownload the whole thing again. Making the job hours or days when it could be a few minutes.


I ask the OP and other developers the reason for this (it can still be copy protected) and does Pulse delete the installers (not necessarily the bulk of the sample data but the installer exe) or components that cause this behaviour?

Recently I've had this issue with native access and toontrack. My only option was to dig deep, find the temp folder it puts installers in and wait for the small window of opportunity to copy and save the installer.
 
Thank you Andrew for creating this topic and discussion and very nice to see a discussion about this.

With Triple Spiral Audio I also use Pulse for some of my own Kontakt libraries and it is good to hear everyones pro's and con's about this.


From a developers point of view I share completely Andrew his thoughts. It is a great and simple to use tool that takes away quite some load on the tech side of things as I have received also enough mails about people needed help with extracting multiple .rar files, having issues with the downloads, requesting new downloads as they have not created an account etc etc.
Also the extra protection is from my point of view much appreciated, same as that the library is (as pointed out) stored in a library, just like with Native Access. Only one time a serial needs to be handed out and thats it.
To be honest I hope this will become a standard tool. For developers it is nice that you can hop in this without a very heavy investment. It is very suited for small starting companies and of course more established bigger companies and it's very nice to see Impact Soundworks is in to this.

As composer (and thus purchaser of far too many libraries o_O:grin: ) I can 100% relate to the sentiment of "yet again another installer/tool". I got way too many installed on my computer as well as I need one for 8dio, Spitfire, then there is Continuata, Native Access of course etc.
What I hope as said before is that this might become a standard tool. The developer of Pulse is very active, takes on all the feedback and it's constantly updated etc so.

And @bcslaam - I can only speak for the Kontakt part of this - it does not save the rar files for the libraries, but it puts it in a folder (wherever you want). As the Kontakt libraries are mainly requiring the full version of Kontakt, you can always copy/move around the libraries up to your own liking.
I have no experience with using Pulse with .exe installers so can't say how that is saved/handled.

Maybe @pulsedownloader can chime in for these questions and concerns :)
 
I vote no thanks. I often pass on libraries/plugins that requires me to install yet another installer or "center". Just as I don't want a "membership" in 7eleven, h&m and other stores. (even if I get discounts). I just want my stuff and get out.

I'm sure there are several good reasons for all these installers, but for me they are clutter.
 
Downloading and installing music software is often complicated and annoying. So far no problems with Pulse so can heartily recommend the experience so far.
 
zircon_st said:
First:

An enormous number of users do not find manual RAR downloading, extracting, and merging to be an easy process. Sure, if you are an experienced composer and computer-based music maker, it's no big deal. But, as our tech support team can tell you, many people are not in that category. We receive daily emails with issues like the following:

* How do I extract a RAR file?
* (Keka, Unarchiver, etc) does not work
* My download is corrupted
* I don't know how to merge multiple extracted folders

Keep in mind we have answers to these questions on our site, but that doesn't stop the regular occurrences of people extracting multi-part files wrong, repeatedly having connection problems, and countless other problems.

Second:
Your data isn't being "harvested". I don't see how a simple user/password login is "garbage". As stated, the reason for there being an account system on Pulse is that so you can access your downloads across all the developers who use Pulse.

Let's say you have to reinstall 20 libraries from 3 developers with an average of 5 RARs each. With Pulse, it's just a click for each library to redownload and install. Normally - and I had to do this recently - I'd have to log into 3 different developer sites and manually download 100 files, one by one, and extract a minimum of 20 files.
Click to expand...
To be fair, sometimes these automatic processes cause errors themselves. One such downloader caused so many issues with my Kontakt folder that I had to just install it manually anyway. The option to do it manually should always be there anyway.
I've noticed that a lot of these custom downloaders have processes running in the background. If you have enough of these, that will have an impact on system performance.
Maybe Pulse is different. I actually did use it and had no issues, but I've certainly had issues with other downloaders in the past.
It's not the fault of any one developer, but since it seems that every company wants to develop their own installer, it's harder to keep track of things. I guess it comes with the terrority, and is just something we have to wrestle with.
 
Hi all, happy holidays :) Thanks for your responses. I appreciate all of the feedback and I totally understand where people are coming from. As a composer myself, I do understand why people get annoyed with "yet another downloader app" to have to install on their machines. The main reasons I created Pulse were:

1. Extraction issues. We get a lot of customers emailing us every day on VSTBuzz with "I can't extract my files" issues. Have a quick search on Vi-Control even and you'll find a lot of people with issues. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but as a company when you start to grow in size, it can be sizeable. Say there are 1,000,000 potential customers in the industry for argument sake, and 5% (an example) of them experience extraction issues - that's a potential of 50k who may contact your support team at some point in time for help just with extraction issues specifically. These numbers are just an example and obviously inflated for argument sake, but it can really add up quickly once your company starts to grow. The difficulty for users who are experienced with extracting files is that its very difficult to understand how others can possibly have any issues with such a simple thing, but its honestly a lot bigger than you may expect.

2. I also saw a trend of companies creating their own downloader apps and thought there was a better way to do it than everyone having their own app, resulting in customers having to download and install a variety of different apps. If you have to reinstall your machine, it can take forever to reinstall everything again so I looked at the games industry with apps like Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/about/) and GOG Galaxy (https://www.gog.com/galaxy) and wondered why can't we have something similar for the music software industry? A simple library where all of your products from multiple companies are available at all times, you can re-download anytime and you can easily get product updates. Its just a standard in the video games industry that you buy a game, get a key and then its available to download on one of a variety of the platforms mentioned above. Generally, there are no "manual download links" and both are digital products so why not in the music software industry?

3. With improvements in hardware and software each year, we're seeing increased potential music software product sizes too. A 50GB product a few years ago would have been pretty big, but nowadays, its not out of the ordinary. There are plenty of 500GB products and even 1TB products that are available and trying to download these via a set of manual download links is just not viable. The largest file you can really offer for manual download links is 2GB. So a 500GB product will require 250 manual download links to be downloaded by the user - and due to how some websites are setup, download browser extensions don't work with them. So what's the best solution here if the company doesn't want to provide DVDs and deal with shipping etc.? A while ago we had a sale on a library that was 70GB and had 1GB download links. Guess how many people emailed us, angry that they had to manually download 70 files through their browser. It was....a lot :)

Additionally, if a customer tries to download a 500GB product and has continual issues with disconnections by downloading through their browser etc. they may download some files multiple times, resulting in greater bandwidth costs. If a company uses Amazon S3 to host their files (which is the industry standard), a 500GB file would cost $45 in bandwidth costs for the customer to download it ($0.09 /GB). A customer downloading this multiple times because they have download issues could cost you a lot more money for that single sale. Now say 5% of all your customers have this issue (it can be a lot more than this - this is just for argument sake as it varies from company to company), your bandwidth costs add up quickly too.

The real issue is that no solution is perfect. I think companies are torn between trying to help the users who experience download and extraction issues, trying to reduce the effect piracy has on their business while also managing customers who don't want to use downloader apps. Building both download solutions into your store isn't always as easy as it sounds and may reduce the effectiveness of your antipiracy solutions. There are obviously pros and cons to every solution but hopefully as an industry we'll be able to build a solution that works for everyone.

Here are direct responses to some of the comments brought up here:

- "another harvesting attempt of user data." - there is no data harvesting happening here. Your redemption keys are all linked to your account (email address) thus, you need an account within Pulse so we can load all of your libraries up when you log in. We don't harvest your data, sell it or try to track you etc.

- "From a user perspective simple old fashioned download links are all one would need. If it is a bigger, more complex download we can use our own download manager. My 2 cents." - Unfortunately you may be a savvy internet user, but there are many (a lot more than you might expect) who don't understand how to use download managers in their browsers, some website links don't allow download managers and the actual extraction of the downloaded files is what can cause the most issues (ie. "how do I extract multiple .rar or .zip files together").

- "I would much prefer your tool to be a portable app, and if it functions via online account and login, I don't see why it needs an install at all?" Due to the technology we used to build Pulse, it cannot be a portable app as you suggested. That also comes with other issues such as "signing" (using certificates to ensure your system knows the installation is from a reputable source). Pulse is actually super lightweight though and its not installing deep within your system at all.

- "why does the download link on your site point to " https://pulse-updater.herokuapp.com/ " - another toplevel domain and not explicitely to the file that I'd be looking for when I want to download. What is Heroku? Is it something like Akamai, because I've had issues with their stuff in the past and getting passed around from one domain to another and then yet another feels bad for me as a customer." The Pulse installer files are hosted on "Heroku" (https://www.heroku.com). This is a simple platform that allows you to deploy desktop apps. The link you mentioned is not a "direct" link to the Pulse installer files as its a "smart" link that detects what OS you're using, then provides you with the correct Pulse installer based on that. We will also offer Windows and Mac download buttons below the Pulse download button in the next few days.

Thanks again for your questions and feedback and happy holidays :)
 
I am personally happy about this. I had to use pulse twice so far and was surprised to see it wasn't for the same dev. To me that's a huge win. And I hope more will join it in the long run. I'd prefer to concentrate on one platform than keep building their own tool (spitfire, too track, 8dio, sonokinetik,etc) I have so many on my desktop that I stop counting. If I could have juste native access and something like pulse I'd be happy.

I work with computer for years. I'm what you consider an advanced power user. Still, I hate when I get an email with 20 links for 20 rat files to download a lib. It's long. It's painful. Having to click once, specify where j want it, and when the tool finished it's thing,. Start using it, that's much better, simpler and less human time (more computer time) which I like.

I understand the annoyance of having multiple username/password but to me the problem is not pulse but the rest. In the long run, pulse might cover for all other downloaders you have and would potentially be able to get rid of your other username/password. That's the long term goal at least. And if not pulse, something else as I believe a unified tool should exist to do what pulse does.

That's my little 2 cents on the subject. ;)

Cheers and thanks Andrew for the freebie! Merry xmas all
 
@pulsedownloader Thanks, I appreciate the detailed answer!

pulsedownloader said:
If a company uses Amazon S3 to host their files (which is the industry standard), a 500GB file would cost $45 in bandwidth costs for the customer to download it ($0.09 /GB).
Click to expand...

That sounds ludicrously expensive. I just checked what traffic for cloud servers at www.hetzner.de cost (just because that's my hosting provider of choice) and they charge 1 Euro per 1TB of additional download traffic on their cloud servers. If all traffic was nearly as expensive as the S3 example you gave, I don't see how many services like streaming sites etc. would be financially viable. I can only speculate that the "ask for special pricing" deal on S3 is at least an order of magnitude cheaper if it managed to become the industry standard in the audio world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom