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



## Andrew Aversa (Dec 25, 2019)

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)*


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## ManicMiner (Dec 25, 2019)

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.


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## SirkusPi (Dec 25, 2019)

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!


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## Wunderhorn (Dec 25, 2019)

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.


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## Andrew Aversa (Dec 25, 2019)

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.



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.


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## KarlHeinz (Dec 25, 2019)

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.....


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## MartinH. (Dec 25, 2019)

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.



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.



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.


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## ManicMiner (Dec 25, 2019)

MartinH. said:


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


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...


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## erica-grace (Dec 25, 2019)

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?


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## Geoff Grace (Dec 25, 2019)

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


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## Fleer (Dec 25, 2019)

No probs with Pulse here either, but I would hope it gets used by more developers to keep it going in the long run.


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## bcslaam (Dec 25, 2019)

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.


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## Jaap (Dec 25, 2019)

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  ) 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


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## brynolf (Dec 26, 2019)

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.


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## reutunes (Dec 26, 2019)

Downloading and installing music software is often complicated and annoying. So far no problems with Pulse so can heartily recommend the experience so far.


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## Erick - BVA (Dec 26, 2019)

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:
> 
> ...


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.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 26, 2019)

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


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## Bernard Duc (Dec 26, 2019)

reutunes said:


> Downloading and installing music software is often complicated and annoying. So far no problems with Pulse so can heartily recommend the experience so far.


Same here


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## Grizzlymv (Dec 26, 2019)

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


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## MartinH. (Dec 26, 2019)

@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).



That sounds ludicrously expensive. I just checked what traffic for cloud servers at http://www.hetzner.de (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.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 26, 2019)

MartinH. said:


> @pulsedownloader Thanks, I appreciate the detailed answer!
> 
> 
> 
> That sounds ludicrously expensive. I just checked what traffic for cloud servers at http://www.hetzner.de (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.



It is expensive and gets even more expensive if you use Amazon Cloudfront to increase download speeds (which some companies do). Unfortunately S3 is very different to the cloud server traffic you linked to. They're totally different products and meant for different uses


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## Andrew Aversa (Dec 26, 2019)

Right, the issue with hosting on say a dedicated server is that you don't have the throughput to handle a lot of downloads at once. There can also be issues with connections and latency depending on where the user is. That's why S3, Cloudfront (etc) have effectively unlimited scaling, so whether there are 100 or 100,000 users downloading, it's not passing through a single server.


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## MartinH. (Dec 26, 2019)

Thanks for clarifying!

Would it be viable to use S3 only for traffic above a certain threshold and a cheaper solution for traffic that doesn't require this unlimited scaling? E.g. old libraries during non-sale time likely won't see big spikes in traffic demands I'd imagine, whereas a big new release or a steep sale are guarantueed to generate the unpredictable spikes in traffic for which you'd need S3. Or is the bandwidth of the cheaper cloud storage (like the one I referred to) really that far from sufficient for your typical baseline download traffic?


How does steam handle this? Some games are in the 50 to 100gb download range, and afaik when the steam key is purchased offsite (e.g. Humble store), then steam doesn't earn anything from the sale, but still provides the plattform to download it as often as you want. And the total traffic demand of steam must be orders of magnitude higher than that of the entire audio industry. How can they afford that traffic?


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 26, 2019)

S3 offers a lot of functionality in download links such as "signing URLs" to ensure people can't share links or only download when logged in etc. It's a very feature rich platform that server hosting just doesn't compare to. Big companies that use S3 get big discounts at the higher rates of usage. Many also invest in their own server technology or use other enterprise platforms that are more difficult for small companies to implement.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 26, 2019)

Also yes. Server hosted download links can be slow for customers depending on where they are based in the world and has limited redundancies in place if the server goes down due to overwhelming traffic. Companies generally want to "set it and forget it" when it comes to file hosting


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## bcslaam (Dec 28, 2019)

> 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.



I am aware the library location can be set and so can the download location. Yet there exists kontakt library installers that are only an exe that is apart from the main sample library and its needed to extract and validate the library. Its these that are typically only available on the original hd/DVD or momentarily available during installation by the downloader.

To the dev of Pulse do you have a function whereby one can move a library and for it to be validated in kontakt as a library? In the case of a new OS install the library will already exist on a drive in its expanded form and will need revalidating in the new OS and appear in kontakt libraries. AFAIK kontakt no longer has the ability to add libraries. It has to be done in Native Access.

I am yet to see a downloader/installer app that is friendly with this. Rather it has to be done by hacking around yourself and more recently even that won't work and my only option was to re download.

I do have to add my objection to processes that are constantly running also. Forcing us to go into task manager and disable at windows login. That is just wrong. They should never have an update agent or any other component doing that.


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## EvilDragon (Dec 29, 2019)

bcslaam said:


> To the dev of Pulse do you have a function whereby one can move a library and for it to be validated in kontakt as a library?



No, this is something only Native Access does. Don't expect any downloader to do that, it is not allowed, actually.


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## Peter Wayne (Feb 19, 2020)

I just got my first library using Pulse. Software seems fine, easy to use, etc. But the download speeds are really really slow!!! Currently ranging from 100kb/s to 2.7 mb/s fluctuating up and down over the last hour or more. I'm not downloading anything else and fast.com tells me my speed to local servers are currently at ~240mb/s. This 53GB library is going to take anywhere from 6-95 hours at least if the "remaining" hours are accurate.

Currently been stuck at around 100-200kb/s for at least the last ten minutes.

Now I'm all for having less downloaders and can see the benefit of using Pulse. I see it as a good thing for both developers and customers. BUT are these speeds honestly acceptable in 2020? Seriously these speeds are a joke...

UPDATE: was actually a 53GB file and not 125GB like I thought. Pulse doesn't tell you exactly how many GB. The file finished downloading in around 11 hours. Now if Pulse can at least double or triple their speeds (ideally more). I think it's a good solution overall.


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## pulsedownloader (Feb 19, 2020)

Hi Peter can you drop us an email to [email protected] and we can help you troubleshoot slow download speeds?


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## Peter Wayne (Feb 19, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> Hi Peter can you drop us an email to [email protected] and we can help you troubleshoot slow download speeds?


Email sent. Thanks. (I'll keep trouble shooting through email and not this forum). Although it looks to me more like an infrastructure issue than anything else. I wonder how others are finding the download speeds.


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## jbuhler (Feb 19, 2020)

Peter Wayne said:


> Email sent. Thanks. (I'll keep trouble shooting through email and not this forum). Although it looks to me more like an infrastructure issue than anything else. I wonder how others are finding the download speeds.


I had no trouble when I used it last. But that was at least a month ago.


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## neblix (Feb 20, 2020)

Puzzled at claims of nuisance and inconvenience, I decided to run a test. I ran a stopwatch on my phone, set it down (quite casually), and set out to install Pulse and register for a new account. I have never used it before on my machine, since I already have all of our stuff as the developer.






From opening the browser to staring at the "Your Library" screen in the Pulse manager, the entire process took 39 seconds.

It took longer than that to read through posts about why it's inconvenient. 

No one will ever convince me that hunting for download links and serial codes in years of email archives, or user account pages on individual developer websites is somehow preferable and less involved than just having all my libraries displayed for me directly in a library manager, where I can also see when libraries have new script updates straight away and keep them all up to date in a central location.

Audio software distribution is currently so chaotic and unrefined that I have to keep a spreadsheet of all of my accounts and URL's to reacquire it all. The average customer is nowhere near that diligent, either.

It's time to move to the 21st century. It makes no sense that video games have better technical implementation for distribution and support than tools that are worth hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars.


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## ok_tan (Feb 20, 2020)

Peter Wayne said:


> I just got my first library using Pulse. Software seems fine, easy to use, etc. But the download speeds are really really slow!!! Currently ranging from 100kb/s to 2.7 mb/s fluctuating up and down over the last hour or more. I'm not downloading anything else and fast.com tells me my speed to local servers are currently at ~240mb/s. This 125GB library is going to take anywhere from 6-95 hours at least if the "remaining" hours are accurate.
> 
> Currently been stuck at around 100-200kb/s for at least the last ten minutes.
> 
> ...


dear peter, i live in indonesia and can only dream of your download speeds 😅 a spitfire lib can easely take two to three days to download.


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## Peter Wayne (Feb 20, 2020)

ok_tan said:


> dear peter, i live in indonesia and can only dream of your download speeds 😅 a spitfire lib can easely take two to three days to download.


That sucks!!! I feel for you mate! I just downloaded a 13GB Spitfire library in around 10 minutes from Japan.


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## Andrew Aversa (Mar 1, 2020)

Here's a handy video tutorial that explains how to use Pulse. Though this process is demonstrated with our libraries, it should be the same for pretty much anyone else. If you've been on the fence, please check this out.


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## dadadave (Mar 2, 2020)

I don't mind another downloader per se, but I've encountered two issues:

1. Will Pulse enable some sort of selective download for updates? As of now, as an example, for Shreddage 3 libs my "Update" page on ImpactSoundWorks.com tells me to:

_"To get the update, simply go to your *https://impactsoundworks.com/my-account/my-downloads/ (Downloads)* page and re-download the *Instruments Data* RAR file for your instrument(s). You can then *overwrite* the old files (NKI, NKC, snapshots, etc.) with the new ones. "_

But on the download page I only get the download code for Pulse for the whole library and can't download just a RAR file with the instruments. That's inconvenient, but not such a big deal for relatively small libraries. For larger ones, though, it could become a major pain.

2. This is an impactsoundworks issue rather than Pulse, I guess: I have multiple libraries in my account that I can't download at all (anymore) because on the download page there's no more archives, but it it doesn't show a product code for them either that I could enter in the Pulse downloader as the download page suggests I do.


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## pulsedownloader (Mar 2, 2020)

dadadave said:


> I don't mind another downloader per se, but I've encountered two issues:
> 
> 1. Will Pulse enable some sort of selective download for updates? As of now, as an example, for Shreddage 3 libs my "Update" page on ImpactSoundWorks.com tells me to:
> 
> ...



Hi @dadadave great question. We're currently testing our new product updates process at the moment and hope to be able to roll it out soon to everyone. It will mean you can just download the update, rather than the entire library again. Its quite a complicated process (behind the scenes) so we want to make sure its perfect before releasing though


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## Andrew Aversa (Mar 2, 2020)

We are in the process of assigning product codes to all previous orders. It's a monumental task because we have over 150k orders from 13 years of business, across multiple sites/shops. But we're getting close.


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## dadadave (Mar 2, 2020)

zircon_st said:


> We are in the process of assigning product codes to all previous orders. It's a monumental task because we have over 150k orders from 13 years of business, across multiple sites/shops. But we're getting close.



Good to hear what's going on, thanks for the update.

For projects like that, wouldn't it make sense to keep the old system functional while undertaking the transition? 
Are you guys able to prioritize download requests made through customer support and manually hand out product codes?


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## Andrew Aversa (Mar 2, 2020)

It's unfortunately more complicated than that. We had to convert the products to be Pulse-enabled before we could start the key migration process.


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## Redsa (Mar 3, 2020)

Have used pulse for the felt instrument products and went well for me.


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## Fleer (Apr 15, 2020)

How do we simply download for backup with Pulse, instead of also installing? 
This option would save time and space when only backup is needed, as the rar-files suffice.


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## pulsedownloader (Apr 15, 2020)

Fleer said:


> How do we simply download for backup with Pulse, instead of also installing?
> This option would save time and space when only backup is needed, as the rar-files suffice.



Currently Pulse automatically deletes the .rar files after install. We may offer the option to not delete the files at some point in the future, but we're working on other functionality first. If you'd like to backup your files, you could just compress your files after they're installed and move to another drive.


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## Fleer (Apr 15, 2020)

Thanks. Seems a bit convoluted, so I hope you'll allow us to keep the .rar files in a later version.


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## pulsedownloader (Apr 15, 2020)

Fleer said:


> Thanks. Seems a bit convoluted, so I hope you'll allow us to keep the .rar files in a later version.



Yes we understand. Its certainly something we'll look at in the future once we have some other features added first


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## rrichard63 (Apr 22, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> We may offer the option to not delete the files at some point in the future ...


Years of carefully saving all downloaded .rar, .zip and installer files on separate archive drives have left me totally dependent on their availability. Continuata gives you the option to save them, as do Soundiron's, Toontrack's and Arturia's downloaders, to name a few.

Old habits die hard. So this feels like an essential feature, even though I could (in theory) learn how to get WinRar or whatever to create multiple part archives for me.


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## brynolf (Apr 22, 2020)

Should be a pretty simple fix. Just delete the row of code that says "delete the rar".  </experthackskillz>


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## neblix (Apr 23, 2020)

rrichard63 said:


> Old habits die hard. So this feels like an essential feature, even though I could (in theory) learn how to get WinRar or whatever to create multiple part archives for me.



Any archiving software can do this, like 7zip. Creating the multi-part archive takes mere seconds.


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## rrichard63 (Apr 24, 2020)

neblix said:


> Any archiving software can do this, like 7zip. Creating the multi-part archive takes mere seconds.


You would think so. But as soon as I tried it I ran into an anomaly that needs sorting out. I created a couple of multi-part .rar archives using WinRar. Easy, just as you say. I then tried testing/unpacking them with 7zip and got an error message on each one. After about half an hour on Google, I concluded that no one knows for certain whether or not there's an actual problem, or just an incompatibility in 7zip that can be safely ignored.

Moral: with computers, anything can appear simple at first. It probably isn't.


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## EvilDragon (Apr 24, 2020)

There are two RAR formats, RAR4 and newer RAR5 (just written as RAR in WinRAR). In WinRAR you would use RAR4 option for compatibility with other archivers.


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## rrichard63 (Apr 24, 2020)

EvilDragon said:


> There are two RAR formats, RAR4 and newer RAR5 (just written as RAR in WinRAR). In WinRAR you would use RAR4 option for compatibility with other archivers.


Thank you! That's very helpful.


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## lahatte (Oct 15, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> Hi Peter can you drop us an email to [email protected] and we can help you troubleshoot slow download speeds?



Pulse, would you please put an option in your downloader to keep the download package, i.e., the zip, rar, files?

Also, I throw away the .pulse folder, so Pulse doesn't know anymore what is "installed" (which it doesn't really do).

Thanks.


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## Fleer (Oct 16, 2020)

lahatte said:


> Pulse, would you please put an option in your downloader to keep the download package, i.e., the zip, rar, files?


Indeed. This has been requested several times.


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## HardyP (Dec 1, 2020)

@pulsedownloader, I´m getting repeated communication error from the auto-updater... any issues on your server side? Download of my latest product went well just minutes ago, though.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 1, 2020)

HardyP said:


> @pulsedownloader, I´m getting repeated communication error from the auto-updater... any issues on your server side? Download of my latest product went well just minutes ago, though.



Hi @HardyP that message is from a very old version of Pulse. Please close Pulse, then go to www.pulsedownloader.com and install the latest version. You should have no more issues after that point (and it will autoupdate without issue)


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## jbuhler (Dec 1, 2020)

I switched computers recently and had to relink all my pulse libraries. But when I pointed at the libraries, Pulse said it still couldn't find the library and did I really want to re-link there. I did, but I'm a bit concerned that the downloader doesn't really know what version I have installed. Is there a way to check?


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## Fleer (Dec 1, 2020)

Any news on that download package option?


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 1, 2020)

jbuhler said:


> I switched computers recently and had to relink all my pulse libraries. But when I pointed at the libraries, Pulse said it still couldn't find the library and did I really want to re-link there. I did, but I'm a bit concerned that the downloader doesn't really know what version I have installed. Is there a way to check?



Hi there, did you point it at the exact folder or the "root" folder? In the next version of Pulse, it will detect the exact version and show you a little more clearly what version you're on. If you'd like to drop us an email at [email protected] we'll take a look at it for you


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 1, 2020)

Fleer said:


> Any news on that download package option?



This is pretty far down the list on our feature requests as very few customers (3 so far) have requested this. Most people don't store the compressed files - they just copy the folders. Recompressing would only take 2-3 mins extra before you copy across to another drive, so to be honest, we're still not 100% sure its worth adding this


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## galactic orange (Dec 1, 2020)

Is it possible to order the libraries alphabetically by title or by vendor? If not, that's a feature I'd like to see in the browser.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 1, 2020)

galactic orange said:


> Is it possible to order the libraries alphabetically by title or by vendor? If not, that's a feature I'd like to see in the browser.



Yes we'll be adding further sorting and filtering in an upcoming version of Pulse


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## Fleer (Dec 1, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> This is pretty far down the list on our feature requests as very few customers (3 so far) have requested this. Most people don't store the compressed files - they just copy the folders. Recompressing would only take 2-3 mins extra before you copy across to another drive, so to be honest, we're still not 100% sure its worth adding this


Sure. I understand. Thank you.


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## lahatte (Dec 1, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> This is pretty far down the list on our feature requests as very few customers (3 so far) have requested this. Most people don't store the compressed files - they just copy the folders. Recompressing would only take 2-3 mins extra before you copy across to another drive, so to be honest, we're still not 100% sure its worth adding this



I don't get that, really. How hard is it to add a check box to select to keep the files, and then just do not delete them? Thanks.


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## rrichard63 (Dec 1, 2020)

I can see why this does not appear to be an essential feature that many users are demanding. But my entire rig and way of organizing my libraries is predicated on having an archive from which I can do a fresh install whenever I clobber the working copy of something. And on a set of habits determining how I do installations and updates. As a result, downloader/installers like Pulse (and 8Dio's app and a few others) that make me go through different hoops, because they delete the downloaded files, are an obstacle to be overcome.


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## lahatte (Dec 1, 2020)

rrichard63 said:


> downloader/installers like Pulse (and 8Dio's app and a few others) that make me go through different hoops, because they delete the downloaded files, are an obstacle to be overcome.



FYI, with 8Dio's installer, if you check and then uncheck the "Delete files" check box then it will not delete the files.


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## Gieve (Dec 2, 2020)

Personally, Watermark is my favorite copyright protection because, indeed, it doesn't impact us as users. So i'm cool with that. As for Pulse Downloaded, I used it for around 10 libraries. Worked well for all of them but one (forgot which one). I was a real pain in the ass. I forgot how but I finally found a way to download the stuff, but it took me two to three hours while relaunching the download every five minutes. It was a real pain. As I said, no problem with the other ones, though. So, hopefully, it's just a bug that won't happen again.


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## rrichard63 (Dec 2, 2020)

lahatte said:


> FYI, with 8Dio's installer, if you check and then uncheck the "Delete files" check box then it will not delete the files.


Thank you, I didn't know that. I thought it ignores the checkmark (or lack of one). When I reported this to 8Dio they said it would get fixed, but as far as I know it hasn't been. My workaround is https://8dio.net/manuallink .


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## lahatte (Dec 11, 2020)

pulsedownloader said:


> Yes we'll be adding further sorting and filtering in an upcoming version of Pulse



Pulse, PLEASE DON'T DELETE MY FUCKING FILES. Your software deleted files in the installation folder that were not related to the download. DON'T DO THAT!


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 11, 2020)

lahatte said:


> Pulse, PLEASE DON'T DELETE MY FUCKING FILES. Your software deleted files in the installation folder that were not related to the download. DON'T DO THAT!



Hi there, technically this is not possible, but can you please drop us an email to [email protected]ader.com and we can look into it?


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## rrichard63 (Dec 11, 2020)

I would like to report that a few days ago I encountered an issue where specific libraries from one developer wouldn't download or install. This was resolved with a bug fix to Pulse is a little over three days. That's pretty good customer support -- as a former programmer I know that bugs in code can be very elusive. Thanks, Emmett.


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## pulsedownloader (Dec 11, 2020)

rrichard63 said:


> I would like to report that a few days ago I encountered an issue where specific libraries from one developer wouldn't download or install. This was resolved with a bug fix to Pulse is a little over three days. That's pretty good customer support -- as a former programmer I know that bugs in code can be very elusive. Thanks, Emmett.



Thanks @rrichard63!

By the way...version 40.0.6 is now out with some additional small bug fixes


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## HarmonyCore (Dec 30, 2020)

When I was an IT engineer for 16 yrs, I used to deal with network infrastructure protocols that are referenced in documents called "RFC's". No matter what device in my infrastructure, they all speak the same protocols. This is the concept of standardization and unity. In my opinion, it's not a rocket science for the sample libraries vendors to cooperate and develop a UNIFIED downloader to deal with all the downloads from different vendors. It's really not practical to end up installing eight different downloaders. And I still call myself a light buyer. If I am a heavy buyer, I would end up having dozens of downloaders. 

My 2 cents ..


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## tmpc (Jan 7, 2021)

Downloaders all suck. The really bad ones (like Pulse) don't allow the user to save the compressed download files. So Pulse, as you have no intention of ever allowing this, what type of files are they and where are they hidden? With other downloaders that don't give you this option, I can generally copy them to another location before they are deleted.

Oh, and by the way Pulse, your downloader wasted about an hour of my time this morning because it wouldn't keep downloading. I finally had to manually delete it and install the latest version. So much for auto updating.


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## pulsedownloader (Jan 7, 2021)

tmpc said:


> Downloaders all suck. The really bad ones (like Pulse) don't allow the user to save the compressed download files. So Pulse, as you have no intention of ever allowing this, what type of files are they and where are they hidden? With other downloaders that don't give you this option, I can generally copy them to another location before they are deleted.
> 
> Oh, and by the way Pulse, your downloader wasted about an hour of my time this morning because it wouldn't keep downloading. I finally had to manually delete it and install the latest version. So much for auto updating.



Sorry to hear you had issues. It sounds like you were using a very old version of the app that didn't have auto update in it. As you are now on the latest version, you will find the app updates itself automatically for you now.

You can compress the files after download using any free program, then move them across to another drive. Here is a guide on how to use Winrar: https://www.wikihow.com/Use-WinRAR

Please feel free to drop us an email to [email protected] if you have any questions or issues


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## tmpc (Jan 7, 2021)

It was version 38; the one I installed was 40. 38 was about a year old; certainly new enough to auto update.

Really? That's your solution? I have to re-compress the files. This misses the whole point of saving what was downloaded. Why won't you tell me what kind of files they are and where they are?


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## tmpc (Jan 7, 2021)

If you look at the folder you told Pulse to download to, you will notice that it is getting bigger even though there is nothing visible in it. On macOS, if you select that folder and press Command+Shift+. (yes, that's a period) you will see a .pulse folder with a download folder in it. Just copy the rar files out of it. Unfortunately, you have to keep an eye on it so that you get the last one before it uncompresses and deletes them.

What an unnecessary PITA. 

AND, don't forget to press Command+Shift+. to undo it. You really don't want all of your hidden folders and files exposed.


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## rrichard63 (Jan 7, 2021)

tmpc said:


> Just copy the rar files out of it. Unfortunately, you have to keep an eye on it so that you get the last one before it uncompresses and deletes them.
> 
> What an unnecessary PITA


It's easier to do as @pulsedownloader suggests, and recompress the package as installed. As I have said before in this thread, I think this inconvenience should not be necessary, and it is relatively easy for the developer to fix the problem. But @tmpc is expressing our shared opinion in an unnecessarily belligerent way. That's not going to get either of us any closer to what we want.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jan 7, 2021)

Thank you @Andrew Aversa for doing this post. For me, the _only_ problem was the first time: "What is this Pulse thing?" 

But it didn't take long to figure it out. The first download went without a hitch, and then the second and the third. I like Pulse. 

So many companies have their own downloaders, from Continuata to Sonokinetic to UVI to Output to NI to Steinberg to iZotope, etc. I like the idea that there could be one downloader that would work well for a lot of developers. And I like that Continuata gets a little competition. 

If it makes developers' jobs easier, I am all for it. 

It is not the end of the world for me to have a few non-compressed copies of software on my backup drive.


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## kgdrum (Jan 7, 2021)

TigerTheFrog said:


> Thank you @Andrew Aversa for doing this post. For me, the _only_ problem was the first time: "What is this Pulse thing?"
> 
> But it didn't take long to figure it out. The first download went without a hitch, and then the second and the third. I like Pulse.
> 
> ...


I prefer Pulse over Continuata.
I almost always have problems with Continuata I have never had a problem with Pulse.
I find Continuata so troublesome recently reinstalling some OT libraries I did it manually,I find it easier and less problematic than using Continuata.

I might be wrong but can’t you always access products you already have in the Pulse app if you need to install again?


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## tmpc (Jan 7, 2021)

rrichard63 said:


> It's easier to do as @pulsedownloader suggests, and recompress the package as installed. As I have said before in this thread, I think this inconvenience should not be necessary, and it is relatively easy for the developer to fix the problem. But @tmpc is expressing our shared opinion in an unnecessarily belligerent way. That's not going to get either of us any closer to what we want.


The point of saving the downloaded files is that they are the original. Uncompressing them proves that they work. How do you know recompressed files aren't corrupt? Uncompress them again? What a waste of time.

As for being "unnecessarily belligerent", I literally wasted a several hours this morning trying to figure out why Pulse at first wouldn't work, and then a way around this particular problem. So, forgive me for not being Mr. Happy about it.


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## Andrew Aversa (Jan 7, 2021)

I'm afraid I also don't understand the issue with not keeping the uncompressed files. If you decompress a folder, and then recompress it, it's the same result. Unless your compression software is extremely busted or you have bad sectors on your hard drive, you're not going to alter the file contents by doing this. I genuinely don't get it. What is the use case?


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## tmpc (Jan 7, 2021)

Andrew Aversa said:


> I'm afraid I also don't understand the issue with not keeping the uncompressed files. If you decompress a folder, and then recompress it, it's the same result. Unless your compression software is extremely busted or you have bad sectors on your hard drive, you're not going to alter the file contents by doing this. I genuinely don't get it. What is the use case?


My understanding is that when you simply copy files, there is no actual checking that is done to make sure the copy is the same as the original. This is the reason additional programs are used to do this. (I use one called Beyond Compare.) But, when you download a set of compressed files, successfully decompress them into the actual working files, there is high likelihood that the original compressed files were OK. Im not sure, but it's also possible that the download process does check for accuracy. Whatever the case, the original download files are your bet at being correct.

As for your compression software being busted, or sectors being bad on a drive. Geez, when does that ever happen? I recently had an experience with decompressing some downloaded rar files where two different programs gave different results. They both decompressed, but the results were different. Weird!

Also, I have some libraries that can't be redownloaded. The bottom line is that I never want a situation where something goes wrong, try to use my recompressed files to reinstall a library, and they don't work. Why risk it?


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## Chungus (Jan 8, 2021)

@pulsedownloader I've been having a problem with my Shreddage libraries since downloading them with Pulse, namely that they don't fully (or at all) load into RAM. I've contacted ISW's support for this, and they suggested I bring it up with NI. While I wait for the latter to reply, perhaps you offer some insight.

It's definitely only the libraries downloaded with Pulse that behave this way, so any idea why this might be?


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## kgdrum (Jan 10, 2021)

@pulsedownloader 
Hi 
is there an easy way to delete free lite trial versions off the Pulse account?
Impact Soundworks Precision Free & Strat Free
I guess I can just trash the library folders off the drive but can you also remove it from the Pulse library?

Thanks


----------



## MartinH. (Jan 10, 2021)

tmpc said:


> Im not sure, but it's also possible that the download process does check for accuracy.



@pulsedownloader: does pulse check md5 checksums or similar after downloading archives? That would make a lot of sense as a feature I would imagine.




Andrew Aversa said:


> I'm afraid I also don't understand the issue with not keeping the uncompressed files. If you decompress a folder, and then recompress it, it's the same result. Unless your compression software is extremely busted or you have bad sectors on your hard drive, you're not going to alter the file contents by doing this. I genuinely don't get it. What is the use case?


Checksum hassles aside, the original RAR probably feels more like it's still shrink wrapped and in mint condition, while recompressing it yourself would feel like you've just put it into a plastic bag and stuffed it into the closet. It may not be a practical difference, but it feels different and other collectors of pristine mint condition RAR files would proably snicker behind your back about it.


Filesize aside, I think there might actually be an argument to be made against keeping the backup compressed as archives, because a single bad sector in an archive can mess up the whole thing, while a single bad sector in an uncompressed sample library is way more likely to fall into a sample, and that's way less likely to prevent you from using the library in the future. Someone who knows more about failsafe mechanisms in archive file formats can hopefully correct or confirm this. I think RARs might have an option to include recovery data to prevent issues like this, but that makes the filesize bigger and I don't think many use that feature.


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## tmpc (Jan 10, 2021)

MartinH. said:


> @pulsedownloader: does pulse check md5 checksums or similar after downloading archives? That would make a lot of sense as a feature I would imagine.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I don't know the details of the file protection either, but that's the reason I keep multiple copies of the downloaded and uncompressed files. With data protection, all you can do is increase your odds of not losing anything by having multiple copies in multiple places . . . a meteor hit not withstanding.


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## pulsedownloader (Jan 11, 2021)

Chungus said:


> @pulsedownloader I've been having a problem with my Shreddage libraries since downloading them with Pulse, namely that they don't fully (or at all) load into RAM. I've contacted ISW's support for this, and they suggested I bring it up with NI. While I wait for the latter to reply, perhaps you offer some insight.
> 
> It's definitely only the libraries downloaded with Pulse that behave this way, so any idea why this might be?


@Chungus I would suggest contacting Impact Soundworks - that is not a Pulse issue.


kgdrum said:


> @pulsedownloader
> Hi
> is there an easy way to delete free lite trial versions off the Pulse account?
> Impact Soundworks Precision Free & Strat Free
> ...


@kgdrum no there isn't a way to products from your library. The company who you bought/downloaded the product from can remove them from your library however if you contact them.

Would "hiding" products in your library be useful maybe?


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## rrichard63 (Jan 11, 2021)

pulsedownloader said:


> Would "hiding" products in your library be useful maybe?


Yes!! See, for example, iZotope's product manager.


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## kgdrum (Jan 11, 2021)

pulsedownloader said:


> @Chungus I would suggest contacting Impact Soundworks - that is not a Pulse issue.
> 
> @kgdrum no there isn't a way to products from your library. The company who you bought/downloaded the product from can remove them from your library however if you contact them.
> 
> Would "hiding" products in your library be useful maybe?


Sure hiding would be great! 👍


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## pulsedownloader (Jan 11, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> Sure hiding would be great! 👍


No problem, we can certainly add that to the roadmap


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## ScrltPumpernickel (Jan 26, 2021)

After I updated the Pulse application today, I'm getting this message anytime I try to run it:
"*This app can't run on your PC*".

I'm using Windows 10 1903.


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## pulsedownloader (Jan 26, 2021)

ScrltPumpernickel said:


> After I updated the Pulse application today, I'm getting this message anytime I try to run it:
> "*This app can't run on your PC*".
> 
> I'm using Windows 10 1903.


Please email us at [email protected] and we can hel further


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## ScrltPumpernickel (Jan 26, 2021)

Thank you. I'll do it tomorrow.


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## lahatte (Apr 11, 2021)

Pulse is terrible, not only because it isn't backup friendly, but because it DELETES FILES that it has no business deleting. Unacceptable.


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## lahatte (Apr 11, 2021)

And for f*cks sake, just make keeping the downloaded files the default.


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## pulsedownloader (Apr 11, 2021)

Thanks for your feedback. We've updated Pulse quite some time ago to address this issue. Now the only way files can be deleted are if you chose to uninstall a product, tick the remove files box and confirm the directory that will be removed.


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## lahatte (Apr 11, 2021)

Maybe I need to update then. When I used it today it had an option to "replace" (I think it was, which removed all files in the folder.

Also, when it installs into the specified folder it creates an additional subfolder which contains the installed files. That is not expected. I then have to move the files to the parent folder. It should put the instrument files where it says it will put them.

Of course, moving the files doesn't jive with Pulse's info, so it's no longer has the correct info.

I REALLY prefer to download the files and install them myself, where I want them. That should be an option.

Thanks.


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## tmpc (Apr 11, 2021)

I don't mind the option of an installer, I just don't want it to be required. The worst ones are the ones (like Native Access) that require a connection from the music computer to the internet. Is it really so hard to just download links and install them?


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## berto (Apr 11, 2021)

I think the issue could be that if we could keep a zip or rar in our pc then we would not need to re download it. I guess the developers are somehow paying a fee to pulse for every download. I might be wrong. Pls any dev chip in. But I can only guess that could be the reason why I can’t keep a rar file in my pc. I understand the reason if that’s the case. As it does not impact me as an user. As I can always re download. Pulse needs to generate money somewhere.


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## rrichard63 (Apr 11, 2021)

lahatte said:


> Also, when it installs into the specified folder it creates an additional subfolder which contains the installed files. That is not expected. I then have to move the files to the parent folder. It should put the instrument files where it says it will put them.


True of some libraries but not others. I suspect that this problem results from the way the developer packages the files for Pulse, not in Pulse itself.


lahatte said:


> Of course, moving the files doesn't jive with Pulse's info, so it's no longer has the correct info.


Pulse now has an option to relocate libraries, similar to Native Access. I've done this several times and it works. This feature is also useful when I need to download a library on one computer and install it on another (which happens a lot because my music computer has a slow internet connection that I can't upgrade).


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## Fleer (Apr 11, 2021)

Never thought I’d say this, but I highly prefer Continuata/Connect (to Pulse) as it allows me to simply download and backup.


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## berto (Apr 12, 2021)

I love if i could have only one downloader for all my libraries (pulse would be ok for that).... but would it then become a monopoly therefore tyranny?
Connect is ok, but it does not show the libraries all in one place like pulse does...(i haven't used it in a while, so i don't know if it actually does now)
i definitely don't like when a downloader shows me all the stuff that i don't own and gives me the trial versions all mixed with the stuff i have... like Izotope... i know i can filter it, but... why the mess? if i want to trial them i will go to the site...


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## Dargalon (Jun 4, 2021)

Pulse app is great for delivering updates to the libraries and they are incremental, so you download only a part that was changed, which is faster and convenient. This is just one reason to .zip library on your own if you want to store it like a backup, otherwise you will need to replace files manually and do it anyways.


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## EduPrado (Feb 22, 2022)

KarlHeinz said:


> 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.....
> 
> ...


I completely understand that.
We're thinking about moving our libraries to Pulse...but I'm scared of that feeling. It's a tricky decesion


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## EduPrado (Feb 22, 2022)

pulsedownloader said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


This is very clarifying, thanks!


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## tmpc (Feb 22, 2022)

To me, the only advantage in using a downloader is that you don't have to sit there and babysit the download process. However, it should . . .
1) Give you the option to download the files / library to a different computer than the library will actually be installed on.
2) Give you the option to save the original compressed download files.

It's fine if it automatically decompresses the files into the final library folder, just don't delete anything.

I actually do this with Native Access all of the time. Yes, it is possible to download and save the original NA install files without them being deleted. I then move that install file to one of my disconnected from the internet music computers (Mac and PC), install the library, and then go online briefly in NA to enter the serial number and tell it where it is located.

Updates are still a PITA. THAT is an area that needs a better scheme. But, I often find that the sample data is the same between versions, or has simply been added to. This is where a program like Beyond Compare can really be helpful in seeing what is actually different. This allows you to backup different versions of a library but only have one copy of the samples folder. The other files are backed up as different versions. I've saved a great deal of backup space doing this.


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## pulsedownloader (Feb 22, 2022)

tmpc said:


> 1) Give you the option to download the files / library to a different computer than the library will actually be installed on.


You can select any location to install your files to on Pulse. Then simply copy the folder and place it on your other computer?



tmpc said:


> Updates are still a PITA. THAT is an area that needs a better scheme. But, I often find that the sample data is the same between versions, or has simply been added to. This is where a program like Beyond Compare can really be helpful in seeing what is actually different. This allows you to backup different versions of a library but only have one copy of the samples folder. The other files are backed up as different versions. I've saved a great deal of backup space doing this.


Maybe you haven't seen the latest version of Pulse. The Pulse "update" process is based on "incremental updates" - so if only some new samples have been added, or just an .nki has been changed, then that's all that will be downloaded in the update. No need to redownload again


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## tmpc (Feb 22, 2022)

pulsedownloader said:


> You can select any location to install your files to on Pulse. Then simply copy the folder and place it on your other computer?


Yes, that it what I do with Pulse, but you don't allow me to save the original download files.


pulsedownloader said:


> Maybe you haven't seen the latest version of Pulse. The Pulse "update" process is based on "incremental updates" - so if only some new samples have been added, or just an .nki has been changed, then that's all that will be downloaded in the update. No need to redownload again


I haven't had to update anything downloaded by pulse yet, so I was unaware of that. That's definitely a step in the right direction, but does it give me the ability to download only the changed files within a copy of the libraries folder structure, on my internet connected computer? That way, I could just back that up as the new version.


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## pulsedownloader (Feb 22, 2022)

tmpc said:


> Yes, that it what I do with Pulse, but you don't allow me to save the original download files.
> 
> I haven't had to update anything downloaded by pulse yet, so I was unaware of that. That's definitely a step in the right direction, but does it give me the ability to download only the changed files within a copy of the libraries folder structure, on my internet connected computer? That way, I could just back that up as the new version.


Sure, when an update is available just click into the product and beside the "Install" button, click the 3 dots and select "Download & Install Manually"


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## Paj (Feb 22, 2022)

"*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."

Continuata, in fact, does do this from your account on their website, allowing an immediate Connect/Conduct download and/or manual download links (as Time+Space customers are currently discovering).

Paj
8^)


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## Robym (Feb 22, 2022)

EduPrado said:


> I completely understand that.
> We're thinking about moving our libraries to Pulse...but I'm scared of that feeling. It's a tricky decesion


We were hesitant at first. Before using PULSE we were having tons of emails asking us how to move folders during installation (we had to divide large size libraries in zip files of max 5 GB, then the unzipped folders would have to be moved in the main instrument folder for kontakt to see the samples). Plus the real issue was tons of customers asking where to put the snapshots, and we did step by step videos tutorials for that + specific instructions etc... and still we got tons of support emails (i mean tons, those episodic emails where we needed to do back and forth with the user until the installation was done). 
Our other issue was that we were already giving a share of every sale to our shopping cart provider as they wee hosting our files. We had to decide to move everything to AWS. It's not much per library, a few cents, but when you multiply it by how many copies we sell per library (especially on sales) it looked like a lot of additional money to be spent that before we were not spending. 

But...

when Emmett promised us they would add the snapshots installation in PULSE we jumped right in and he delivered!!!! Now we do not receive any support email regarding installation, except maybe one or two customers every month who have a very specific system configuration, but Emmett has ALWAYS been extremely helpful and has addressed ALL the issues making PULSE a really powerful tool. Our support emails have cut 99%. More time for developing and less to reply emails.

Hope this helps. 
(DISCLAIMER: We are not affiliated with PULSE, we do not get paid to say this, we actually pay PULSE monthly, and very gladly!)


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## tmpc (Feb 22, 2022)

pulsedownloader said:


> Sure, when an update is available just click into the product and beside the "Install" button, click the 3 dots and select "Download & Install Manually"


I'll have to check it out the next time one of my Pulse delivered libraries needs an update. If this works, it will be very helpful . . . we'll see.

One more question concerning the update files. If I download and save the update files, can I move them to my offline computer hosting the library and use a local copy of Pulse to install them without being online?


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 22, 2022)

Paj said:


> "*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."
> 
> Continuata, in fact, does do this from your account on their website, allowing an immediate Connect/Conduct download and/or manual download links (as Time+Space customers are currently discovering).
> ...



Ah, that must be new functionality. It wasn't around last I looked into it.


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## tmpc (Feb 22, 2022)

Robym said:


> We were hesitant at first. Before using PULSE we were having tons of emails asking us how to move folders during installation (we had to divide large size libraries in zip files of max 5 GB, then the unzipped folders would have to be moved in the main instrument folder for kontakt to see the samples). Plus the real issue was tons of customers asking where to put the snapshots, and we did step by step videos tutorials for that + specific instructions etc... and still we got tons of support emails (i mean tons, those episodic emails where we needed to do back and forth with the user until the installation was done).
> Our other issue was that we were already giving a share of every sale to our shopping cart provider as they wee hosting our files. We had to decide to move everything to AWS. It's not much per library, a few cents, but when you multiply it by how many copies we sell per library (especially on sales) it looked like a lot of additional money to be spent that before we were not spending.
> 
> But...
> ...


Hey, you can't beat that endorsement. If Pulse can make it possible to save the raw download files, I'm in.


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## Fleer (Feb 22, 2022)

Emmett rocks !


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## lux (Feb 22, 2022)

Yup, interacting with Emmett is a charm


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## HardyP (Mar 5, 2022)

anyone looking towards Emmet realising him 
Well deserved


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