Hello Hermann, I am a ******** keyboardist living in ************. A few months ago I joined a contemporary prog rock / symphonic heavy metal band. My keyboard parts are quite intricate and I have lots of patch changes; I was rather worried about how to handle all this but then somebody told me about VSThost and as soon as I downloaded it I discovered that this was exactly what I needed. The program has allowed me to work on a level that I have never been able to do before and was about the best music software I have ever laid my hands on for live use. To do the same thing using hardware would mean to invest in six or seven different synths and then learn to program them all. I can honestly say that I believed it to be the single best software for live use Iīve ever known. The band has a big projection, it is the most serious project Iīve been into during the 30 years Iīve been playing in bands. Summer is coming up and that means lots of gigs, so I just sat down and fired up the computer to go through a few things for tomorrowīs rehearsal - -and up pops a little notice saying that youīre very sorry but this is really a donationware program and you would really appreciate a small donation to be able to keep up the work. Fair enough. The program is so good so it should really be a full-blown commercial program. Anyway, I enter the program list to load the song I was going to work on AND DISCOVER THAT THE PROGRAM LIST IS COMPLETELY EMPTY. Obviously the only conclusion I can draw is that the program is equipped with a little bug that erases everything to ensure that you really pay to get a fully working version. Now, I donīt remember having seen anywhere anything about the program being donationware. I have just had a look at the website and it does not mention it. Rather the contrary: it says, textually: ------------------------------------------ Since I've already been asked multiple times whether it's possible to donate for VSTHost, I've upgraded my PayPal-Account to make it possible. I don't insist on it... but, of course, it would be a pleasure for me :-) ------------------------------------------ And it sure as hell doesnīt mention that it will just flush all your programmings down the toilet if you donīt pay within a limited but unspecified amount of time. I know the sensible thing would be to take a safety copy, but it seems that the program does not save programs as files in a separate folder that you can copy easily and store on a CD or whaterver, but rather they appear to be built-in into the program itself somehow. There is probably a way around this but I am not really computer-literate to that level. Just so you know, I spent some four months creating the arrangements for 17 songs from scratch, investing around 4 hours daily, often more. It is a massive amount of work that I have taken from other equally important things. Iīve done it because the project is serious enough to warrant it and also because I really trusted the program. Just very occasionally would it crash, normally if I tried to load a particularly complex performance, but it only took a split second to re-load it again. I was really, really happy because I could get so professional results with such a limited budget I have. And then it turns out that the program is a big bloody joke. The professional thing to do would be, first, to state clearly that you expect a donation for your work (which, I repeat, I think is fair), and second, give a warning that the program will only keep your data during a certain amount of time. To do else, as you have obviously done, is nothing short of criminal. I could even accept a built-in code that blocks the program if you donīt donate something, but to construct it so it erases everything, well, I think you will be able to understand that I donīt have strong enough words to express my sentiments. So, I ask you, what am I supposed to do now? What about our next gigs? The very least you can do is to recommend me a good, commercial software that does what VSThost does. Yours truly disappointed ***** *********