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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Managing MIDI Devices |
  
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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Managing MIDI Devices |
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Before reading this topic, you should review Understanding Ports and Devices in the MIDI Device Configuration Window.
MIDI devices play a central role in the assignment of sounds to staves in a song. Specifically, for any particular staff, you can specify which MIDI device the staff will be played back on. For the same song, you can assign some staves to one device, and other staves to another device. If you hear a discrepancy between when notes are sounding for such differently assigned staves, be sure that each device has been calibrated for latency. This will allow Composer to sound all the notes for each instrument at the proper times.
Each MIDI device has a unique set of properties that you can specify in Composer . Some of the properties of a device answer the following questions:
▪Is the device an output device and/or an input device?
▪Is the output device the default device to which staves for a newly opened MIDI file are assigned?
▪Does the device have multiple banks of sounds available; and how are these defined?
▪What are the MIDI patch (instrument) names for the device?
▪If the device has drum kits, what are the names of the drum notes?
The following topics describe procedures for adding, removing, and renaming devices, and editing the properties of devices:
▪Importing from a MIDI Device Description (.mdd) File
▪Importing from a Cakewalk Instrument Description (.ins) File
▪Specifying Properties of a Device
▪Specifying the Default MIDI Output Device
▪Specifying a General MIDI (GM) Device
▪Exporting to a MIDI Device Description (MDD) File
Please note that the internal Notation Software Synth will correctly read the banks and instrument patch names for extended banks in the soundfont that you select. Therefore you don't have to bother with importing or editing the information for any soundfonts that you may use.