MIDI keyboard sound

[Chickinox]

Hi everybody!
When I connect my MIDI keyboard (just a controller without internal sounds) it seems that is possible to play just the "piano" sound. Changing the instrument in the staff does not affect. How is it possible to change the general midi instrument?
Thank you very much!

[dj]

Hi, Chickinox:

Just to check and make sure your setup is correct, you can try the following steps.

Under the Setup menu, choose Midi Devices Quick Setup.

In the drop-down list at the top left of the dialog box, be sure that Notation Software Synth is selected and that your midi keyboard shows at the bottom. Playing a few notes on the keyboard here should result in you hearing sounds from the Software Synth and both a green and red indicator light flashing in the dialog box.

To change the soundbank, choose Midi Devices configuration from the Setup menu and double click on the line that reads 'Out Software Synth Notation Software Synth'. In the dialog box that comes up, beside the box that reads 'Soundfont', you should see something like 'FluidR3Mono_GM.sf3' (which is the default Soundfont for version 4).

At the bottom left, you should see a list that reads something like "General Midi, Bank 1, Bank 8, Bank 16, Bank 128" which are the voice banks available.These should be the default sound set for Notation Composer 4.

If you see all that, you're good and can get out of the nested dialog boxes. Now, to get down to the problem.

In Window View, to the left of each staff is a set of control buttons. The Staff Setup button will call up a dialog box where you can set the default patch for that staff -- and for that midi channel. This may be where your trouble lies.

If there is more than one staff assigned to the midi channel, the lower staves, i.e., ones placed lower on the page, will also send their default patch number to that midi channel. So check to make sure that there are no 'lower' staves overriding your choice.

Go through the score to see whether there are any Sound Changes in that staff (make sure, in the Sound Changes tool bar, the 'eyeglasses' icon is selected, so you can see them). If you delete them, they may clear up the problem.

If you can post a midi file where you are having problems, perhaps we can see where the problem lies.

Hope that helps.

David

[Chickinox]

Dear David,
thank you for your detailed answer. My Composer 4works perfectly in playing midi files, I can change instruments very easily even on an external midi keyboard that has internal sounds (Korg PA 4x).
My problem comes when I try to use a smaller keyboard (Keystation 49) without internal sounds that I wish to use as a simple way of writing a score. The keyboard connects easily and all the observations you made in the first part of your message are fulfilled. Anyway I am able to play only the "number one" piano sound of the general midi, I just wish to change instrument that wil ease my job in writing the othe parts of the score. As I previously told, changing instrument in the staff setup does not affect, if I choose another instrument it will continue to play the piano sound. I am sure there is a way to come out of this.


Thank you again for your attention.


Paolo

[dj]

Hi, Chickinox:


Are there other staves in your file other than the one you're trying to play into?


If they are physically below your staff and set to the same Midi channel, they would then override the higher staff and send their patch info when you start to play. That would result in you not being able to change the voice patch.


The solution is to make sure your staves are set to different Midi channels.


Hope that helps.


David

[Sherry C]

Hi Paolo,


If David's suggestion doesn't fix the issue, it may be that they keyboard you're using is only transmitting on one channel (probably channel 1, which is typically the piano). Please check your keyboard manual and see if there is a setting to allow multi-channel transmission. I had an old keyboard at one point where I had to set the transmission channel for every time I'd play into a staff. I no longer have that unit


ttfn,
Sherry

[Sherry C]

p.s. I should also note that if you have selected a staff to record into, then the instrument sound that you have selected for that staff should be what you hear. That is the scenario that David and I addressed previously.



However, if you are just playing along with Composer (rather than recording), then the issue is probably that you're just hearing the Play Along instrument, which default is Piano. You can change that using Perform/Practice Setup/Play Along Sound. Please note that changing this setting will NOT affect the instrument in any given staff, it just changes the sound you hear when you play along on your keyboard. This is useful if you're using Composer as your "band" and you're playing a part that you want to have a particular instrument sound.


Hopefully something here will be the "aha!" that you need


Sherry