Plug-In rentals

Andrew Broughton

Andrew Broughton

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Feb 2, 2011
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I don't own any plug-ins and I've never used anything other than the stock ones on Avid consoles, so I know very little about the business side of plug-ins.

When suppliers rent out a Waves SoundGrid to go with one of the consoles that supports that, is it common for them to also rent out the plugins for that system or do bands always buy what they need?
 
Re: Plug-In rentals

I've wondered this too. I see a lot of Avid consoles come through. Haven't seen anyone carry a Soundgrid system, that I know of. I would assume that the plugins are owned by the company renting the equipment though. But I guess a lot of band engineers probably own their own. I think it's less common for theatre engineers to own their own software than it is for band engineers to. Even the theatre guys that I see coming through; most of them are using Smaart, SpectraFoo and IAS systems that are owned by the rental shop rather than owned themselves.
 
Re: Plug-In rentals

Typically, you see soundgrid systems with Digico consoles, since they have direct integration into the system.

As with Avid consoles, I would normally only rent the plugin hardware (server, etc...) and would bring my own plugin licenses. However, I know of several companies who also stock the licenses, as they've had to buy them for other projects, and so can rent those too, at an additional cost.
 
Re: Plug-In rentals

Gotcha.
So from what it sounds like, I guess the answer is "it depends". If I have this right, rental houses may have some plugins for rent if they had purchased them in the past or are willing to purchase them and rent to you, but most commonly the band or tech carries their own licenses.

So what the tech carries then is just some sort of activation code on his USB stick? The plugin "software" can be freely downloaded and installed by the rental house into the server?
 
Re: Plug-In rentals

Andrew Broughton said:
Gotcha.
So from what it sounds like, I guess the answer is "it depends". If I have this right, rental houses may have some plugins for rent if they had purchased them in the past or are willing to purchase them and rent to you, but most commonly the band or tech carries their own licenses.

So what the tech carries then is just some sort of activation code on his USB stick? The plugin "software" can be freely downloaded and installed by the rental house into the server?
Click to expand...

The word is "iLok." Say it with disdain and disgust. Brought to you by Pace Data Security and used by many of the plugin publishers (Waves has gone to a different system in their current versions).

The idea is that the iLok contains the licenses. The iLok must be inserted into a USB slot and recognized by the host computer (console) in order for the plugs to work. The iLok is much more than a simple USB stick, as licenses, once added to an iLok, cannot be deleted or removed - only deactivated.

Back in the old days it was possible to buy time-limited licenses (kind of like renting, but not really "rent") that were valid for a couple of weeks out to maybe 6 months. After that it was probably more cost effective to purchase the licenses in perpetuity, but if you needed some really expensive bundle or individual plug ins for a single project that would be done in 90 days it made sense.

I'm not sure what is now available for time limited use, but I don't recall seeing much about it anymore.
 
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