I’m more or less back to square one. Or, rather, 1.5.

I’ll tell you, I was a lot more sternly judicious in what I installed this time. Because my sample storage was intact, I was able to save myself a lot of time re-installing libraries like BFD and SampleTank. Even still, it was fuckin’ tedious. And there were a lot of recent updates that I didn’t have burned to backup so tracking/downloading files and registrations, logging on the various websites, only adds to the chore.

Here are some thoughts/observations on DAW-oriented pre-crash recovery. This is may be real 101 stuff but they’re lessons I’ve learned.

• Know you’re sequencers’ default audio storage location. Even if you immediately change it, or have been working from the same per project directory structure for years, make sure you check it during backups periodically. I know that mine had accumulated a fair degree of crap over the years for various reasons. I corrected it when I came across it but never really addressed the WCS. So I’m not sure how deep the damage, and hopefully it will be mostly on projects long ago abandoned, but nevertheless…
• Futher this: When working with plugins, particularly softsynths, and you’re shutting a project down for the night, it’s a good idea freeze/render/bounce/whatever before closing out. If it’s a complex multi-out instrument you could just bounce to a temp track, just so you have guide. I’ve had this nip at me occasionally just as it is, you load up some synths and it has suddenly detuned itself or reset all its parameters. But when you start changing plugin addresses it’s a really recipe for things breaking.
• Maintaining a simple text file of all your registrations and address information will only get you so if you’re audio rig isn’t connected to the internet. A thumb drive is essential. Nevertheless it’s still cumbersome.
• Some companies need to take a good look at their web-based registration strategies¹. And thank you to those companies who make it easy.²
• Keep your drive image software up to date. Otherwise it’s just useless.
• Do not attempt to “slipstream” your install unless you really know what you’re doing.
• Simplifying is not over-rated.

I also misplaced my Sonar 2 CD case serial number (perhaps temporarily; I might be able to dig it out yet, there’s some boxes in the closet…). So I don’t have the Timeworks EQ and Compressor at the moment. While I certainly have a lot of things that can replace ‘em ably, I used them a lot for many of years.

So, yeah, a lot of this is due to my glacial working pace. And my stubborn refusal to hook my audio computer up to the internet teat.

So, I’m looking at my hard drive crash as my computers way of telling me it was not happy, and I needed to streamline my process. I plan to get a good disc imaging program and make a good clean go of it.

^{1Spectronics comes quickly to mind while I wait to hear back from support on just how to re-authorize StylusRMX. But there a couple others whom I won’t slag off here.}

^{2Anybody who generates their serial number from a unique user name or user account - Melodyne (particularly sophisticated), SonicCharge, AudioDamage - and while NI I believe is machine based they’ve pretty much nailed the engineering of the activation control (YMMV).}

^{Photo courtesy of Jim Hankey. (See comments.)}

A while back I posted an open letter to IK Multimedia regarding their decision to start using dongles to protect their software. As a user of a few IK products, namely SampleTank (meh) and Amplitube (yea!), I was put off by this turn. I considered this the end of the line with any of their future products.

Well, somewhere along the line cooler heads prevailed at IK, and they decided to allow users to choose between copy-protection schemes. If you were already on the dongle path (of the iKey variety), or if that suited your needs, you could use it for your IK products; if, like me, you had a dedicated production rig you could use the already-in-place digital ID, web-based registration. So, cheers, to IK for not completely dicking over a portion of their user base who didn’t use dongles.

If you act quickly, you can still take advantage of a 2 for 1 special offer on all IK Multimedia effect products that is running through the end of the month. Buy any IK effect software and get a free copy of any other effect software. Moreover, IK has instituted a generous cross-grade policy on all their plugins: if you already a registered user of one of their products, you can get a significant discount on any of their other plugins. If you’re worried that you might be cutting it a bit close on the offer, I suggest going through esoundz.com as they’ll get you sorted out quickly.

Edit: I don’t in any way mean to imply that I had anything to do with there decision - there was a bit of a ground swell on the forums, and one of their sound programmers led the charge - but it’s always nice to see your cause win out.