Novation Play is available for owners of any Novation Launchkey MK4 MIDI controller keyboard. To use Play, you need to register your Launchkey MK4 in your Novation account.
These sections guide you through the process of downloading, installing, and activating Novation Play.
To install and activate Novation Play, you must have registered your Novation Launchkey MK4 to your Novation account. To register, go to the following website and follow the instructions:
id.focusritegroup.com/register
Once you have registered your Launchkey MK4:
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Go to your Novation account:
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Click the “My software” tab.
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Find Novation Play in the list of bundled software.
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Click View Details.
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Click Show me my code
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Click the Copy button to the right of the code.
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Click the link below the code to download Play for either macOS or windows, depending on your operating system.
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Go to your computer's Downloads folder.
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Double-click on the Novation Play installer and run through the installation steps.
You can only install Novation Play on your computer's main C drive; you cannot install it to an external, or alternate, drive.
Once the installation has finished, move to the next step.
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Go to your computer's Applications folder (macOS) or the Start menu (Windows) , find, and open Play.
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Paste the code you copied earlier.
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Click Activate.
In addition to the many sounds included in Novation Play we've recorded new sounds for you to add.
Note
The Soundpacks only work with the latest version of Play. Make sure you have installed the latest version from your Novation account before installing the Soundpack.
To install the new sounds:
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Go to the My Software tab in your Novation account:
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Scroll down to find the Novation Play Soundpack you'd like to install:
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Click View details.
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Click the download link for the macOS or Windows installer.
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Find the installer in your Downloads folder and run the installer.
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Open Novation Play and you can find the new sounds in the presets list.
There are two ways to open Novation Play. You can use Play as a standalone application to get started playing instruments with your Launchkey, or use it as a plugin in your DAW.
A standalone application is a piece of software that can run on its own, like your browser; you can just open it and get playing. It's useful for jamming quickly or a bit of sound design.
A plugin in your DAW means you can run Play inside your recording software (like Ableton or Logic) and use the sounds from Play in your tracks and recordings.
The first way to open Play is as a standalone application so you can start using the sounds super quickly. You might have already done this if you've been through the installing and activating section of this guide.
You can open Play as an instrument in your DAW to use as part of your tracks.