Dorico continues receiving MIDI input when I move to other applications

I’m a new transplant to Dorico Pro from Finale and I’m loving it so far.

I typically use a MIDI keyboard for note input (with a Windows PC). I regularly change between Dorico and another music program while I’m entering notes. If I’m in note-entry mode in Dorico and I go to the other program and play on the keyboard there, the notes will enter into Dorico even though the program is not active. (Note that this problem happens regardless of what app I go to).

I know that I could use the ESC key to exit note entry before changing to another app, but that’s easy to forget. Is there a simpler way to prevent Dorico from “listening” for MIDI when I’m in other apps? This isn’t an issue when I use Finale, so I don’t think it’s related to my keyboard or computer setup.

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I couldn’t find any questions exactly like this one.

Thanks!
Andy

Hi @foleadu, can you describe more specifically your workflow of switching apps? Under what circumstances do you need to switch frequently between apps that use MIDI? This explanation could be useful to see is some (new) functionality can be needed in such cases.

For the time being, maybe you could use the Preference to Enable Midi input (to which you can programme a key command for “Toggle MIDI input”, and then create some sort of macro that applies the shortcut and then switches your apps window, and then another macro that first switches the apps windows and applies the shortcut again to reenable the MIDI input. (sorry, this is just thinking out loud, I don’t know if some macro app that makes this possible exist on Windows…).

Or just remember to exit Note Input before switching. :slight_smile:

@Christian_R Thanks for the reply. I do a lot of transcription work, so I’ve often got a media player app open playing music that I’m transcribing. I’ll play the audio of the original track in the media player and play along with it on my keyboard as I’m figuring it out and then I’ll switch over to Dorico to write it out. I’d love to be able just to seamlessly click back and forth between the two apps without needing to think about exiting Note Input or using a macro. But from your reply, it sounds like Dorico is working as intended. I’ll look into programming a macro or just remind myself to hit that ESC key. Thanks for the ideas! :slight_smile:

Well, not ideal, but as long as you aren’t in input mode inside of Dorico, there’s no harm.

When I’m using my keyboard for other things and have Dorico open, I usually have a standalone Piano app open and then I turn MIDI monitoring off in Dorico so sound comes only from the standalone app (EZ Keys in my case). You can disable MIDI monitoring under
Preferences → Note input and Editing → Play notes during note input and selection

Again, not ideal, but it works for me.

@derAbgang Thanks for the suggestion and sharing your experience. As you say, it’s not ideal: I’d love to just stay in note input mode as I switch to another app, to make it easier to quickly switch back and forth as I enter notes and try things out in the other app.

I’m not currently using a separate piano app, but I was thinking about that.
Your tip about turning off MIDI monitoring may help down the road. Thanks!