I am locked out of all Arturia products on the laptop I use for live performance!

[mastazi]

I’m just back from a live performance where I was supposed to play some Analog Lab Pro presets that I’ve created during the last few months. At sound check I opened Analog Lab and I got this error

Entering my Arturia credentials did not change anything I would just see the same error again after submitting.
So I thought maybe I need to update. So I went to Arturia Software Center and I got a message that I had to update the Software Center to which I clicked OK and after the update was completed, I got the form to enter my login and every time I tried logging in I got this weird error message (see text in the bottom of the form)

I tried changing from the wireless I was on (my iPhone’s hotspot) to the wifi of the venue, then also tried my friends’ phone hotspot. In all 3 cases, I kept getting connection error from Arturia even though I could browse the web normally including the fact that I could access the Arturia website (you can see it in the background in the screenshot above).

I even tried the offline activation but I got an error saying it could not create the activation request file.

Luckily I had about one hour between sound check and the concert so I was able to put together a few presets in MainStage and I got through the gig. But I am pretty upset.

After coming back home, on the same wifi that I have used before to activate all of my Arturia products, I am still seeing the same errors.

I have no idea what I should do next. I have many Arturia plugins including the V Collection, FX Collection and more, and I really hope I don’t have to wipe them all out and reinstall again. Please help.

[mastazi]

Some more info… that error below the form says:

Error 01 - The ASC background service is unreachable. Click here to view the related FAQ article. If the problem persists you might have to reinstall the ASC

I think ASC means Arturia Software Center. When I click I go to this link https://support.arturia.com/hc/en-us/articles/8033063928092-Arturia-Software-Center-ASC-Error-01 Apparently I will have to reinstall ASC but hopefully not reinstall all of the plugins… I will update if I find out more.

[mastazi]

Another update. I followed the troubleshooting steps at the link I posted above. It turned out that the Arturia Software Center needs to run a background process, so in Mac preferences, under “Login items and extensions” I had to turn on the item called “Arturia Software Center”… I recently updated MacOS and I think it somehow got turned off when I updated. So if someone else is getting the same issue, here’s how exactly you turn that back on:

During sound check earlier I panicked and just jumped onto plan B (MainStage). I didn’t even click on the troubleshooting link LOL.

[matjones]

HI @mastazi and thanks for posting your experience here, i can fully understand your actions here.
It’s great to see you figured it out and managed a workaround in the process…

Personally, i think it’s a case of ‘how The World works’ these days, living in an ever more ‘connected’ world provides both pros and cons.
I know a keyboard player who was supposed to be at a fairly important gig the day after a trans Atlantic flight back here to The UK, who’s flight got grounded at the last minute, i think it was due to the volcano in Iceland at the time iirc, and he inevitably couldn’t get to the gig in time.
ALL his gear was in The UK, but he wasn’t there to play it of course and there was no time to get a dep in, so he recorded all the midi parts as he had hired a duplicate workstation synth so he could continue song writing, and just emailed the midi parts, including patch changes etc over to his band mates, talked them through the setup over a video call and everything went off as planned.
It’s just horrible when it doesn’t all work though…
Great to see you got it sorted and posted your experience which SHOULD be of use to anyone playing live with a computer these days.

[mastazi]

I agree @matjones this is a “today’s world problem”. That’s why I always try and have a plan B and even a plan C (in this case Plan C would have been using my iPad instead of my Mac; I have a few plugins on the iPad that sound good). Back when I was working as a software admin we were told to make sure we always had multiple levels of redundancy, so it’s become part of my mindset.

[soyer]

The thing is, if you can’t use a software without the Internet or its creator, you’re just renting it, not owning it. :\

[mastazi]

I hear you @soyer the thing is, currently no commercial software maker gives you real ownership of the software itself, the only thing you get is a license to use it. The only exception is when you’re using open source software which is sometimes very good but in relation to audio plugins it just lacks variety… I do use a couple open source plugins like Surge and Dexed but I can’t cover all the sounds I want with just those sadly.

[ItsRaaandy]

I think he was referring to the anti-consumer pattern of having software that will not function unless it can “phone home”.

And no, paying for a license doesn’tmean you own the software, but it should not require constant surveillance over the internet in order to use it.

At this point, I’m not using Arturia’s software unless I’m updating the firmware in my Minifreak. I am in solidarity with anyone who struggles against businesses who distrust their customers so much that they spend developer time on DRM, anti-circumvention and telemetry. You’re a musical instrument company, do better.

[mastazi]

@ItsRaaandy I know what you mean but just to clarify, my problem in this case was NOT connectivity as I initially thought. It was because the Arturia software needs a background process to run, and I had stopped that process inadvertently. After restarting the background process, I am able to use the Arturia software WITHOUT any internet connection. In fact I have used Arturia plugins many times in live gigs, and I am almost never connected to the Internet when I gig for various reasons. So based on my experience there is no problem with using Arturia plugins while offline.

[ItsRaaandy]

I’m glad to hear that. If you’re happy with their products, go for it. I like the physical instruments, I spend way too much time in front of screens to want to make music that way.

My hot take is based mostly on the reliance of the Minifreak on proprietary patch files instead of using the same Sysex approach that has worked (more or less) for decades. But any software that distrusts its users and spends company resources on so-called loss prevention is really focused on the wrong things.

Like I said, it’s a hot take based on my interest in physical instruments, I’m sure someone at some point will jump on it and I’ll just smile.

[Greywolf]

Everything listed here is among the horror stories I have heard when it comes to using a computer-based DAW as a performance tool. If it works for you, that’s very cool, but after everything I have read (and a couple train-wrecks I have watched during performance), there is no way in hell I would trust this as my primary rig. MAYBE as a backup (…in fact, as a backup I can see where it might work out well, but I’d have to be really really sure I could rewire my controllers quickly and correctly).

HW workstations could (and probably do) suffer the same fate but I have found them more robust than a general-purpose computer.

[mastazi]

@Greywolf for me it’s a tradeoff. I use both and which one I’m going to use in a specific gig depends on the situation. One of the projects I’ve been in I have to launch samples and sequences. I prefer doing that in Ableton and then also using Ableton for my live keyboard by creating a couple of empty MIDI tracks in the project and then I map those to my MIDI controllers. I could do all that with a workstation that has sampling and an onboard sequencer, but it would be fiddly due to the small screen and the generally worse UI compared to a full fledged computer, not to mention that the workstation would be expensive to acquire (I have many keyboards but no proper workstation with multitrack sequencer) whereas a laptop is something that most people always have on hand.

Having said that I had “proper” keyboards fail on me multiple times, so even though I agree with you that going computer-based you have more risks of this type, it’s not like going with hardware instruments is always trouble free… I had a digital piano that just showed an error message on screen when turned on and did not make any sound. I had a digital synth where conversely the sound was OK but the screen failed mid-concert and it was super hard to switch presets without seeing anything. An analog synth that kept going out of tune mid song. Grand piano owned by the venue that sounded awfully out of tune. The list goes on!

Another thing I like about software, is that I can go completely battery powered: modern laptops have batteries that easily last 10-12 hours, and most midi controller can get power from the laptop over USB… no more background noise due to bad electrical grounding in the venue!

Conversely the thing I dislike about software based setup is that you have to “prepare” the laptop, e.g. remove all unneeded software that might be running in the background and cause latency issues, turn off all notification sounds, etc etc.

[matjones]

@mastazi

I had “proper” keyboards fail on me multiple times

I’ve had a ‘proper keyboard player’ fail on me once on stage too
My old MMT8 (which i still have kicking about somewhere) is about the most reliable sequencer i’ve ever owned, even that was prone to going nuts if anyone even slightly knocked the wall wart for it though, and don’t get me started on tape backup!