Hi friends,

I just loaded my VDL2 and I'm stuck in the Midi Setup part. While in Finale 06d's MIdi Setup, I can't decide what to put in the dropdown fields for input and output. I read that you could have an endless loop that can crash your computer. I have a nearly brand new i-Mac with OS  10.4.7 and don't want to mess with that possibility.

I downloaded the Finale template and opened it up.
Under Midi Setup, my options for INPUT are IAC Driver Bus 1 and New External Device
- my options for OUTPUT are IAC Driver Bus 1 and New External Device, and another New External Device

I use an Edirol midi to usb driver to connect my keyboard to Finale.

I followed the quick setup guide for Finale 06 until Step 3.

I might not have loaded the virtual midi cable along the way. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Scott

Hi Scott. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for listing all the details of what you're doing. The IAC Bus is your virtual midi cable, so in Finale, be sure that's selected as the OUTPUT device.

The INPUT device in Finale should be your Edirol USB Keyboard. By your description, you may not have the Edirol driver installed, but I'm not sure. Normally you'd see something to the effect of ";Edirol USB"; or something like that. You configure this in the Mac's ";Audio MIDI Setup"; which can be found in Applications>Utilities. If you need to install their driver, I'm sure it's available for free download from the Edirol website. When you see the Edirol properly responding in Audio MIDI Setup (you can test it there), you'll know it's working. At that point, you're free to close Audio MIDI Setup, and that device should show up in your Finale MIDI Setup window. Select it as your INPUT device.

The only other thing to do is ensure that the IAC Bus is set to ";on"; in VDL2. This will now ";listen"; for MIDI signals from Finale's MIDI-Out (where you set the IAC Driver for output).

Let us know if this gets you on track. Good luck!

Scott,

Just to follow up on Jim's advice, depending on which model of keyboard you purchased loading the driver may or may not be necessary. The 49e for instance is plug and play, no drivers needed. The easiest way to tell if you need to load the drivers is to check your audio/midi set up. If it shows up you're in luck, if not load the driver.

As far as using the virtual midi cables or the IAC bus is concerned, these also are optional for Mac users. in most cases you can work with VDL2 using the AU player rather than the stand alone version. Using the stand alone is when you'll need the virtual/IAC items. You'll also be able to load multiple instances of the player when using the plugin player.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions or problems.


Ted Boliske   

Of course. Thanks for clarifying this Ted! I completely overlooked the fact that Scott was using Finale 2006. This of course will bypass the need to use the virtual midi cable (IAC Bus) since VDL2 would be running as an AU plugin, rather than standalone. Sorry if I added to your confusion Scott! :)

Thanks for the response guys. I loaded the Edirol Driver and it shows up in Audio/Midi. Also, I can hear a sound coming through the computer when I press the keyboard under ";Test Sounds."; I set the Input to IAC Drive BUS 1 and Output to ";new external device."; (don't know what that is)

However, now I can't enter notes from keyboard via speedy note entry into Finale.

Also, I just had to Force Quit VDL because it wouldn't quit. Are you supposed to open the VDL icon before opening Finale or do I just need the VDL keyboard picture when I'm using Finale?

My goal is to assign VDL sounds to the Finale staves then I can input using Finale's speedy note and have it play back with VDL sounds. I tried changing and loading sounds in the box that's to the left of the Finale staves but it turned every stave into a single instrument. I entered some notes via simple note entry but no sound played back.

I'm not real profient or intuitive with technology. In fact, I had VDL1 for a year and a half but it sat on the shelf because I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Finally, I paid a tutor to get it working. It feels better to be part of the forum.

Maybe someone would be willing to talk me through it on the phone on my dime? I try to do a little trouble-shooting each time but it's probably makiing things worse.

Scott

I went to Finale's MIdi - then Native Instrument Au and clicked on the black rectangle on the left side of the seven and loaded SD and then added QD and BD. It played back with all correct sounds. It said my memory was low. Maybe I need to delete some of my i-tune library. I didn't think memory would be an issue with my new i-mac. I know the quick setup directions say you can set their channels - how do you do that - is that just which black rectangle you click on? If so, how can I assign a full pit and battery with only seven blocks? Speedy note entry still doesn't work using the keyboard though.

Scott-

With the Speedy Entry Tool selected, go to the 'Speedy' Menu to see if you have checked: ";Use MIDI device for Input";. This needs to be checked for entry to work.

You can assign channels through the Instrument List. (under the window menu)

You will not need to manually run VDL before going into Finale. You will be able to access VDL through the Finale program. If you try to boot both programs at the same time you will have problems. Its like two morbidly obese people trying to walk through a door at the same time.**

Is this an Intel-Mac? Memory (RAM) should not be an issue on the new Macs. Make sure you close out of all programs you are not using as they will be wasting RAM. Finale and VDL will need a good deal of the RAM on your computer for quality playback performance.�� ��

-Matt

**no hate intended towards the morbidly obese........just a good analogy I heard today.

[quote author=snowman27 link=topic=1361.msg6027#msg6027 date=1158850752]
I went to Finale's MIdi - then Native Instrument Au and clicked on the black rectangle on the left side of the seven and loaded SD and then added QD and BD. It played back with all correct sounds. It said my memory was low. Maybe I need to delete some of my i-tune library. I didn't think memory would be an issue with my new i-mac. I know the quick setup directions say you can set their channels - how do you do that - is that just which black rectangle you click on? If so, how can I assign a full pit and battery with only seven blocks? Speedy note entry still doesn't work using the keyboard though.
[/quote]


Scott,

The 'low memory' issue is related to the amount of RAM your machine has and not the size of your Itunes library.

MIDI setup in Finale should be as follows: MIDI in - your Edirol keyboard, MIDI out either the IAC bus if you're running VDL2 as a stand alone device or nothing if you're using the AU plugin. Under the MIDI pull down menu select ";Play through Native Instrument AU devices";, then select ";Edit Native Instrument AU devices";. This last step will give you a box allowing you to select VDL2 and then load your instruments. There is an up and down side to using the plug in. down side is that you can only load 8 instruments per plug in the up side is that you can add up to 8 (IIRC) instances of VDL2. One way to reduce the memory load is to use the LITE versions of the instruments. They use less samples per sound but for writing this should not be a problem. When you go to record using a DAW then use the FULL versions.

Finally, make sure you use the free templates from Tapspace. These are already set up to work with VDL. If you need to change instrument channel assignments this is done through the Instrument window found in the Window pull down menu.

Let us know if you still have any questions. It sounds as though you're on the right track and making progress.



Ted