Music Maker 2020 Premium Edition

robin-h wrote on 10/23/2019, 2:54 PM

Hi, I seem to be having a problem when loading instruments in MAGIX Music Maker 2020 Premium Edition. I have 16 instruments listed via the + icon in arrangement view however when I try to add one to my project the following message appears "The library is not activated". I have also noticed in the store some of the instruments have a padlock symbol in the top left corner of the image saying "You have to be logged in to use this instrument". I have been logged in since I downloaded both the premium edition of MAGIX Music Maker & MAGIX Samplitude Music Studio 2019. If you could please send me a reply that would be great.

Comments

browj2 wrote on 10/23/2019, 2:58 PM

Hi,

Upper right, above the Media Pool - are you logged in? You should see your email address.

Do you have any older versions of Music Maker. If so, did you Activate them?

Did you activate 2020 Premium?

If so, after you activated 2020 Premium, did you go to the downloads tab and download and install everything?

Are the non activated instruments those that were installed with Music Studio that were not with Music Maker before?

John CB

robin-h wrote on 10/23/2019, 4:48 PM

Hi, I am logged in I do not have any previous versions of Music Maker however I did activate 2020 Premium. I am yet to download everything via the downloads tab. You are correct about Music Studio before I installed Music Studio only three instruments were available in Music Maker. Any further assistance with this matter would be gratefully appreciated.

browj2 wrote on 10/23/2019, 6:01 PM

Hi,

Take a look at a couple of my tutorials. They are for 2019 and the startup, interface and Download are slightly different, but there is important info that you should be aware of about installation, downloading and use of coupons in Music Maker.

Also, check some of the threads here. I think that there is a way to get instruments either from Music Studio or Music Maker to work in each other. You may also want to try to activate using the Music Studio code in Music Maker and see what happens. This may avoid using coupons for instruments that you may otherwise get or be entitled to.

John CB

robin-h wrote on 10/23/2019, 6:20 PM

Hi, Thanks for your help with my query I will give it a go thanks for your time.

Roger-Bindl wrote on 10/24/2019, 9:31 AM

robin-h... I posted a similar question on activating instruments, here's what I found and how I responded to my post.

I ended up guessing at the solution but still found the process of installing instruments confusing. It could be much clearer. Music Maker Premium came with 6 instruments, but I thought some were installed other than the Default Piano. They weren't.

So, I logged into the store again, found instruments with the lock (versus $29.99) and purchased a few since the activation process would not work. I got purchase coupon credits so $0.00 dollars were due. Two installed - I mean purchased - and did not take away from my 6 credits, one instrument took one credit. I'm still not sure why because I only had free version installed before but had never bought instruments.

It seems like I should have been able to just activate when given the option, but I've had to go through the process and steps from purchase, use credit, download, and then install on instruments - some purchases were part of the 6 free instruments, some ca,e with no credit reduction, but I don't know why.

In that process I thought the instruments would download and install when I purchased. That seemed logical to me. But I realized after buying that I had to download via the download tab, and then install. 3 steps, via 2 tabs... many more steps if you count the popup windows that are a part of the 3 steps.

robin-h wrote on 10/24/2019, 11:53 AM

Hi, Thanks for your reply I have since received a reply via MAGIX support in regards to the issue I was having with instruments in Music Maker. I have sent a reply back to MAGIX support explaining I have tried various methods within Music Maker thanks to the replies I received via my original post here on this site still without any luck.

ralftaro wrote on 11/22/2019, 9:14 AM

Seems like the padlocked instruments are still a never-dwindling source of misunderstandings and questions. I should probably sit down and write an exhaustive primer on this topic at some point in time. 😬

In a nutshell: If you own the bundle of Music Maker and Samplitude Music Studio, the additional, padlocked instruments you're seeing in Music Maker are pretty much guaranteed to come from your Samplitude Music Studio (SMS) installation. And SMS does tend to come with *a lot* of instruments. They will only be usable in Music Maker if you own those very same instruments through the in-app store system, since that is the only system that Music Maker uses for DRM purposes now. Now, you're generally able to enter the serial number of SMS into Music Maker to unlock bundled instrument items via the in-app store system. However, for reasons of product policy and company strategy, starting in generation 2019 of SMS, this no longer unlocks the entirety of bundled instruments, but just a fraction of them (usually the ones that were introduced as new instruments for that SMS version). So, this may be an additional stumbling block. The instruments that remain locked in Music Maker would need to be purchased via the in-app store system to be used in that program. Otherwise, they will only be available to you in SMS, with which they were bundled.

Sorry, possibly not the most satisfactory response, but it should at least explain what the situation is and what options you have.

John813510 wrote on 11/24/2019, 12:25 PM

I have still got instrument credits, and recently some new instruments appeared, but when I try to activate the instruments (Balalaika and Glockenspiel) using the credits, it fails to do so, and instead brings up the window requiring payment to release the instruments. Any reason for this?

robin-h wrote on 11/25/2019, 10:59 AM

Hi, I am yet to purchase any of the instruments using credits via the store within MAGIX Music Maker. I am unable to help you with your request at this time however I am sure someone here will reply to your request with an answer.

browj2 wrote on 11/25/2019, 12:47 PM

@John813510

Hi,

Some of the newer instruments cannot be purchased using credits. They were made by a third party, not Magix.

You can see which instruments that you can purchase using credits by clicking on the yellow credits (Instruments) button at the bottom of the Instruments screen in the Store. This will filter out those that you can't purchase using the credits.

In the Store, click on the "i" of an instrument and looking at the details. Some, but not all of the newer ones indicate that they cannot be purchased using credits. Magix missed indicating this.

John CB