I have had Virtual drumline 2 for several months now and it is working great.  Fantastic program.  Today I took it one step further and bought a midi keyboard to use.  I'm having issiues with it working with finale. 

I'm using finale 2005 on Windows XP.  I have a Keystation 88es. 

When i set the MIDI THRU to ";smart"; in finale, and click on a staff using speedy edit, random notes start playing.  For example, I click on the snare staff, and the metronome starts playing randomly.  It aslo doesn't pick up any keystrokes.  VDL2 does pick up the keystrokes, but when I hit a note on my MIDI Keyboard, it only plays whats on channel 1.  Lets say i load up a miramba on channel 1, and snare on channel 2.  Well the marimba sounds great.  But the snare will not play unless i change it to channel 1 and the marimba to 2. 

The settings i'm using are:
--Finale--
MIDI IN-USB Audio Device
MIDI OUT-MIDI YOKE NT-1
MIDI THRU-Smart
in the speedy entry the ";use midi device for input"; is checkmarked.

--VD2--
MIDI Input Interface-Midi Yoke NT:1-ON
MIDI Output-all off

If anybody could help me it would be great.  I hope I included enough information so you all can answer it, if not, just ask for what you need and i'll be happy to find out.

-Zach

Well, i downloaded a demo of Sebelius 4, and the keyboard works fine with it.  It also works with Finale 2006 on my laptop.  I Uninstalled finale from my computer, and will reinstall it soon.  I'm hoping this will fix the problem. 

Can you go to your Midi Menu and click on Mic Notator.  is ";Enable Mic Notator"; checked?  If it is uncheck this.  Otherwise this is something that would be very similar to the Yamaha PSR Keyboard that will just send random data in hopes that the notation software can sort through it.  I have never seen this with an M-Audio keyboard though.

Well, good news and bad news.  The good news is, finale recognizes my keystation under MIDI In.  The bad news is, the random metronome hits still exist.  It has something to do with my midi thru.  Even before I owned my keystation, if i set the MIDI THRU to smart, it would a sound, the same sound, at random times.  If I try to enter notes, i can enter the notes fine, but its like i'm pressing the metronome key while entering notes.  I'm not sure if its my MIDI messing up or what here. 

I looked on M-audio's website in their knowledge base, and it had a simple flash video about hooking up your keystation to finale, but it was just the basic hook up I already did.  I couldn't find anything about my problem.

Just noticed something else very interesting.  I started pressing the B flat on my keyboard for the metronome, and if I keep pressing it, then i start hearing different notes randomly played, like buzzes, shots ect., rather than just the metronome sound.  Now i'm really confused.

-Zach

It would appear that Finale is somehow not recognizing your ";Keystation 88es"; driver. It shouldn't have anything to do with your soundcard. Have you checked with tech support at M-Audio? Since your problem pertains specifically to their driver, they'd probably be best suited to solving the mystery for you. It's most likely an easy fix if you look in the right direction for assistance.

http://www.m-audio.com

Well, it didn't work.  Would buying a new sound card and getting Sibelius help you think?

Yes.  As Jim said.  Try restarting your computer.  Plug the device in first before stating Finale.

[quote author=allstar550 link=topic=1540.msg7250#msg7250 date=1169933899]
Well, i installed the drivers from the CD when i recieved the keyboard, but windows and finale only recognized it as ";USB Audio Device";  So today i downloaded some updated drivers from m-audios website.  Now windows recognizes it as ";keystation 88es";, but finale doesn't recognize it at all.  Under the input there is nothing but the virtual midi cables.  So i'm at another loss.  *sigh*
[/quote]

You probably already did this, but just in case, reboot your machine and check Finale again.

Well, i installed the drivers from the CD when i recieved the keyboard, but windows and finale only recognized it as ";USB Audio Device";  So today i downloaded some updated drivers from m-audios website.  Now windows recognizes it as ";keystation 88es";, but finale doesn't recognize it at all.  Under the input there is nothing but the virtual midi cables.  So i'm at another loss.  *sigh*

I hadn't thought to ask that. Thanks Coach. Allstar - when you got your Keystation 88es, did you install the driver for it? Many M-Audio products are class compliant (meaning, drivers may not even be necessary), but it might not be a bad idea to install the driver for that keyboard (if there is one). You can download for free at: http://www.m-audio.com, or probably just use the one on the disc that came with your keyboard.

If the Keystation 88es is being properly recognized by Windows XP, I think you should see something more specific in your midi options. So you'd want to set Finale's INPUT device to ";M-Audio Keystation"; (or however it reads).

Midi Thru on ";smart"; should definitely be what you want to use since that will allow you to hear the instrument of whichever staff you're entering notes into.

I'm using just one USB cable from my Keystation 88es to my computer.  I'm not sure what the Midi Sport uno that you are reffering to is. 

Hey Zach,

This is definitely not a Metronome click as that would not happen in Speedy Entry.  Only in HyperScribe.  What you have right now is sort of a generic name in your Midi Input.  Your Midi Input device should read something like ";In USB Keystation";.  Right now it reads ";USB Audio Device";  this is like you asking me what kind of car I drive and I told you one with four wheels.  :)

Are you connecting your keyboard via a Midi interface or just hooking up with ONE USB cord?  This USB AUDIO DEVICE shows up alot when using a Midi Sport Uno.  There are known issues with this device where it does not work correctly with many programs (Finale, ProTols, etc.)  If you are using an Uno, try using only the USB cord if this is a USB Controller, or another M-Audio device like a MidiMan 1X1.

Thanks Jim,
But i really don't think that it is the click track.  It does this on every instrument.  The metronome randomly plays when i select the snare staff, some sort of rim noise randomly plays when i select the tenors, and it sounds like bass1 rim randomly plays when i select the bass staff. 

This ONLY happens when put my MIDI THRU to something besides off.  So i think it has something to do with that, but I'm not sure why it would. 

-Zach

Thanks for leaving all the details of your workflow. From what you describe, it sounds like maybe there's some sort of metronome click track playing back from finale. I'm not sure. If you can set your metronome to playback through a different device, maybe that would resolve the conflict. There's a ";click and countoff"; section in Finale, that should allow you to set your click source. If you get stuck, or the Finale documentation isn't able to get you going in the right direction, you might find some good help from the Finale forum at:
http://forum.makemusic.com/

Thanks for the Reply.  All the instruments match channels in both F2005 and VDL2.  I've been using VDL2 fine for several months, just using my typing keyboard for speedy edit, but now that i have a MIDI keyboard things have gotten a little bit messed up.

I just found out that the random sound problem occurs when i change my MIDI THRU to smart or fixed channel.  the random sound is the Metronome Accent, its the lowest b flat, right under c1

Zach,

It looks like you're confusing settings. When you load instruments into VDL2 these channel assignments need to match the channels in the instrument list window. You can find the Instrument List in the Window Menu. Hope this helps.


Ted Boliske