Metronome volume changing

[Sherry C]

Hi guys,

David's suggestion for testing is a good one. The GS Wavetable - while convenient because it's on all Windows machines - has some "personality issues" It does some strange things, including messing up ASIO (which isn't intuitively obvious, but nonetheless true), and other quirky behavior.

Something else that can goof around with MIDI devices (and the GS Wavetable is the Windows internal MIDI device) are programs that use MIDI, such as instant messaging programs (among others) - those little beeps/bells/buzzers are typically MIDI-generated sounds, and so they call on the MIDI driver.

If anything like that is going on on your machine, they can interfere with the proper playback of files. Most newer machines and setups handle things pretty well, but since there are so many different configuration scenarios, I mention this as something to look out for. If someone is having sporadic problems, I typically recommend shutting off anything else that may call on audio or MIDI resources while you're working on files.

ttfn,
Sherry

[blane245]

Sherry and dj,
Thanx a lot for the suggestion. I am no where near an expert in dealing with MIDI or sampling (I was many years ago, circa 1970, but things have changed).
I did download CoolSoft's app and selected the Timbre of Heaven as the sound font. I can't quite figure out how to map the staff successfully. I did select CoolTrack as the metronome sound tract, but my one staff in the file does not show that device as an option. The metronome is not playing at all. I think I configured Cooltrack output right, but who knows.

Can you guys help? I have attached the current version of the file after I made the metronome track change.

I seem to be having attachment problems so it may have not been attached.

BTW, when I use Notation, there is very little else running. I use it for practice on my instrument of choice, and am not doing much else.

[dj]

Hi, Blane:

There's a detailed tutorial on getting the Coolsoft synth up and running, specifically with the Timbres of Heaven Soundfont here:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...messages/34524

I don't have it installed on my system, so I probably can't give you any useful information.

I hope that tutorial can help.

David

[herbert]

Here is the explanation!

The metronome track is monophonic (not polyphonic). The percussive sound of each metronome note has a specific decay to produce a natural sound. If the bpm setting is to high, the metronome notes cut each other off, giving the impression of irregularity and partial loss of volume.

Blane’s file comes at a tempo of 100 bpm. If the tempo is reduced to say 60 bpm, the metronome sounds ok. Permitting the metronome track to operate polyphonically, would be the proper solution.

Herbert

[blane245]

Originally Posted by herbert

Blane’s file comes at a tempo of 100 bpm. If the tempo is reduced to say 60 bpm, the metronome sounds ok. Permitting the metronome track to operate polyphonically, would be the proper solution.

Herbert

I got CoolSoft working and noticed the delay between the two synthesizers, so I moved the voices to CoolSoft and everything appears fine. I may play around with different sound fonts to fine what I like.

I see that reducing the speed to 60bpm fixes the problem with the MS Synth. How do I change the metronome track from monophonic to polyphonic? I see no such option in Notation.

[Sherry C]

Hi Blane and Herbert,

Originally Posted by blane245

I see that reducing the speed to 60bpm fixes the problem with the MS Synth. How do I change the metronome track from monophonic to polyphonic? I see no such option in Notation.

I'm pretty sure that's a device issue (ie one of the GS Wavetable's "personality quirks") rather than a global MIDI issue (or setting capability in ours or other software). As mentioned, I played the file on my system using SynthFont VSTi, and didn't have any problem. Neither did David J using a different synth.

ttfn,
Sherry

[blane245]

I am all happy now. To summarize, the problem was with playing the metronome track faster than Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth could keep up with. Switching to Coolsoft's VirtualMIDISynth resolved the problem. I have been moving all of my track to that device as I open my various Notation files. Thanx for the help!