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Topic: MIDI instrument assignment limitation (Read 2618 times) previous topic - next topic

MIDI instrument assignment limitation

I think I've traced a bug. When I altered the list of available MIDI instruments in the Options menu (MIDI tab) then the instrument assignment in each staff was altered too. Consider an available MIDI instruments sequence in the Options menu as "SBLive A", "SBLive B", "Wavesynth". This is then altered to "WAvesynth", "SBLive A" and "Yamaha Softsynth". In a staff that was previously assigned "SBlive A", the staff is then reassigned automatically as "Wavesynth".

S

Re: MIDI instrument assignment limitation

Reply #1 –
You cannot alter the list of "available MIDI" devices in NWC, as this list represents the devices in your system. The only way to change this is to install new play back devices.

However, you can alter the devices used by play back, and NWC correctly adjusts its play back accordingly after you make a change in this area.

Re: MIDI instrument assignment limitation

Reply #2 –
Just to expand on NoteWorthy Support's explanation, since this was confusing to me at first also:

The left pane in the Options --> Midi tab dialog shows all the midi playback devices that are installed on your system and recorded in the system registry. As pointed out, this is entirely dependant on your particular system, including how many and what kind(s) of sound cards you have, and what devices were installed for each hardware device during initial install.

The right pane lets you select which of those devices are available for use by NWC. The default device is always the topmost device in this listing. The order of the devices will be reflected in the Staff Properties --> Midi tab dialog.

You can easily change the order of the "Devices used by Playback" listing by first removing them all by selecting them one at a time, and clicking the <-- button. Then, "install" them in the order you want them. (I used install in quotes because you're not really adding/removing device drivers, only changing the listing of which ones are made available to NWC).

If your work is intended to be playable by others, a good suggestion is to use only a single device. However, for your own use, there is no reason why you can't order the available devices in any way you want.

Hope this helps. Suggestion to NW Support: Perhaps a numbered list, both in the Tools-->Options--Midi dialog and also in the Staff-->Properties dialog, would be helpful in making this more intuitive?

Fred

Re: MIDI instrument assignment limitation

Reply #3 –
Yeah, thanks for the correction.

I am talking about the right box, the "selected" devices, not the avilable. If you change that order, lets say from 1,2,3,4 to 3,2,1,4 then in a staff that was previously allocated to play using synth 3, it will now use 1. In terms of GM MIDI it doesn't matter (i.e. playback of the file from others) but when using personalised MIDI settings on synths and banks, it really upsets your settings.

I found this whilst I was trying to use simultaneously the Creative software Keyboard and NWC. The former uses the SBLive A synth when open, and by default, NWC uses the same, as it is the first available synth. Since I use more than one synths in NWC during playback, I had to change the order in the right Box in Properties/MIDI to make SBLive A available. The staff settings were adjusted not to playback from the previously selected synth (e.g. a softsynth that used to be on position 3) but but from the synth that now occupied "position" 3 (i.e. SBLive B). It would be useful for the program to adjust the staff settings so that the staff still plays from the synth one had initially selected (e.g. Soft synth) unless it has become unavailable, at which stage it could use the default synth (i.e. the first synth on the sequence).

S
 

Re: MIDI instrument assignment limitation

Reply #4 –
For the record, this feature is working as intended.