Viola staff sounds like drum staff
 

When opening a large template (one with more than 5 instruments such as the full or classical orchestra templates) the viola staff is played back as if it is a drum staff. I can add notes to the staff and they appear as normal, but they playback in the wrong instrument. So far this has only happened in the pre loaded templates that come with notation.

Notation 2.6.3- windows vista

Re: Viola staff sounds like drum staff
 

Hi,

Please take a look at the channel assignment and make sure it's not channel 10. (Channel 10 is the MIDI standard channel for drums.) If that's not the problem, you might need to take a look at your playback device and see if it has a "special" drumset or something for that instrument assignment.

If the above doesn't help you sort it out, do let me know. It would also be helpful to know what device you're using, in case someone has experience with it.

ttfn,
Sherry

Re: Viola staff sounds like drum staff
 

Thanks for the reply, the above does not work. The viola staff is in channel 19 not 10 and I've checked then unchecked the drum special tab multiple times. I'm using notation 2.6.3 on a Lenovo thinkpad laptop with all current updates for windows. There is a temporary solution though, if you go to a staff (such as the timpani in my case) and change it to viola then reorder it in the staff setup tab, then it works just fine. Then just make a new timpani or whatever and it's fixed.

Re: Viola staff sounds like drum staff
 

Hi, Rob:

You have to be careful not to confuse the number of the staff in Composer with the midi channel to which it is assigned. The two are different.

There are only 16 midi channels available for each midi device that you have installed on your system (software synth, hardware port, virtual port, etc.). Composer can send its data from each staff to a specific midi channel -- only one channel per staff, but you can send several staves to one channel if you wish.

The General Midi Standard reserves midi channel 10 for use by drum instruments voices, which behave differently from standard instrument voices in that each note has a different sound assigned to it.

Timpani is a standard instrument sound in General Midi (Instrument Patch #48). So, you can assign any non-drum channel to that patch number and it will sound. In most midi synths, however, the "drum kit" patches will only work when receiving note on/off information from midi channel 10.

To set the staff to a specific midi channel, open the Staff Setup dialogue box (qsus or via the Setup item in the Staff menu) and, in the line for the staff that you wish to work with, click on the column marked "Chnl". A drop-down list will come up allowing you to set the midi channel for that staff. You can then further select different drum kits (if available) via Patch numbers.

Your file should then respond with the proper drum sounds.

Good luck.

David