73% off Soundtoys plugins - GASP!
- Thread starter reutunes
- Start date
unclecheeks
Senior Member
If you got some granular gas, have you checked out The Mangle? Not live input like crystallizer (have to load in a file) but man is it amazing!
I laughed quite involuntarily at reading "granular gas". Shows my maturity level...
I haven't yet purchased The Mangle! It's on my list - and at £19.99 retail it's real tempting.
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
If you are like me and don’t want software from Pace like the iLok License Manager on your computers, DO NOT buy anything from this company. Tonight I made the mistake of listening to someone who told me iLok software was no longer required to just use a code on a single computer for SoundToys plugins, and SoundToys’ FAQ seemed to imply the same thing, so I bought and installed Decapitator.
HUGE mistake … now my prized iMac Pro has been infected with Pace, since the iLok Library Manager was automatically and silently installed by SoundToys with no warning whatsoever. As soon as I saw that, I immediately uninstalled Decapitator, and then (after a lot of hesitation and a very deep breath) downloaded the iLok Library Manager installer from the Pace website and ran the uninstall process in that, which from what I read online is the only method to uninstall it. I think it MAYBE did uninstall everything, but I don’t trust that accursed company for a second to not leave some secret, hidden processes running to slow down and/or corrupt my computer going forward. In fact now I fear I’ll never look at that computer the same way. $12K potentially wasted.
I hope I can at least get my $50 back for the plugin, but that’s a drop in the bucket ... my real worry is about my computer. The last and only Mac of mine that had Pace software installed upon it was DESTROYED by that blasted software, forcing me to spend several thousand dollars on a replacement. I can’t afford to do that with this hyper-expensive computer ... if it dies, my studio and my music die with it. All because of a sale price and a misleading FAQ.
HUGE mistake … now my prized iMac Pro has been infected with Pace, since the iLok Library Manager was automatically and silently installed by SoundToys with no warning whatsoever. As soon as I saw that, I immediately uninstalled Decapitator, and then (after a lot of hesitation and a very deep breath) downloaded the iLok Library Manager installer from the Pace website and ran the uninstall process in that, which from what I read online is the only method to uninstall it. I think it MAYBE did uninstall everything, but I don’t trust that accursed company for a second to not leave some secret, hidden processes running to slow down and/or corrupt my computer going forward. In fact now I fear I’ll never look at that computer the same way. $12K potentially wasted.
I hope I can at least get my $50 back for the plugin, but that’s a drop in the bucket ... my real worry is about my computer. The last and only Mac of mine that had Pace software installed upon it was DESTROYED by that blasted software, forcing me to spend several thousand dollars on a replacement. I can’t afford to do that with this hyper-expensive computer ... if it dies, my studio and my music die with it. All because of a sale price and a misleading FAQ.
jbuhler
Senior Member
You have a back up of your system, right? If you are that concerned, why not wipe the boot drive and restore from a backup made before you installed?If you are like me and don’t want software from Pace like the iLok License Manager on your computers, DO NOT buy anything from this company. Tonight I made the mistake of listening to someone who told me iLok software was no longer required to just use a code on a single computer for SoundToys plugins, and SoundToys’ FAQ seemed to imply the same thing, so I bought and installed Decapitator.
HUGE mistake … now my prized iMac Pro has been infected with Pace, since the iLok Library Manager was automatically and silently installed by SoundToys with no warning whatsoever. As soon as I saw that, I immediately uninstalled Decapitator, and then (after a lot of hesitation and a very deep breath) downloaded the iLok Library Manager installer from the Pace website and ran the uninstall process in that, which from what I read online is the only method to uninstall it. I think it MAYBE did uninstall everything, but I don’t trust that accursed company for a second to not leave some secret, hidden processes running to slow down and/or corrupt my computer going forward. In fact now I fear I’ll never look at that computer the same way. $12K potentially wasted.
I hope I can at least get my $50 back for the plugin, but that’s a drop in the bucket ... my real worry is about my computer. The last and only Mac of mine that had Pace software installed upon it was DESTROYED by that blasted software, forcing me to spend several thousand dollars on a replacement. I can’t afford to do that with this hyper-expensive computer ... if it dies, my studio and my music die with it. All because of a sale price and a misleading FAQ.
unclecheeks
Senior Member
If you are like me and don’t want software from Pace like the iLok License Manager on your computers, DO NOT buy anything from this company. Tonight I made the mistake of listening to someone who told me iLok software was no longer required to just use a code on a single computer for SoundToys plugins, and SoundToys’ FAQ seemed to imply the same thing, so I bought and installed Decapitator.
HUGE mistake … now my prized iMac Pro has been infected with Pace, since the iLok Library Manager was automatically and silently installed by SoundToys with no warning whatsoever. As soon as I saw that, I immediately uninstalled Decapitator, and then (after a lot of hesitation and a very deep breath) downloaded the iLok Library Manager installer from the Pace website and ran the uninstall process in that, which from what I read online is the only method to uninstall it. I think it MAYBE did uninstall everything, but I don’t trust that accursed company for a second to not leave some secret, hidden processes running to slow down and/or corrupt my computer going forward. In fact now I fear I’ll never look at that computer the same way. $12K potentially wasted.
I hope I can at least get my $50 back for the plugin, but that’s a drop in the bucket ... my real worry is about my computer. The last and only Mac of mine that had Pace software installed upon it was DESTROYED by that blasted software, forcing me to spend several thousand dollars on a replacement. I can’t afford to do that with this hyper-expensive computer ... if it dies, my studio and my music die with it. All because of a sale price and a misleading FAQ.
I get that you had a major issue in the past and that sucks. In my experience - I've had the Manager installed for about 4 years now on my MacBook and have purchased many iLok products - I haven't run into any problems at all, if that makes you feel a little more comfortable.
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
What I have is a Time Machine backup. From what I understand, that’s not really suitable for a full system restore … it’s okay for individual files and folders, which is all I ever expected to need. Anyway, even if it could be done, that’s a massive and risky undertaking.
I know lots of people use iLok these days without having their computers corrupted by it, and I guess now I’m just hoping that my prior experience (which was quite a few years ago) won’t be repeated, before I resort to anything that drastic. But at the moment it’s like itching powder under my skin to know that Pace software has touched another one of my computers.
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
I’m sure most people would say the same. All I can say to justify my sheer terror at this happening is that, after a person has almost died after sticking their hand into a bees’ nest, no number of other people saying they have done so without coming to harm is ever going to make that person comfortable with repeating such an action themselves.
jbuhler
Senior Member
I don't know. Doing a full system restore from your time machine back up, even if it's not ideal, seems far less drastic than ditching a $12k machine. (I understand why it wouldn't be a first line of attack.) Also if my machine getting out of sorts made me feel this itchy, I would be looking for a far more robust backup system for the future just to make changes to the system easier to back out.
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
I did look for more robust backup software in the past, but the alternatives I tried (including the one that seems to be the most recommended alternative) turned out to be extremely untrustworthy, even just when testing with the demo versions thereof. When a backup program fails to make a usable backup within the first few minutes of use, it doesn’t inspire me to trust my whole system to it.
Anyway, the only thing that makes me this itchy is Pace. And I always thought I’d be able to avoid that. I’m mostly mad at myself for not being more wary this time; I knew that SoundToys used to require Pace, and just let myself believe, based upon a couple of things I read tonight, that this wasn’t the case anymore, even though I already had an unpleasant feeling while purchasing and installing the plugin. I should have listened to that feeling and waited to do more research, but I didn’t want to miss out on the sale price. It’s probably a good lesson about not being pushed by sales ... I just hope it isn’t too costly of a lesson.
Believe me … before I “ditch” this machine, I will in fact resort to a full erase and rebuild thereof if that’s what it takes. But that would literally be months of work, and comes with its own risks, so it isn’t my first choice.
Maybe the system will be okay now that I’ve “uninstalled” the Pace software, but I wanted to make absolutely sure that anyone else who has a similar level of distrust of Pace knows not to believe anyone who tells them Pace software isn’t needed for SoundToys plugins anymore.
unclecheeks
Senior Member
I would think a simple restore from Time Machine would wipe any trace of iLok if you're worried about it, but I'm not a TM expert.
Out of curiosity - how did you identify Pace as the culprit when your other machine got hosed?
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
Circumstantial evidence, primarily, but pretty compelling to me. Right up until the Pace Interlok software was installed, the system was incredibly solid for an old system, and had not crashed or locked up even once. Immediately after Pace was installed (and I mean the same day), performance of the system dropped by more than 50% (I was working on stuff where timings were being constantly done) and the system started crashing randomly, multiple times a day. Nothing else had been changed on that computer on or about that day, except Pace. Within the next couple of months it has gotten to where I couldn’t do any work on the system at all, and there were no backups available, nor did I have a copy of a version of Mac OS X that was compatible with the fairly old hardware. I didn’t have the time to spend on trying to find a way to bring that computer back to life, because I had work to do that needed for me to have a Mac to do it on, so the only choice was to buy a new computer.
jacobthestupendous
not that stupendous
Can anyone comment on the usefulness of Regroover (or even what it is)? I already have a Soundtoys account, and I hesitate to set up new ones frivolously, but I'll do it if it gets me something I'll use.
sostenuto
AKA _ doubtingtom37
I sincerely empathize with your situation and serious issues with this unwanted Pace intrusion. As a Win10 Pro user (and many iLok programs) my experiences are irrelevant, yet I will be very disappointed if Pace Support will not work with you to ensure that you are able to remove fully, all Pace entries from your system.
Have you attempted to contact Pace and enlist their help ?
Should this fail, surely there is amazing help here at VI-C to assist you in finding and removing all Pace software content ?
Regards, and trust you will have a successful system recovery.
WindcryMusic
Senior Member
Just a quick postscript on my situation: SoundToys was very gracious in refunding my purchase, although they couldn't give me details on how to remove the PACE software from my computer beyond what I've already done.
As far as contacting PACE is concerned, when I had my computer problems with their software in the past, I had contacted them for assistance, and their response was basically to say "hah, so you're having problems? Then you must be a pirate! Gotcha, mwahahahaha!" This, even though the one and only reason I had to install PACE Interlok was that I was employed by a company that was developing audio software that was to be PACE-protected and which had a contract with PACE, and I had no choice but to install the software in order to test it with OUR OWN PRODUCT! I think that probably explains a lot about how I feel about PACE, and whether I expect to actually get legitimate assistance from them in removing their virus, ahem, software from a computer.
sostenuto
AKA _ doubtingtom37
Aarrgghh ….. !
Clearly you are quite capable with this present issue and can work further to resolve it.
I have no illusions regarding PACE customer Support and not startled by your experience.
Hopefully issues like this will receive sufficient public attention to influence key PACE software developers to raise effective concerns.
Reid Rosefelt
aka Tiger the Frog
In 2020, Soundtoys did not offer the half-price upgrade that they had from 2016-2019. 2020 was the year they came out with a demo of the rack in the summer and I finally was able to evaluate all their plugins. So I wrote them and said I'd pay them $160 for the bundle. They didn't write back.
Now it's 2022 and the deal is 55% and my upgrade price is $169--still a great deal. And I'm not taking them up on it. Not that I'm mad they didn't write back, but just because I'm in a different place in my interests and financial situation.
musicalweather
Senior Member
I've also got a good upgrade price, based on my two "little" versions of their plugs, but not inclined to get the bundle -- don't think I would use most of them. But would be interested to know what plugs people love the most from them -- I may spring for one. I know there's been some discussion already on this thread about that, but still would love for people to chime in.
