duocart, although not familiar with overture i'm assuming your midi routing is: overture - midi yoke - performance tool - gigastudio.
the error message *The specified device is in use* usually comes up, if a midiport (physical or virtual) is already used by another application and is not a multi-client device, so probably the in-/out-settings are not correct.
also the performance tool not passing tempo changes is a hint more than one dedicated midi signal is passed over to the performance tool inport or to nemesysport.
having the performance tool in your chain, you should have midi out on the performance tool set to nemesysport and the respective inport in gigastudio set to none. performance tool midi in should use midi yoke out and overtures midi out to be routed to midi yoke. finally make sure, any midi in of overture does not listen to *wrong* or *all* midi ports available on the system (a loop my occure otherwise)
christian

@cm said:

finally make sure, any midi in of overture does not listen to *wrong* or *all* midi ports available on the system (a loop my occure otherwise)
christian

Thanks Christian. That did the trick. I limited the input ports in Overture to none and the output to only Midiyoke ports 1-4.

Craig

duoartc, is this Overture program the current iteration of the program Opcode released about 10 years ago? The one written by Don Williams, who also wrote Encore - which is essentially the same program?

Hi Nick,

It may well be but I don't know for sure. I use to have Encore (well still do) but then I got Cakewalk Overture which had all the same features as Encore but more, with better notation and sequencer features - graphical presentations of tempo's, velocities, volumes etc. Then it went from Cakewalk to Geniesoft who now market it.

It's very intuitive to use (unlike Finale IMO) but with sequencer features that Sibelius doesn't have. You can move the starts and finishes of notes within a chord without changing the notation. It's worth having a look at - http://www.geniesoft.com. You can download a demo.

Craig

Disclaimer: I haven't yet read the new help material with the tool. That being said, I noticed these things...

1) On Windows XP, using what my friends call the "bubble gum" (nice looking windows chrome), the window main content is cut off near the bottom. We have this same problem with software we develop at my office.

2) Small is nice, but in 1600 X 1200, it's hard to read some of the text.

3) I said I didn't read the manual (my fault), but it's hard to realize whats going on at first glance... less intuitive from the previous (albeit dumber) version.

Just my 3 cents.

@Another User said:

CRAIG: It's very intuitive to use (unlike Finale IMO) but with sequencer features that Sibelius doesn't have.

Hey Craig, there you are again taking those subtle digs at Sibelius, and rightfully so in the case of timing nuances. However, the fact is that Sibelius 3 now allows timing edits to individual notes, phrases, etc. as you have been accustomed to doing in Overture. So load that Sibelius demo that I believe is still sittiing on your harddisk and catapult yourself into the ultimate notation environment!

Cheers, Don

Hi Gungnir,

I have tried the Sibelius 3.0 demo but it freezes on my machine. Maybe it doesn't like Win 98SE. But have you tried the Overture 3.0 demo?

I think a keyswitch for the Performance Tool would be great - anything to minimise the number of midi tracks and get back to a conductor's score.

I guess though it's easier for a notation program to respond to a score marking "legato" to activate the legato tool in VSL rather than finding 'work arounds' eg keyswitches to turn the tools on or off in notation programs. The same for repetitions, up and down bows etc and different length notes. A smarter Notation program could choose which sample to use given it knows the tempo and whether the note is a sixteenth or a whole note, or whether it's repeated. You could put in a note template for different intrument articulations available. But then that would require two quite different companies coming together for the solution.

Craig

To add to the wishlist:

- When you select the Save option, do not ask again for the file name. This is why the Save As feature exists. So if the file has already been saved once, please only save it again instead of asking for the file name again.

Thanks,
Martin

Right on Martin - this gets irritating real fast. Good suggestion on the final copy.

Rob

I hope I didn't miss this but I'd love there to be a master reset button for all ports.

I'm getting a lot of hanging notes related to using the sustain pedal on legato instruments. The only thing that cures it once it gets going is to close the tool and reopen it completely.

Overall it's a wonderful improvment over the 'vintage' tool! [:)]

Hey folks,

Has anyone noticed an unwanted "slide" on certain notes using PerfLeg Strings f ? It sounds like an Irish whistle turn. I'm still using V.1 of the Performance tool. Is this a tool issue or a sample issue I wonder?

Any takers on that? I guess I'll see if the V.2 beta tool helps out.

It would be interesting to have everyone post known bad samples. I think we've all come across them.

With baited breath I wait to hear from my colleagues,

Dave Connor

Hey folks,

Has anyone noticed an unwanted "slide" on certain notes using VL-14 PerfLeg Strings f ? It sounds like an Irish whistle turn. I'm still using V.1 of the Performance tool. Is this a tool issue or a sample issue I wonder?

Any takers on that? I guess I'll see if the V.2 beta tool helps out.

It would be interesting to have everyone post known bad samples. I think we've all come across them.

With baited breath I wait to hear from my colleagues,

Dave Connor

duoartc, can you cut and paste music in Overture? That was the biggest bigaboo with Encore - although it is still a really good and usable program. I use Logic's notation now, since I only ever need to do the odd part for overdubs, but I used Encore on one large project a few years ago (the score for a play - no copying budget!), and it worked really well.

Hi Nick, yes you can cut and paste. Do try the demo version.

Thanks, I may.

(I only say "may" because it's a PC program, and I'm afraid to put software that isn't playing samples on my Windows machines.)

Nick, there's a Mac version as well. I don't want to hijack this thread on the Performance Tool so you can email me at duoartc@senet.com.au if you have anymore questions.

Any chance of getting a midi activity "LED" next to each channel? This would help troubleshooting when you're wondering why you aren't hearing anything - which happens to me more often than I care to admit.

Paul/Herb:

This issue of turning the legato mode on and off in the Performance Tool with some type of midi parameter is very important to some programmers who work with custom templates.

I will be joining the VSL family shortly but this is going to make things real difficult in that I'm used to being able to toggle legato on and off as needed within a particular phrase.

Can you indicate if it may be possible that you can incorporate this feature at this stage of your beta version of the Performanace Tool?

Thanks, Don

"Any chance of getting a midi activity "LED" next to each channel?"

I second that! This would be very good to have.

@gungnir said:

This issue of turning the legato mode on and off in the Performance Tool with some type of midi parameter is very important to some programmers who work with custom templates.

This would be great. I am using EXS. A MIDI method of switching to and from any of the following would be great:

LEGATO
ALTERNATION
REPETITION
THRU (off)

And that is because I could then layer other articulations onto a PERF instrument, switch to Pizzicato for instance and switch to Alternation all on one instrument, back to LEGATO TREMELO, ALTERNATION Staccato, THRU Looped Sustains, the possibilites are endless and wonderful. A VIOLINS ALL could truly be created.

You could even go so far as to have the PERFORMANCE TOOL "sense" which tool is needed by placing a single sample/zone down at A-2 or something. When that note is present it knows it's on a LEGATO instrument. When a switched to keygroup has a B-2 then it knows to use ALTERNATION.

Evan Evans