Yamaha, Finale, And Mac Osx Leopard - Idiot Guide?, Never installed midi before on OSX, need guidance Options

[jmcm]

Essentials:
System - Mac OS X Leopard OR Tiger (or have older machines running Panther);
Typesetting software - Finale;
Midi device - Yamaha PortableGrand NP-30

I typeset for years on OS9 with Finale, and an old Roland plugged into my Mac via the serial connection, but after a couple of years doing no typesetting I am restarting, and had to pension off the old OS9 machine and Roland and upgrade Finale to run on my OSX machines. With the OS9 machine I just plugged in the Roland and it worked (with a bit of fiddling in Finale), but that approach isn't working with OSX. I have very little idea even where to start to get this working, so I'm looking for someone who could walk me through the steps as a complete beginner in installing a midi device to work with my Mac. Sorry.

(I did do a search of the threads to see if this had already been gone over, but couldn't find anything. If you can point me to a relevant thread I can go through that to see if I can get my devices working.)

What I've done:
I've installed the Yamaha USB Midi driver 1.1.0 and the update 1.1.1 - I can't find a newer one by searching with google. This appears in my System prefs, but when I start it up it tells me there is no USB midi device attached (oh yes there is). I've checked the cables, restarted, tried switching the plugs on my midi cable around and I'm getting lights on the cable, so something is working. I've also gone through the well-documented steps in Finale to try and reach the midi device that way, but failed as it's obviously not communicating with the system. I also started up Garage Band to see if it might find the keyboard for me, but it didn't.

The obvious possibilities are a) the Yamaha model I have is never going to talk to a Mac and I should have bought something more expensive; b) Leopard (which has issues with just about every software) has issues with 3rd party midi drivers, and I should try this on Tiger (which means a tedious reinstall, but I'll do it if I have to) or panther. On the other hand I may just have no idea what I'm doing and there's something completely obvious (to someone in the know) that I have missed.

I'm hoping someone has some experience that would save me a lot of time fiddling around and getting frustrated, and wouldn't mind helping me out. I'm not new to Macs, so am reasonably competent, but unfortunately it seems I'm a total deadhead with midi.

[kayj_prod]

I can't help you with Finale (being a Sibelius user), but it might help us to know which MIDI interface you're using. You say you've installed the Yamaha USB driver which I guess you got with the interface?

In my experience, using Leopard, Tiger (and all prior OSX's) I've never had a problem with any MIDI interface working. In Leopard, I've used two interfaces (1 in and 1 out plus a built-in to keyboard type) which have both appeared without needing any drivers installing. Its wierd even GarageBand can't use it!

Do you know anyone else with a USB interface you could try on your machine- maybe the shop you bought your current interface from? I'd prefer that to a re-install.