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VSL instrument licenses vanished from e-licenser

's really too bad that they chose the eLicenser path.

It occurs to me that Steinberg, owned by Yamaha, may charge them a lot to put licenses on replacement dongles.

If that's the case, Yamaha, which owns Steinberg, is the company to focus ire upon.

But PACE does the same thing.
 
sleep at night

You know what else occurs to me?

This *and all your software - and hardware, and studio furniture and accessories* - is covered by a studio equipment policy or rider if you have one. I forget what the surcharge is on our home policy, but it's way, way, way less expensive per $ of coverage than dongle protection plans.
 
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I can tell you for sure my home owners policy does not cover this at all unless there is a fire or something. I'm not sure what other kind of insurance can be gotten, but its ridiculous that I should even have to worry about it.
 
It got weirder.

I was able to do a "reset" on my USB by unplugging everything. Tried the errant dongle one more time and *presto* it showed up in eLicenser. Maintenance did not succeed (could not "clean up memory" or something like that) but I figured I had one more chance with zombie dongle.

So I proceeded to transfer licenses (again!) to the other elicenser, one at a time. Took forever, but it worked!

Tried maintenance again and.... WHOOSH, that worked as well. But (here's the strange part) now all of the instrument licenses are showing up on both eLicensers.

VSL has a protection plan for about $40 a year or I can just buy a new eLicenser every two years to stay in warranty. Either option seems reasonable for "maintenance," really. It may very well be that they have to pay Steinberg when something like this happens. I had not thought of that.

I did not mean for this thread to turn into a VSL bash, really. I have been very lucky that the dongles have worked flawlessly for so many years. I need to take steps to insure my investment and acknowledge that VSL is still servicing 10+ year old software that I love to use.
 
I can tell you for sure my home owners policy does not cover this at all unless there is a fire or something. I'm not sure what other kind of insurance can be gotten, but its ridiculous that I should even have to worry about it.

It's a professional equipment rider. Regular homeowner's policies don't cover it.
 
Oh that sounds like something I want to to have to invest in..... NOT.

VSL is the only software product I own, and I own many, that require such a thing.
 
Oh that sounds like something I want to to have to invest in..... NOT.

VSL is the only software product I own, and I own many, that require such a thing.

PACE is the same - iLoks.

But this is equipment insurance. If my house burns down or gets broken into and everything's stolen, I can't afford to replace it all.

And that's my ideology: you insure what you can't afford to replace out of pocket, and *only* what you can't afford to replace out of pocket (i.e. no extended warranty rip-offs, AppleCare, etc.). But I've ranted about that too many times.
 
My home owners insurance covers all of my musical equipment from a fire. And I believe if I listed the $10k dongle on my list of things in the home, then that would be covered in the case off a fire also. Home owners insurance would not cover if the equipment stops working for any other reason having nothing to do with the house.
 
Also PACE is absolutely not the same. Even Steinberg with eLicenser will recover your license if anything happens to the dongle. VSL is the only one I own that is taking the hardline stance that they are about it, requiring additional insurance to be necessary.
 
I don’t use it professionally.

Either way, it’s not going to cover anything if you lose your dongle, or it fails for any reason.
 
VSL to anyone buying new today,

I would, there are quite a few things VSL library's can do that others can not, plus the library's have a great canvas to build on where others can be very soaked with process,

because there are a zillion other great options out there that will let you sleep at night rather than worry about losing your expensive licenses. It's really too bad that they chose the eLicenser path.

I think users just get on with the music not sure if users start shaking every time they use VSL becuase of a dongle

I was able to do a "reset" on my USB by unplugging everything. Tried the errant dongle one more time and *presto* it showed up in eLicenser.

this is a very unique circumstance, never heard that one before, but glad you got through,

people have upgraded Cubase to 10 from cubase 4 on the same dongle and still going strong so it can be a very unique circumstance for a dongle to fail,i mean there are no moving parts, all it does is show license that is it, what is it doing to fail.

Hear is some thing to think about, you could be in for a PSU fail, as it looks like the power was not supplying all usb ports that is a sign of PSU fail, and maybe its time for a new one.

or damaged circuit on motherboard.

there are a zillion other great options out there

And this is the great thing in general we have choice and because of choice there is no need to slam, i mean i am sure no one is begging VSL please please VSL i want your library so badly to purchase from you, just give up your dongle and you can have all my money, eeeeerh...... NO

Now i can hear your argument if VSL was the only Developer in the whole wide world, but they are not, so all the kings horses and all the kings men can not make you purchase from VSL, because you have Choice, and choice means you can do what you want, and if you are doing what you want then allow others to do what they want too, and that includes VSL.
 
I think users just get on with the music not sure if users start shaking every time they use VSL becuase of a dongle

@novaburst : You've probably seen a lot of my posts and you know I'm a huge fan of the VI VSL Libraries, but I can understand why some users would "start shaking" every time they use VSL Libraries. I actually keep my latest eLicenser purchase invoice because of the 2yr hardware warranty pinned into one of my closets just in case something ever happens. I'm actually due to purchase a new one for no reason at all this august just to keep that hardware warranty.

VSL has had the chance to address this problem but instead they chose to go with their Vienna Key Protection plan for 70 euros for two years. For me, I see three problems with this:

- One, 70 Euros is 107$ Canadian with exchange, an eLicenser costs me 39.99$ CDN at my local Long and McQuade music store and the warranty covers me for hardware defects for 2 years.
- Second, I should not be held liable to such care for something I paid a lot of money for. For instance, if I lost my 8Dio library files, I can contact them and they will happily help me, same with East West, Embertone, Virharmonic, etc.
- Third, now that they have implemented this system, they can't ever retract their decision since the suckers that paid this "warranty" would have to be refunded which I'm sure they cannot afford retroactively.

VSL really needs to rethink their whole piracy stance! Today, they're certainly no more special than Spitfire nor Orchestral Tools (I picked these two since they're the most expensive) and Kontakt libraries are sadly pirated daily due to Native Instrument's failure to develop a proper copy protection.

Instead, they're banking on a cash grab of 70 Euros with their dongle protection plan because they're slaves to Steinberg's costly license management.

If they hadn't started that dongle protection plan they could've devised a plan that would be fair to their loyal customers but it's clear that somewhere in their management there's someone that's disconnected from the scene and hasn't gone out since 2007.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I too have to stress that I'm a very big fan of the VSL VI Libraries but I also feel very worried that my investment could vanish with very costly replacements.
 
Hear is some thing to think about, you could be in for a PSU fail, as it looks like the power was not supplying all usb ports that is a sign of PSU fail, and maybe its time for a new one.

or damaged circuit on motherboard.
Something to think about for sure. Thanks, novaburst. Could just be the USB hub as well. I am trying all of this out.
 
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I too have to stress that I'm a very big fan of the VSL VI Libraries but I also feel very worried that my investment could vanish with very costly replacements.

It's a good read,

Weather or not VSL has good policy or not is not for me to say or to dictate what they should do, I purchased a few VSL library's knowing all of their policies so then to turn around and start saying they are unfair would not make any sense.

The gas pipe running through our homes can explode any moment but do we sleep out side or sleep in fear because of that possibility, the fuse box can fail and the electricity can set fire to our homes but we still live inside and sleep without fear at night but there is perhaps a better chance of that happening than a dongle failure or a broken dongle or even a stolen dongle.

All I am saying we get on with life without putting the negatives in front of us, yes a dongle can fail but how many times have you heard or even known of one that has failed in say the last 5 to 10 years, you can break your dongle but how many times do you break yours with in a 5 year period or even heard of one being broken,

These dongles stay in a USB hub or at the back, or inside our machines and that's it.

OK the risk increases if your going to carry your dongle everywhere you go but even so.

It's these facts that should give anyone confidence that the chances of a dongle failure, or damaged, or stolen are the same chances as a house burning down, or gas explosion or car crash or rubbery.

We can't just dwell on the negative side just use the software and get on with life and making music, just sleep well in your house and drive well in your car, just live and use the things we have for what they are meant to be used for purchasing VSL is not meant to be used for telling them what to do it's meant for making music.
 
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Something to think about for sure. Thanks, novaburst. Could just be the USB hub as well. I am trying all of this out.

Is the hub bus-powered or does it have its own mains supply? Dongles tend to play up on bus-powered hubs because they have anti-tamper electronics that trigger on the brownouts you can get if they are drawing power from the host computer over the USB bus.
 
Is the hub bus-powered or does it have its own mains supply? Dongles tend to play up on bus-powered hubs because they have anti-tamper electronics that trigger on the brownouts you can get if they are drawing power from the host computer over the USB bus.
The hub has its own supply. First thing I tried when having trouble was plugging the dongles directly into the Mac chassis USB. Same behavior when it happened. I am starting to suspect my PSU now, unfortunately...

In the mean time, I do have another response from VSL saying that actually in my case, since only some licenses were affected, they would have been able to take care of it for only 50-100 Euros.
 
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