| Author | Message | ||
     Steven Taylor (steventaylor) Registered Forum User Username: steventaylor Post Number: 1 Registered: 2-2009 |
Hi I REALLY want to buy Composer and have the demo of both progs. Why can I get sound to my Roland Piano with Player but not with Composer? I have read all posts and checked settings. I can record from Composer and checked the Config settings box and there are outputs showing on the graphic. Everything is fine with Player, full orchestral playback possible. Am I missing something obvious? Is it something to do with the trail version??? I have checked all the assigning my USB and everything there seems fine otherwise Player would not output as it does. If I can't get it to play I am afraid of buying the full version. Regards Steve | ||
| Sherry Crann (sherry) Product Designer Username: sherry Post Number: 2209 Registered: 1-2004 |
Hi Steven, I'm glad you're enjoying the trial version of Composer. It is fully functional for 30 days, so there's nothing "crippled" about it that should be causing the problem with sound from your Roland unit. Since you get the sound you want with Player, there are a couple of quick and easy tests you can do. Test 1 1. Open Composer and one of the files which is not giving you the playback you want. 2. Use Staff/Setup, and see which Playback Device is listed for the staves that sound wrong. 3. If the Device is something other than your Roland, click the Device heading and you can then enter a Device that will be set for all the staves of the song. Test 2 1. Use Windows Explore and navigate to c:\Program Files\Notation\Composer\MidiDev.cfg 2. Rename that file to something like "MidiDevComposer.bak" (this way you can recover it later if you want.) 3. Now find c:\Program Files\Notation\Player\MidiDev.cfg 4. Copy that file into the c:\Program File\Notation\Composer folder. 5. Run Composer and play a file. Does that change the resulting sound? If neither of the above resolves the problem, do let us know. ttfn, Sherry | ||
| Steven Taylor (steventaylor) Registered Forum User Username: steventaylor Post Number: 2 Registered: 2-2009 |
Hi Thanks for such a swift reply...now that is service. I really want this to work as I think the product is superb. I did get it playing, for some odd reason, it suddenly came on! then it just went off again, then came back with what seemed like stuck notes, or at least the software not sending the correct timings on note. The music vaguely sounded correct. Going back into Notation Player and everything is fine. I loaded the demo on another laptop and same problems. I have other midi software (Band in a Box) and that plays with no problem at all. I can't think it is my laptop, unless Composer requires far more processing power than Player, but that wouldn't fit with the time that it played OK. Any further advice would be welcome. THe amazing thing, when it played, was that I could play my Saxophone with it after transposing the melody part, all the others fit. Awesome!! so I am desperate to get it working and buy the software. Regards Steve | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) Notation Software Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 3982 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hello Steve, Sherry's Test 2 idea digs deeper than Test 1 with a high chance of succeeding. Have you tried that? If it works, I'd appreciate your sending to Sherry and me at support@notation.com the MidiDevComposer.bak file and the MidiDev.cfg file that you copied from Player's directory to Composer's. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| David Jacklin (dj) Senior Forum User Username: dj Post Number: 719 Registered: 4-2003 |
Hi, guys: Steven wrote: I did get it playing, for some odd reason, it suddenly came on! then it just went off again, then came back with what seemed like stuck notes, or at least the software not sending the correct timings on note. The music vaguely sounded correct. That sounds suspiciously like that old nemesis, the IRQ conflict. But if it works with Player, it should work with Composer. "Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice. David | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) Notation Software Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 3985 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hello Steven, It occurred to me that maybe the random disappearing and returning of sound is due to a well-known problem with Windows Media Player. Here is an FAQ on that: ------------ Windows Media Player (WMP) version 11 will sometimes set the MIDI sound level on your sound card to zero ("0") after it is closed. This happens any time WMP is used to play a MIDI file. Notation Musician and Notation Composer version 2.0.3 and later works around this problem caused by Windows Media Player. If you are using version 2.0 through 2.0.3 of Notation Musician or Composer, you are advised to get a free upgrade to the latest version of Notation at: http://notation.com/Upgrade.htm If you are using a version of MidiNotate Musician 1.x or MidiNotate Composer 1.x, or MidiNotate 4.0, then you can work-around the problem by resetting your system's MIDI volume levels as follows. These are the exact steps to take with Windows XP. Other operating systems will have quite similar steps: 1. Using your mouse, left-click on the Windows �Start� button in the lower left of your screen. 2. Select Control Panel 3. In the Control Panel, select Sounds and Audio Devices. 4. In the tab marked Volume, click the Advanced button. 5. You should now see a panel with slider controls for various volume sliders for Play Control, WAVE, MIDI (or MIDI Synth), etc. Check the slider for �MIDI� and use your mouse to �grab� and move it up if it is set to the bottom. 6. Click the red 'x' in the upper right corner to exit and save the new setting. You will need to do this after each time you use WMP to play MIDI files. If you use Notation products often, you may want to 'associate' your Notation product as the default MIDI player, to avoid having to reset your sound card's volume each time you use a program that is different than WMP. To 'associate' your Notation product with MIDI files (ie, to make your Notation product the default MIDI player), please do the following: 1. Open your Notation product. 2. Use 'Setup/Associate'' and then check the filetypes you want to have associated with Notation Musician/Composer, so that when you double-click a file of that type, it will open in your Notation product. 3. Click 'Ok.' If you still do not hear sound, use the Quick MIDI Device Setup command in the Setup menu to find and test a MIDI device that does produce sound on your system. If that does not work, use the Users Guide command in the Help menu to bring up MidiNotate's/Notation's online help. Under the main topic "Configuring Your Sound Card and MIDI Devices", select the subtopic "What To Do If You Do Not Hear Sound" for further suggestions on how to solve the problem. --- Cheers -- Mark | ||
| Mark Walsen (markwa) Notation Software Developer Username: markwa Post Number: 3986 Registered: 7-2003 |
Hello Steven, Oops. My post about the Windows Multimedia Player is probably irrelevant. If the problem is still with sound to your Roland Piano, then the Windows Multimedia Player won't be involved. If so, you can ignore my last post. Cheers -- Mark | ||
| M G Jacobs (mgj32) Senior Forum User Username: mgj32 Post Number: 948 Registered: 7-2005 |
Hi Mark and Steven, I am using Composer 2.51 and have the same problem of WMP lowering the mini synth volume. How much it lowers it depends on the volume at which I set WMP. If I set it in the middle, I find play control set at half volume for midi synth. I have solved the problem my using the KMPlayer, a free multi-media player, with lots of bells and a few whistles. For some reason it produces better sound than WMP, too. I think because it has a better equalizer. The one problem I've found with it is that it's not easy to get into options and preferences. But since it doesn't change the system volume, it tends to confirm that WMP is, indeed, a problem. all best, mgj | ||
| Sherry Crann (sherry) Product Designer Username: sherry Post Number: 2262 Registered: 1-2004 |
Howdy guys, David mentioned IRQ conflicts above, and in doing some research I found a "layman's terms" article at http://www.cakewalk.com/support/Docs/HardwareConflicts.asp about eliminating conflicts. So if anyone else is having problems, you might want to review that page. ttfn, Sherry | ||
| Steven Taylor (steventaylor) Registered Forum User Username: steventaylor Post Number: 3 Registered: 2-2009 |
UPDATE!!! Well, I finally got it all working! Many thanks to Sherry for all the e-mails that flew across the Atlantic. The problem was that I had to run Composer BEFORE switching on my Midi device (Roland Digital Piano). This is not the usual order of events and we had been trying for ages to sort out why I could use any other midi software but not Composer, which I love! Anyhow, in the words of the bard..."All's well that ends well" ...or those of Jerry Herman "It Only takes a moment". So, here's to hours of time playing along with my Sax when I should be doing other things round the house....but then that's what life's about! Steve | ||
| Sherry Crann (sherry) Product Designer Username: sherry Post Number: 2270 Registered: 1-2004 |
Howdy folks, It's not obvious here on this thread, but Steven and I had a very long conversation going for about a month via the helpdesk, where he was working very hard with me to figure out the problem. Kudos to him for sticking with it, and for finding a very simple solution that may help other folks who feel (as I was about to) that they are at their wit's end if they're unable to hear sound from a MIDI device  ttfn, Sherry | ||
| David Jacklin (dj) Senior Forum User Username: dj Post Number: 729 Registered: 4-2003 |
Congrats, Steven. Odd solution, that but if it works, it works. Now, maybe you can have some fun. David |
