Month: May 2025

I’ve recorded my awesome weekend… But a picture is worth a thousand words and I really do not want to waste any more time (by editing a video about it), so here :

 

I was so excited when I found a bundle of Asian instruments, which are difficult to record myself, and which were on sales. And it runs within the music software that I got (inside a wrapper). The music software that I’ve got has plenty of pads, synths and western instruments, but few Asian instruments.

I’ve been using Linux (Mint) for nearly 10 years, and I’ve forgotten what it’s like to use Windows and its whole eco-system. It also seems to have changed a lot. Last time I got a “fancy software”, it was a video editing software, and all you needed to do was inputting the serial number (from your receipt) in the window that popped up the first time you used the software.

Now… You need to first download a download center, which is bound to a license manager (a software). The ones from the “fancy music software” only had a few hiccups. I also know that after the license registration is done, I should avoid connecting to the internet while using this kind of software, otherwise it “stopped working and needs a reboot” (true story…). These license managers are just unstable and often go awry when connected to the internet.

But this time here, we have a third party license manager. Those are fun, as you can imagine (see picture).

I’ve contacted the support of the instruments, who answered fast, with a copy-pasted first-step check list. It actually made sense. But it didn’t change a thing. I’m hoping they know what I’m supposed to do to have the stuff work.

I’ve tried everything : making sure no other software could interfere (I have literally nothing but the music softwares on that partition), doing the Windows updates (of course, some just failed), reinstalling, installing the newest versions, disabling the anti-virus software, disabling Windows defender, etc. I really don’t know what else I can try.

The license manager’s official page says that their software won’t work on some newer AMD CPU. Mine is not in the list. I still tried on my laptop (which has a different CPU), but I got the same issue.

While waiting for the support staffers to answer (there’s a huge time difference that makes things very slow, despite the fact they answer fast), I checked forums. Another person had the same issue as me, and was also living in China. (It’s not a connection issue, though). The topic doesn’t offer a solution. Well, that’s the search result I got when I searched for the name of the music software. When I searched for the name of the license manager, I got lots and lots of people saying “Thanks, I hate it.” Some claim that the issue is the OS (ha…) and that one should try to manually make the software start and to add a delay (to the start, not to the music). I guess I’ll try this. Can you sense the irony of how it’s always on that OS that we actually need to randomly tweak things as if we’re devs ?

I’ve found lots and lots of forum posts talking about how “we don’t own anything.” We get to use these software and music instruments, until the license manager software stops working or decides we can’t use it anymore (for whatever reason that could suddenly arise…). I’ve gone through that when Amazon decided to close their ebook business in China. So I bought the paper book (of the ebook I could still access, but ultimately won’t be able to access when the phone it’s on will stop working).

As someone who has been using Linux quasi-exclusively for a decade, it feels odd. “Free as in freedom.” I have my Cymellia instruments and the software that allows me to make my own compositions. I have the debian packages and the app images of several softwares saved on an external hard disk. I have the old version of Blender (2.79) saved as well.

After reading all these forum topics, I suddenly had a urge to just make my own (simple) music software. I need to refrain myself, especially since I don’t need one, because there are things like Audacity, Hydrogen and others. For which I’m grateful. They bring the freedom to do what we want, whenever we want and not always depend on the good will of someone else. It’s something that’s been increasingly important to me.

I sure hope I will be able to use the instruments I purchased, one day at least… They’re exactly what I was looking for, and I’m very bummed that they didn’t work right away. But that was clearly the first and the last time I bought something that comes with a third party license manager. And I know that I WILL buy that instrument that has been in my Taobao cart for a while already and record it myself.

So, instead of raging about Windows (like I used to do before), be unhappy and stay away from computers for days, I’m just going to be glad about Linux and the whole eco-system of software, of everything that allows us to do whatever we want, even make our own software from scratch and our own font.

Freedom is priceless and I sure appreciate it.