I blogged earlier about the release of Novation’s Automap 3.
I just purchased the Pro edition and thought I’d share my notes on the install. Ok, it’s all software, but the term Unboxing still seems to fit. I took some wrong turns along the way so I hope these notes will save you some time. I highlight my mistakes in red and recoveries in green.
First off, I’m running Windows Vista, Ableton Live 7, and use a Novation Remote SL running at 4.1.09 as my controller.
- I purchased online here http://www.focusrite-estore.com/novation/software/automap_30_pro/. I was sent a confirmation email with a download link and a serial number.
- I downloaded the software and ran the installer. Usual splash screens and such. Installation ended without talking to my Remote SL. The background app ran and prompted me to verify which VSTs I wanted to wrap with Automap. I clicked ok and it settled into the tray. That was it.
- At this point I thought it was odd that my Remote SL didn’t get updated. I went to the download are on Novation Music and it pointed me back to the Automap 3 installer. Hmmm. I thought I missed something at this point so I reinstalled. Steps were the same.
- Well, at this point I figured perhaps it might just work with 4.1.09 so I fired up Ableton Live. This was was the step Novation was expecting me to take. Automap’s HUI popped up indicating I was running Automap 3 standard and started talking to my Remote SL and it automatically detected my controller and determined I need an update :^). It then took me through a series of “wizard” screen walking me through the update. Very clear step-by-step wizard – nicely done Novation. I've shown most screens below (click images to see larger version).
After installing this update, my Remote SL is at version 4.1.12.
I was then presented with a screen that had an button to “Get Automap Pro!”. I clicked it and was presented with “Offline Activation” and “Install License”. I chose “Install License” since I bought online. Wrong. This popped up a file explorer dialog clearly indicating it wanted me to select a key file on and I didn’t have one. I chose “Offline Activation” which took me to a web page where I could enter the code mentioned in Step 1.
- I was then taken to an activation page where I was able to download the file needed in Step 5. Note that according to this screen shot you only get 4 activations. I'm going to email support to ask what happens if you need another activation. Look in comments of this post for more info.
- I chose “Install License” and pointed at the key file (which I stored in my vst folder so I would not accidently delete it).
At this point I was running Automap 3 Pro :^). So, barring a few hiccups it went rather smoothly. My feedback to Novation is that they might want to mention that the firmware update will occur with a splash screen in the 1st installer so I would not have wasted time hunting. Also, the confirmation email should have explained activation so I did not waste time in step 5.
I’ll report out on features in a future post.
Mark Mosher
www.markmoshermusic.com
www.modulatethis.com
www.twitter.com/markmosher
Mark Mosher 
6 responses to “Novation Automap 3 Pro Unboxing and Time Saving Installation Notes”
Oh, and thanks a lot for your kinds words about Modulate This!
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Hi Josh,
Wow, it looks like they are phoning home. Hopefully it’s just data about your app usage for quality sake, but still not the best idea IMHO. Sucks that phone home resulted in data loss. Thanks for posting. A great comment for other users.
Hey everyone, save your work every 10 min.
Mark
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Hello Mark,
I don´t know if it is of any interest, but I just was editing a personal template for the NI Pro 53 on the ReMote SL Editor, when my firewall lit up saying: “Remotesleditor.exe is acting as a e-mail client program trying to transmit e-mail messages
Destination IP: 217.205.235.66 SMTP”.
The IP belongs to Focusrite, after I´ve blocked this attempt, the SL editor just disappeared with my editing work of 2 hours, very sad.
By the way your site is very interesting, so I´ll come back later here 🙂
Josh
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John,
I contacted Novation support and here is what they had to say about activations.
“Each purchase of Automap 3 Pro supplies the user with a code that will enable AM3 Pro to be installed on 4 machine ID’s. This means that you are able to use the code on 4 different machines as many times as you like.
In the unlikely event that a user does use all 4 codes, they will need to contact us.”
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John,
I agree. I was a bit surprised by that. Is it like Ableton where they will just add to the activation count if the need is legitimate? I’m going to email sales and ask what happens if you go over 4.
I’ll reply to this thread with the answer.
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It would be really nice if novation/focusrite mentioned the fact you are limited to 4 activations BEFORE you pay for the software.
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