I bought a few Steinberg instruments in the recent sale: the Lute and the Harpsichord. I also have Olympus Elements. I’m a bit disappointed that they’re all still on the eLCC (and so I can only use them on one computer).
Any idea when they might be moving over to the new licence?
(I did ask on the HALion VST forum, but it doesn’t seem to be as well attended to.)
No, at the moment we don’t have a timeframe for when all of the various HALion sound libraries will be moved over to Steinberg Licensing.
I just bought the cut-down Lute in the recent sale, to use with Dorico/Halion but find it can only be used on one computer.
This web page from the supplier seems to indicate the files should work with the full version of Kontact, which I have and could use as a workaround, but there looks to be no .nki file in the installation pack. See CINEMATIQUE INSTRUMENTS - Lute | Medieval Nylon Strings
This is all very unclear. Is there any way I can get my money back?
I’m afraid not: if you’ve installed and activated the software, then the company’s policy is not to provide any refunds. You should, however, be able to use the software reactivation workflow to move your activation to a second computer; the software will remain activated on your original computer, but the recorded computer in our MySteinberg system where the software is considered installed and activated will be the second one.
Thanks Daniel, but Lute doesn’t show up in either MySteinberg or Steinberg Activation Assistant where I could use the software reactivation workflow, only in Download manager and having used the download code once I can’t use it on the other (portable) machine. This is all very disappointing after a good start with Dorico and third party libraries, where I was strongly recommending Dorico 4 to other composers on a recent course. Not sure Steinberg are really giving you much help when it comes to adding further instruments… even ones they just advertised!
The point is really that if I write some music in my home environment I expect to have to demo it ‘on the road’ so should not touch licences that are restricted to only one machine. Two is better, three ideal. Steinberg should make this crystal clear at the point of purchase if you are restricted to only one.
I am unclear: you say you bought the Lute for HALion but then say it should work with Kontakt. I am not familiar with sound sets that work simultaneously with both. I would not expect an NI Kontakt compatible sound set to appear in HALion.
Can you clarify?
I was looking at the Cinematique web site which describes a Kontakt version. Should probably have bought via that channel, not Steinberg but Dorico is my composing tool. VSTs or sound sets from any of the other suppliers I use - Native Instruments, Spitfire, FL Studio, etc all allow at least two installations, like Dorico or indeed FL Studio, but with Steinberg you stuck with one, and even that is finicky to instal
As Daniel said, you should be able to ‘deactivate’ your licence from your first computer (where it will still work); and then reactivate it on your second computer.
When you’re in the MySteinberg website, make sure you select the eLCC licences, rather than the “Steinberg Licensing”.
Andrew, it looks as if you’ve not yet registered the eLicenser on which the lute instrument is activated. Try following the steps here:
Once you’ve registered your eLicenser, you’ll then be able to use the software reactivation workflow as described earlier in the thread.
Obviously we know that it’s important that you can use your software on multiple computers. That’s why we are in the process of transitioning from eLicenser to Steinberg Licensing, the latter of which is much more flexible than the former. But we have dozens of instruments to transition across to the new system, so it will take time to get there.
Thanks Daniel, I have done that, and looking at the eLCC licences in My Steinberg, under Lute I see only the option to Reactivate, not Deactivate; as I’ve been advised to above . Elsewhere there is the option to remove all Steinberg software from the current machine, but surely that would take away Dorico so I have not risked it. It does look as if this licence is bound to a single soft eLicenser, so I suspect that what I really need until you sort out Steinberg Licencing, is an additional activation code.
Nowhere can I see anything in the emails sent with the ‘Lute2’ purchase (I think you still call it Lute) that tells me anything about all this complexity. On the current count so far I have had to use, or attempt to use, four different tools: Download Manager, Activation Manager, the eLicenser and the MySteinberg web site. I previously ran IT support for a research organisation and am still struggling to guess just how to run Lute2 on a second computer…
We’re very well aware of the enormous complexity that is involved in managing your Steinberg products, and we are working towards reducing this complexity. One step is to deprecate and eventually retire the eLicenser. Future steps will involve consolidating Steinberg Download Assistant, Steinberg Library Manager and Steinberg Activation Manager as far as possible. These things, however, take time, money and organisational focus.
In the meantime, it’s the “reactivate” option you want. You don’t need to (indeed cannot) deactivate the software on one computer. You leave it installed on the computer on which it’s already activated.
First, you register the Soft-eLicenser on your second computer in your MySteinberg account, the same way you did for the Soft-eLicenser on your first computer.
Next, you click the Reactivate button in MySteinberg and choose to reactivate the lute instrument, and choose the Soft-eLicenser from your second computer as the target eLicenser for the reactivated license. This will give you an activation code that you can enter into eLicenser Control Center on your second computer.
You will then have the software activated on your original computer, and on the second computer, but as far as MySteinberg is concerned, the software will only be activated on the second computer. However, the software will continue to run indefinitely on the first computer.
Thanks Daniel, I got there in the end. Now you just need to link to your advice in the ‘welcome’ email when Steinberg sells one of the instrument licences not yet migrated! Also, please can Steinberg or your reseller explain there you need the eLicenser not the Download Assistant which does install just the one licence. The online Cinematique information about Lute2 (which appears as ‘Medieval Lute’ in the Halion SE dropdown) gives you no help on this.
It’s worse if you aren’t in the habit of checking when you first use a new instrument, that it will work on your second ‘performance’ computer as you are then probably under the time cosh when it comes to untangle all this…
The word ‘deactivate’ used by the OP higher in this thread could take some readers down the unfortunate path of deactivating ALL their Steinberg software, and I suspect from the extensive trawling I have had to do on this that this has happened to a few people.
The link you sent takes you to a statement in
(where you might expect to find the workaround you just gave me) that
“It is not possible to transfer licenses online between different computers”
Further online Steinberg documentation also seems to be wrong or outdated; I did try to find out the answers online before posting here. E.g.
"* Licenses stored locally on the hard disk in a Soft-eLicenser are bound to the computer.