Korg X50 synth into Sibelius v4 midi help!

[Jim_L]

I'm new to computer/music/midi stuff but have USB'd my X50 into my computer and can input notes to the staves in Sibelius but the program cannot play or see the sounds from the X50. My only intent with all this is to create sheet music of my original tunes that have keyboards on them. I'm musically illiterate so I figured this would as easy as plug & play...

Both the Korg & Sibelius sites (and accompanying synth & program help files/manual) are no help. I've been to other forums with no help either. can someone please tell me why the synth sounds are not being played?

My computer sees the synth, Sibelius sees it in the device manager (but has no sound set for it), Notes appear on the staves when I play the synth but no sound. I'm looking to create orchestrated scores and need the various 'realistic' sounds I used in my recordings from the synth.

p.s. I don't use computers to record music and this is a perfect example of why...;>)
-Jim

[richiebee]

Does Sibelius see the Korg in playback devices? Is it set to "Use"? If so, when you go to the mixer, does it show the Korg as the playback device for each channel?

[Jim_L]

Yes the program lists the X50 as one of 3 devices, the other 2 being Microsoft SW wavetable synth and kontakt player. I have those 2 turned off (Use set to No). Playing the X50 creates notes on the staves but there's no 'Sound Set' for the X50.

This may be one reason there's no sound (?) and probably the reason that when I try to change a staff instrument like voice (which the default sound is synth voice, at least within the basic original score I created for my song), the changes don't stay.

One thing i 'stumbled' upon which enabled me to even get this far with having notes show up on the staves was to go into the computers Control Panel/Sounds and select the X50. It didn't help that the X50 only shows up anywhere when turned on.

And yes, the X50 is the device in the mixer. Cjoosing any of the 3 'devices' shows the same available list of cheap sounding sounds (The old Zelda games come to mind). These are NOT the sounds from the X50. I've recently read something about midi channels (16 of them) and gone back through the X50 manual and reread up on it's midi/multi-timbrale stuff, but I could probably learn Klingon before i understood anything the manual said.

I've searched in my computer help files for midi but nothing. Is there something in the computer to do with midi connections or is it just in the Sibelius program? I'm just baffled that this seemingly simple process (from a newbie point of view of course) works halfway. The program sees the keyboard and plots the notes onto the staff of my choosing but no sound comes out of my computer speakers. Do I need to ditch the USB cable and go with the regular type of in/out midi cable? My computer doesn't have those type of midi inputs but the X50 manual has a dwg of a midi "Y" that plugs into a serial port (I think).

Aw... here comes that damn headache...;>)

[Jim_L]

posted twice by mistake...

[richiebee]

Sibelius probably uses a GM soundset as its basis for defining program change messages. Is your keyboard set to the GM soundset? Even if that's not what you want, give it a try to see if it produces sound.

Do you have a driver disc for the Korg? Do you have its drivers installed on your computer?

When you play the keyboard, do you hear the sound? I know it sounds obvious, but I gotta ask.

R.

[Jim_L]

I've tried all the different soundsets with no luck, only using either of the other 2 devices produces those terribly fake sounds. The Korgs midi drivers are installed as well as it's editor program which allows me to edit the sound parameters and upload them back into the synth (not that i'll ever use it or understand how it works). I've emailed Sibelius asking them if they have plans to create an X50 sound set for the program (what is a sound set, the actual sounds in a file?) but haven't heard anything yet (it's been days now).

So I take it that the program (or any such program meaning Finale) can't access the sounds in the synth? i'm still not sure how all this midi stuff works other than midi is just data, not sound but it should still be telling the synth to play the sounds through the USB cable and having the sounds come out the speakers the same way the other sounds do like during playback with the other devices.