Dongle, but which Logic version?

[Syntho]

I'm not sure how this is happening but my (supposed) Logic 2.5 dongles are firing up copies of both Logic Audio 3 Platinum and Logic 4 Platinum. Holy shit! The dongles were advertised as being 2.5 dongles and came with a set of 2.5 installation disks. I'm wondering if these just happen to be Platinum 4 dongles or if for some reason, ADB dongles are just ADB dongles and they can fire up any version of Logic that uses ADB at all.

There's a message when starting Logic when you don't have the dongles saying it needs both the Audio and Midi dongles to start (the Platinum versions of Logic anyway). I was told that there are three versions of an ADB dongle: a midi dongle, an audio dongle, and a 'Kombi' dongle which I guess contains both licenses. I've got these two dongles that look exactly the same hooked up serially - one after the other - so I'm gonna go in there and use only one at a time and see what happens.

I'm thinking what's happening is that the grey-colored ADB dongle posted above is probably a Logic Audio 3 or prior dongle and that the 4 dongles were black like I have. This also makes me wonder when that Kombi ADB dongle was introduced...

[Syntho]

Upon further investigation, one dongle just says eMagic Logic and the other one says the same but has Audio written in tiny letters on it. I can launch Logic 4 Platinum with just the midi dongle but it says audio isn't available, and it won't launch at all with just the audio dongle. Platinum 3 won't launch unless both dongles are connected, no exceptions.

It's looking like I bought some 4 Platinum dongles without knowing it, which was exactly what I needed anyway. Supposedly the only difference between Logic Gold and Logic Platinum is that the Platinum versions let you use Pro Tools Mix cards. I don't have any Mix cards in my system at the moment so I guess I can only find out if these are truly Platinum dongles by putting a Mix card in there and see if it fires up.

I would guess that a Gold dongle wouldn't launch a Platinum version of the program at all though, so maybe this is indeed a Platinum set...

[supernova777]

i got an adb port on my b&W g3.. how much did u pay?

[Syntho]

I'm thinking these are Logic 4 Platinum ADB dongles. Gold only had 16bit audio support but I can enable the 20/24bit audio thing and it works fine. I guess the guy who sold this mistook these for being 2.5 dongles. Needless to say I'm a happy camper because I was always on the hunt for some 4 Platinum dongles anyway.

Now I'm just curious about that kombi dongle and when it was introduced.

[Syntho]

Actually, I can confirm that these are a set of Logic Audio 2.5 dongles now that I've done some investigation.

So now my question is, how in the hell are these 2.5 dongles launching Platinum 3 and Platinum 4!!!?

[Protools5LEGuy]

So now my question is, how in the hell are these 2.5 dongles launching Platinum 3 and Platinum 4!!!?

Because they are also Platinum dongles. They started its life been 2.x dongles, and a owner upgraded to 3 and to 4.   

Just as I have a usb blue dongle that opens 7, originaly bought for a Logic 5 install(that let you use platinum 4.x) and upgraded to 6 (Logic Platinum), later 6.4.1 (Logic Pro) and finally to Logic 7 Pro (first X Only)

[Syntho]

Platinum didn't come out until Logic 3.5 or so and these are 2.5 dongles. Are you saying that any old dongle can launch a newer version? As far as I know the older blue USB dongles can only work with newer versions if you get a new license and update the USB XS Key. That wasn't possible on ADB dongles as far as I'm aware so I was guessing that when someone upgraded from 2.5 to 3, to 4 etc, they had to get new dongles........ unless the 'upgrade' was merely the software CDs and not new dongles at all as far as ADB is concerned.

[Protools5LEGuy]

Are you saying that any old dongle can launch a newer version?

I guess they work as the USB counterpart. I had only seen 1 ADB dongle on '97 but 4 black old PC emagic dongles (with rs232 I think).

The PC dongles had writen "not for resale".

 That was before USB ones.

Maybe one of your ADB dongles is for Logic Audio and the other is just Logic...

[Syntho]

Logic requires two licenses. Originally you could buy a dongle for strict midi sequencing, but when the 'Audio' part of Logic started coming out they made the Audio dongles. Eventually they meshed those two together and you only needed one dongle.

Has your blue XS Keys been updated with newer licenses? That's got to be why it's opening Logic 7.

The only thing I can muster from this is that when you upgraded long ago when nothing but ADB was around, the 'upgrade' was just the software and you didn't get a new dongle since it can launch anything.

[macStuff]

Can you post photos of the adb logic dongles?

[ELN]

Hmm. Nobody cracked these?

[macStuff]

Hmm. Nobody cracked these?

i think its pretty much common knowledge that logic on macintosh can use dongle emulator app;
to emulate the ADB dongles and authorize up to v4.81 but not for 5 or higher;

so having the dongle is a luxury really at this point; and this convo is really only applicable to old world macs with no USB; with owners thats are logic users all day + night and dont want to have to worry about launching the dongle emulator

[smilesdavis]

Platinum didn't come out until Logic 3.5 or so

Platinum/Gold/Silver was introduced at NAMM 1998 at version 3.1

[smilesdavis]

Can you post photos of the adb logic dongles?

your wish is my command

on the mac side, i am missing
- Notator Logic Audio (v1.6+) (black label/notator era design) // see foto of box below
- Logic Audio Platinum/Gold (v3.1+) (black label/white stripe)
- Logic Audio Gold (v4.0+) (black label/blue stripe)
- Logic (v?) (purple label)

if you got any of those, please pm me

heres my personal notes on the mac dongles

Notator Logic (black label, atari-era design)   RJ11, Mini-DIN 4   for Notator Logic 1.0+      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Notator Logic Audio (black label, atari-era design)   RJ11, Mini-DIN 4   for Notator Logic Audio 1.6+      upgradeable to v4.8.1 // the NLA was released at v1.6 and the foto of the box attached proved it existed, i do not have a foto of the dongle, but i own:
Logic Audio (black label, atari-era design, Notator prefix removed)   Mini-DIN 4   for Logic Audio 2.0+      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic (black label)   Mini-DIN 4   for Logic 2.0+      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic Audio (black label)   Mini-DIN 4   for Logic Audio 2.0+      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic Audio Gold (black label, white stripe)   Mini-DIN 4   for Logic Audio Gold 3.1      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic Audio Platinum (black label, white stripe)   Mini-DIN 4   for Logic Audio Platinum 3.1      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic Audio Gold (black label, blue stripe)   USB 1.1   for Logic Audio Gold 4.0      upgradeable to v4.8.1
Logic Audio Platinum (black label, blue stripe)   USB 1.1   for Logic Audio Platinum 4.0      upgradeable to v4.8.1
XSKey (blue, Emagic logo)   USB 1.1   for Logic 5 & 6 Platinum, Gold, Silver (lets you use 4 Platinum)      upgradeable to v7
XSKey (white, Apple logo)   USB 1.1   Logic Pro 6.4.1+ (check XSKey manager for what else)      

In essence, you need a white key and a Logic Audio Platinum