This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of the Musio Connect interface, covering every section so you can understand its features and settings. Whether you’re new to Musio or just want to optimize your workflow, this guide will help you navigate the software with ease. When you first launch Musio Connect, this is what you’ll see:
Top Navigation Menus
Let’s start from the top left and go through the dropdown menus one by one.
File Menu:
- Hide – Hides the Musio Connect window.
- Exit – Closes the Musio Connect application.
Catalog Menu:
- Catalog Version – Displays the version of the catalog currently loaded.
- Update Catalog – If new libraries are available but don’t appear, click this to refresh your catalog.
Instrument Menu:
- Verify Instruments – Scans your installed instruments for issues.
- Repair All Instruments – Fixes any broken instrument connections after verification.
- Move Samples – Allows you to change where your samples are stored.
- Pause All Downloads – Temporarily stops all instrument downloads.
- Resume All Downloads – Continues downloads that were previously paused.
- Stop All Downloads – Cancels all active downloads.
- Remove Partially Downloaded Files – Deletes incomplete downloads.
Help Menu:
- Support – Opens the Musio Help Center.
- About – Displays more information about Musio.
- Release Notes – Lists all software updates and changes.
- View Application Logs – Shows log files for Musio and Musio Connect (useful for troubleshooting).
- Update – Displays your current version and allows you to check for new updates.
Top Right Corner: Account & Logout
Once you're logged in, your email address will appear in the top right corner with a "(Log Out)" option next to it. If you receive an "Unauthorized" or "Content Authorization Inactive" error, try logging out and back in with the correct email in this location. Typos in your email can also cause this issue.
Bottom Left Corner: Key Information
At the bottom left, you'll find important system details:
- Membership – Shows whether your subscription or license is active. Click (Manage) to visit your account portal.
- Catalog Loaded – Displays when the current catalog version was loaded.
- App Version – Shows your application version. If an update is available, a red update link will appear here.
Main Sections of Musio Connect
Now, let's explore the three main pages:
1. Settings Page
This page allows you to customize your Musio Connect experience. Here’s what each setting does:
Downloads:
- Auto Download Unavailable Instruments: Enable this to automatically download instruments when loading from a file or from within a host.
- Temporary Downloads Location: The directory into which instruments will be stored while downloading. Temporary downloaded files are removed automatically once an install is finished.
Mapping Preferences:
- Preferred Dynamics CC: Select a MIDI CC that newly-added instruments will use to control dynamics (0 = no preference).
- Preferred Expression CC: Select a MIDI CC that newly-added instruments will use to control expression (0 = no preference).
- Preferred Reverb CC: Select a MIDI CC that newly-added instruments will use to control reverb (0 = no preference).
Plugin/Standalone:
- Auto-Increment MIDI Channel: Increments the MIDI channel by 1 for each newly loaded instrument.
- Auto-Increment Output Bus: Increments the audio output bus by 1 for each newly loaded instrument.
- Default Preview Volume: This sets the default volume for instrument previews in the catalog.
- Disable Built-In Reverb: Disables reverb for newly-loaded instruments.
- Enable Additional Voice Killing: This allows Musio to terminate extraneous voices across instruments to avoid noticeable dropouts.
- Initial Instrument Volume: This sets the default initial instrument volume.
- Middle C Octave: Determines the octave number for middle C.
- Sample Preload Size: This is the amount of sample data to buffer into RAM when an instrument is loaded (KB, per channel per sample).
- Show Instrument Panel On Slot Click: This shows the instrument panel whenever an instrument slot is clicked.
System:
- Auto-Check For App Updates: This tells Musio Connect to periodically check for app updates in the background. Update notifications will be displayed on the main page of Musio Connect.
- Launch Musio Connect At Startup: This will launch Musio Connect automatically in the background when your computer starts.
- Run Musio Connect Only When Needed: If enabled, Musio Connect will close itself when no Musio instances are connected and no background tasks are running.
- Show Menu Bar Icon: Displays Musio Connect as an icon in the menu bar while it is running.
- UI Scale: Change the size of the UI of Musio and Musio Connect.
Saving Changes:
- After making adjustments, use the buttons at the bottom right:
- Undo – Reverts the most recent change.
- Defaults – Resets settings to their original values.
- Save – Saves your changes (Make sure to click this so your changes take effect!).
Next, let’s look at the Instruments page.
2. Instruments Page
The Instruments Page provides a list of all installed instruments along with their:
- Version number
- Library collection
- File size
- Status
- If an instrument is installed correctly, the Status column will say "Installed".
- If there's an issue, an error message will appear in the Status column—be sure to report the exact error message when contacting Support.
Managing Instruments (bottom right corner):
- Verify Files – Checks for missing or corrupt instrument files.
- Uninstall – Removes an instrument from your system.
- Note: Currently, there’s no "Uninstall All" button or a way to remove multiple instruments at once.
- Repair – Fixes issues with a selected instrument.
Samples Location:
At the top middle of the Instruments page, you’ll see the Samples Location.
- Changing this will move your existing samples to the new location, and all future downloads will go there as well.
And finally, let’s look at the Instances page:
3. Instances Page
The Instances Page shows all active instances of Musio running on your system. This is useful for troubleshooting, especially if you see an error like: "Sample Pool migration is currently unavailable." This error occurs when Musio is still running. Check this page to ensure all instances are closed before proceeding.
Need More Help?
That wraps up our Musio Connect walkthrough! If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to Musio Support at support@musio.com. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.