Hello to all...

As you're going to find out, I am new to VDL!! I fell in love with this program after hearing it from a colleague. My wife bought this for me this past Christmas, and I am just now installing it after a new home purchase. Well, I am not new to DAW's or recording, but I am having some troubles with VDL 2.5. So... here are my stupid questions for the day!!

1. I was under the impression I could hear the sounds from VDL without notation software. Can I play VDL sounds with my MIDI keyboard (and hear them over my monitors) without having notation software?? I can see the levels move on screen, but cannot hear anything.

2. When uploading instruments into the browser, how do I scroll or toggle down through each instrument to use? I can only see action on screen from the top instrument.

3. Could my MIDI keyboard be giving me fits? I have a brand new (3rd Gen) M-Audio Oxygen 49. VDL seems to be responding ";on screen";, but as I stated above... no sounds are coming across my monitors.

4. Do I have to use ";templates"; with VDL when I get Sibelius 6?

Thanks for your help and thanks for putting up with my stupid questions. I feel ashamed.. :)... I have been in music for my entire life and have work with several DAW's. I just need to get past my learning curve on VDL and Kontakt. Below are my PC specs...

Thanks
Kevin

PC with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
AMD X6 1075T
8 GB RAM
Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H Mother Board
Virtual Drumline 2.5
M-Audio Oxygen49 (3rd Gen)
M-Audio BX5a Monitors
Sibelius 6 (coming soon)

Hi Kevin,

Welcome. These aren't dumb questions, so go easy on yourself. :) Mainly, you'll find these are pretty basic topics that you can learn about through reading the documentation that comes with VDL, or the [urlhttps://www.tapspace.com/support/faq/]FAQs[/url]. The VDL User Guide is found in the ";Documentation"; folder of your Virtual Drumline folder.

If you aren't hearing sound when running Kontakt Player in standalone mode, you may simply have to set it up to play through your desired audio device. Look in the VDL User Guide under ";Audio Setup and Soundcard Settings."; Also, it may be helpful to become a little familiar with the ";Outputs Section"; within Kontakt. Again, you'll find info about this in your VDL User Guide.

The reason you're only seeing the top instrument responding to your keystrokes is because the MIDI controller is probably set to send its info on MIDI Channel 1. When you loaded successive instruments into the Kontakt Rack, they're probably assigned sequential midi channels (instrument 2=channel 2, instrument 3=channel 3, etc). So you'd either have to tell your MIDI controller to send output to a different channel, or run Kontakt as a plugin (either in a DAW or your upcoming Sibelius), select the desired track (in the host program), and that will play the instrument on the corresponding channel when you tap your MIDI keyboard.

Alternately, you could assign instruments to different channels in Kontakt, but that's not very efficient. To learn how to do this, check your VDL User Guide under ";Instrument Views."; You'll see each VDL instrument has a ";Midi Ch"; assignment when loaded into the Kontakt rack.

You don't have to use templates for Sibelius 6, but you'll probably find them to be very helpful in having the various mappings for each instrument pre-setup. I would recommend you start by wrapping your head around the basics discussed above, then spend some time learning some of the basics of Sibelius (without necessarily adding VDL into the mix). From there, consider getting a template and reading the extensive documentation that comes with the templates. It adds a level to your workflow that will require a little time for you to learn.

Most of the time, you'll find answers to your questions have been discussed on this forum in the past. So use the search feature without shame. That's what the forum is here for. If you don't get immediate responses to your questions, there's no need to re-post. People may actually be dissuaded from responding to double-posts. While you're waiting on responses, I encourage you to read your documentation thoroughly and use the forum's search feature. Most likely, you'll find your way!

Good luck!

Thanks Jim!!... I believe I will eventually get there. Thanks again for the help. Have a great week!!

Kevin