MIDI out problems

Discuss playback problems, including VST, Garritan, MIDI, etc.

Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker

Freond
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:25 am
Finale Version: Songwriter 2012 PC
Operating System: Mac

Post by Freond » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:27 am

I am using Finale Songwriter 2012 on a new Acer laptop running Windows 8 (64 bit), hooked up to a Yamaha PSR E333 with a USB cable.

I can't get music playing in Songwriter to route through MIDI out to the keyboard. I can listen to it on the laptop, but that's not convenient, if I'm also using the keyboard and headphones. I'm using the keyboard to record to SongWriter using simple entry or Hyperscripe--those functions work OK. But then when I want to play back, I can't get all the voices to play. Usually I only get 1, the one playing on channel 1. At best I'll get 3 out of 6, but that's rare. Before getting the proper Yamaha driver, I usually got none,

A few days ago, it worked fine for a while, which was unusual, but then stopped. About 90% of the time, I wouldn't get any sound at all, even on channel 1. At the time, I hadn't even downloaded the Yamaha drivers. I contacted MakeMusic tech support, which directed me to Yamaha's website. With the proper driver, I now always get some sound, but usually only one channel. At least before installing the driver, if it worked at all, it work completely.

A weird thing happens after playing a file in S.W. I have a MIDI test program, ExpLab, that will play a variety of programs (voices) on channels 1-16. If I go to ExpLab first, it plays on all channels, but the voices aren't necessarily correct. I get a variety of voices, not necessarily the proper ones. Then after playing something in S.W. and going back to ExpLab, the channels that didn't play in S.W. no longer play in ExpLab. Somehow S.W.'s unsuccessful attempt to use the channel freezes it. If I power off and power on the keyboard, the channels reset and I can again play them in ExpLab.

I seems that something is messed up, and using Songwriter messes it up even more.

Oh, and the Midi Out setting I set disappears when I go back to check it--what I set seems to actually get set, but when I check it again, it ALWAYS shows "None." Tech support suggested running S.W. as administrator, but that didn't change anything. I've also deleted a couple of setup files that S.W. recreates at start up to try to clear bad settings, but that seems to be a waste of time and has no effect.

I can't understand what's so difficult about getting S.W. to communicate with the keyboard via MIDI. That's what these things are all about. I'm new to this, but it's getting old real fast. Any help would be appreciated. Or if you've had the same or similar problem, I'd like to hear about it, even if you haven't fixed it. I haven't found anyone else with this same problem. Am I the only one having it?
====
Edit 8/28. Not much activity on this board, is there? I figured out the problem. Finale's default setting on sounds is something like "Bank Select 0, Program Change." If go to Edit Patch and change that to just Program Change, all the sounds work just fine. So It was sometimes set correctly, but more often not. That's why it would work only rarely. Hope this helps someone else. I'm not sure if this is a peculiarity of my keyboard, or if Songwriter is a bit messed up. Some of the documentation seemed to indicate "Program Change" was the default.


Post Reply