UA responded to my enquiry:
Tuesday at 11:26
Hi there, my name is Adrian Lee. I have enjoyed using your hardware since the UAD1 in the early 00’s. I was a founder member of Mike & the Mechanics and was definitely not risk averse when we would bring technology best suited to the studio out on our first tour in 1985, where it was fingers crossed every night that it would all hold together.
So… I recently purchased your fabulous Waterfall Rotary plugin. I understood that it relied on iLok authorization, but missed the part where cloud authorization relied on an internet connection. That means a physical iLok must be employed when playing live, where an internet connection is the last thing one wants to worry about; nor the possibility that a small but vital dongle is the difference between sound or no sound.
I do have other products which are iLok authorized but use the computer’s ID/HD for security, and do not insist on rather prone USB dongles to be present.
These measures certainly do not bother me in a studio environment, but live? It seems to be a constant theme in purchase decisions where, regardless of quality, the risks outweigh the benefits.
The iLok mechanism does provide for computer authorization. Over at the Cantabile forum (excellent live hosting software) there is a lot of enthusiasm for the Waterfall products, but real concern about the policing policy.
This is a plea on behalf of those musicians who are taking the risk of running tech in live situations, and who see the current UA policy as an impediment to stress free performance, as illustrated by the attached shots. I hope that you reconsider the insistence on cloud authorization, and allow the computer to be the dongle.
Many thanks for your kind attention.
Adrian
Their response:
Hello Adrian,
Thank you for being such a long time user! It must have been terrifying bringing such expensive and fragile pieces out on stage night after night back in the day…
At this time, and as you are aware, the only option for offline use of Native plugins is the iLok USB dongle.
Using Native UAD (UADx) Plug-In Licenses Offline with iLok USB
I will however mark this ticket a product complaint/request. Complaints are reviewed weekly by management.
I hope that you have a great rest of your week!
So, it is what it am. It’s anyone’s guess where it ends up.