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Using Notation Software products with other (third party) products Find out from others, or share your experience, about integrating Notation Software products with sound libraries, audio processing software, and other hardware and software products.

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  #1  
Old 07-27-2009, 05:28 AM
tango tango is offline
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Lightbulb Virtual Keyboard Integration

Yesterday, I submitted under the feature / enhancement requests thread a request for the addition of a keyboard window that was driven by the notation window. I described it there to some length.

Well, as my wife says--"once your bitten with a bug, you just don't give up, do you..." well so as to not to prove her wrong, it took on the task of somehow getting it done.

Well, a day later, after a good deal of research, searching, reading, testing, coffee and doughnuts...Success. While I did work in Information Tech in design and development for many years, the task and it's technologies were not my area of expertise, but, it became possible due to two things:

1. The robust and well engineered interfaces available within Notation Composer.

2. A lot of luck in finding off-the-shelf, and I may add FREE GNC public middle-ware and piano keyboard software.

It works beautifully, with no apparent delay. I have recorded a video of it working, but the size upload restrictions for a zip file of only 97K prevents me from uploading it.

Here's what you need:

Midi-Ox - midi utility
Midi Yoke - a midi patch cable driver
VMPK - a midi events generator and receiver with a visual keyboard

I'm not going to write-up how to configure the above, because you need to understand how those pieces work. I will tell you how to set up Composer.

Composer
=======
The hook into Composer is through its Midi Device Configuration Panel. Composer allows you to define a number of different configurations. Make one using the following:

Out - Internal Port - MS GS Wavetable Synth
Out - External Port - Midi Yoke 1

Enjoy, and have fun...

Tango.
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  #2  
Old 07-27-2009, 11:22 AM
Sherry C's Avatar
Sherry C Sherry C is offline
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Thumbs up Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Howdy Tango,

Very cool! That's awesome that you took it on yourself to make this happen! Thanks for sharing this with us

I think that the following is the link to the VMPK that you're using to get this to work. http://vmpk.sourceforge.net/ We have other users (myself included) who use MIDI Ox /Yoke from www.midiox.com

I haven't tried this out myself, but it looks like the instructions on the VMPK page are pretty good - I'm sure a number of other folks will be happy to give this a try!

What size is your zip file? I'd be happy to post it here if it's not way huge.

ttfn,
Sherry
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  #3  
Old 07-27-2009, 03:18 PM
tango tango is offline
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Thumbs up Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherry C View Post
Howdy Tango,

Very cool! That's awesome that you took it on yourself to make this happen! Thanks for sharing this with us

I think that the following is the link to the VMPK that you're using to get this to work. http://vmpk.sourceforge.net/ We have other users (myself included) who use MIDI Ox /Yoke from www.midiox.com

I haven't tried this out myself, but it looks like the instructions on the VMPK page are pretty good - I'm sure a number of other folks will be happy to give this a try!

What size is your zip file? I'd be happy to post it here if it's not way huge.

ttfn,
Sherry
Hi Sherry,

I have uploaded the video to my website. It's a 1.4 mb mp4 video file.

While a small hesitation may be apparent in the video at times, it is due to the video production software runnning concurrently with everything else.

The actual display otherwise executes smoothly and seamlessly.

http://www.pianissimo.us/public/nc-keyb.mp4

Enjoy all,
Tango.
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  #4  
Old 07-27-2009, 04:34 PM
Mark W Mark W is offline
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Default Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Hello Tango,

Nice job rigging up the virtual piano keyboard with Composer! Your video illustrates very close synchronization of the piano key highlighting with Composer's playback and its highlighting of notes. Good tinkering work you did!

Cheers
-- Mark (developer)
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  #5  
Old 09-17-2009, 02:27 PM
djimtio djimtio is offline
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Posts: 26
Default Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Hi Tango
Nice setup.But there are many ways leading to Rome,I guess.
I have been using this system already for a quite long time,using a piano teaching software with a virtual piano keyboard ( don´t laugh,I tried taking up piano playing again as well as electric guitar ) and a virtual cable from Composer.By muting/soloing the undesired/desired track(s) in Composer I can hear and follow the notes in realtime on the virtual keyboard. using soundfonts instead of Bill Gate´s wave table .
I am now looking for a virtual bass/guitar fretboard which will perform the same way.
Currently I am using a workaround to mess up bass/guitar tracks for final "editing " in Composer,
Regards

Djim
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  #6  
Old 09-17-2009, 04:36 PM
djimtio djimtio is offline
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Default Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Hi Tango
Me again.Not sure whether this belongs to this thread.But for those interested ,using the same setup as mentioned before.,I also use GP5( Guitar Pro ) and Composer to play selected tracks.GP shows/plays guitar/piano tracks as guitar notation and tabs and can export to midi,Musicxml and PDF . So piano parts are shown as guitar notation which might be handy for keyboardists for constructing guitar parts and save to midi for instance.
Drawbacks ( at least in my setup):not meant for enjoying the sound while GP is "working" and GP is not freeware (demo available ).
Hope I am not intruding this thread,if so, mea maxima culpa ;(
Regards

Djim
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  #7  
Old 09-18-2009, 01:03 AM
tango tango is offline
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Default Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Hi DiJimtio,
I also play guitar and also have Guitar Pro 5, and Sibelius 6, and Home Concert Extreme, and the Finale which I have retired for Sibelius. I integrated Notation to a Virtual Keyboard because I sincerely believe Notation has the best notation interface out there for my specific needs.

Now, getting back to guitar which I also play... it is harder to find a midi guitar because since it is not a key based instrument, that is, it's a string instrument, midi applications have not taken off for guitars yet since, while there are a few midi guitars, these are rare and expensive.

I do however share with you in the eduacational aspect of applying midi applications to guitar and would like to hear from you if you find something.

keep in touch,
Tango.
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  #8  
Old 09-18-2009, 11:55 AM
djimtio djimtio is offline
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Posts: 26
Default Re: Virtual Keyboard Integration

Hi Tango
Nice to meet you here on the Forum.
First a secondary explanation.I am just begining to take up guitar playing again .Like Sherry I am a bass guitar player and use Notation and GP to mess up bass lines from midi songs in the latter by "playing" on the virtual fretboard (bass),save to midi and than back to Composer to do even worst things with otherwise nice songs .
With guitar tracks in Composer,I can see the notation and TABS to learn guitar notation as wellin GP.
So I was not looking for a midi guitar,no sense to me (yet) besides expensive.
It´s more like this:
If and when I could play on my midi keyboard,I could play a track in Composer,connect to GP , convert it to a guitar track with tabs and a virtual fretboard to see ,for nailing down the song until I´m getting familiar with guitar notation as well..So ,using Composer ( indeed the best interface around ),in some way this work around might be looked upon as a midi application to guitar,provided one can play piano,which most musicians do.
Do you play acoustic and/or electric guitar and what genre ?Are you a guitar guru ?
Are you making music ?If so,I must have missed something on the share thread or Soundclick perhaps.
Sorry for the lenghty "quick" reply (and questions too ).
Regards

Djim
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