Some questions from a confused & overwhelmed newbie.

DarkForge wrote on 8/21/2020, 5:55 AM

Greetings all. So first off I'll start by saying that I have never used any Magix Music Maker program before, so am pretty much flying blind. I have tried to do a bit of research here and searched a few things before making this post, but still couldn't really find much that was explaining the things I wanted to know, so if I'm still asking anything that should be extremely obvious I do sincerely apologise and please bear with me...

So I have zero musical talent! In my younger years I loved playing around with the various "eJay" programs and putting together some tunes using the pre-recorded samples they gave you - it was never going to be top-quality stuff you could take seriously but I didn't care about any of that, I just liked having fun with them. Well the COVID lockdown left me with a lot of free time on my hands and so I actually fired up the old eJays again, even going on Ebay to finally grab the ones I was still missing. And you know what? I'm still having fun with them!

So this gives you the basic idea of what I'm looking to do with Magix Music Maker. Not overly fussed on the more advanced features. Just in a similar manner to eJay: try out the included samples, throw some together and see what comes out as the end result.

I've been aware of Magix for a little while since I was looking for something which could possibly create rock music, a genre which eJay never did much of (it was heavily requested for a long time and they finally announced a rock program, but then went into liquidation shortly after and said program sadly never got released! 😢). My search for a "Rock eJay" equivalent led me to find out about "Music Maker Rock Edition 4" and from there onto the new Music Maker as you know it today.

So what's my point in all this? Well I want to try and pick up stuff that's going to give me as wide a variety of samples as possible (not just rock but anything really), but obviously want to try and avoid duplicating a bunch of stuff. Here's what I understand about Music Maker as it now exists (please correct me if I'm mistaken about any of this stuff):

- Basic version is free but I could buy the "Premium" version to get more sounds and features straight out of the box.

- More samples can be purchased and downloaded to add to what's already there.

- Essentially the samples should be consistent across all recent versions (this is the part I'm not 100% certain on but I think that's the case, right?)

However, I figure this wasn't always the case with the older versions, before Music Maker turned to the "download the sounds you want" model it has now. And this is the stuff I haven't really been able to find out. So here are the questions I still have:

1) Clarification on the above point about samples being consistent across recent versions. So for example does MM2021 have access to all the same samples MM2019 did? Or vice-versa if you had 2019 you're not necessarily missing out on any samples from the 2021 version as you should be able to download the missing ones separately anyway?

2) With older "standalone" Music Maker products, were the samples new each time? So for example did "Rock Edition 4" have a totally separate set of samples from "Rock Edition 3"? Or was it the same sounds just carried over to a program with new features?

3) Again with the older products, would a "Rock Edition" have just consisted of the existing rock samples carried over from a "main/normal" Music Maker product, or would they have been unique to that program? So could you have just bought a "normal" Music Maker and gotten all the same samples that were in the Rock Edition plus more from other genres on top of that?

4) Does anybody know if the samples from the older "standalone" products like the Rock Editions carried over to the modern Music Maker program as it exists today? Do they keep access to every old sample from MM's history and just keep adding to it? So if I were to buy MM2021 premium, would I even need to bother looking at an old "Rock Edition 4" because I'd already be able to access all those old samples as part of the new program?

That's more or less everything I can think of at the moment. That's a long post, I'm sorry! Essentially I'm looking for an eJay equivalent with more variety in samples and genres and Music Maker seems like it could be ideal for that purpose, but I don't want to start picking up, like three or four different products (even old ones) if it turns out they all contain the same stuff. If anybody could please help enlighten me on any of this stuff, I would sincerely appreciate the help.

Thank you for your time, please let me know if you want me to clarify on any points, and thank you in advance for any assistance.

Comments

SP. wrote on 8/21/2020, 6:51 AM

1) You are not missing out on Magix Soundpools except very old ones (before 2004) because you can buy everything on Producer Planet.

But even if you get very old Soundpools (the ones before 2004) from sites like ebay they will work, because Soundpools never changed since the beginning. Soundpools consists of WAV files (or OGG) that are just placed in a special folder structure and are sorted by key. I can still use very old Soundpools from the late 1990s in modern Music Maker without any problem.

Be aware that there are other sample providers on Producer Planet that are very likely structured in another way.

2) Rock Edition 4 probably had a newer Version of Music Maker and a different Rock Soundpool than version 3. But you can get all Soundpools on Producer Planet like I said before.

3) Rock Edition would be Music Maker with just Rock Music Soundpools. The standard Music Maker has Soundpools from different genres like Pop, EDM, Ambient, etc. The software is identical.

4) Yes, you can get all the old Soundpools. Just search for Rock- and Metal-Soundpools on Producer Planet. The exception are Soundpools from before 2004 because Magix thinks that they don't live up to todays quality standards. They sound fine to me so I don't get it what is their problem with rereleasing the old Soundpools. If you're lucky you can get them sometimes on German Ebay, but I don't think that there were Rock- or Metal-Soundpools back then. Mostly Techno, Trance, Big Beat, Jungle etc.

browj2 wrote on 8/21/2020, 8:02 AM

@DarkForge

Hi,

Further to what @SP. indicated:

1) Soundpools by default go here: C:\Users\Public\Documents\MAGIX\Common\Soundpools.

Soundpools purchased through the Store go in subfolders under the subfolder "Shop." See the second image below. Soundpools are either ogg or wav files, so they can be used with anything that reads those file types, like Movie Edit Pro.

When the Store was introduced several years ago, Soundpools purchased through it were mxcogg files that could only be used in that version of MusicMaker and a couple of later versions. Then, Magix stopped this and you could re-download the ogg or wav files, replacing the mxcogg files. However, for the Unlimited Soundpools version, Magix has retained mxcogg files and Music Maker will not allow these to be used unless it detects that you have the Unlimited Version subscription active.

When purchasing through the Store, look carefully at the details of the Soundpools. Where not new, Magix indicates that what is offered comes from xxxx Soundpool Vol X. The Store cannot detect these older Soundpools not purchased through the Store, so it is up to you to verify.

Look at what I have below. Under many of the folders, there are subfolders with the Soundpool names.

Below is what I have under Shop:

2) The loops are different for each version/volume with some exceptions. These are usually just short samples, like a cymbal crash or drum hit.

3) See above. Various versions of Music Maker just gave you some Soundpools and possibly some instruments. The program was always the same except for new versions. Soundpools and instruments worked across all versions. Soundpools are just audio files or, in some cases, MIDI files (.TAK). Normally, Magix would indicate the Soundpools that came with the special edition. It would up to you to see if you already had them and to compare with what came with a Plus or Premium version. This was before Magix gave you credits. Now, you get credits, sometimes limited to a genre, and you decide what to use the credits for.

4) See above. Of course, you still have to tell Music Maker where the Soundpools are located. The new version does not automatically scan the main Soundpools folder indicated in point 1), so you have to do it by Adding Loops and navigating to the correct main folder. Music Maker will scan the entire contents. If you have put some Soundpools elsewhere, you have to Add Loops and navigate to that folder as well.

Note that Soundpools purchased through Producer Planet do not automatically go into the above location. You have to put them there or elsewhere and then tell Music Maker where you put them.

John CB

DarkForge wrote on 8/22/2020, 5:27 AM

Thank you, SP and browj2, for your prompt and in-depth responses; they certainly help me understand more about the way the Music Maker hierarchy works.

It's good to know that, by the sounds of it, they keep the majority of "legacy" samples accessible even for the modern versions. After reading further and also checking out a few example tracks people uploaded on YouTube, it seems that just MM2021 alone will probably be the best bet, but I didn't necessarily want to overlook an older program like, say, a "Rock Edition" if it turned out that one happened to exclusively feature the most awesome epic guitar solo of all time that 2021 just doesn't give you access to, you know what I mean? 😎

Also one additional question, out of curiosity more than anything else: does anyone have any experience with the Music Maker versions they released for the Playstation 2 back in the day? I'd imagine the control options were less flexible and intuitive than anything a computer would offer you. I take it any samples from those would also have been available on PC releases?

My heartfelt thanks again to both of you for your help. If anybody else has insights on anything, feel free to chime in.🙂

johnebaker wrote on 8/22/2020, 6:05 AM

@DarkForge

Hi and welcome to the forum.

. . . . it turned out that one happened to exclusively feature the most awesome epic guitar solo of all time . . . .

In which case you should know about this.

Happy music making

John EB

Forum Moderator

DarkForge wrote on 8/22/2020, 6:40 AM

Hi John, thanks for the welcome.

Not to worry, I'd already read through that page beforehand - seems to have largely the same allowances as the eJay programs did, so nothing I'm unfamiliar with. Not that I have any intention of commercially releasing anything anyway - like I said in my first post, it's all about me just having a bit of fun. 😁

johnebaker wrote on 8/22/2020, 9:13 AM

@DarkForge

Have fun, and when you are ready for critique you can post offerings in to the Media section of the forum.

John EB

SP. wrote on 8/22/2020, 10:23 AM

No, there is nothing exclusive to the Rock Edition. You have access to all samples. It seems you don't own many loops at this point in time therefore it seems also a good idea to get the Unlimited Subscription for one month so that you can listen to what all the Rock- and Metal-Soundpools offer contentwise in combination with the free version of Music Maker. In this case you won't throw away a lot of money.

But be CAREFUL that you will lose access to your samples after you cancel the subscription, in case you don't like having a subscription. Also some users told me that they had problems to cancel subscriptions because it seems you can only cancel very cumbersome via e-mail. So do not try to cancel the subscription one day before renewel. This will be to late.