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How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:18 am
by alphonz
Hi,
I’ve connected my Akai mpk mini successfully with Sibelius. The keyboard works fine.
Now I would like to program the 8 (volume) controllers on the keyboard (K1-K8) with the volume controllers in the Sibelius mixer.
Does anybody know how to do that? (For example: I can’t find the (Midi)input-maps in Sibelius Ultimate/2018)
Thanks for your help!
alphonz from Germany

Re: How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 1:26 pm
by MikeLyons
You are trying to treat Sibelius as if it were a DAW and it just doesn't work like this. It has no automation and no external control of its faders except by dynamic markings in the score.

Re: How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:21 pm
by alphonz
Hello Mike,

thanks for your answer!

The possibility definitely exists in Sibelius! Just check the “Sibelius reference Guide 2018.1” (I'm not allowed to post the pdf-link.)
In chapter “3.13.Input Devices” (page 275 etc.) a few keyboards with this controller function are mentioned.
The problem is that these mentioned keyboards are definitely very old models. And it seems that Avid doesn’t take care of updating the keyboard list any more… (Does Avid take care of anything? I’m unable to contact the support from Germany…)
Nevertheless: the function exists. And that means other (programmable) keyboards could use these functions, too!

Quote from the reference Guide p.274:
“Input maps: If your MIDI keyboard has a plethora of buttons, knobs and faders in addition to the usual piano-style keys, you can use them with Sibelius, e.g. to control the faders in the Mixer, to control playback, and so on. Simply choose the most appropriate item listed under Input Map in the box at the top of the Input Devices page. By default, try MIDI keyboard, which will work with many MIDI keyboards, or if you have one of the specific keyboards listed there, choose the input map for that keyboard instead. Input maps for many of the most popular M-Audio keyboards are included, as follows:”

I think nobody takes care of these “input maps” any more. But it must be possible to find them in the program and manipulate them… or to simulate one of the mentioned keyboards with another one...
(And as I said: the Akai mini is in the list and works fine - but without the controllers.)

Best wishes from Germany…
alphonz

Re: How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:24 am
by dannyrichardson
This is true that it won't work as a DAW. You can easily find some free DAW's that will do what you're looking to do for that function. Sibelius is great, it just doesn't act as a DAW.

Here's a list of DAW's that could do this:

https://keyboardkraze.com/best-free-daws/

Re: How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:57 pm
by insalacom
I went over this several years ago. It was supposed to work but after the twins sold it things weren't kept up.

https://www.scoringnotes.com/tutorials/ ... -keyboard/

Still does NOT work but it was originally intended to.

Re: How to connect Midi kb with Sibelius mixer controllers?

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:29 am
by MikeLyons
No version after Sib 6 has Input maps. I think they stopped implementing them.