I have successfuly migrated my account and received the free expansion (thanks for that).
Everything went well and all products authorised, however when I run the standalone, or the plugin, the UI is greyed out with a message that BFD has been disabled as it needs authorised and to please run the license manager. I click the button and the license manager comes up, but everything is authorised.
After much mucking about and several re-installs to try and get this working I eventually found out that unless the standalone and the DAW have access to the internet they are considered not authorised. This leads me to the conclusion that both the plugin and the stand alone version are checking authorisation every time they are run.
So, if your internet is down then BFD will not work, if you want to run offline BFD wil not work, if you have a tightly locked down PC, that limits outgoing connections, then BFD will not work. Suffice to say that I have now restored my PC back to itās original state and am now on version 3.3. Of course now the free expansion doesnāt work.
I really hope this is a bug and not by design.
My System:
Windows 10 Pro version 20H2
Reaper 6.21
[edit] posted this 3 days ago but my account was only just unlocked. I see now that other people are having the same problem and that the developers are aware of it.
I can confirm that this is the same here too.
I disconnected my ethernet cable and launched BFD3 and was told it was not authorised.
My DAW is permanently connected so this would only effect me when my internet was off but this is really bad for users who donāt want their DAWs on-line.
Iām with Virgin who are generally pretty good but I do get whole mornings or days where the internet is either intermittent or off completely.
Having said that, I donāt think many people have their DAWs disconnected, not that that helps those few very much. I think this is intentional though.
Any response on this from Devs? If BFD 3.4 will not run without an Intenet connection, that is outrageous. I have used BFD in live situation without access to Internet. I sincerely hope itās a bug and will be fixed soon. If itās the way licensing is going to work going forward Iām out of here forever.
It would be a serious breach of faith to require me to be online while Iām working. I have times when I shut down everything thatās unnecessary just to get all my VIs to work, including Internet. I canāt view BFD in isolation. I have to be able to tweak velocities and parameters during mixdown. I have to be able to hear the whole mix as a virtual instrument, and that means with the Internet off.
It wouldnāt be just a breach of faith but a reason to get my money back for everything bfd. The technical specification for BFD says that you need an internet connection for downloading but it says nothing about a need of being online when using BFD. I own literally hundreds of plugins and vat instruments. some come with dongles, some with quite complex licensing engine but none of them needs a permanent internet connection.
Iām getting the impression that the development team for BFD just hasnāt enough people anymore who know about audio plugins.
hmmm ā¦ kind of good thing I havenāt figured out how to upgrade. My DAW is not connected to the external network. And, I live in the sticks. My internet is horrid. Iām on the Starlink Beta waiting list. So maybe that will change. But for now my DAW is seldom on the internet.
Has Drew or any of the BFD team made a comment on this specific issue? If they have I havenāt found it. Could someone direct me to the post if they have?
Edit: Iāve just seen a post on KVR from Amberience (IIRC thatās Drew). He says he has raised the issue and will follow up when more is known. So reading between the lines it might not be a bug and wonāt be fixed in 3.4.1. I await news with breath well and truly bated.
If this is their new business model I will migrate to another drum VST instrument that does not require constant Internet. Clarification needed I feel before you lose all your customersā faith.
Iāve just seen this from Drew over on the Gearslutz forum.
It is not expected behaviour that packs go unlicensed when you're offline. That's a bug.
But there IS currently an expectation that the user go online every so often (I think itās 30 days) which is something I am raising as a UX issue.
So seems like on-line for the plugin and standalone is currently by design, not a bug.
Having to go on-line every 30 days to keep my purchase working is still not something I would want in a plugin. Itās this kind of thinking that made me move from Adobe to Affinity.
I hope they can see that this is likely to lose them sales in the future, and return the behaviour back to on-line only needed for download and authorisation.
Not perfectly on-topic I know, but how great would it be to have a single source of truth for communication about all these issues? Seems fractured that the customers have to be searching for scraps of information from all over the internet.
I wanted to start a poll on this, but polls donāt seem to be available on this forum.
So put me down as a ānoā to monthly online registration - this is not a subscription and I donāt want anything that feels like that model. I paid for this - you want to check up on me once a month like Iām on probation?
If this goes ahead I will not be buying any more BFD products, and I hardly think now is the time to start losing the people whoāve stuck with it this long, plus losing future customers who wonāt sign up to this for a drum VST. There are other contenders on the market now.
You could start new thread and call it a poll in the subject header maybe?
In principal Iām definitely against it and think itās unnecessary but since my machine is always on line it probably wonāt be a major inconvenience.
But Iām very doubtful that theyāll go ahead with to be honest and if they did Iād still continue using their drums and maybe even buying further expansion kit for 2 very good reasons.
For me, they are still the best drum vst on the market , the only thing that comes remotely close is Superior (not) Drummer 3.
I have spent a lot of time and money on BFD2 & 3 and own a lot of their expansion kits.
It would be crazy to just ditch them and invest a lot more time and money on something that I donāt think is as good. Kind of cutting my nose off to spite my face.
Also, beta testing for BFD4 is on the horizon and Iām very much looking forward to being a part of it.
Yes this is my 3rd, and hopefully last desktop, itās an absolute beast, like really big and heavy.
Ordered it last April so just as lockdown was kicking in.
Yeah I guess I bought at a good time with regards to stock but Iām surprised the sales team havenāt called you back, even if itās to say stocks are low and youāll have to wait.
They wouldnāt want to lose your custom.
I rate them really highly though and they canāt be beaten on price.
There are 8 Scan 3X systems and the size is much the same but the price difference isnāt, ranging from entry level Ā£1,056 to top of the range Ā£2,053.
My system isnāt there any more but itās close to the TZ490.
If there was an M1 machine that could run windows I might have gone for that option but this should do for another 10 years.
I kind of feel weāre all beta testers at the moment.
Sure Iāll still use BFD but I have not bought an expansion since Wooden Snares (whenever that came out) because I was uncertain on BFDās future. I am still uncertain and they have some work to do to gain my confidence back. Treating me like a criminal is not one of those steps.
