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Yeah, I think AU may be Mac only, and Macs are something I know very little about other than simple things like getting web mail with Safari when at outside total-Mac studios(sometimes not so simple!). I just seem to see all the newer stuff (Audition too) stating it will run VST, VSTi and AU plugs, with some saying Direct X too, but less these days than a while back.
The better thing about Izotope and their letting you use a USB flash drive as opposed to Ilok is that it's much easier (and less costly though $15 versus $40 is no issue) -- and when the piece of plastic breaks or is lost, at least you can re-authorize another w/o big hassles. Funny though, they DO use Iloks for the Digi versions of their software (which run in the Digi RTAS format). But not for VST- though that was not at all initially clear from their web site. I wound up authorizing their stuff both ways, though I almost never use the RTAS since that's Pro Tools only and I will only go there if there's no other way. They use the Pace version of Ilok authorizing, not the way Waves does- but again only for the RTAS versions. Once you buy, you can authorize all flavors, free.
With the Ilok, Pace wants you to buy... Ilok "insurance". But because Waves doesn't fully use the Ilok scheme, that may not be all that cool to have anyway. Won't help you if your Waves Update Plan has expired either!
I too have been on phone sometimes for an hour or more with Waves from Israel after an email delay. They were good at what they did, and def. knew their stuff, which is worth paying for. Right now I just have their Platinum and Vocal bundles, each on its own Ilok (because the Vocal one has some of same plugs as the Platinum plus others). But still their authorizing etc "guides" are not as intuitive as they could/should be, maybe because of the layer of Ilok stuff. But then I feel the identical way about anything from Digi. Maybe it's that I just don't have a Mac mindset ...
Recently I learned that you can buy the Waves update plan from dealers, too. If pricing for that follows what the plug in pricing diff. is, it could be a substantial discount. Pricing from a dealer upgrading Gold to Platinum wound up being a LOT less than direct from Waves when I requested a quote after an "upgrade" notice appeared in my account. And it all still went though Waves web site. I simply picked up a box at dealer, but once installed, it all went through Waves.
With Univ Audio, I'm not clear yet on moving the board(s) to another machine, though they advise you can. I'm also not sure how that works with their external box, which lets you use with a laptop or move between machines. But they have good phone and web support, and very good install guides, even videos on their site for setting up.
For Gary- try the Golden Hawk/Micro CD thing I posted a while back for what you need in terms of support for newer burners. My late model Plextors run that way. But.. as I posted recently, you might not get anywhere with Golden Hawk- though they had a new version as recent as spring 2007, when I just tried to renew for updates last week they seem to have recently gone out of business- the order wasn't processed and they haven't answered emails. Phone calls wound up with "yeah,this used to be their number, but this is a medical office"... If you do actually get them, let me know how you did it! (you can still at least get the demo version free on their site). But you can use Micro CD to make the image and then use their program CDRWIN to burn from the cue file that MicroCD creates (which was always the G/Hawk code).
I too have long been frustrated by keyboard/mouse only. The tablets help some, so does sometimes using a cheap controller like the Behringer I wrote about, though there are downsides to that too. I use the stuff every day, so always looking for a better way. I also spent years as a keyboard player so I come at it from that standpoint too, as well as years of tape and razor blades for that matter! I think all of us come from the same mindset you mention - to survive in this business you have to have that approach, really.
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