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I'm not exactly new to MIDI but I use it infrequently so I'm still pretty green. I mainly use it for arranging music and sometimes to play back as accompaniment. And each time I sit down to use it I have to relearn or reconnect the software. But there’s 1 specific thing I can’t figure out.
First off, my setup: I have a Yamaha P-250 connected to a MIDISport 2x2. The MIDISport is connected via USB to a 2008 MacBook Pro running OS 10.8.5. I’m using Finale 2014.5.
I’m able to get Finale to select from the P-250’s XG set of voices. (At least I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s selecting.) But the keyboard also has a set of 45 Preset Voices. These are the sounds you select when playing the keyboard without any MIDI devices connected. They are accessed by selecting the buttons on the top of the keyboard. The XG voices are also available here. In Finale, when I select an instrument for a single staff, the pop-up menu shows the standard General MIDI instrument list, but not those other 45. I hope the attached screen captures help explain.
Can anyone give me some pointers for getting Finale (and Logic Pro if I decide to buy it) to find and select the Preset Voices?
Thanks.
Posted : 25/10/2020 4:20 pm
As far as I can tell from the information you attach, the standard sounds will need selecting using Bank Select, followed by Program Change.
The Bank Select will be done using two Control Changes, Controller 0 (zero) for the MSB value which seems to be 0 (zero) for all the instruments), and then Controller 32 (for the LSB) which is shown on the table as various values depending on the instrument.
Then, having done the Bank Select, (at which point no change to sound/voice is implemented), then issue a normal Program Change using the number in the third column, at which point the selected voice SHOULD be activated.
The numbers in the table are all decimal. The numbers referred to above are also decimal.
Does this help?
Geoff
Posted : 26/10/2020 9:04 am
Topic starter
Thanks! Yes that helped a lot. I was able to figure out how to do it from there. It's a bit tedious but Finale is not intended to be a sequencer. There are still some goofy things happening but I'm in a much better place than I was. It's now doing what I want.
Posted : 26/10/2020 4:17 pm
