Software Synthesizers (Excerpt): Top Music Technology Pages Return to MusicWords Home

[The material below is excerpted from Software Synthesizers, published in 2003 by Backbeat Books.]

Most music software is copy-protected. Nobody likes copy protection -- neither the manufacturers nor the users. It's a hassle. So why not get rid of it, then?

The way I look at it is, copy protection is necessary because musicians tend not to be wealthy. Also, they like to share with one another, because you can't have too many friends, right? When programs aren't copy-protected, musicians tend to pass them around like candy.

This is a problem because most music software companies are not in the megabucks league. Most have no more than 20 or 30 employees (or maybe only five or six). The employees are -- you guessed it -- musicians. They're trying to make a living too. Every pirated copy of a program takes money straight out of their pockets.

Another thing: Every time a music software company goes out of business because they don't have enough cash coming in, we all lose. First, we lose out on the cool products the company would have unveiled next year, which now will never see the light of day. Later on, we lose because the old software they created won't work under a new computer operating system. If you don't believe this is a real issue, talk to someone who used Opcode Studio Vision as their main recorder. When Opcode closed its doors, these folks lost years of creative work -- files on their hard drives that they could no longer open or edit once they had upgraded to the next-generation Macintosh.

Even with copy protection, I've heard estimates that six out of seven people using a certain well-known music program whose name begins with 'R' are using a cracked version, not a copy that they bought. Manufacturers are fighting an uphill battle. This is why I don't answer emails asking for advice on how to use specific programs. I have a standard reply: Contact the manufacturer's technical support department about that. True, calling tech support is a pain. You may have to wait on hold for 15 minutes, and you may not get the right answer the first time you call. But folks who have unregistered copies can't use tech support. (They probably don't have a manual, either.) They're up a creek without a paddle, and that's not my problem.

Copy protection comes in several flavors. Some programs ask for a serial number when installed, and that's the end of the story. Some use hardware copy-protection devices, often called "dongles." A dongle will attach to your USB or parallel port. If it isn't in the port, the program won't run. In order to run several USB-protected programs at once, you'll probably need a USB hub, but that's not a big deal.

Hardware copy protection is a pretty effective system. If you regularly use two different computers, you can physically carry the dongle from one to the other. As long as you're only using one computer at a time, your work flow won't be hampered. One word of warning, though: Don't lose the dongle! It's what you paid all that money for.

Other manufacturers use a challenge-response system, in which the installed program issues a "challenge" (often a string of nonsense words). You email the challenge to the manufacturer or fill it in on the registration page of their website, and they provide a response. When you enter the response into the program, you have an authorized copy. Challenge-response copy protection is vulnerable to hard drive crashes, and the software can't be transferred to a different computer (or even to a different physical hard drive within the same computer). But most manufacturers who use challenge-response will issue you a new response if you explain politely why you need it.

A few manufacturers use a system that asks for the original CD-ROM to be inserted in the computer's CD drive. This can happen each time you start the program, or only once in a while. The CD itself will probably be copy-protected in some manner, so that you can't duplicate it.

Downloading Demos

Most of the synths in this book are available in demo form as free downloads. This is one of the cooler aspects of living in the Information Age: How many automobile dealers would let you drive the car for a month to see whether you like it?

Downloadable demos are usually crippled in some way, so as to encourage you to purchase a fully functional copy. After making the purchase online, you may be able to authorize your existing demo, which will unlock the crippled features.

Demos are commonly crippled in several different ways:

• The demo may emit an intermittent beep, or the audio output may have a gap every 20 or 30 seconds.
• It may not be able to save and load files.
• You may be able to run it for a certain time period, or boot it a certain number of times, after which it will stop working.