I am putting an orchestral score onto NWC. Because the instruments sounds in NWC are pretty lame, I put everything to Acoustic Grand Piano. However, for a couple instruments, I keep getting percussion sounds. I keep resetting the instrument in the Staff Properties dialog box, but it's no use. What am I doing wrong?
G'day John,
if you check the staff properties for those instruments you'll find on the MIDI tab that they're assigned to channel 10.
This is the percussion channel - you simply can't use it for anything but percussion.
If you've run out of channels, you can use the same channel for some groups of staves:
E.G. 1st and 2nd violins can often share a channel - all the Horns can usually use the same channel &etc.
The lame sounds you are hearing are due to
your soundcard and/or external synth.
Hmm, good point Rick - I should'a paid more attention to that bit...
Turns out it was the channel on the midi tab. Thanks to all.
John
See also:
FAQ - Why is one staff playing back percussion/drum sounds?
http://ntworthy.com/composer/faq/74.htm
FAQ - Staff versus MIDI Channel
http://ntworthy.com/composer/faq/97.htm