No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Hi. I watched your video for installing a virtual MIDI cable, and also the video about getting started with Garritan. All seemed to be well. I had the new virtual cable (LoopBe) connected to both the Aria player and Notation. When I went to play a MIDI file on Garritan, however, no sound. Obviously, I am missing something. One explanation might be that, although I have "Loop B Internal Midi" in place as my Device, I cannot find the same instrument names on Composer as exist on Aria (e.g. "n-Steinway Piano," as opposed to the standard "Piano").

Also, I want to make sure I have it right for the Setup>Configuration. If I understand correctly, there should be no Input port selected, but the Output port should be LoopBeInternalMidi, if this is to work right. Please let me know if I have it wrong, or if you can set me right on anything else. Hope this all makes sense... Thanks, and I'm looking forward to being able to coordinate between my Notation and Garritan programs.

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Hi, jpbaker:


Having the same instrument names in the Composer list isn't directly relevant. You can update the instrument names separately. You're probably just looking at a General Midi list in Composer.


I don't have the Garritan software, so I'm talking through my hat, here, but I suggest you need to make sure that each reception channel in Garritan is set to listen for input from the LoopBe IN for that channel.


I don't use LoopBe anymore, either, but it should be as simple as LoopBe1 OUT on Composer, then LoopBe1 IN on Garritan.


One last thought: make sure that midi isn't muted in the LoopBe1 tray icon.


I hope that helps, but, as I say, I might be talking through my hat.


David

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Howdy,

Garritan libraries can be a lot of fun and offer some great sounds but there is a bit of a learning curve. I'm going to go "in line" for my response here.

How did you test that? I'd presume by playing a song file in Composer?

Was this test playing the file in Composer or directly in the Aria player? I'm asking for this and the above question because you can play .mid files directly in the Aria player and hear them, but may not hear sound with that same .mid file in Composer. That's because the Aria player inserts an automatic Mod wheel setting. You can see below for more info on that in Composer.

If you weren't hearing any sound when playing the .mid file in the Aria player, then the audio output there may not have been selected correctly.

That can be confusing because of how the Aria player gets set up.

The instrument names that you see in Composer's Staff Setup are the General MIDI (GM) default instrument names for MIDI devices that use the GM instrument name (patch) map. That instrument grid is sufficient for any GM setup because it communicates to the GM device about where to get the particular instrument sound, but the Garritan Libraries are not set up that way :) The Aria player assigns a particular instrument to a particular channel for that device (in your case using the LoopBe connection). So for your purposes you can just ignore the names in the Staff Setup grid.

The main things you will need to be sure of are that

1. For each staff in your song file, that the Channel number matches up with channel number you have assigned that instrument in the Aria player
2. That the Device is set to the LoopBe Device for all staves in Composer.
3. That there is some Modulation wheel setting well above 0 for each staff. Garritan libraries use the Mod Wheel setting to control a lot for the sound. If it's sets too low, you won't hear anything :) (You should also familiarize yourself with the various MIDI controllers (cc events) that Garritan uses for various effects - definite learning curve there). You can use Composer's Graph Over Notes feature to enter these either as a drawn graph over the notation, or to enter a set value for the selected Region. This is probably the most overlooked item for Garritan libraries. it's also worth mentioning that while many MIDI cc events go from 0-127, Mod Wheel events go up to 16,383, so be sure it's up there enough to be heard.

You can rename your staves to whatever you want to help you remember which instrument in the Garritan library they are matched to. We have some templates that you can download from here that are .not templates that are already pre-set to match the instruments in various Garritan Personal Orchestra and Garritan Jazz and Big Band instrument sets.

That is correct for the Setup > Configuration in Composer. LoopBeInternalMidi should be set as an Output only, not an input, or you'll get the screaming meemies from feedback.

Hopefully something above will help you get going. If not, just let us know :)

ttfn,
Sherry

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Thank you both for your input (no pun intended... well, maybe a bit). I found that the LoopBe window was indeed set to "Mute," so unchecking it solved the problem at hand. I'm sure I will run in to other issues, but I am relieved to at least get it connected the way I wanted. Sherry, thanks for the template files. I've used Notation Composer for many years and am just now venturing out in to using it with another program. :)

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Okay... so now that I'm able to play a MIDI file on Notation and hear it in Aria, I'm getting a popup window that reads: "Error: MIDI Feedback! (Shortcut) Error: Do not connect MIDI OUT and MIDI IN of LoopBe1 within a single Application!" This is after I have made sure I have Notation set as Output and Aria as Input. It then goes mute. I notice at this point that the little box in the "LoopBe1" window has set itself to "Mute." I click on this, and it unmutes, but now some of the instrument sounds are not playing. Even if not, that pesky window pops up again in a few seconds, and it goes mute again. Anyone have any experience with this? Or maybe had more success with a different MIDI cable besides LoopBe1?

In a separate matter, when I adjust the volume of an instrument on Notation, it does not adjust in Aria when I play it; for example, I'll notice the Trumpet is playing louder than I'd like on Aria, so I adjust the volume on Notation, but it still plays the same volume on Aria. This has always happened, whether I'm connected via LoopBe1 or playing a MIDI file that I have uploaded to Aria. Thanks!

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Hi,

Just for clarity, we want to make sure that your MIDI Device Configuration setting looks like this:

Attachment 2097



If it doesn't, double-click the Device name and then make sure the boxes are checked and unchecked like so:


Attachment 2098


Click "Ok" to save the setting.

I suspect that if we can figure out the Input/Output issue, this will not be an issue :) The paid-for LoopBe30 is a bit more flexible, but unless you're doing orchestral stuff and need multiple instances of Aria, then you should be able to stick with the free version.


This is where the Mod Wheel setting comes in for Composer. I really encourage you to read over the user guide (or whatever they call it these days) to see what MIDI cc's are used because it does differ significantly from GM devices. The Mod Wheel is a very dynamic controller for Garritan libraries, and pretty much takes over volume and note velocity as well as some other performance parameters because it's designed to emulate the live instrument's timbre and other nuances depending on how "hard" it's hit/blown/plucked/strummed. You can also do Key Switches - you can see these in some of the template files. It's really just a staff set to the same channel as the notation for that instrument, but you can hide it (not display it in the score) because the Key Switch notes are typically far out of the playing range of the instrument and so tend to look a little weird if they're included (not to mention confusing a live instrumentalist if you forget to take it out ;) )



Playing a .mid file in the Aria player itself is pretty limited because about the only thing that Aria does to correct anything (at least as far as I've ever heard) is to assign a reasonable Mod Wheel setting during playback so that you can at least hear the file. Composer gives you a lot better tools to edit the performance.



ttfn,
Sherry

Re: No sound from Aria Player after configuring with Notation
 

Thanks, Sherry - this seems to take care of the problem! Now I will look forward to learning the Mod Wheel. :)