Soundtoys/iLok . . . should I fear iLok?

Hi gurus,
 
So I've got Win 7 64bit and Sonar 8.5.3, and all is well! Until I just heard the Soundtoys native bundle v4. Love it.
 
Here are the questions!
 
1) I know Soundtoys is only 32 bit at the moment - is anyone with a 64 bit setup  using Jbridge or BitBridge successfully?
 
2) I have no iLok at present and would have to introduce this to my system.    Eh? Horror stories or Urban Myths?
 
3) Are there any other awesome effect suites that are 64bit compatible, no iLok, and sound fantastic?
 
 
 
thanks in advance for enlightening me . . .
-Tom

Just got the Sound Toys Native bundle myself today.  ilok no problem at all.  But when I first instantiated a plug...Decapitator...I got a CTD.  Not so good.  But after reopening Sonar and trying all the plugs out all seems well.  The only niggling concern is that when changing patches I sometimes get the scary "momentary white screen"...but so far, so good.  They are simply incredible plugs (and so easy to use).  Would love to hear more folks chime in with their experiences.  Also very disappointed that "Speed" is not included for us VST users.  Dern!

The only issue I had with the iLok was trying to register with iLok at their website - their site doesn't work properly under Opera - with no error message being given - so it took a while to figure out I had to use IE to register.

No problem w/ iLok here.  Works fine.  I haven't even heard any horror stories in the last few years.  I think it was a matter of getting the kinks worked out.

@

No, right now I'm on 32 bit.  But I've got a new DAW sitting about 6 feet from me now that ol Jim Roseberry built for me that's a 64 bit Demon Machine that I hope to start migrating to sometime this weekend or next week...I can't wait!!  I'm sure I'll need JBridge or some such to run many of my existing plugs.

iLok works, and it is, I'm afraid, a necessary evil if you want to use some of the higher end tools like SoundToys or Waves. PSP supports (supported?) iLok, but their most recent updates have dropped that support, I'd guess temporarily.

Copy Protection of some form is pretty much expected by investors these days. I do not believe that there is any CP scheme that is not break-able, but if I ran a company that created software I'd at least look at it I suppose, and it may slow down the spread of pirated copies at least a little.

<rant> if people would simply respect the intellectual property rights of those who create intellectual property we would not be in this mess. But a portion of the population does not believe that they should have to pay for music or software or movies or whatever. They have completely distorted the concept that "information wants to be free", and they have latched on to "free as in beer" without ever spending any effort to understand these concepts. If people would just show some respect for others things would be a lot better for all of us.</rant>

In the meantime, at least they've finally managed to work out the bugs in iLok. I use it, I don't like it, but I do like the tools that I get to use.

Ilok is OK

Soundtoys can be a little weird (GUI wise) but Echoboy is so good that I would put up with just about anything to have that plug - just stupidly good... I hear the same thing about Decapitator but I have URS so I will pass for now.. The new one they have coming out will be the absolute game changer - cant believe I waited so long to get onboard with Soundtoys..some of the best plugs around hands down...more then worth having and Ilok for ...

64 bit WIN7 and SONAR 8.5.3 x64 here using ECHOBOY... works except the automation but I don't use the automation anyway... it will sync up with BPM as delay times.

Jim

Hi guys...

in my opinion, i-Lok, much as eLicenser and any other dongle, should be dismissed...
People should never buy software with "protection systems" that only succeed in hassling honest customers... they DON'T limit piracy at all.... they encourage it..!!!

I choose (and always purchase...) Cakewalk products NOT ONLY for their top quality, but ALSO for their extremely fair protection policies...

I would never get my computer fulfilled with i-loks, Steinberg keys, Wibu Sys, Propellerhead's one, and any possible new comer's...!!!

Some companies now are finally understanding this, and I've much appreciated KORG for recently dropping that awful eLicenser for both ANALOG and DIGITAL Legacy Collection...

...unfortunately others have started, like propellerhead's Record injection key (How disappointing...) while others are getting completely insane: see Ableton Live allowing their new DEMO(...!!!) versions to work only if Internet is connected on the machine...!!!
This would really be the end of customers...

here is my plea:

Always buy your software, NEVER chose dongle (un)protected ones....