[Special Review] About Right Lok and Load 2.1

August 14, 2008 – 1:38 am by Jonathan Grand

It’s been some time since the Moozek preview of the unique DAW plug-in manager Lok and Load. A lot has happened, and a new version was released. We were offered the new version for reviewing, and I made sure an unbiased review was written about this new application with a very exciting concept.

Impressions

The installation routine went smooth out of the box and registration worked without problems. That is, until it asked to install the Microsoft .NET framework 2.0. Maybe because I already have it installed, that routine had problems proceeding. So after ignoring a couple of error messages, Lok and Load was actually installed (without a final confirmation) and was ready to Load.

After starting it up, although the interface might confuse some people at first if they have no idea where they are, it’s really a no-brainer. File -> New allows us to create a new shortcut by selecting the Application file, Plug-Ins Type (RTAS, VST, DX) and typing a Shortcut Name. The file path boxes have a black background in my machine, for some reason.

Then, after hitting OK, the shortcut is placed on the desktop, and you’re ready to navigate to the shortcut folder inside Lok and Load, and de-select any plug-ins you don’t want to load when starting the application through this new shortcut. When you’re done, go to File -> Lok and close the application!

And I mean that – don’t try to click “Load” just to see what it does (since the app name is Lok and Load after all.) This, at least in my system, originates a blue screen of death and forces me to do a hard reboot, creating a permanent dumprep.exe entry upon Windows start up (visible through Start -> Run -> msconfig, “Startup” tab.) Still, the Lok option works well, and the shortcut is ready to use

You still need to be aware that this makes changes in the file paths: Pro Tools’ original shortcut will load the same plugins that were used in the last Lok and Load generated shortcut. In other words, each “special” shortcut modifies the location of plug-in files – if you close Pro Tools and start it up using the .exe application file, the deactivated plug-ins will still be deactivated. The only way to reset this is to either use Lok and Load to manage that, or go to Program Files\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins Bypass and re-copy the plug-ins inside to the Plug-Ins folder.

If you Uninstall Lok and Load at this point, you definitely will need to correct this, and re-copy the plug-in files to the Plug-Ins folder!

Inner Workings

Technically, all that Lok and Load really does is moving whatever can be moved, out of the plug-ins folder. So if you have Waves plug-ins which amount to 3 or 4 WaveShells, all you can really do is disable entire WaveShells, not individual waves plug-ins. Waves.com has a table that tells which plug-in is associated with which WaveShell version in case you want to disable WaveShells that way.
What some people do, and I have also tried it in the past, is to go to the Waves installation folder and actually move out the individual plug-in files. This can have mixed results and could become unstable after a while - Waves apparently didn’t predict this kind of user action.

Conclusions

Some problems were found, but if you’re looking for an application to easily manage lots of different shortcuts with different kinds of plug-ins for each session, this seems to be it!
Still, I would be lying if I said it doesn’t have a lot of unresolved issues. Maybe it should be temporarily distributed as freeware before it becomes stable or feature-packed enough to ask for a paid registration without disappointing some people. Still, thumbs up for the idea – and I’m looking forward to check out the future versions.

Pros:
- Great concept, great idea for a helpful utility in any Windows DAW.
- Only $24.99!

Cons:
- Still unstable, specially if you rely on your DAW to get serious work done.
- Some added features would be nice, once the bugs are out of the way.
- Not freeware… Considering Digi MME Helper is free, maybe this one should also be, before more advanced development.