Is it worth upgrading to Hauptwerk V (Hauptwerk version 5)? This post is prepared for those saying yes. The biggest change affecting the upgrade process is the new sample set encryption and copy protection licensing system, which is not backward compatible with previous versions of Hauptwerk so you need to re-download and re-install all your copy-protected and encrypted sample sets to make them work. Here is what you need to know.
If you already use Hauptwerk 4 with some copy-protected or encrypted sample sets purchased and activated on your Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle (the so-called HASP dongle), you can upgrade to Hauptwerk V (Hauptwerk version 5) by purchasing either a perpetual upgrade license or a Hauptwerk V subscription; these two products are technically equivalent, the only difference is in the payment method and amount. Since Hauptwerk V uses a different type of copy-protection and encryption system than Hauptwerk 4, you will also need to migrate all your copy-protected or encrypted sample sets to the new format. Migrating means a conversion process where:
Your old Hauptwerk V licenses will be deleted in exchange to the new licenses in Hauptwerk V format; and
You will need to re-download all your previous copy-protected and encrypted sample sets from Inspired Acoustics in the new Hauptwerk V format and re-install them.
This latter process is essential and it is a direct consequence of the change Milan Digital Audio has introduced in the copy-protection system.
How-to Upgrade a Dongle/Softlock - Qastor 3.0 If your Qastor program has informed you that your license is about to expire, you will need to contact QPS. Our Sales Department will check whether you have paid your annual 'Support and Maintenance' fee and will send you a renewed license code. Upgrading USB Dongle License Keys Reading time 5 minutes Cinegy License Viewer is a tool for viewing licenses available on your Cinegy dongle, as well as for generating remote upgrade requests. Such upgrades are required for all USB dongles for all Cinegy products needing a USB license key. Upgrade method: Enter Autokit Settings, click 'Recheck updates', Select 'Software version' to update firstly (don't plug the dongle) Click 'Box upgrade' to update 'Box version' (plug the dongle). Please mail in the product dongle within 10 days of receiving a temporary product license. Once the dongle is received and verified, you will receive an email with a 1-year term license. This offer has been extended until July 31, 2021. Before trading in your dongle, make sure your Fiery server supports Fiery Command WorkStation 6.6. To upgrade to 64-bit AV with a Hardlock/Parallel Port dongle, you must already own AV 4.x, and then purchase “Upgrade from Parallel to USB Dongle” (4-000) AND “Upgrade AV 4.x 32 to AV 4.9.1 64 Bit” (4-000). Minimal Version for 64 bit upgrade is AV 4.x, Otherwise an upgrade is.
All Inspired Acoustics sample sets can be migrated from Hauptwerk 4 to Hauptwerk V, even the discontinued sample sets.
Hauptwerk V uses PACE’s iLok system for copy protection and the management of licenses of both Hauptwerk V and compatible sample sets. In order to upgrade to Hauptwerk V, you can choose to have a physical iLok USB key or a cloud-based solution, the latter requiring a continuous Internet connection. To proceed with the upgrade, you need to make the following steps.
Step 1: Please create an iLok account. This free web account allows you to store and manage all your licenses. https://www.ilok.com/#!registration
Step 2: Please purchase the upgrade for Hauptwerk V. Then start the sample set migration process from within Hauptwerk V. This migration has to be done once only. Note that there is no technical possibility to return to previous Hauptwerk versions after the migration has completed.
Note that if you upgrade to or buy a new Hauptwerk V or a sample set from Inspired Acoustics, you will not receive a physical iLok dongle. If you choose to use Hauptwerk V with a physical dongle instead of cloud-based licensing requiring continuous internet connection, this physical dongle has to be purchased separately. There are various retail and online stores where you can buy a physical iLok dongle. When you purchase one, it will initially have no licenses copied onto it and you will need to activate your licenses onto the iLok key using the https://www.ilok.com/#!license-manager software. Neither Inspired Acoustics nor Milan Digital Audio are involved in this process.
Upon purchasing Hauptwerk, you will receive a detailed step-by-step instruction by Milan Digital Audio on how to migrate sample sets. In this section, we only cover the process in general to give you an idea of the entire process, and then cover those parts that involve Inspired Acoustics in more detail.
During the migration process, Hauptwerk V will read your Hauptwerk 4 USB key and move your existing licenses from your dongle to a license update request file that needs to be submitted to Milan Digital Audio via their web form on their website. This website will then convert your licenses to the Hauptwerk V compatible PACE iLok license system and assign the licenses to your account. The conversion is made by Milan Digital Audio and PACE and Inspired Acoustics are not involved in this. If anything does not work as intended, please consult with Milan Digital Audio directly. After the migration/conversion process has finished, your iLok account should automatically contain the new licenses for the sample sets. No Activation Code or anything else should be entered - the licenses will be assigned to your iLok account automatically.
Migrating licenses from the Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle to the Hauptwerk V iLok system
Migrate your licenses following the step-by-step instructions of Milan Digital Audio from within Hauptwerk V. These instructions were sent to you by e-mail from Milan Digital Audio. In the iLok License Manager software, please Activate your licenses to your physical iLok key or to a Cloud Session.
Hauptwerk V has to identify new sample set licenses, so before installing any new sample sets in the Hauptwerk V format, please download and install the latest “licensing package” containing this information from Milan Digital Audio through their website: https://www.hauptwerk.com/licensingpackages
Accessing and downloading the new Hauptwerk V compatible sample set installation files
Please go to the Inspired Acoustics website, log in and visit My Products.
If you have your Hauptwerk 4 product registered already, go to the next Step.
If you do not have your Hauptwerk 4 product registered, locate its Serial Number Inspired Acoustics has given to you on your purchase (either in e-mail or in the physical box) and register the product, then proceed to the next Step.
If you forgot or lost your Serial Number, please contact us via Support.
Near each of your registered Hauptwerk 4 compatible products at the My Products page, you will see a “Migrate to Hauptwerk V” button. Press that button and the downloadable files for your product will be automatically migrated to the Hauptwerk V format. You can now download the Hauptwerk V compatible sample set format.
Then please install the downloaded sample sets in Hauptwerk V format from Inspired Acoustics. There is no need to uninstall the sample sets. When prompted, proceed with the re-installation.
After your sample set is installed, you can load it. Your settings should be kept intact. During the first loading, Hauptwerk V will re-cache the organ, this is a one-time process, subsequent loads will be made from the cache and will be faster.
If you already have a license on your iLok account but you do not have an Activation code, it is likely that you are having a product that was upgraded from an earlier product version designed for Hauptwerk 4. In this case, Inspired Acoustics has provided you with a Serial Number for the Hauptwerk 4 version of the product. Please register this Hauptwerk 4 product version and then click on “Migrate to Hauptwerk V” to access the download.
It might also be the case that you have a transferred license from someone else. In this case, you need to finish the license transfer process by contacting us to access the downloadable files.
It is legal to transfer a license of an Inspired Acoustics sample set to another user. Assuming you are not doing this as a business, this is not a reselling situation and you do not need to ask for permission to do this.
Transferring a license using the iLok account to another customer is done in two steps.
Transfer the license using the iLok License Manager tool.
Transfer the download access via the Inspired Acoustics website.
After finishing Step 1, please contact us to proceed with Step 2. Note that not all licenses are transferable, for example, Not For Resale licenses are not transferable.
Since the Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle management will be unsupported by Milan Digital Audio from 4 months after the first release of Hauptwerk V, you cannot transfer licenses of Inspired Acoustics sample sets compatible with Hauptwerk 4 anymore without transferring your dongle physically to the new customer.
If a sample set was encrypted or copy-protected in Hauptwerk 4 (or earlier versions), it will have to be reinstalled since Hauptwerk V uses different encryption and copy-protection systems.
Since encrypted and copy-protected sample sets designed for Hauptwerk version 2, 3 and 4 are not compatible with Hauptwerk V, you have to reinstall these sample sets to use them. The fastest way of obtaining the new installers is to download them directly from the Inspired Acoustics website. In case you do not wish to download large amounts of data, we can custom prepare a USB stick for you with your purchased product installers and physically ship you. We charge a small fee for this service covering the direct costs. Please contact us if you wish to get your new installation packages physically shipped to you and we will provide you with a link to order the shipment.
Technically, yes, but we recommend using different Hauptwerk versions on different computers. Hauptwerk 4 and Hauptwerk V are not designed to be installed on the same computer simultaneously and unless you are a highly advanced user to make this possible we do not recommend running Hauptwerk 4 and Hauptwerk V on the same computer. When migrating any one of your Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle to Hauptwerk V, that old Hauptwerk 4 dongle will be wiped and void, and only the other dongle(s) will keep working. You can also upgrade all your Hauptwerk 4 dongles and then all of them will be replaced with the new Hauptwerk V compatible licenses. Please note that if you wish to move certain licenses between your Hauptwerk 4 dongles before migration to Hauptwerk V, you will need to contact Milan Digital Audio and this process might cost some administration fee.
Yes, they will be retained by Hauptwerk V. A one-time regeneration of the cache files will be required, though.
All Inspired Acoustics sample sets in Hauptwerk 3 and Hauptwerk 4 formats purchased before 31 March 2020 will be migrated for free to Hauptwerk V if you upgrade them until 1 October 2020. After 1 October 2020, sample set migration upgrades will be charged a small, one-time license migration fee per sample set.
Licenses for Inspired Acoustics Hauptwerk 3 or Hauptwerk 4 sample sets purchased after 31 March 2020, upgraded at any time, will be upgraded at a small fee per sample set. This is because Hauptwerk V's built-in sample set migration process will not recognize these licenses automatically.
The migration process yields the same Edition of the product that you already have (for example, PAB Professional v2 for Hauptwerk 4 will be migrated to PAB Professional v2 for Hauptwerk V).
The one-time license migration fee will be announced later, but will likely be $18 or less.
If you purchase a new Hauptwerk V compatible sample set from us using the PACE iLok system, you receive an Activation Code from Inspired Acoustics. These can be redeemed and will become licenses for the sample set, to be stored in your iLok account. When a license is in your iLok account, you can activate it to your iLok cloud or physical iLok USB dongle. The Activation Code for your product is displayed under My Products in your account. Activation Codes can be used one-time only.
Serial Numbers and Vouchers are codes issued by Inspired Acoustics allowing you to identify your product transaction, such as a product purchase or download access redemption.
For example, you get a voucher code or serial number that allows you to register a product and download it. Also, it allows you to redeem an Activation Code, if one is required for your product to function.
Activation Codes identify your iLok licenses and are issued to you by Inspired Acoustics. If you received an Activation Code only and not a voucher or serial number, you can use the Activation Code both to redeem your download and to add the license of your product to the iLok License Manager. Activation Codes are recognized by the iLok License Manager and allow you to redeem and activate the license for your product.
If you are unsure if you have an Activation Code, a Serial Number or a Voucher, do not worry, because all of them will be recognized by the Inspired Acoustics website and will allow to register your product.
Note that for migrations between sample sets for Hauptwerk 4 and Hauptwerk V and later products, in many cases, no Activation Codes are involved, but the licenses are directly added to your iLok dongle. For such products you already have a previous, Hauptwerk 4 compatible sample set registered with Inspired Acoustics, so the download access will be provided to you without the need of an Activation Code, based on the previous Hauptwerk 4 sample set you already registered.
Yes, both for existing sample sets and for new releases. Although Milan Digital Audio will stop applying license updates for the Hauptwerk 4 dongle shortly after Hauptwerk V is released, we will keep offering our sample sets on Hauptwerk 4 without a firm end of marketing date. To make this technically possible and provide compatibility with Hauptwerk 4 in future Inspired Acoustics sample sets, we will use an encryption method that does not require a Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle update. Existing sample sets will be re-encrypted to work without a dongle update on Hauptwerk 4. Your current Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle with a valid license will be required and the sample set will be operational as long as your dongle works.
Since there will be no way of removing a license from your Hauptwerk 4 dongle apart from the upgrade process to Hauptwerk V, license transfers for Hauptwerk 4 compatible Inspired Acoustics sample sets will not be technically feasible unless you transfer the dongle itself also.
You can keep using Hauptwerk 4 and existing sample sets as long as your USB dongle works, but Milan Digital Audio will stop providing technical support at some time in the future after Hauptwerk V is released. Note that when the software support for Hauptwerk 4 stops, you will not be able to contact Milan Digital Audio with questions or support requests. Please consult with Milan Digital Audio for further information.
After around 31st March 2020, you will not be able to activate new licenses since the Hauptwerk 4 USB dongle (the HASP dongle) will not be managed by Milan Digital Audio any further.
Inspired Acoustics, however, will keep supporting and releasing new sample set titles for Hauptwerk 4 as long as it is reasonable to do so with no firm end of support target date. Both current and new products compatible with Hauptwerk 4 format will not require dongle updates anymore starting from the date Milan Digital Audio stops managing Hauptwerk 4 dongles. So Inspired Acoustics sample sets from that time will work regardless of the inability to update your dongle.
If you keep using Hauptwerk 4 until your dongle stops working physically, you might need to upgrade to Hauptwerk V to keep using Hauptwerk.
Generally speaking, there is no change, however, please note the following cases when interpreting the terms:
Hauptwerk 4 compatible products delivered as a download and purchased after 1 April 2020 will not be involved a license update procedure, so they will not be refundable.
Hauptwerk V compatible products delivered as a download will only be refundable in full within 14 days of your purchase if you have not yet used (redeemed or activated) your Activation Code. If you already used your Activation Code within 14 days and you decide to return the product, we can provide you with a partial refund only on a case-by-case basis. First we will need to remove your license to be eligible for a partial refund. The refund will be partial since a small administration fee will be deducted. Please contact us in such case.
The full return policy can be found here.