instrument suddenly quiet?

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Kurt Hoffman Posted February 05, 2020 21:18

This happens again and again and I can't figure out what's going on.

I'll be trying to compose a part, perhaps I'm improvising on my midi input keyboard. The sound will be whatever the sound that I was last editing in Finale. I'm playing on the keyboard...and suddenly the volume of that instrument drops precipitously. Like it'll be 50% of the volume it was. And then...nothing seems to bring it back up to normal.

It seems like something has reset the midi volume of that channel. But how can I bring it back to normal? It doesn't seem to be a function of the mixer, nor of dynamics in the score. The only way I've figured out how to fix it is to change the instrument patch completely (if it was a flute, make it a harp for a minute). then the volume will be back to normal and I can bring the flute patch back and it'll be back to normal.

So the big questions are:

a. what might be happening?

b. what's the right way to fix it?

it seemed like in the old days it was pretty clear what the midi volume was for each channel, it was in the instrument list. Now...I don't know where that's gone. It doesn't seem to work the same way as the mixing board.

cheers,

kurt

For playback, I'm using Garritan Instruments selected through the Score Manager.

MacOS 10.14.2
Finale 26.2.1.464

Midi controller keyboard is an old Casio FZ-1.

Midi interface is Focusrite Scarlett 616.

3 comments

Date Votes

MIKE HALLORAN Posted February 05, 2020 23:15

The first thing I would do is update to OS 10.14.6. There were USB interface issues in 10.14.0–2. Not all brands were affected—I just don't remember about Focusrite.

The next step is to burnish all the cables in the chain. Unplug and reconnect each cable end 5 times.

If you still have a problem, the next thing to figure out is where in the signal chain the process is breaking down.

Can you predict when this will happen?

Does it reset if you quit and restart Finale?

Must you do a reboot to reset?

Kurt Hoffman Posted February 06, 2020 05:53

well, I updated my system. Silly me, I didn't look carefully -- I managed to update to Catalina. OK, well after all the nonsense of accidentally making a major upgrade....

Yes, it's still happening -- and I think I've narrowed the situations in which it's happening. If I'm playing experimentally on my inputkeyboard, it seems like I have a problem with certain patches and not others. Indeed switching to certain other patches is the fix!

The problem seems to often happen with sampled wind instrument patches. But it never happens with keyboard patches or glockenspiel patches. Indeed, if I play for awhile with, say, an oboe patch, it will suddenly go quiet on me. If I swap the patch for that voice with another wind patch, the problem continues. If I swap it with a glock or keyboard patch -- the volume comes back up! And if I THEN swap in a sampled wind instrument patch...it's fixed!

MIKE HALLORAN Posted February 06, 2020 16:18

Yikes! If you aren't ready for Catalina and you meet certain conditions, you have 24 hours from the time of that install to fix it using APFS Snapshots. This only works in High Sierra or later on System drives formatted APFS.

If you had Time Machine turned on and If you have only one Mac OS installed in your system, it's possible to revert back to Mojave 10.14.2 as long as you do so within 24 hours of that update — as long as that's what you want. The process takes 2–5 minutes depending on your Mac. If you don't meet both conditions, your only option is a full restore from a recent backup.

1) Archive any files you've created or touched since the Catalina upgrade to an external removable drive (USB thumb drive or SD card is fine). Otherwise, you will lose this work.

2) Shut down your Mac

3) If there's a Mac OS installed on any external drive, unplug it, likewise if you back up using cloneware. Otherwise, you can't boot into the Repair Partition since High Sierra.

4) Boot holding down the Command r keys — you will boot into the Repair Partition

5) Navigate the menus till you find Time Machine Restore. It will ask you to select a drive

6) Find the drive icon that looks like your System drive. Click on it.

7) A menu will appear to select a time within the previous 24 hours. Pick one that pre-dates the OS install. A message will ask you to confirm. Click Yes.

Your system will do a complete restore to that time.

Now Google the Apple 10.14.6 Combo Updater. Download and install.

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