The fact that weeks of conversation have been had about this with a lot of users illustrates exactly why it should be on the table again, as a matter of priority. I won't be spending another penny of my hard earned cash with NI until I can trust the company to provide adequate support for the products I've already bought so I can continue to use them.
I see where you coming from and keep in mind the conversations we've had were not limited to Pro-53. Our efforts in finding alternative solutions back in 2020 highlighted that accommodating users with similar products was a suitable route. We've done just that with the handful of users asking since May 2020. I'll report back on here if I hear more on this topic but it may take a while. Thank you.
I get that an old piece of software is no longer supported as such, but I do think it's bizarre that it can't even be reinstalled on the computer that it was already on, or another computer that's capable of running it. Around the same time that I got my Pro-53 I also got the original Arturia Jupiter-8V, both Korg Legacy collections and the Novation V-Station. All of those still work and were successfully installed and activated on my new computer. Surely all that really needs to happen is that Service Center is bought back online and made accessible to users with legacy software. As I said, it runs in demo mode - there just needs to be a way to release of from that state.
NI also did offline activation last year, till March, ...., June. Not sure till when exactly. Do not understand, why they have put down even this path...
Indeed, offline activation required you to generate an html Activation Request file with the Service Center software on your computer, then launch this in your browser. This would apparently take you to a web page where you could generate an Activation Return file to download and add to your Service Center software, if I remember correctly. It's still possible to generate the Activation Request file but launching it just takes you to a page saying that this feature has been discontinued.
It could even create file, one would send it by email or entered by hand to Support Request. And the file for Service Center would come one day.... Wouldn't be very comfortable, but it would do the job. And one does not activate it every second day..... I still cannot believe, that SW company goes to such a reputation risk to make their SW unusable.
Agreed with that, but there are precedents for EULAs not holding out well in court (at least in EU)... Plus, the situation is complicated further if you've ever logged into Native Access, you automatically acceped a newer EULA that has a different wording and so on. So you have a cross-referential legalese mess going on... Except SC has been completely shut down. As in, the whole back-end framework was upgraded so SC cannot even run now since it depends on the very old frameworks (is my understanding). The only realistically viable possibility here is going through the old plugins and removing DRM from executables. However this also depends on multiple factors - does NI still have their old build systems, old versions of their bespoke in-house libraries, everything needed to properly compile old plugins. And I am not 100% certain that they do.
The thing is, they should foresee the situation and compile/create DRM and non DRM versions along side at the same time. No need to recompile, seek for legacy source code, etc. Just remove dust from old binaries and make them public..... (Beside that, SW company should be able to recompile even 30-40 year old stuff. At least for Win, Mac might be more tricky....) Or foresee the situation and have some kind of "universal" key that opens given plugin at any computer. Or just make instead of Service Center Server kind of utility that receives data/file from Service Center App and creates file for Service Center App... Could be offline. User would run SCApp, create file describing PC, send it by email/web to NI, person at NI would generate the file for SCApp and send it to user.... If NI does not want to create full replacement for legacy SW..... I know, it may be quite a work, but that is NI decision not to create full SW replacement for SCServer. Simply, SW company may not say, hey, you have bad luck. No more chance to install your SW.
NI seem to have become the victim (or rather us users have) of an unnecessarily complex activation mechanism. I have an Arturia Jupiter-8V which still runs perfectly and can still be installed and activated on an alternative device if required, even though it has long since been discontinued and superseded with a newer product called Jup-8V. Before getting rid of Service Center NI should have ensured that the functionality required to activate legacy products was understood and made available through Native Access. I wouldn't expect tech support or free updates on a legacy product but I would absolutely expect to be able to re-install and activate it within environments where it is capable of running.
I don't know of any audio plugin company that operates this way. It's not how it's supposed to be done, anyways. This is a nice idea, but you don't have actual knowledge behind NI's earlier activation mechanisms and what made them such a huge a tech debt black hole that the only realistic solution for . Plus, people who created those old activation mechanisms aren't necesarily in the company anymore, and that can also create problems in fully understanding the ways of those old activation mechanisms. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20.
I'm boycotting NI until they activate older applications; Pro-53, B4ii, Spektral Delay, etc. If NI wants to convert them into Reaktor ensembles I would be okay with that, assuming the ensembles load our custom preset files, and the output is 98% within the original sound. If NI doesn't care for its customers then frustrated people will get into developing their own VST software, the growth in competition that NI will encounter is going to cost them a ton of money.
Well, developer might compile DRM and nonDRM version alongside. It may be few switches in source code.... Or DRM version with universal activation code. Or any other way of preparing for situation it will not be possible to au I understand NI has some problems, but they have to find the way to solve it. Telling users you have bad luck is not solution... There is another thread in which a user is not able to authorise and maybe even install Komplete 8 on older OS X. Because Native Access does not support that version. And on higher version that is suitable for NA does not run his DAW used. NI should understand that there is not only their SW, but also other companies SW and HW which run only on certain OS versions. The same OS versions NI plugins used to work in past. NI should come with solution. It might be expensive, I know. But they should learn to foresee that users may need run their SW on very old systems.
Please - you - can create a Reaktor Pro-5. I like my raw one and AmbieGarde Pro(phet) because I own the Pro-53. They've to create again - handmade in Reaktor!??! Mario, if you've a Reaktor version works like Pro-53 you can assign the panel elements with midi CC or id # in the same way they are in Pro-53. Then send with a bulk or something they calls the data to Reaktor. That is possible of course. Important is to have a 1:1 Copy in Reaktor. I used this function for my raw version. Lowkus here is my version 1.5. Please build a further - nearer to the original sounding Pro-53 in Reaktor 6 and give me a copy please. Thank you mate. There are a lot of dump banks in it.
MIDI CC will limit the range of possible values so not ALL patches would transfer 1:1. Pro-53 file format saved things with floating point precision. You can't have that with MIDI CCs only.
hex - hex - it's here again Pro-53 - CLONE 2.0 https://www.native-instruments.com/de/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/11829/ - ADDED: 32 voices - ADDED: max voice unison - ADDED: unison spread - DELETED: microtune - DELETED: phasing - FIXED: snapshots
I'll be interested to see if this clone gets to the point of having all the original Pro-53 presets and the ability to assume the modifications that were made within a GUI. In the meantime, I'm currently engaged in the painstaking task of bouncing all my Pro-53 tracks to audio stems. Fortunately demo mode works long enough each time for me to get quite a bit done. Such a shame that the Pro-53 can't be made to work again properly though, it's such a unique sounding instrument.
Hi there im going thru the same problems.. ive been a N.I user(MASCHINE) since day 1 and been using osx 10.8.5. and maschine 2 ..because its been a smooth workflow for me and ive spent lots of $ on expansions.... until now that my computer crashed and i had to get a new one and time machine recover everything and when i went to open up maschine it had the demo ,buy and activate .. and im just now hearing that Service center its fully discountinued!! why N.I. ?? dont be like apple!!????? thats not fun at all.. just cuz im not upgrading the newest computer or software doesnt mean i have to be declined my software i paid hard earned money for?????? can you help me please !! everything is installed i need that activation return file ..like is it really that hard??? i understand the future of evlolving and upgraded software n comps but come on! the reason i have osx 10.8.5. cuz its the last old software that still compatible with alot of plugins.. and pro tools 10 is always working good for me!! please N.I. i need your help.. and everyone else that has problems! hire more people to deal with legacy versions or something! cuz is slowly turning me off from your company as being a customer since 2009!!!
tmsn feel free to add your knowledge of the original Pro-53 to the clone (now calls inspirated by). Reaktor is an open source. So take my creature and build yours. This is version 2.3 rawvibesmusic New versions compatible with Big Sur and Apple M1 needs in the windows world win10. My sys in win7pro - so I don't update FM8, old Massive, Absynth and for the future Reaktor. My Ni start was in 2004