Roxio Toast 11 Titanium W/ Bias Sound Soap - Does It Authorize?

[bmcc]

Hello Forum,

 

I've read some of the other reports on this forum that stated since Bias-Inc closed shop (June 2012), there is no way to authorize the Sound Soap for Toast plug-in.

I never realized that I would still have to authorize the Sound Soap plug-in a month or two after purchasing Toast, because I was only burning Blu-rays, not doing sound editing.

I tried authorizing it, but got the same internet access errors and prompts that are listed in some of the other discussions about this same topic.

 

I just (March 13, 2013) called Roxio Customer Support to ask if the Sound Soap plug-in is valid and can be authorized (if I were to purchase a copy of Toast 11 Titanium)

and they said 'yes'.

 

Does anyone know what is the truth? I'm not sure that I'd like to pay $19 to the Corel/Roxio Tech Support dept. to find that Corel/Roxio doesn't consider this a 'supported' product.

 

thanks,

 

Brian

[tsantee]

My copy is already authorized so I don't know what happens with new authorizations. However, there were problem authorizing Sound Soap SE 2 even when Bias was in business. This is because Toast selected the wrong Sound Soap in the Bias Authorization Manager. I don't know if that is still the case. But here is some info I received from Roxio at the time:

 

There are three ways to serialize SoundSoap.

 

1. By launching SoundSoap from your applications folder

2. By launching the BIAS Authorization software in your applications folder

3. By opening the SoundSoap Toast plug-in by accessing it from within Toast Audio Units

 

If you launch SoundSoap from your applications folder, the wrong product is selected by default. You have to choose to SHOW ALL PRODUCTS and choose the one at the very bottom of the list.

 

If you launch the BIAS Authorization app, you do the same thing, select the product at the very bottom of the list.

 

If you serialize it by accessing it from the Toast plug-in, the correct selection is already made by default.

Edited March 13, 2013 by tsantee

[bmcc]

Thanks, tsantee - I'm glad you have it authorized. I launched Soundsoap a number of different ways (originally it came up as an AU in need of checking (and authorization) via MOTU Digital Performer, but I also launched it from Toast as a plug-in), and I also did re-select the bottom choice (I think it is Soundsoap 2 for Toast or something like that...), after selecting the Show ALL apps. I would always enter my serial number off of the Toast box and would then get the same prompt - the prompt saying that something's wrong with my internet connection (which is/was not the case), and that I need to contact BIAS. But BIAS is out of business.

But Roxio says that it will still authorize.

If Roxio had made a proper installer, then all of this would have been authorized on day 1 - unfortunately my 'ticket' for free support expired 14 days after registration, and I was totally unaware of further authorization requirements. Gee, I registered immediately, what else was required? ha...

-Brian

Edited March 13, 2013 by bmcc

[tsantee]

Sorry about the hassle and disappointment. I don't know how Corel can say it can be authorized when Bias shut down their authorization servers when they closed. I have some other Bias apps, too, and keep wondering whether they will be disabled when I attempt to launch them some day. What Corel should have done is purchased the rights to Sound Soap as well as to Sound Saver. They both are great. And Roxio's CD Spin Doctor X is essentially unusable so acquiring Sound Saver to replace it would be a terrific customer-focused decision.

 

My sense is Sound Soap cannot be newly authorized. Still, it continues to be included in the Toast Pro bundle long after Bias shut down and you've been told by Corel that it can be authorized. I think they're misinformed. I bite my tongue a lot when commenting about their customer service practices.

[david gideon]

Bias's authorization servers have gone down for a few relatively brief periods (just recently they were down for a day or two), but they are up now and usually are most of the time. As far as I can tell it's still possible to authorize Bias products via bias-inc.com.

It's possible that a bundled version of a Bias app uses some different authorization procedure and that may be an extra kink in the procedure.

Edited March 14, 2013 by david gideon

[tsantee]

Bias's authorization servers have gone down for a few relatively brief periods (just recently they were down for a day or two), but they are up now and usually are most of the time. As far as I can tell it's still possible to authorize Bias products via bias-inc.com.

It's possible that a bundled version of a Bias app uses some different authorization procedure and that may be an extra kink in the procedure.

Great! Thanks for letting us know this.

[david gideon]

Well no sooner do I report the above than the domain for bias-inc.com comes up as having expired just a coupla days ago! So I guess unless they renew it (which they probably would've done by now if they intended to) the authorization process is permanently unavailable. This means that newly obtained software cannot be made to work. Currently authorized software will continue to function on the computer(s) it's authorized for. But it cannot be run on any other computers because there is no way to authorize additional machines to run the software. I'm not looking forward to the day when I need to switch to a new computer, and all my Bias software becomes worthless.

[prl]

I tried to use the Alternate Authorisation... method, and when I double-clicked on the generated HTML file, I got sent to http://www.bias-inc.com/activate/, which, as David said, is a dead domain registration apparently being squatted on by Network Solutions

 

I'm not hopeful of the bits inside my Sound Soap application ever being able to work the way they were paid for.

 

I've just gone through and tried to install all the other "extras" I got with Toast 11 Pro in case their authorisation crashes and burns sometime. Photoshop Elements, Sonicfire and the Toast HD/BD plugin all installed and authorised.

 

I discovered I was never give an authorisation key for FotoMagico (I had assumed I didn't need one). And, of course, the current Sound Soap fiasco.

 

[eta] Sound Soap is still being advertised as being supplied as part of Toast 11 Pro.

Edited March 18, 2013 by prl

[david gideon]

It looks like they decided to renew their domain because the bias website is back up as of today. You should be able to authorize your software now, not sure that you even need use the 'alternate authorization' method it might work more smoothly the standard way since the servers appear to be back online.

[prl]

It looks like they decided to renew their domain because the bias website is back up as of today. You should be able to authorize your software now, not sure that you even need use the 'alternate authorization' method it might work more smoothly the standard way since the servers appear to be back online.

I was able to authorise my SoundSoap today (30 Mar).

[CreativeServices]

I had to change the Authorization Manager by clicking "Show all BIAS Products" after which a list appeared and I clicked on.

 

"BIAS SoundSoap for Toast 2"

 

Then submit. Then it worked.

[makuribu]

I just installed Toast 11 with Sound Soap on a new Mac, and Bias authorization still works!

 

Thanks, tsantee, for the hint about "Show all products" and going to the bottom of the list.

 

I wasn't keen to spend more money on Soundsoap 3.