Steinberg Sequel 2 - network install or alternative product?

Anyone using this and managed to install it over a network?
Considering purchasing this, will probably have to purchase usb licence keys to make sure it will run after a rebuild but I don't want to manually fiddle with it to get it to work. It extracts multiple MSIs as part of the install but I can't find any documentation on it.

Or is anyone else using something similar to Sequel that they could recommend? Just looking for an easy to use sequencer with some decent built in sounds, ability to record audio tracks, basic midi editing all with a simple-ish GUI.

Hi, Just wondering if you managed to get anywhere with this? Our music dept has just tried this and is thinking of buying for their 60 computers, i dont really fancy doing a manual load on them!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by morganw

Anyone using this and managed to install it over a network?
Considering purchasing this, will probably have to purchase usb licence keys to make sure it will run after a rebuild but I don't want to manually fiddle with it to get it to work. It extracts multiple MSIs as part of the install but I can't find any documentation on it.

Or is anyone else using something similar to Sequel that they could recommend? Just looking for an easy to use sequencer with some decent built in sounds, ability to record audio tracks, basic midi editing all with a simple-ish GUI.

---

We found this software wasn't suitable as you can't load in a video track to sync with audio, other than that it looked perfect. Currently waiting for one copy of this:

Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 7 - Home Studio 7 XL

...to turn up and hopefully will be using this instead.

I did speak to Steinberg in Germany about network support / installation. They aren't interested.
Someone at Cakewalk actually acknowledged that people are using Sonar on a network with no problems although they do not offer a network install route. I was told that if you place it in an image it works with no problems though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by morganw

Anyone using this and managed to install it over a network?

---

We use Cubase, which I imagine uses the same USB dongles. We store individual images of each of our workstations, so we just plugged a USB key in to each workstation we wanted Cubase installed on and let it sort out drivers and so on - I don't remember if the driver is signed or not, I'm afraid, but I don't remember installation being a problem. Our install script installs the following MSIs in order:

CubaseEssential4.msi
HALionOne.msi
GM_Drum_Set.msi
GM_Set.msi

and just uses the "/qb-" option to do a silent install, all of which seems to work fine.

--
David Hicks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by morganw

I did speak to Steinberg in Germany about network support / installation. They aren't interested.

---

Indeed - buying 20 "licenses" of Cubase involved 20 boxed copies turning up, each with their own dongle. Sibelius was pretty resonable - it just uses a central license server, and they seem happy to have that work from pupil's home if you can figure out how to get it to work over VPN or whatever.

--
David Hicks

Dead simply answer don't buy it. We bought sequel 2 about 12 months ago and it nothing but trouble were do I start:

Midi and Audio drives don't work ,we use Keyrig 49 that seem to work on everything but the latency on sequel is dreadful.

licences are done online with individual auth codes that come with the disk ,each machine must be registered and the the auth code expires.For reinstall you must request new codes.We ghosted each machine just incase and another code is need for "extra free" sound files

drag and drop midi does not work. default location for files must be change on every login.
Tech support is rubbish ,had lots of problems got in touch and they have never resolved a single issue.

After throwing a few grand at this, the current music teacher has given it up and we are currently trying various replacements .

You'll probably have more luck waiting for the features you need to be available in cloud services rather than wait for companies like Steinberg to make their software more portable.
This Aviary's Music Creator - roc looks pretty good, and services like this should develop fairly quickly as it's (allegedly) easy to write high level code around something like Flex to do audio and video functions through a browser - obviously with a large performance hit but it should actually be reliable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rsenior

After throwing a few grand at this, the current music teacher has given it up and we are currently trying various replacements .

---

Sounds exactly like how things are in the music department here, due to some bad hardware and software decisions and no testing the only thing I can guarantee to work is Dance eJay.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by morganw

We found this software wasn't suitable as you can't load in a video track to sync with audio, other than that it looked perfect. Currently waiting for one copy of this:

Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 7 - Home Studio 7 XL

...to turn up and hopefully will be using this instead.

---

Morgan, how did you get on with Cakewalk? We are currently looking for cheaper alternatives to Cubase/Reason/Sibelius for an extended music department.

Well it didn't arrive in time to setup in the summer. I've had it since the start of September but i've also had a massive problem with virtualisation infrastructure so I haven't done anything but try and resolve this.

It looks like it needs to activate online, so it'll probably need it's own image. I'm still on the lookout for other alternatives but in terms of features this is still the only one that meets all of our requirements (if it works).

In the long term I think we may look at using Apple commputers, unless there are massive changes to the way the audio system is managed in Windows 7, Windows doesn't seem useful in a multi-user environment for audio work - mainly due the inconsistencies in levels and routing you can achieve across workstations with little effort. No money to make this change at the moment, but if we had any I'd make the change right now.

That's interesting Morgan, we're working with several schools, some with Macs in music, some with PCs. It seems that Macs create a lot less hassle with music software and hardware. Once you factor in the cost of Cubase/Sibelius/Reason your probably paying more than a Mac even with Logic Express.

As a non-muso I really struggle on what each software package does or doesn't do! I'd love to read an article comparing (in laymans terms) Cubase 5 v Cubase Studio v Cubase Essentials v Sequal v Sibelius v Reason v Logic Express v Logic Studio etc etc and making some minimum software recommendations for GCSE Music, A-Level Music Technology etc. Exam boards don't seem to be much help much. Of course if you ask the departments they say they need the full pro version of everything on all computers!

We've been running Sequel 1 for the last few years. Despite substantial problems in the first year, due to insufficient hardware and software e-licensers, it is now working relatively well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rsenior

licences are done online with individual auth codes that come with the disk ,each machine must be registered and the the auth code expires.For reinstall you must request new codes.We ghosted each machine just incase and another code is need for "extra free" sound files

---

We had a nightmare with the soft e-licenser not working properly and requiring a local administrator to login each day for the licenses to be re-activated. After over a year of problems, Steinberg released the functionality to transfer licenses from the soft e-licenser to USB e-licensers. We have these plugged into a PCI card with an internal USB port, and it now works well with no licensing issues.

Quote:

---

drag and drop midi does not work. default location for files must be change on every login.

---

I can't remember the specifics, but I do know we had to login and configure the software as the user, which was saved to defaults.xml in the user's appdata, then run a script each time the app is run to reset this default.xml to default.

We have the Sony education suite from Pugh education £23 each machine and gets you Sony acid, soundforge and Vegas movie studio. Only catch is you have to purchase 50 copies

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by glennda

We have the Sony education suite from Pugh education £23 each machine and gets you Sony acid, soundforge and Vegas movie studio. Only catch is you have to purchase 50 copies

---

That does look like a bargain, what courses is it used to run? Are the two Sony Audio products viable alternatives to Cubase etc?

Its a good piece of software - but perhaps not a cubase alternative - but definitely a sequel alternative but you can download free trials of most of the sony stuff for 30 days I think so take a look / get the music guys to test and have a play before commiting etc.

Link to Sony Site here Sony Creative Software - Vegas video - ACID & Sound Forge audio editing

Link to Pugh Educational License Sony Education Site License | Sony | Products | ... discounted software for education establishments