Hello,

I'm having problems using Bome's Mouse keyboard for MIDI input to Sibelius 5.2. I know there are problems with Sibelius 5.2 and the VDL template, but I have a new copy of Sibelius and v5.2 is what came on my DVD. I am using the ";unofficial"; soundset providec by Hugh Smith instead of the soundset included with v1.0.5 of the template.

I have Bome's Mouse keyboard and MIDI Yoke installed. Bome's is set to output to Yoke 1. Sibelius is set to receive input from Yoke 1. The input is set to Keyboard (not Guitar) and the input keymap is set to MIDI Keyboar (not one of the model-specific keymaps). When I switch to Bome's Mouse Keyboard while Sibelius's Preferences window in open and click keys / press assigned keyboard buttons, the green light triggers in Sibelius, indicating that MIDI input is being received.

My problem is that I can't get any notation to show up in Sibelius. If I activate a measure, switch to Bome's, and click on keys / press assigned keyboard buttons, I hear the appropriate sounds (i.e. snareline, tenors, marimba, whatever), but nothing shows up in Sibelius.

I have a feeling there is some way to get Bome's to work while it is not the active program, since I believe Sibelius needs to be active to receive MIDI input. Also, unless Sibelius is active you can't control its keypad with the keyboard numpad, which is necessary for fast input. But maybe something else is my problem.

I also tried the Granucon virtual MIDI keyboard. Thsi is a much less desirable program for my needs since it doesn't have the capability to control the mod-wheel via joystick input and to switch octaves via keyboard keystrokes, but for testing purposes I had the same outcome: I could hear the VDL sounds but nothing was inout into Sibelius.

Any ideas?

Joe - I think you're exactly right. You need for the virtual keyboard to be ";floating"; above the active application. I think there's a way to do this within the Bome's preferences, but I'm not completely sure as I haven't used that before. Other than that, your description makes it sound like you have everything configured properly.

Well, there is a ";Stay on Top"; feature, which as far as I can tell is equivalent to the standard Windows ";Always on Top";, but it doesn't do what I want. ";Always on Top"; is visual. I need a ";keep MIDI output working while not active application"; feature. :)

I don't see how anyone uses Bome's program without this feature, so I'm convinced I'm missing something. I would appreciate any help from virtual MIDI keyboard users.