Looking for plugins to your Digital Audio Workstation at Cakewalk.com? So did I, and after being in the music business for some time I have learned to put some trust in Cakewalk. This trust is now gone, after my recent experience.
Short story:
I purchased the DAW plugin "Cakewalk Instruments" for $19.95 in my hunt for a better sounding electric bass. As with many plugins (VST's and VSTi's) you can run them as standalone programs, or access them within your DAW. A solid concept in the Windows world, as you only need to place a DLL file in your plugins folder.
In this case, Cakewalk wanted me to enter a purchase code when installing. Fair enough, I had the code and I entered it. After accessing the plugin from my DAW, it prompted me to enter another registration code or it would cease to function within 30 days. Fair enough, I had the code and…no wait..
You are not logged in as admin
It was impossible to register unless running my DAW as admin! Cakewalk support suggests to run as admin and register, and then running it as a normal user after that. Nope. The plugin wants full admin space to feel good.
Now, why is it important to register in admin mode? Beats me. What do Cakewalk, as a software company in 2013, know about IT security? Don't know. But I will sure avoid them in the future.
Here's the conversation
Can you please do one of these things
1. Tell me how to register Cakewalk Instruments without running my DAW as admin. Registration was successful when running DAW as admin, but in normal mode it once again requires registration which is impossible. Please dont tell me to run as admin always. I also work as an IT security specialist and my Win7 remains locked down.
2. Please give me a refund, and I wont bother you again.
Best regards
Ola Lofven
Answer:
Thanks for contacting Cakewalk!
Unfortunately you would have to run it as administrator you can do that by going to the icon right clicking selecting properties and going to the compatibility tab. Then under privilege level check off the box that says run this program as administrator.
Unfortunately we are unable to do returns on downloadable products.
Best regards,
Lars Wicklund
Product Support
Cakewalk, Inc.
Bye Cakewalk.