Staff mode problems

I just started using this program, and am most comfortable using the music staff. I can put notes, durations, etc down fine, but when I press play, there is no sound. I have also tried inserting a soft synth - bright piano and composing that way, but it only sounds when I put the note in, and not when I try to play it back. I don't use a midi controller or anything like that.

Hi Reikan - I write all my music by notation in staff view using soft synths and do not use a midi controller so I hope I can help. There are a few areas to check as you set up a project in HS:

I am assuming that as you can hear sound when you enter a note, then you have HS set up correctly to work with your sound card. However, you may wish to have a look at Options / Audio from the menu bar at the top to check that HS is recognising your sound card. Also check Options / Midi devices to ensure one input and one output has a tick against it.

On the menu bar at the top, click on Options / Project and then look at the Midi Out tab. Is there a tick in the box that says "Zero Controllers when Play stops"? If ticked, this sets the mod wheel of the soft synth to zero and thereby mutes the sound on playback. So remove the tick.

I am not sure which synth you have used for "bright piano" but open the synth and if it has a Mod wheel, see if it has been set to zero. If so, reset it to 80%.

Next, open up the Midi track by clicking the arrow in the top right hand corner of the track. Then open the Input/Output of that track by clicking the appropriate arrrow. A number of boxes will then be visible. To start off, look at the two boxes on the left. The one at the top is the Input and the one beneath it is the Output. The Input will probably say Omni or None. Fine, leave it alone! You need to set the Output to be the soft synth. So click the arrow and select the soft synth from the drop down box that appears. Then look at the box that says "CH". This is the channel box. Set it to Channel 1 by clicking the arrow and selecting channel 1 from the drop down box. (When you add more midi tracks, each track has to have its own soft synth and its own channel - most sound cards have 16 channels).

Once you have done the above, then try and play your track. Hopefully you should now hear the music. If not, then please let us know and we can suggest other areas to investigate.

Best Regards
Malcolm