MIDI Output

Flat can play your score on any synthesizer, sampler or music software that accepts MIDI, instead of its own sounds. An orchestral library in your DAW, Kontakt, or the synthesizer on your desk: choose it as the MIDI output, press play, and it performs your score, following the cursor.

What your instrument plays

Each instrument of your score plays on its own MIDI channel, in the order of your score, with its General MIDI sound. Drums play on channel 10. Beyond the notes, Flat sends:

• Dynamics, at the same velocities as a MIDI file exported from Flat.
• Volume and pan from the mixer and the stage, updated as you move them. Muting or soloing an instrument in the mixer silences it on the output too.
• Hairpins under held notes, so a long note swells or fades instead of staying at one level.
• The sustain pedal, as the pedal itself: the notes keep their written length and your instrument rings them.
• Quarter tones, bends and glissandos, as pitch bend.
• The notes you enter and play: notes added while writing and the notes of your MIDI keyboard go to the output too.

The metronome and the count-in keep playing in Flat's own sounds.

Connect a DAW or a sample library

This is the most common setup: your score plays with the sounds of a DAW (Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio…) or of a sampler like Native Instruments Kontakt. Flat sends MIDI to the other app through a virtual MIDI port, a cable inside your computer.

Create a virtual MIDI port

On macOS

macOS has virtual ports built in: the IAC Driver.

1

Open Audio MIDI Setup

Press Cmd + Space, search for Audio MIDI Setup and open it.

2

Show the MIDI Studio

In the Window menu, choose Show MIDI Studio, then double-click IAC Driver.

3

Turn the port on

Check Device is online. If the Ports list is empty, click + to add a port and name it, for example Flat.

On Windows

Windows has no virtual ports built in. The free loopMIDI, by Tobias Erichsen, adds them.

On ChromeOS

ChromeOS can't create virtual MIDI ports. You can still play on a MIDI device plugged into your Chromebook.

Route the port to your instruments

1. In Flat, click MIDI Settings and select the virtual port in the MIDI Output list.
2. In your DAW, choose the same port as the MIDI input of your instrument tracks.
3. Arm the tracks for recording, or turn on their input monitoring, so they play what they receive.

How you set up the tracks depends on your score:

Connect a hardware synthesizer

A digital piano, a synthesizer or a sound module plugged into your computer can play your score with its own sounds, no virtual port needed.

1

Plug in your device

Connect it with a USB cable, or a MIDI to USB adapter for older devices. If your computer doesn't see it, see MIDI troubleshooting.

2

Choose it in Flat

Click the MIDI Settings button in the editor toolbar and select your device in the MIDI Output list.

3

Press play

Your device plays the score. If it plays only one instrument, set it to receive on all channels (often called Omni or Multi mode in its settings).

MIDI output settings

Open MIDI Settings in the editor toolbar and select an output: a settings button appears next to the MIDI Output list. A dot on it means a setting is changed from its default.

Flat remembers these settings for your next scores. Latency is remembered for each output, so a Bluetooth keyboard and a DAW each keep their own; the other settings apply to every output.

Latency

Bluetooth MIDI, some synthesizers and DAWs with a large audio buffer take a moment to play what they receive, so the sound comes late compared with the cursor. Choose the delay in Latency and Flat sends everything that much earlier, so the sound lines up with the cursor and with any part kept on Flat's sounds. It is None by default; Bluetooth MIDI usually needs 10 to 30 ms.

Mod wheel dynamics

By default, a note's dynamic sets how hard it is played (its velocity), and a crescendo or diminuendo raises or lowers the expression controller while the note holds.

Most orchestral sample libraries (Spitfire, Vienna, Kontakt libraries) ignore velocity on held instruments like strings and brass: they play loudness from the mod wheel. Turn on Mod wheel dynamics so each note moves the mod wheel to its dynamic, and hairpins sweep it. Notes keep their velocity too, for the libraries that use it on the attack.

Keep on Flat's sounds

Every instrument of your score plays on the MIDI output by default. Check instruments in Keep on Flat's sounds to play them on Flat's own sounds instead, while all the others go to the output. Use it when your DAW has no good sound for some of your instruments: your orchestral library plays the strings and brass, and Flat plays the choir. Uncheck them all to send every instrument to the output again.

MIDI clock

Turn on MIDI clock to make your DAW, a drum machine or an arpeggiator follow your score's tempo. It then gets:

• the tempo, tempo changes and playback speed included;
• start, stop and continue;
• the position: start playback in the middle of the score and your DAW starts from the same bar.

In your DAW, set the sync source to external MIDI clock from the virtual port (in Logic Pro: File > Project Settings > Synchronization; in Ableton Live: the port's Sync switch in Preferences > Link, Tempo & MIDI).

Limits

• 16 channels. MIDI has 16 channels per port. From the 17th instrument on, instruments share a channel with an earlier one and play with its sound.
• No articulation switching. Flat doesn't send keyswitches, so a sample library stays on the articulation it is set to (for example, arco when the score switches to pizzicato).
• Your instrument's sounds. Each instrument's sound comes from your DAW or synthesizer: a DAW track keeps the sound you loaded on it, and a synthesizer that ignores program changes keeps its current sound.

Troubleshooting

For connection issues, see MIDI troubleshooting.

MIDI implementation

What Flat sends, for mapping a DAW or setting up a synthesizer.