Cubase e-licenser + WD NAS **FIX**

Submitted by fresha on #1

Hi all, just been playing around with elicencer key and WD NAS, and was getting 'flakey' messages which caused Cubase 10.5 Pro to hang, and Steingberg plugins not to be 'activated'.

The solution I've found is to plug your elicenser key DIRECTLY to the WD NAS, and not into a hub. Fortunately the WD NAS has 2x USB 3 sockets so make sure you have 2 sockets so you can hub other dongles and leave one socket freely dedicated for the elicenser. Cubase 10.5 Pro fires up perfetly now wirelessly around my home, will try the DNS WAN method as well and will report back on this.

A usb hub will work with Codemeter, USB Thumbdrive (as long as you have VirtualHere 4.07 and upwards on the WD NAS installed), and iloks.

It seems that elicenser keys was 'direct' connection with USB port rather than share it (greedy little bugger) :D

@Michael: if possible maybe there's a way to handle USB hub 'handshaking' with the elicencer?

Submitted by Michael on Fri, 2020/07/31 - 16:16

#2

Hi fresha, thanks for letting me know that is interesting and might be very helpful for other people. VirtualHere doesnt have control over the handshaking part of the usb protocol. Thats done at the hardware and operating system level.

Submitted by fresha on Fri, 2020/07/31 - 21:13

#3

Ok LAN using 192.169.... network works fine. Trying to use DNS.net method (WAN) doesnt work, seems to hang Cubase again at the same point it was getting 'stuck' on before. Will see if I can work on another approach to make Cubase/elicenser think it's plugged in on the network (maybe a VPN method....)

Submitted by fresha on Sat, 2020/08/08 - 16:24

#4

Ok another update. More weirdness.....

VH5.0.4 I was having some issues with the elicencer on WAN, and LAN was fine. Now using 5.0.7, I now find that WAN works well (doing a 50mile test later today), but LAN is now giving me a little hassle with Cubase launching. There's one particular asset that's flaking out during the updating.

WD did a MyCloud EX2 Ultra firmware update on 5th Aug, so I've applied that. Still can't install VH4.20 on the WD Cloud, but got a test unit coming soon so I can try with that one when it gets here.

Another weird thing..... now the elicencer works in direct USB port or in a hub.

Ilok, Codemeter and USB Thumbdrives work flawlessly. Just to let you know

Submitted by Michael on Sat, 2020/08/08 - 18:12

#5

Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully WD releases their firmware officially soon. That has a much more recent linux kernel

Submitted by fresha on Sun, 2020/08/09 - 07:35

#6

Yep. Got back home, tried Cubase with VH on LAN, works fine again. I did disable the plugin in Cubase causing it to hang, got a few more bits to double test too.

Got on the WD beta program so will try solidly VH with that too

Submitted by fresha on Mon, 2020/08/17 - 19:17

#7

Ok another quick update on getting Cubase 10.5Pro to work with Virtual Here

1) plug in you elicencer. If you use two or more for various plugins / apps and need all in to use Cubase 10.5 Pro then virtual-plug the extra ones in too
2) Launch Cubase 10.5 Pro
3) When you get to the splash screen you're likely going to hang at 'Audio Alignment' initialising.
4) Virtual unplug your elicenser(s) - you will need to unplug the elicenser(s) until you get the ELC error popup (basically 'key unplugged error')
5) Virtual plug your elicenser(s) back in - hit 'retry' on the ELC error screen
6) Cubase 10.5 Pro continues you load up

Weird, but it works. Have to do this on local network as well as WAN

Submitted by Michael on Mon, 2020/08/17 - 19:56

#8

Thats with the new beta firmware of WD?

Submitted by fresha on Sat, 2020/08/22 - 06:31

#9

This is with 4.07 + OS3 WD dashboard (2.40.155), as well as 4.20 + OS5 WD dashboard (beta).

For some reason I think it has something to do with the Steinberg / Cubase Audio Alignment plugin check (seems tohang it, unplug then replug allows the program to continue to load). Since I'm plugging in remotely, it's a 2 second fix for me

Submitted by fresha on Fri, 2020/08/28 - 00:37

#10

Another quick update. Just been reading about Synchrosoft keys and that you can transfer licenses between USB keys (that wasn't possible a few years ago iirc). So, I've put all the licenses from the 2 keys onto 1 key and guess what? Cubase sails through the loading up now, no more hanging at 'Audio Alignment' so no more workaround needed

TL,DR: Use 1 elicenser and put all licenses on one key for foolproof VirtualHere plugging in

Submitted by fresha on Fri, 2020/08/28 - 00:52

#11

Ok false positive..... using 1 key helps, but Cubase 10.5 pro still hangs at the Audio Alignment stage, so unplug-replug and carry on as before - sorry for dashing hopes :D

Submitted by fresha on Fri, 2020/08/28 - 20:44

#12

Final workaround.....

1) Launch Cubase 10.5
2) Get to 'Audio Alignment' hang, unplug eLicenser
3) Get error message, replug in elicenser, hit 'retry' to tell cubase key is now back in
4) continue loading Cubase
5) Under Studio setup, there's an option to disable Audio alignment plugin part of Cubase. Since I'm not using it, I can disable it so on new launches of Cubase VH+elicenser sails through no problem. If I do need to use Audio Alignment, I can enable it in Cubase, then on finishing with Cubase, I just 'disable' Audio Alignment plugin again as a 'final state' to make sure I get no elicenser issues

Submitted by Michael on Sat, 2020/08/29 - 12:18

#13

OK thanks for info

Submitted by fresha on Wed, 2021/01/06 - 20:25

#14

Morning all and happy new year to all

Ok here's a new thing I found out to allow Cubase 10.5 and now Cubase 11 to sail through starting up without the need to unplug then plug during launching.

Simply set up your Cubase icon on Windows to 'run as administrator' - I'm working on a way to resolve the UAC popup for Cubase alone, but once you run as an admin, the Audio Alignment 'hanging' doesn't occur any more. It will if you run it as a regular user though

Submitted by demoan on Tue, 2021/01/19 - 22:00

#15

Starting Cubase from the WAN seems to be related to the network delay. I have tested that as long as the delay exceeds 20ms, it will become the owner.

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 05:09

#16

Re-plugging doesn't seem to solve my issue of the hang. The applications that read the licenser also hang. PACE and eLicenser both.
I am using the latest version of Windows 10. I have a QNAP NAS running my server. I can add devices but the functionality isn't there.
As far as network nuances I have a PiHole running a DNS server that traps traffic based on DNS blacklists.
I haven't seen it block anything PACE or AVID related or anything else that raises a red flag. I have bypassed it to similar effect.

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 05:25

#17

I am having issues only with Windows.

Oddly OSX 10.11 (unsupported) works perfectly fine for sharing an iLok.

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 05:28

#18

Every time I select use on an iLok device Windows complains "An iLok cannot be shared across multiple operating systems.

Maybe there is some issue with the windows client?

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 05:32

#19

If I run the client on Windows 10 as admin I cannot even connect with devices. So that is odd.

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 10:49

#20

OK yes you need power-cycling to avoid the sharing error.

So you need to plug in a hub from this list https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl and virtualhere server automatically knows to power-cycle iLoks between uses.

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 15:57

#21

Thank you Michael,
I tried a USB Hub and was able to get the iLok to work with PT and then switch over to another OS and move the key to that machine and work there virtually. This is pretty amazing. Oddly I cannot get the eLicenser USB key to respond to Nuendo and it freezes during initialization. I tried virtually unmounting the device again while starting the software.
I then tried a replug into the hub while initializing and it worked. Something about the eLicenser is definitely different. I was hoping this software would let me leave them plugged in. Please advise.

Submitted by jvamos on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 15:59

#22

Nuendo needs to be plugged twice to start the program. Once for initializing and once for Audio Alignment

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 2021/01/26 - 20:01

#23

If you have one of those hubs you can right click on the elicenser in the virtualhere client and select Custom Event Handler... and enter

power_cycle_port

and that will power off then on the USB port so you don't have to unplug yourself

Submitted by jvamos on Wed, 2021/01/27 - 01:21

#24

Power cycling the port with that custom event handler works. Can auto-use schedule custom handlers, two power cycles that are seconds apart?
That saves mating cycles on my dongle. Something I appreciate. This is an elaborate dongle saver but it's really great. Plus I like how it frees up some USB on my machine. Great for people with little connectivity. It's too bad Apple isn't really let people with their newer products use it.

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2021/01/27 - 16:54

#25

No you need to manually enter power_cycle_port