Unable to validate Kick NRE

Julion1 · March 29, 2020, 1:48pm

I already emailed the customer support, but I thought I post here as well in hope for a quicker response. The issue is that Logic Pro’s plug-in validation crashes because Kick NRE says my demo time has expired, therefore leaving the plug-in unvalidated and unchecked.

My system is
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3
Logic Pro 10.4.8

I downloaded the installer and license key from my Sonic Academy profile page.
I ran the plug-in installer first and license key installer after. No issues there.
The license key is located in /Library/Application Support/Sonic Academy/Kick - Nicky Romero/License/Kick - Nicky Romero.license
When I open Logic, the validation tool crashes.
A dialog window pops up saying “Your Kick demo time has expired”.
Here’s the validation result:

validating Audio Unit Kick - Nicky Romero by Sonic Academy:

AU Validation Tool
Version: 1.7.0 
Copyright 2003-2019, Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Specify -h (-help) for command options

VALIDATING AUDIO UNIT: ‘aumu’ - ‘SAKR’ - ‘SnAc’

Manufacturer String: Sonic Academy
AudioUnit Name: Kick - Nicky Romero
Component Version: 1.18.0 (0x11200)

PASS

TESTING OPEN TIMES:
COLD:
CFile::Open:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD///Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Sonic Academy/Kick - Nicky Romero/License/Kick - Nicky Romero.license
pszFullPath:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD///Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Sonic Academy/Kick - Nicky Romero/Presets/
pszFullPath:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD///Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Sonic Academy/Kick - Nicky Romero/Presets/x/

validation result: crashed validation

Tekalight · March 29, 2020, 8:00pm

Hey there @Julion1

It’s weekend, so S.A customer support won’t get your email before tomorrow. As a moderator, I try to check the forums from time to time during wk but in this case I’m not able to test anything on my end , I just have Kick 2, not the Kick 1 NRE edition and also not using Catalina.

Was it working with this OS version before this problem BTW ?

There’s 2 topics on the support page for Kick 1, maybe it could help, especially the manual license file install :

How do I install KICK (v1 - Nicky Romero Edition) ?
Manually install your KICK (1) license key

You can head to the support page via this link https://support.sonicacademy.com/hc/en-us

If nothing helps there, you’ll have to wait for S.A support.

On MacOS you could also choose to delete your audio plugin database cache in case it got corrupted, but if you decide to do so, be aware that you will have to re-scan and start ALL installed plugins validation process again, could take some time and could also lead to other validation issues ( it should not, but I’ve seen very different comments about Catalina & plugins depending if you just upgraded your OS or re-install plugins after Catalina ).

If you plan to give this a try, here’s the procedure to clear your Audio Unit Cache :

in the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
Type ~/Library/Caches in the “Go to the folder” field. Press the Go button.
Remove the “com.apple.audiounits.cache” file.
Remove the ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache folder
Reboot your Mac.
Upon reboot, the next time you start Logic, ALL installed AU plug-ins will be re-scanned & Logic should then startup normally. If any AU validation tool crash occurs, simply choose ignore & the scan process should carry on. If it leads to a Logci crash, ignore & restart Logic. After all plugins scan, go to the plugin manager inside Logic’s Preferences & check for non validated plugins and try to run a manual validation.

sudhangurung · July 13, 2020, 7:43pm

Hi there,

Did you get any solution about this? I am also having the same error after updating to Catalina.

Thank you
Sudhan

Tekalight · July 14, 2020, 4:04am

Hi there @sudhangurung

If clearing your AU plugin cache & forcing a new complete scan like explained in my previous post doesn’t work, then it means that Kick 1 NRE edition is simply broken with MacOS Catalina. The same has been reported with ANA 1 with is no longer supported with this version of MacOS.

Best advice would be to use Kick 2 which is the supported version of this plugin, Kick 1 NRE & ANA 1 are now discontinued products from Sonic Academy. There’s a demo version of Kick 2 available from the product page here, you should give it a try, there’s a lot of new features comparing to Kick 1 NRE.

sloofin2 · November 23, 2020, 1:14pm

I’m having the same issue. And while asking people to buy a new plugin because you’ve abandoned the old one is all well and good, what happens when i need to load projects that used kick? It won’t replace it with kick 2, it’ll just - not load. I don’t see how that’s a workable solution, and it leaves me in fear of kick 2 in it’s turn being abandoned at some future point, leaving me unable to load projects that used it…beyond that there’s no upgrade path from 1 to 2. Since it seems you’re retiring one and replacing it with two, shouldn’t people who bought one be offered an upgrade path beyond just “yeah buy another plugin”?

Tekalight · November 23, 2020, 2:42pm

Hi there @sloofin2

Look, first thing first to clarify things here. I’m a forum moderator and an end user myself, my posts here aim at providing some help & insights to other members, I’m not the voice of S.A when it comes to sales, marketing policies and so on. Just wanted to make this more clear to avoid any confusion here.

Now for the story behind this issue & my own understanding : ANA 1 & KICK 1 are now discontinued products. From what I know, those previous versions where built using some 3rd party DSP developers resources and S.A has been trying hard to get them to work on updates and maintain the plugins across OS versions as much as they could but it turns out that this was not possible anymore at some point. So as much as I would also like to see those plugins getting an update, I don’t think it’s gonna happen and therefore I try to make people understand that the best thing to do is to go to the new version. I know it’s never a smooth transition and that it results in some headaches with older projects & previous presets you spent time to create or even bought from previous packs, but at some point and especially when an older plugin isn’t OS compatible anymore, I think it’s a wise decision to make the switch.

So that was my point in the previous post, it’s not about simply telling people to just buy the new version.

Next to this, you should have access to an upgrade path, it’s still displaying on the Kick 2 Plugin product page, asking you to log in to check if you’re eligible for an upgrade discount.

If it’s not the case do not hesitate to reach S.A Customer Support and send them an email using the following address, they also have an online support chat directly available from the website and finally, they are just launching their Black Friday sales today, so that might be the time to get the best pricing option for Kick 2.

Hope that’s clarifying what I’m doing & providing you with some more explanation about this

Do not hesitate to get in touch with S.A customer service :

mailto:customerservice@sonicacademy.com

Tekalight · November 23, 2020, 6:53pm

Hey again @sloofin2

Here you go for the upgrade path to Kick 2 from Kick 1, info available from S.A News pages here.

Macilias · April 20, 2021, 12:25pm

Its a nightmare, I can not open my project anymore which has been using Kick1
First I got:

Followed by:

And then Ableton crash!!!
No way to get back to work, I deleted Kick 1 already and cleared the cache as reboot, but no way, the problem is still there!!!
Please provide a way to fix this issue ASAP!!!

PS I also deleted the component in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
and now its the same with A.N.A 1!!! what’s with all the libraries I bought for that one!!!

Tekalight · April 20, 2021, 6:27pm

Hey there @Macilias

What MacOS version are you running and did you update your OS prior to this issue ? Kick 1 & ANA 1 are not compatible with MacOS systems above 10.14

Macilias · April 21, 2021, 8:02am

I’m running on Mac Os Big Sur 11.2.3 for a while now, and strangely both plugins stopped working just two days ago without any update in between. Also the message: “Your Kick demo time has expired” is clearly a bug, since I have bought Kick 1&2 and ANA 1&2

Tekalight · April 21, 2021, 9:53am

Wondering how it could have been working on Big Sur in first place, did you actually use Kick NRE and ANA 1 on this MacOS 11.2.3 or where both plugins just already installed and then you noticed they won’t work when trying to use them ?

Both plugins have been reported “broken” since MacOS Catalina and since they are discontinued products I don’t think there’s any plan for upgrades as discussed in this topic.

Forwarding this to S.A anyway

FYI → @bryan_spence

Macilias · April 23, 2021, 12:24pm

I have not been using them actively but constantly loading a session wich included both of them and the session was working until it stopped few days ago. The only solution was to delete the components from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Tekalight · April 23, 2021, 3:03pm

Two things to separate here IMO :

1 st one is that KICK NRE & ANA 1.5 have been reported not working on MacOS version above 10.14, S.A team have explained that they were trying to get back to 3rd party developers to have them fixing it but that they can’t promise that it will happen. You can read more about this in this thread.

So unfortunately, beside solutions like getting back to an older version of MacOS, having the chance to have an older spare Mac or even setting up a Hackintosh running an older version of MacOS on a spare PC ( which I totally recon, is not available to everyone and involves a cumbersome process & is time consuming), there’s not much to do about this.

Now maybe it worth it to take the plunge if you can do it and if you are really in need to get Kick NRE or ANA 1.5 working for older projects.

Last thought here is that by the end of the day, it’s all about some kicks & synth patches inside projects and getting back to them and replace your instances of Kick NRE & ANA 1.5 with Kick 2 & ANA 2 and doing some sound design again might be the easiest way to be back on track with your older projects. Agree it’s frustrating and also cumbersome but it’s more a mind set & acceptance thing I believe.

Which leads me to the 2nd point : are you still having issues to open and get back to these older projects with Live ?

Just deleting the AU Component isn’t enough to fully uninstall KICK NRE or ANA 1.5, if you follow this post you’ll find the instructions to manually remove ANA 1.5 files & plugins. I don’t have Kick NRE installed myself, but the locations and procedure would be the same, you just have to make sure that you delete the matching plugins for Kick NRE.

Once done, you should as well clear your MacOS AU Component cache database ( note that all your AU plugins will need to be re-scan next time you start Live then ), this is explain in the previous post of this thread, but here it is again :

In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
Type ~/Library/Caches in the “Go to the folder” field. Press the Go button.
Remove the “com.apple.audiounits.cache” file.
Remove the ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache folder
Reboot your Mac.
Next time you start Live, all your AU plugins will be re-scan.

Then you shouldn’t have any problems opening older projects except the fact that the Kick NRE / ANA 1.5 will be reported as missing/not installed and greyed out and being inactive inside Live, you can then replace those instances with Kick 2 & ANA 2, keeping any Fx chain you add on those channels and get back to sound design or finding a new preset that suits your needs.

Can’t help much more than this unfortunately, hope that’s at least giving you some insights about a workaround solution

Macilias · April 23, 2021, 3:33pm

Its was not about the caches, but about the components, so deleting or clearing caches does not bring anything to the table from my perspective.

Tekalight · April 23, 2021, 4:01pm

Well, simply removing the AU component isn’t the proper way to do it, you also have embedded plugins database caches inside Live app files as well. If you unchecked using AU plugins in Live preferences, close down Live and reopen it then enable AU plugins again they will all show up instantly because of those caches databases.

Next to that you still have VST plugins and remaining files from both Kick NRE & ANA 1.5 on your Mac, so a good habit is to perform a clean uninstall whenever you can IMHO

Dylnengls · April 24, 2021, 7:07pm

I’m having this same exact issue. Nicky Romero Kick was working perfectly up until a day or two ago. Now I get those same exact two error messages and Ableton crashes right after. Project files that aren’t using Kick 1 are okay but when I tried to open Kick 1 in that project file it would crash the whole program. Please I have no idea what to do is there any solution???

Tekalight · April 25, 2021, 1:55pm

Hey there @Dylnengls

Sorry for delayed reply [quote=“Dylnengls, post:16, topic:35034”]
Nicky Romero Kick was working perfectly up until a day or two ago. Now I get those same exact two error messages and Ableton crashes right after.
[/quote]

This is still puzzling me how it could have been working if you’re also running Big Sur or Catalina on your Mac, my understanding is that the plugins where installed but the projects where you had instances of KICK NRE haven’t been opened yet.

Next to that there were also recent updates to Live 10 → now 10.10.35 and Live 11 + any new updates to MacOS that I’m not aware off since I’m still running MacOS High Sierra on my end.

Those are the bits that I can think about for now getting issues when trying to reopen older projects that where using KICK NRE.

If you’re still running into issues and can’t reopen those projects, browse through the previous posts and either manually remove the KICK NRE plugin ( either the AU component or the VST or both, depending of the version your project was using ), you’ll find the location path in the previous post.

Just find the plugin(s) and move it onto your desktop for example, then try to reopen your projects and re-scan your plugins in Live preferences. Again that’s only a quick fix, it’s better to delete your MacOS AU plugin cache as well, especially if you were using the AU component plugin in your project.

This is just the forums, you can get some direct help here but if you need you can also open a support ticket with S.A here. Again, I’m not running latest MacOS version and haven’t got KICK NRE installed myself but as far as I know both ANA 1.5 & KICK NRE aren’t compatible above MacOS 10.14.

Hope this helps

Macilias · April 26, 2021, 7:08am

So, where is a proper dedicated uninstaller for both? Actually I don’t want to delete by Occasion also something which might have been important for other Plugins and clearing the cache folder did not brought any help.