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The risk of using Spitfire plugin on a commercial project

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Sugar Free

New Member
What happens when you are on a deadline and your Spitfire library stops working?

I am experiencing this problem right now with BBCSO.

The library stopped loading yesterday. Likely because I performed system recovery on my Mac. (Eventhough, the samples were located on a dedicated SSD, excluded from system recovery.) The Spitfire App showed red exclamation marks, so I started the locating/repairing procedure. After "successfully" locating the library folder, I got an error message:
"Repair Failed. You don't have any resets remaining for this library - please contact Spitfire customer support for further resets."

What? Why? Did I mention that yesterday was Sunday? Do you see where this is going?

I opened a support ticket, posted private messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and.... nothing. It's already Monday afternoon on the Pacific Coast, evening in London and I'm stuck. Can't finish my cue. I even tried to purchase another license of BBCSO, hoping I would get a refund later. Well, it turns out you are not allowed to do that, the web store won't let you.

So what good is the Spitfire plugin for a working composer if the authorization system depends on availability of support representatives?
I've never had problems like this with any Kontakt-based or dongle-protected libraries. How good is a library if it can make you miss your deadline?


FOLLOW-UP:
Spitfire customer service got back to me and reset the download limit for my BBCSO.
The response took two days...

I was able to reset and re-download the library, after which I got the red warning mark in the SF player. I had to perform "repair"... several times. Eventually, I deleted the Patches and Presets folders, after which the "repair" finally worked.
The whole process felt incredibly random. Even after the final, successful attempt, the SF app would show red exclamation marks, when in fact it just needed to be restarted one more time.
I am not sure, how much all of this used up my recharged "reset" limit. Am I maxed out again?

Some of you wondered, how I used my previous "resets" in the first place. Looking back, it was only on two occasions. Once, I wanted to move the library to another hard drive. The second time was simply updating my BBCSO to the latest version, which completely messed up the whole library and again required multiple repairs/resets.

Even if you follow the rule of not changing anything in the system on a project, there are times you may have to, either because of a technical issue or due to a creative need. I said, I noticed the problem after recovering my system to an earlier point via TimeMachine, but I don't actually "know" that this was the case. For me, TimeMachine has always been the safest tool to roll back, if I thought I'd done something I shouldn't have. Could it have interfered with Spitfire copy protection? Maybe..., but should it be able to?


Screen Shot 2020-08-03 at 11.53.14 AM.png
Click to read more...
 
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Sugar Free said:
What happens when you are on a deadline and your Spitfire library stops working?

I am experiencing this problem right now with BBCSO.

The library stopped loading yesterday. Likely because I performed system recovery on my Mac. (Eventhough, the samples were located on a dedicated SSD, excluded from system recovery.) The Spitfire App showed red exclamation marks, so I started the locating/repairing procedure. After "successfully" locating the library folder, I got an error message:
"Repair Failed. You don't have any resets remaining for this library - please contact Spitfire customer support for further resets."

What? Why? Did I mention that yesterday was Sunday? Do you see where this is going?

I opened a support ticket, posted private messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and.... nothing. It's already Monday afternoon on the Pacific Coast, evening in London and I'm stuck. Can't finish my cue. I even tried to purchase another license of BBCSO, hoping I would get a refund later. Well, it turns out you are not allowed to do that, the web store won't let you.

So what good is the Spitfire plugin for a working composer if the authorization system depends on availability support representatives?
I've never had problems like this with any Kontakt-based or dongle-protected libraries. How good is a library if it can make you miss your deadline?

Screen Shot 2020-08-03 at 11.53.14 AM.png
Click to expand...

Shit. I have nothing to offer except to say that I hope all ends up OK with your cue and your client, and that they are in a position where they can deal with the delay.
 
I meant a clone of the OS drive. Then if you the OS drive gets corrupt, remove harddrive, put in a new one and install your clone-file on it. Then in theory you should be back at where you were when the clone-file was made.

Never tried it myself though, and of course it’s no solution to your current situation. Hope the guys at Spitfire get back to you ASAP.
 
hbjdk said:
I meant a clone of the OS drive. Then if you the OS drive gets corrupt, remove harddrive, put in a new one and install your clone-file on it. Then in theory you should be back at where you were when the clone-file was made.

Never tried it myself though, and of course it’s no solution to your current situation. Hope the guys at Spitfire get back to you ASAP.
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying, but my system drive is not corrupt, and technically reverting to an earlier version via Time Machine should be the same as recovering a cloned copy.

I also performed a SMC Reset (Shift+Control+Option+Power Button), which is a low level hardware reset.
 
How incredibly annoying. Almost without exception every time I call up a Spitfire Player instrument I see an error message saying it needs to be repaired (I'm running Mac OSX 10.11) Often the "repair" process does nothing, so lately I've given up and just choose a reliable and stable Kontakt or UVI based instrument, and avoid the frustration.
 
There’s a reset button in the menu. You can reset latest update or whole library. Is that not working?

I don’t have BBCSO but I do have HZ Strings and Symphonic Motions which uses the SA Player and I’ve never had a problem just resetting the library when something isn’t working.
 
Sugar Free said:
I hear what you're saying, but my system drive is not corrupt, and technically reverting to an earlier version via Time Machine should be the same as recovering a cloned copy.

I also performed a SMC Reset (Shift+Control+Option+Power Button), which is a low level hardware reset.
Click to expand...
Argh, that sucks. I hope Luke’s suggestion above will work.
 
In preemptive protest I didn't buy anything in their summer sale. I wonder if it's possible to just delete the app and reinstall from the .dmg? As if you never had it? After the Mac restore that's the first thing I'd try. Last resort, do you have enough MIDI to translate it to another library? Good luck.
 
Does it happen with discover? you could continue work with that and switch when spitfire responds.
 
jononotbono said:
There’s a reset button in the menu. You can reset latest update or whole library. Is that not working?

I don’t have BBCSO but I do have HZ Strings and Symphonic Motions which uses the SA Player and I’ve never had a problem just resetting the library when something isn’t working.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I've been trying to do. Were you aware that there's a limit on how many times you are allowed to reset your library and next time something isn't working you might be out of luck?
 
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That's a nasty situation to be in. I know that some folks have all their DAW stuff on a separate, always-offline machine which is of course not a cheap solution and not something that will help you now, but it might be a worthwhile future insurance for you.

Another part of that is to not change anything on your work system while you're in a project. No system update, no software updates, no new libraries or plugins. You only ever make changes during your downtime.

I hope you'll be able to find a solution fast. For what it is worth, maybe this will help bring it to SA's attention
@SpitfireSupport
 
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