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I do not hear sound - what should I do?


The default MIDI playback of our software is the internal Notation Software Synth. If you are not hearing sound when playing back a song file, please check your audio system's settings first, and test them with other programs that you know also have sound.

If you are using an external MIDI playback device, one simple solution you can try is to turn on your MIDI device AFTER turning on Composer, rather than before turning on Composer. Some keyboard devices have been found that require this order.

If you are still not hearing sound, and for previous versions of Notation Musician and Notation Composer:
First, use the Quick MIDI Device Setup command in the Setup menu, if you have not already. If that does not help you to quickly produce sound, then explore the following tips below.

If you DO NOT see any MIDI Devices listed in Setup/MIDI Devices Configuration:

For version 2 and older: Somehow the default GS Wavetable has been removed or disabled on your machine.   This seems to be happening more frequently with later versions (eg. 8.1) of the Windows operating system. Also see our User Forum thread at https://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=32584
For version 3 and later you can re-enable the GS Wavetable using the Setup -> MIDI Devices Configuration, then click Devices and then click-to-check the "Enable Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" option. You'll need to restart Musician/Composer for the change to take effect.
You can use a "virtual" MIDI cable and sometimes installing this alone is enough to re-instate the GS Wavetable.

If that does not work, then install the virtual MIDI cable along with a free synthesizer ("synth") to install a MIDI playback device (sound source) on your computer.
For details and a tutorial on how to do this, please see our Tutorial Videos at https://www.notation.com/TutorialVideos.php and see "Virtual MIDI cable installation" and "Using SynthFont for better sounds."