I get no sound now

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I get no sound now

2003-10-11 06:38 pm

Hey the volume just went! What happened? I reinstalled it and still I get no volume. Somehow my menu options have changed too. Before play, stop and record were shown now they have to be found on the drop down menu. Could the preferences have been changed? Is there a mute function that could have been inadvertantly set or a volume control on the program? Anybody pretty familiar with all the bells and whistles to help me out? Thanks.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #1 – 2003-10-11 08:19 pm

I will let others with more expertise answer your question, so be patient. Meanwhile:

I don't know why, but once in a while Windows seems to lost track of where programs keep their user settings or initialization files. If that happens for one program, it may happen for others.

Are there other progams on your computer that also lost their settings?

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #2 – 2003-10-12 10:07 pm

Start with the obvious. Absolutely silly thing to worry about, but wires to get tripped on, buttons get pressed. So make sure your speakers are turned on and not unplugged from the computer. If everythings connected, go back into NWC and play the music again (F5). If you can't hear anything, the next thing is look at your NWC midi settings.

Choose Tools / Options. Check the midi tab. It may be hidden off to the right - if so, just press control and tab until it shows up. Make sure there is a device shown in the Devices used by playback window. If there isn't, there should be some in the left window you can select and move.

Once you've done that, go back to your score, press F5 and see if you can hear anything. If not, check to see what might be muted - just press m. If nothing is marked, then go to a few single notes in each staff, and check note properties (Control-E, notes tab, is the mute box empty?)

Next, check your settings for Windows. Perhaps the best thing to do is use Windows Help Trouble-shooting for that. Go to your desktop, press F1, find Trouble-shooting, and just follow the interactive dialogue.

Good luck.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #3 – 2003-10-12 11:23 pm

Don't forget the little volume control icon (Windows Mixer) in your system tray (looks like a little loudspeaker). That's buggered me up on more than one occasion.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #4 – 2003-10-13 03:16 am

Yeah, I erased what I wrote about the speaker, because I checked it and found out I have nothing with an X, yet everything is working fine. It may just be I'm not displaying all the possible tools in the volume controls screen.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #5 – 2003-10-14 12:17 am

Ok, I did these things and still no sound. I even uninstalled and reinstalled and still nothing. I would have thought that would have solved the problem. Kind of frustrating.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #6 – 2003-10-14 08:52 am

Can you still play CDs?
If so, can you play midi files?
If you don't know where they are click on
Start> Find> Files or folders
and enter *.mid in the name box. Most Windows installations have a test file called canyon.mid. If you double click on this it should launch the Windows Media Player. If you get no sound from this it is possible something more fundamental may have altered in your system.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #7 – 2003-10-14 03:20 pm

Reinstalling NWC will not solve problems like this, unless the problem is that you changed devices used by NWC, and simply want to reset this (which is easier done through Tools|Options|Midi). When testing with NWC, make sure to use the Samples, which are configured to use a single play back device (good for testing).

When you get no sound, you should do all of the following:

check your connections (line out should be wired to speaker input)
check your speaker volume and power
check your mixer panel volume settings (some ill behaving programs reset your MIDI synth volume, and you will not hear your MIDI synth until you turn it back up)

If none of this helps, you could have hardware that is failing, or a mis-configured device driver.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #8 – 2003-10-15 01:57 am

If you are one of those people who never turn off your computer (just let it hibernate every night), try turning it off - for real - a total shutdown - not even a restart, but a total shutdown. This has worked for me 4 times over the past six years. No sound one day, everything normal the next.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #9 – 2003-10-15 02:26 pm

One other thing to try - if you're using Windows MediaPlayer, some versions have a button to turn on and off digital playback. Check Tools, Options.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #10 – 2009-03-27 02:07 am

This is an old post, but I was having the same problem. Here is one solution: Open your volume control. If SW Synth volume is down at the bottom, slide the bar up. You should get sound.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #11 – 2009-03-27 04:29 pm

I freqently find that Microsoft has re-set my Midi input in Volume Control to zero. I am sure there is somewhere a way to stop it from doing that!

Tony

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #12 – 2009-03-27 06:14 pm

Quote from: tony smedley – 2009-03-27 04:29 pm

I freqently find that Microsoft has re-set my Midi input in Volume Control to zero. I am sure there is soimewhere a way to stop it from doing that!

There is. Don't associate *.mid files with Windows Media Player. Use mplayer.exe, mplay32.exe or some other program.
You may need to redo this after certain upgrades:

Quote from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328085

If there is a file association with certain Microsoft programs, Windows Media Player associates itself with that file type.
This occurs because the installation of Windows Media Player is considered an upgrade.
Programs that Windows Media Player takes file associations from include:
Microsoft ActiveMovie Control
Mplayer.exe or Mplay32.exe
Soundrec.exe or SndRec32.exe
Windows Media Player versions 5.2 - 8.0
Microsoft NetShow 1.0 or 2.0
Microsoft Deluxe CD player
Microsoft CDPlayer
Microsoft DVDPlayer or Dvdplaye.exe

"Windows Media Player is considered an upgrade" (a bit of inadvertent humor)

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #13 – 2009-03-27 09:44 pm

Many thanks Rick. I now have .Mid files set to Nero Media Player It now plays with the Volume Control "Midi" at zero!.

Tony

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #14 – 2009-03-27 09:48 pm

Quote from: tony smedley – 2009-03-27 09:44 pm

I now have .Mid files set to Nero Media Player It now plays with the Volume Control "Midi" at zero!.

If you can figure out how Nero Media Player manages to do this, please let NoteWorthy Software know.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #15 – 2009-03-28 01:28 am

Quote from: Rick G. – 2009-03-27 09:48 pm

If you can figure out how Nero Media Player manages to do this, please let NoteWorthy Software know.

It's probably usnig an inbuilt softsynth and outputting via the wav device...

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #16 – 2009-03-28 04:06 pm

These technicalities are a bit beyond my knowledge!
I have a folder in "My Music" labelled "Midi Files" containing .mid and some .mp3 files, which I filed there from various sources. Some of them now mystify me - why is there "Boellmann_wet.mp3" and "Boellmann_dry.mp3"?
In All Programs>Accessories> Entertainment>Volume Control - Playback Control Window, 'Playback', 'Wave', CD Player' and 'Line-In' sliders are all at Max, but MIDI is, as nearly always is the case, at zero. Reducing either Playback or Wave sliders affects the volume of playback using Nero Media Player. This may mean something!
of course, NWC files will still not play unless the MIDI volume control is active. What I really want is something to stop Microsoft from altering the MIDI voluime setting without my permission.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #17 – 2009-03-28 08:59 pm

The usual culprit here is Windows Media Player... If you don't use it...

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #18 – 2009-03-28 09:33 pm

Quote from: tony smedley – 2009-03-28 04:06 pm

why is there "Boellmann_wet.mp3" and "Boellmann_dry.mp3"?

The wet version is usually the dry version after effects (reverb, chorus etc.) have been added.
One can add effects to the dry version. Removing effects from the wet version is nearly impossible.

The only "altering [of] the MIDI voluime setting without my permission" I am aware of is Windows Media Player's habit of zeroing MIDI volume if a MIDI file (*.mid, *.midi, *.rmi, *.rmid) is loaded into it and then paused. If you don't use Windows Media Player to play MIDI files, you should not have this problem.

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #19 – 2009-03-28 09:56 pm

Rick ,

I really should pay more attention. Having moved Windows player away from MIDI files I have not yet had the zeroed slider, and hope that I won't!

Tony

Re: I get no sound now

Reply #20 – 2011-10-21 10:43 pm

Quote from: Rick G. – 2009-03-27 06:14 pm

There is. Don't associate *.mid files with Windows Media Player. Use mplayer.exe, mplay32.exe or some other program.
You may need to redo this after certain upgrades:"Windows Media Player is considered an upgrade" (a bit of inadvertent humor)

Thank you for this info. I tried associating the nwc & midi files with mplay32.exe & now each time I open a nwc or a midi file into NWC the SW synth button is not switched to the off position!!! It was such a nuisance to have to open that window to change the sw synth volume control knob to the up position EACH time a file was opened. Excellent suggestion. Thank you again.