How can I use Sibelius with a MIDI playback device other than the Kontakt Silver? I have a separate, standalone sampler with sounds that I like.

The difficulty in this setup is getting MIDI out of Sibelius. By default, Sibelius is set up to use the built-in Kontakt Silver player. It is relatively simple to bypass this and use other sound generating software (hereafter referred to as virtual instruments, or VI’s).

The vast majority of VI’s do not have built-in MIDI ports.** In this case, the use of a separate MIDI routing utility is required. There are several virtual MIDI ports you can get. Two recommended ones are the “Maple Virtual MIDI Cable” (available at www.marblesound.com), and the “MIDI Yoke” (available at www.midiox.com). Other options include Musiclab’s MidiOverLan and Hubi’s MIDI Driver. Regardless of which one you choose, follow the instuctions for downloading and installing it on your computer.

Once the virtual MIDI port is installed, follow these instructions to route MIDI to your VI:

1. Open your VI, and configure it to accept MIDI input from your virtual MIDI port. Load the sound(s) you want to use on the appropriate MIDI channel(s). Also, make sure your VI is configured with your audio interface. Refer to the VI’s manual if you need help doing this.
2. With Sibelius open, press “m” on your computer’s keyboard. This will bring up the Mixer in Sibelius.
3. Click on the name of the staff you wish to route to your VI.
4. In section on the right-hand side of the Mixer, you will see several boxes. The two we will be concerned with right now are “Device” and “Channel.”
5. Under “Device,” select the same virtual MIDI port as you did in step 1.**
6. Under “Channel,” select the channel on which you loaded the sound from step 1.
7. Now, when you play back your score in Sibelius, MIDI data will be sent through the virtual MIDI port, on the respective channel(s), to your VI, where it will trigger sound.

You can also use the same technique to send MIDI information from Sibelius into a software sequencer, like Pro Tools or Cubase. Simply set up the sequencer to accept MIDI on the virtual MIDI port, and configure Sibelius the same way.

** Some standalone VI’s DO include their own MIDI ports (such as Garritan Personal Orchestra Studio and GigaStudio). In this case, select the corresponding ports for the VI instead of a virtual port. For example, if you use GPO Studio, select “GPO Studio” as the Device in Sibelius.

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