Ilok & Syncrosoft

Submitted by Metallian on #1

As I'm also using many PRO AUDIO softwares, I just tried using VIRTUALHERE with both ILOK and SYNCROSOFT usb dongles.
These are used to store software licences.

It's actually working very well !
I just tried with CUBASE 8.0 (Syncrosoft) and the PLAY engine (ILOK - www.soundsonline.com)

Do you think it is possible to share them over internet ?
Is this as simple as forwarding the port 7575 to my raspberry pi ?
It would be great because I'm always nervous about taking my dongles with me on the road.
They contain several thousand dollars of audio software licences !

Submitted by Metallian on Fri, 2015/01/02 - 09:11

#2

I think I talked to fast
Cubase is launching but it crashes very often using VIRTUALHERE
For example it hangs when you edit a channel or when you open a steinberg vst instruments
This is probably because Cubase checks the dongle very often

Play (Ilok) is at the opposite working very well
I think it only checks the dongle once when you load your sound

Submitted by Metallian on Sat, 2015/01/03 - 03:34

#3

I tested a little bit further with the Syncrosoft key
As I sais earlier, Cubase sometimes hangs
For example when you open the editor, or when you open a Steinberg plugin for the first time.

There's a solution.
When it hangs, I open Virtualhere and click on STOP USING the syncrosoft key
Then Cubase shows an error dialog box.
I then USE the syncrosoft key again and click RETRY on the dialog box
Cubase then runs again

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2015/01/04 - 19:57

#4

Specify the server ip in the client to connect to the server over the internet.

Regarding other issue, I'm away on holidays and will look at that when I get back.

Submitted by rpaillot on Tue, 2015/01/20 - 00:01

#5

I just tried syncrosoft and it works really, really good.

It is true that sometimes Cubase hangs when you open a window or something like this, but the hang ( for me ) doesn't last longer than 1 second.
Indeed, from what I know about stein berg protection, they changed their protection 2 or 3 years ago . The dongle still communicate often with Cubase , like before, but the amount of data exchanged is a lot of MB , hence the hangs when you open a window ( especially the midi editor ) , cubase sends information to the dongle and it has to send data back, but very large.

I think this could be fixed by introducing some kind of on-the-fly compression between usb server and the client ( I'm sure the data sent by the dongle can be heavily compressed ) that would reduce the hangs. Especially if you use the dongle over internet , the up bandwith is always very low in that case.

Anyway, great work Michael. Your USB server is the only one working for dongles like Ilok or Syncrosoft. I tried "usb over ethernet" from Eltima and it worked with version 2 , 2 years ago, but now it doesn't work anymore for dongles.

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2015/01/20 - 07:35

#6

Thanks for the feedback. rpaillot, im glad the synchosoft is working ok. Actually i do compress the usb stream using a fast compression algorithm so i think perhaps its incompressible data...

Submitted by FlyingSquirrel on Tue, 2015/01/20 - 21:35

#7

@rpaillot
Thats very interesting! I have the same problem as Metallian: When I try to load a Steinberg Plugin (like REVerence or HalionSonic SE) Cuabse freezes completely until I "unuse" the eLicenser again. Maybe youve got a newer Version of the Dongle. For how long do you have yours?

Submitted by msalam on Tue, 2015/06/30 - 21:05

#8

Just checking in reporting on status here. iLk working very well here with VirtualHere however the Steinberg eLicenser doesn't work at all (Server=QNAP, Client=OSX). I have 2 eLicensers, 1 is an older Vienna version which works with other USB over IP software and I have a 2nd newer "Steinberg" one which so far doesn't seem to work with any USB over IP. Neither of them work with VirtualHere (for me). I've seen some people with varying degrees of success here. Just wondering what the status is and whether VirtualHere plans to make concerted effort to get this working. For me it represents the sole reason I need reliable USB over IP. Thanks.

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2015/06/30 - 21:38

#9

I did spend some time trying to figure it out, it seems to use an invalid usb request which i dont really support because its not to the usb spec.
e.g https://www.virtualhere.com/node/514 and im not sure how to support it. I will probably need to run my hardware usb analyzer. i will put this in my todo list to work on in the next few months...

Thanks for the response. I do hope you get it working as using my NAS to share out the dongles would be ideal.

Submitted by thecykor on Thu, 2015/07/02 - 04:16

#11

Hi!

I just try to do exactly the same
* Cubase (version 5 only)
* Syncrosoft ELC 6.8.1.14152 - for shure also not the newest release
* Lots of eLicenser based plugins (vienna, cubase basics, ...)
* elicenser hardware which is for shure several years old (My assumption would be around 6, but i purchased it used)
* virtualhere server running on synology

My experience is that it "somehow" works
* Still high amount of freezes, sometimes stop using / use works, sometimes it makes it worse
* Very long time to load (several minutes longer than cubase with direct licenser connection
* Overall still little annoying, so for shure nothing for professionals

So please let me know if I can do anything to support any type of troubleshooting here, or as soon you make any real progress, and i will by full version immadiately!

Best regards!

Cykor

P.S.: As there are several threads in various forums looking for a solution like this, do you want us to spread virtualhere a little more?

Submitted by thecykor on Thu, 2015/07/02 - 04:30

#12

One additional remark

working on windows here (just read the other forum post where some problems especially with windows have been mentioned
* Win7 Professional 64 Bit (6.1 Build 7601)

Thanks for the detailed feedback cybor, I'm putting this elicenser thing to the top of my todo list. I have to work on a few things before that but when thats finished in a week or two i will look in detail at this issue again...

Hi Michael,

Great to hear! Let me know if I can do anything to support you on this (unfortunately I do not own a USB hardware analyzer) but I can support with some licenses on ELC, hosted by windows, raspberry, or synology systems, various linux distributions, ... and some quite decent IT Know-How

BR

Cykor

Submitted by Michael on Thu, 2015/07/02 - 18:14

#15

Today i bought an elicenser from ebay , its getting delivered next week then i can use my hardware analyzer against it...

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2015/07/08 - 23:54

#16

OK i tested with my elicenser and i found a bug in the virtualhere server that was preventing it from working, could you download 2.3.6 of the server and 3.0.3 of the client and let me know if it works ok for you now.

Submitted by thecykor on Mon, 2015/07/13 - 21:47

#17

Hi Michael

Just downloaded 2.3.9 and 3.0.3.
Is there any chance in getting my trial period extended? If it works i will purchase license immadeately
(Synology Hub,s/n=001132269e70,1 device)

BR

Gabriel

Submitted by thecykor on Tue, 2015/07/21 - 16:03

#19

Hi Michael

Ok it definitely works better now, could not make full test with remote connection (hopefully i have some time for this next week)

Just one question. There is still a quite significant latency (Just with cubase and onboard plugins, could not try a full set with sevreal instances of Syncrosoft Plugins)

Can you figure out how much bandwidth is needed? How often checks are sent to the dongle, ...
If not i can also make some traces and check it

Best regards

Cykor

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2015/07/21 - 17:35

#20

I dont think it needs much bandwidth because i tested my elicenser and it wasnt sending much data, (< 1kb) if you are going over a VPN its mainly a latency issue rather than bandwidth. Im not sure how much it checks the dongle because i dont have any of the plugins to test with but i suspect its similar to iLok which does it every 30 seconds i think...

Submitted by rcschletty on Fri, 2015/08/21 - 02:30

#21

My iLicenser dongle is not working well over the internet using a Synology DS 1513+ NAS as the VH server. Frequent crashes of Cubase 8.0.20 (Mac OS X 10.10.4) when trying to work with a large orchestral template. iLok 1 and iLok 2nd Gen work fine with EastWest Play and Pro Tools. Please escalate this issue. Would love to see a fix. I am going to try the Mac OS X VH server to see if that makes a difference. From what I read above, I am not hopeful that the Mac server will work. We are using version 2.4.3 of the NAS server and version 3.0.5 of Mac client.

Submitted by rcschletty on Tue, 2015/08/25 - 15:48

#23

Michael: Any progress on this issue? We are about ready to give up on VH. Some additional info: My business partner's remote iMac has a connection speed of 15.0/0.8 mbps. Is the slow upload speed the issue? My own "back yard" test with my MacBook Pro running Cubase 7 and Mac OS 10.10.5 was successful using an iPhone Hot Spot WAN connection of 1.5/1/0 mbps. I made sure I was not on the same LAN as my Synology NAS box. VirtualHere also works quite well on my LAN with my Mac Pro running Cubase 8 and Mac OS 10.10.4. But that is, of course, a much faster ethernet connection to the Synology NAS

Earlier I wrote:

My eLicenser dongle is not working well over the internet using a Synology DS 1513+ NAS as the VH server. Frequent crashes of Cubase 8.0.20 (Mac OS X 10.10.4) on an iMac when trying to work with a large orchestral template. iLok 1 and iLok 2nd Gen work fine with EastWest Play and Pro Tools. Please escalate this issue. Would love to see a fix. I am going to try the Mac OS X VH server to see if that makes a difference. From what I read above, I am not hopeful that the Mac server will work. We are using version 2.4.3 of the NAS server and version 3.0.6 of Mac client.

Submitted by Michael on Thu, 2015/08/27 - 22:10

#25

OK, i will take another look at this eclicenser issue and let you know what i find...

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2015/09/09 - 14:42

#26

So the main problem is over the Internet rather than over the wan? I have updated the virtualhere osx client to better handle connection drops which i think is what is happening in your case and its dropping while the elicenser is being accessed which is crashing the dependent program. Anyway if you have a chance see if it improves with 3.1.2 of the client

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2015/09/09 - 14:42

#27

So the main problem is over the Internet rather than over the wan? I have updated the virtualhere osx client to better handle connection drops which i think is what is happening in your case and its dropping while the elicenser is being accessed which is crashing the dependent program. Anyway if you have a chance see if it improves with 3.1.2 of the client