Anyone Using Finale With A Mac? Options

[blueroom]

I recently purchased a Roland Fantom X6. I use a Mac G5 and have installed Finale 2005. I can't seem to get Finale to send patch changes to the Fantom. When I do the Tutorial in the Finale tutotial book (chapter 6 - more midi topics) the result I get is not correct - the patch assignments are not recognized by the X6 - it plays all the parts with the one sound - whichever sound the X6 has selected on its screen - not affected by the data I have entered in Finale. However, I can enter notes in Finale using the X6 as a midi source so I know the computer and the X6 are sending and receiving the midi signal.

Is anyone at this site using Finale with a Mac? Can you offer any suggestions to get me started?

Any help would be appreciated.

blueroom

[leekunkel]

I have also just been through the same hoops with Sibelius. Have both Sibelius and Finale on a G5 with Fantom X8 attached and an RME Digiface I/O.
1. You must first have your Fantom set up in OSX Audio Midi Setup. You will find it in the utilities section of your Mac HD or may be able to access it from a menu within Finale (Sibelius has a link to it in the "Play" dropdown menu.) This step is confusing because the Fantom will appear as an I/O device. You must set up another device. The name you give it must be consistent in all entries. Then attach this device (Fantom X6) to the Fantom I/O in Audio Midi Setup.
2. You must make sure that you have a patch file which Finale and OSX will recognize as the patch file for your Fantom. In my case, I had to download a less that perfect patch file from Sibelius for Fantom XR (That's the rack version but it has the same patches and locations). Then I opened the patch editor that is in Sibelius' "Play" menu and made changes consistent with the Midi Setup data in the back of my Fantom manual (p. 330 has MIDI locations for the various patch file menus). Roland also has a text version of the patch files available on its website.
3. You must also make sure that you set up your interface (DLS device or sound card) to use the Fantom X for real time and flex time input.
4. On the same window (in Sibelius) you must assign the correct patch file to your DLS (I/O) device. In my case, this is how the RME Digiface is identified.

Even after all of this there are still some glitches in instrument assignments but am reasonably happy with it. Will tweak it more when I have time.
Hope this will be helpful