Beware of UAD native plugins...

[Uncle E]

That's for the free LA2A and more recent free PolyMAX licenses. Earlier PolyMAX's and everything else requires UA Connect.

[beely]

That's for the free LA2A and more recent free PolyMAX licenses. Earlier PolyMAX's and everything else requires UA Connect.

This is incorrect. Like I say, I have disabled UA Connect from running and only run it for updates/installs, and then quit it (not "hide", but quit) immediately afterwards.

All my UADx plugins, iLok Cloud or Machine Auth'd (for the freebies) continue to work just fine - I have 27 of them. Oh, and when I was on Spark for a few months, and tried *all* the UADx plugins (as I save Logic presets out of them all for the LPH forum), and all of them continued to work just fine with UA Connect not running too.

And *many* people have UA Connect disabled in this way, on both platforms. There are a few people that have authorisation issues, whether UA Connect is running as normal or not, but these issues are unrelated. The plugin authorisation is done with *iLok*, not UA Connect, just as any other iLok plugin, therefore it is not required to run (despite UA having programmed it to want to run when you load a UADx plugin - which is why you have to disable it).

[Uncle E]

Good. Glad to hear it and glad to be wrong about it.

[Hanz Meyzer]

If you live in EU, you can request a refund, because as of today, neither Pluginboutique nor uaudio.com clearly explains before buying, that it requires a permanant internet connection. It is only vaguely telling you about ilok requirement. But the normal ilok soft license doesn't require internet while usage.

I bet also in most other countries, you have to clearly explain that before buy.

That's why I highly recommend to ask for refund because "you didn't informed me before buying that an permanent internet connection is required, but this is law in EU". Worked for me. Maybe if more people would do that, they finally learn that there is something fishy with their business practises.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Good. Glad to hear it and glad to be wrong about it.

No, you are right. Only LA2A and maybe Polymax use the common ilok license. All others are "cloud", which means that your DAW has to be connected to the internet while you are using these plugins. As soon as you are offline, the plugins stop working.

UAConnect ist not required at all, only for installation. It has nothing to do with the permanent internet requirement, since that is baked into the plugins directly.

[noiseboyuk]

Good. Glad to hear it and glad to be wrong about it.

No, you are right. Only LA2A and maybe Polymax use the common ilok license. All others are "cloud", which means that your DAW has to be connected to the internet while you are using these plugins. As soon as you are offline, the plugins stop working.

No, this is wrong (isn't the internet fun?). You DO need to be connected, but that is because of iLok Cloud, not UA Connect. If your iLok Cloud session is open already, your plugins will work without UA Connect. (only the LA2A and maybe Polymax don't have the Cloud requirement and can be machine authorised).

As far as I can tell, UA Connect's only essential function is as the installer. It is doing something in the background other than this - calling home with data and stealing iLok Cloud focus. But it doesn't need to do those things for any of the plugins to function.

[Hanz Meyzer]

Ah yes, that's what I tried to say...

[kmonkey]

I canceled my subscription due to the numerous UA connect issues. And no it wasn't my computer, support told me they have issues with "certain" configurations. I processed all the hoops (they even have articles on "uninstalling" UA connect - properly - as if you need a degree to do it) and after several UA updates, I lost my faith.

Bad stuff. Plugins are quality, but the experience of UA auth is beyond what my stomach can endure (and I can endure a lot).

[jamcat]

it requires a permanant internet connection.

No, it doesn’t. A permanent internet connection is not required. It is an option as one of the two way you can authorize.

[kmonkey]

it requires a permanant internet connection.

No, it doesn’t. A permanent internet connection is not required. It is an option as one of the two way you can authorize.

Yes, and one of the way needs a permanent connection and this is the issue. It isn't communicated. I personally don't have an issue with it I use a hardware dongle all the time but I can see the trap for most of the people not knowing that.

Look go here on their main site, like the main homepage most people visit.

https://spark.uaudio.com/

Go below and read the system requirement - something you want to admit or not no one is reading these days. But let us pretend we are educated. Go to the bottom and open System Requirements.

Do you see at this point they are NOT mentioning any PACE anywhere?!! Like not at all! Nothing nada. You open system requirements and they say go to another page to see system requirements as if they intentionally want to hide it. Go to Softube or any other developer. It is clearly stated everywhere. But on UA you have to visit their QA articles and no one is doing research and development these days at least not so deep. All they see is an advert, fancy graphics, and an order button.

I would give them so much credit if they at least on the checkout add a tickbox which says: I clearly understand this product needs PACE protection services in order to run properly - so the people would at least see something about it - but no as if they intentionally want to not mention it and then users complain - for a reason.

I think they are dishonest intentionally. Like just get them onboard and let them figure it out later. I remember when the first UAFX pedal was announced, on gear space it took me several repeated and clearly communicated questions of how much of a delay their pedal causes due to DSP processing. The guy steered all possible ways as if I was asking something forbidden. Then after several pages of pursuing revealed a real DSP delay which albeit isn't big can be bothersome to some guitar players, especially if you use more of their pedals in the chain.

Maye, I am overreacting to this but it seemed to me that any time something any product that isn't on the spec, they don't want to reveal it.

[Hanz Meyzer]

No, it doesn’t. A permanent internet connection is not required. It is an option as one of the two way you can authorize.

As my understanding, you have to use cloud authorization for all plugins of the Spark series. So it is not optional.

[beely]

No, it doesn’t. A permanent internet connection is not required. It is an option as one of the two way you can authorize.

As my understanding, you have to use cloud authorization for all plugins of the Spark series. So it is not optional.

No, you can authorise to an iLok dongle. If you don’t have one, then the only iLok *option* you can use is iLok Cloud.

The only iLok option that the bulk of the UA plugins don’t support is machine authorisation (just the free ones support this).

[Hanz Meyzer]

Jesus, a dongle? This is 2024. I don't want to use a dongle, also that is not explained before buying either.

[beely]

Jesus, a dongle? This is 2024. I don't want to use a dongle, also that is not explained before buying either.

iLok has been common for audio software for many years now. When a plugin is iLok protected, that means it supports one or more methods of authorisation that iLok uses, which is these three:

- iLok USB Dongle
- iLok Machine Authorisation (ie, authorises to your hard drive)
- iLok Cloud (requires permanent Internet connection)

Not all developers choose to implement all three methods, and in particular, machine authorisations are a weaker protection that then other methods, so the more paranoid developers often omit support for machine authorisations.

So for UADx plugins, the authorisation methods available are iLok USB dongle, or iLok Cloud.

The Spark system requirements linked to from the Spark page say this fairly clearly:

System Requirements for UAD Spark, UA Connect, and Native UAD Plug-ins

- Free iLok account with iLok Cloud or iLok USB (2nd generation or higher)

Go below and read the system requirement - something you want to admit or not no one is reading these days. But let us pretend we are educated. Go to the bottom and open System Requirements.

Do you see at this point they are NOT mentioning any PACE anywhere?!! Like not at all! Nothing nada.

See above - it seems clear enough for me. Maybe it's my education...!

[Hanz Meyzer]

That's not clear at all. I finally explain to you this by giving you an example of a properly written info text, which also HAS TO BE PLACED ABOVE THE BUY BUTTON:

"Permanent internet connection required via ilok cloud or a hardware ilok dongle to use this plugin. An ilok dongle costs additional 50$ and only can be used with a single machine at once".

No, customers do not need to know the internal tech speech of ilok. Also, 99% do not have a dongle and also don't want a dongle.