Configuring Input Devices

Input devices are the MIDI keyboards or controllers which you can use to enter notes into a score or control Sibelius’ mixer. You can also use them to record other MIDI messages which can affect the playback of a score. You don't actually need any MIDI devices to use Sibelius, however if you have these devices then you may find that using them saves you a great deal of time and effort.

Before continuing you must make sure that all the MIDI devices you want to use with Sibelius are correctly plugged in.

Input devices are configured in the preferences dialog. To open this dialog choose File > Preferences or press Control+Comma.

This dialog has 15 different pages. To move between them you need to select the page you want from a list, which is the first control in the dialog. When the dialog first opens you will be on the control which is immediately to the right of this list, so press Shift+Tab once.

Choose "Input Devices" from the list. You can do this quickly by pressing the letter I until JAWS says "Input Devices".

Press the "Find new input devices" button and Sibelius will search your system looking for all installed MIDI devices. These devices will be shown in a list, which is the first control after the list of pages in the dialog. There are four things which you can do from this list, which are:

To do any of these things, do the following:

  1. Select a device in the list by using the arrow keys.
  2. Press Control+F1 to open the Sibelius Access options list, which will show the four options above.
  3. Choose an option and press enter.

Unfortunately, JAWS cannot see the names of the devices. It only tells you what type of device it is, and what input map it is using. This means that you'll have to do some detective work in order to configure the devices. This is not as hard as it sounds, because the options in the Sibelius Access options list will help you to work out which device is which.

Testing the device

The preferences dialog contains a small indicator light which changes from black to green every time Sibelius receives information from one of your devices.

To test your device, do the following:

  1. Press Control+F1 and select Test Device.
  2. Press Enter to close the list and then do not press any more keys on your PC keyboard.
  3. Play some notes or move the knobs or faders on your device.
  4. JAWS will say "receiving" each time the indicator lights up.
  5. To stop JAWS from watching the indicator, just press any key on your PC keyboard.

Activating or deactivating a device

If a device has been deactivated then the text "inactivate" will appear in the list of devices. If a device is active then either its name or the type of the device will be displayed in the list. The type of device will be either "MIDI keyboard" or "MIDI guitar".

To deactivate or activate a device, do the following:

  1. Select the device in the list of devices.
  2. Press Control+F1 and choose "activate or deactivate device".
  3. When you return to the dialog, the list will have changed to reflect the devices new state.

You can tell if a device is deactivated because the word "inactive" will appear in the list, instead of any other text.

When a device is inactive, Sibelius will ignore any information which it receives from that device. Even the indicator which displays MIDI activity will remain dark, no matter what you do with the device.

Working out which device is which

You can determine which device is which by using the deactivate and test MIDI options. To identify a device, do the following:

  1. Make sure that none of the devices have been deactivated If they have then reactivate the devices as described above.
  2. Press Control+F1 and choose Test MIDI.
  3. When you are returned to the dialog, use each MIDI device in turn to make sure that Sibelius is receiving its messages.
  4. Once you're satisfied that all devices are working, select the device you want to identify.
  5. Deactivate that device only as described above.
  6. Start testing MIDI and use each of your devices in turn.
  7. One of the devices will not make JAWS say "received"
  8. You now know that that is the device which is select in the list.
  9. Finally, reactivate the device as described above.

Specifying the device type

Sibelius views all MIDI devices as either keyboards or guitars. Any device which is not a guitar is treated as a keyboard, so this includes pure MIDI keyboards, MIDI controllers (like the Evolution UC33) or MIDI keyboards with extra controllers (like the M-Audio Key Station).

Sibelius usually detects the type without any extra prompting, however, you may find that you need to specify the type if Sibelius gets it wrong.

To change the device type, do the following:

  1. Press Control+F1 and choose Change Type
  2. The list will close and a context menu opens containing two options, Keyboard or Guitar.
  3. Choose the type you want and press Enter.

Choosing an input map

If your MIDI device has knobs and faders then you can use it to manipulate the faders in Sibelius' mixer, control playback and also insert MIDI messages directly into the score. The input maps assign these knobs and faders to different parts of Sibelius so that you don't have to do any of the tedious setup routines that are often associated with these devices.

To choose which input map to use for the selected device, do the following:

  1. Press Control+F1 and choose Change Input Map
  2. The list will close and a context menu will appear.
  3. Choose the input map which best fits your controller and press Enter.

If your device is not listed in the menu, you should look visit the Sibelius Help Centre, which has other maps which you can download

MIDI Guitars

If you select a device in the list which is a MIDI guitar, then two extra options become available. These can be found between the two lists, which show the pages of the dialog and the available MIDI devices.

MIDI Guitar Channels

MIDI guitars are set up so that the notes played on each string are transmitted on different MIDI channels. You can choose between four channels and six channels, according to how many strings your guitar has.

MIDI channel of highest pitched string

This option allows you to tell Sibelius which MIDI channel is being used for the highest pitched string. This will normally be channel one.

Accuracy when you input chords

There is an option on another page of the preferences dialog which is of particular importance to MIDI guitarists. This option is found on the "Input notes" page and is called "accuracy when you input chords".

When you play chords on a guitar or keyboard, the notes will not be pressed at exactly the same time. This option lets you choose how much time can be allowed between notes before Sibelius groups the notes together as a single chord. The main reason for using this option is if you strum chords slowly and Sibelius writes them out as separate notes, and not as one chord.

This option does not just apply to playing music in to a click. It also applies to inputting notes from a MIDI keyboard in step time. For example, if the setting is very low, then you may find that pressing a three note chord on the keyboard causes three separate notes to be entered into the score. On the other hand, if the setting is very high, you could play a fast scale on your keyboard and it would be written out as a single, very unpleasant chord.