Dorico Pro 5 no longer sends midi sounds to midi piano headphones

Dorico
1

Dorico Pro 5

iMac (Monterey OS 12.7.6)

Roland FP 80 midi keyboard

Problem

Dorico notated score in Write Mode no longer plays through my midi piano external headphones, and realtime input also no longer is played through the headphones on the piano midi.

What’s new

I have been working in Dorico Pro 5 since August 2024, I happily say.

The other day I tried to route Dorico’s output to a Sound Core Mini bluetooth speaker. AND, since then, the problem has a occurred.

I have confirmed the success of the following tests:

- → confirmed that when my headphones are plugged into the midi keyboard, I hear the notes I play on my midi piano;

-> confirmed that when the same headphones are plugged into the back of my iMac (Monterey OS 12.7.6) headphone port, with the Dorico Device Control Panel (Core Audio) in Dorico Pro 5 set to ‘External Headphones’, the playback from Dorico occurs in the external headphones

-> confirmed, moreover, that during the Write mode playback in this configuration, I am also ‘in realtime’ able to play notes from my midi piano, and am able to hear their realtime input on the score.

-> HOWEVER what is NO LONGER happening is :

I used to be able to hear the output from Dorico as well as my realtime input from the midi piano) when my headphones were plugged into the piano midi. Additionally, I am no longer able to ‘audition score parts’, via the headphones plugged into the midi piano.

Essentially, there is no longer an output from Dorico and an input to Dorico from the midi piano.

I have unplugged, rebooted, and replugged the connections from the piano to the iMac. Nothing has been resolved.

Would someone be able to suggest what may have technically changed in the Dorico Configuration. This two way communication to/from Dorico, I believe, is essentially the midi cable, which has been working fine for a year now.

I asked AI to navigate me to the log file which I would find in Mac OS. I carried out the following navigation, but when I opened the Dorico 5 folder it was empty.

For technical issues, providing the application log file (located in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 5/ on macOS) and your operating system in your support request can be helpful.

2

Ah, AI … Please attach diagnostics:

Help → Create Diagnostic Report

3

I believe I have finally been able to navigate to the Dorico log file, as you requested, for which I thank you kindly.

I created a mock-up case in Dorico Pro 5 to illustrate my issue, and was successful in creating the Dorico log file specifically for that session.

application.log.zip (10.1 KB)

Michael

4

I didn’t request that at all. I asked that you provide diagnostics:

Help → Create Diagnostic Report

I don’t know if the devs here will find just the application log enough to diagnose your problem.

1 Like
5

my error: I have uploaded the Dorico Diagnostics.zip file as well.

Michael

I appreciate your responsiveness.

Dorico Diagnostics.zip (704.7 KB)

6

Hello Michael,

My worst fear in trying to help you sort this out is making it more confusing, but I think we need to make sure we are on the same page if that’s okay. And apologies in advance.

Okay, so MIDI doesn’t contain any audio - it can’t, not ever. It only contains instructions such as to play a certain note like C4. It requires something on the receiving end to understand that instruction and turn the instruction into actual audio that you eventually hear. On the same page?

It appears from your description that your keyboard can make sounds on its own without being connected to anything but headphones. True? Are there any audio (not midi) cables connecting computer and keyboard?

if there no audio cables, I will make the simplest guess for the moment that you have enabled your midi keyboard for input in Dorico but you have NOT also separately set up an external midi instrument for playback in your project in Dorico? Is that accurate?

If I guessed right, Your keyboard does create both audio and midi. But while you can hear the keyboard’s onboard sounds coming from the keyboard’s headphone jack, only the midi goes from keyboard to Dorico. Dorico turns that midi into audio using a VST like Halion, and then that audio goes out from the MAC. Is that the actual chain we need to get working?

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Hi @Michael_Abrams , thanks for the data.

But I have the same problem as gdball and I can’t really understand of what you are doing or want to achieve.

According to the log files you most of the time use the Built-in audio driver within Dorico (Edit > Device Setup), but at some stage you also used another audio driver which the name NS-19D310NA19. What device gets driven by that driver?

1 Like
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Dorico Forum Ticket Dated 2025 09 03

Driver question re: NS-19D310NA19

=> The NS-19D310NA19 is a model of a compact LED HDTV made by Insignia™.

=> I use the above-noted monitor is a daisy-chain fashion, as an alternative display of software windows. I do not use it with Dorico windows. The default driver has been populated in the iMac System ‘Sound’ preferences window. I have never used or mapped to this driver for audio purposes.

=> The Dorico does not list this driver.

=> It appears from your description that your keyboard can make sounds on its own without being connected to anything but headphones.

=> The Roland FP 80 midi piano keyboard has its own speakers, so as you say, ‘…it can make its own sounds’, but it also has a headphone port, which turns off the midi piano external speakers.

=> The latter configuration is the usual way I work in Dorico, when scoring and playing back, or ‘auditioning’ notation parts.

Here is where it may get tricky: Do you have:

A) three cables - one midi/usb, one audio cable in, and one audio cable out?

B) two cables - one midi/usb, one audio cable in?

=> The midi piano has a port for midi in and a port for midi out, but Roland confirmed that the other port (which I use) also functions as both midi in and midi out.

C) two cables - one midi/usb, one Audio cable out?

D) one cable - midi/usb only. Or possibly two old style midi cables but definitely no audio cables?

=> I have have been working fine with a cable that has an plug, that goes into the back of the Roland midi piano (shown in the attached picture as: “USB Computer plug”), and a USB plug that goes into the iMac port.

=> This cable both sends and receives midi data. I have been using it successfully for 12 months. Indeed, the send midi data to Dorico is still working. However, the receive data from Dorico has ceased to be received (or sent perhaps from Dorico?).

=> Where we go next depends on your answer. It seems like you were describing D) If so, it would have to be that any audio you hear from the keyboard’s headphone jack is being created by the keyboard’s built in sounds, and the audio you hear from your computer is being created in the computer using a VST instrument. Seem right?

=> Close, but not the biscuit.

=> The audio that I was able to hear from the midi piano headphone jack was both the keyboard sounds and the audio sent back from Dorico.

=> If I clicked on a part written on the score, and ran Play, I would hear that part of the score being sent to the midi from Dorico external headphones, using its its VST.

=> But if I clicked on a note in the score, and played the midi piano keys (without the playback running), I was able to hear on the midi keyboard headphones, the Dorico VST sounds in the midi keys I played. ( a very nice experience, I might say).

=> What is happening now is nothing.

=> When I playback Dorico, I now can only hear its output from a headphone plugged ‘directly’ into the iMac headphone port.

=> Whereas, previously, with a jack inserted in the back of the iMac, the Dorico playback would route to my Roland headphone jack.

=> The latter no longer happens.

=> In order for me to work now, I have to have 2 headphones ready to put on. One for the Roland, input to Dorico, and one for Dorico’s output… ouch…

=> Because that’s a different puzzle from the situation where audio actually CAN go between Dorico and your Keyboard via an audio cable.

Michael

I have uploaded a pic of the back of the midi keyboard (showing connections).

Back of Roland FP80
9

As per my response to ‘gdball’ the driver in question refers to a 2nd monitor, which I never use for sound purposes (pun?)

Thank you for your question, though.

Michael

10

Still hoping to earn a biscuit then. :slight_smile:

The Roland FP80 Documentation disagrees with you some. There is no way for you to hear the audio from a Dorico vst on that model of Roland. Not unless you plug an audio cable into that mic input. It doesn’t have an audio driver that you could somehow select over USB that Dorico could use for output.

Just trying to get you a solution.. Something is off here…

I’m not meaning to beat a dead horse. It just means that midi - not audio - was once going from Dorico to the Roland. We can make happen, but you would be replacing a vst with an external midi instrument in your project.

11

Okay, but you always use the Built-in Audio device for sound output of Dorico, that’s what the logs tell me. So with this constellation the Dorico sound will never reach your FP80. So something must be somehow wrong with your perception as to what sound comes from where.

What if you create a test project without a piano, let’s say with just flute and a violin. Are you able to hear that playing back via your FP80?

12

Still hoping to earn a biscuit then. :slight_smile:

The Roland FP80 Documentation disagrees with you some. There is no way for you to hear the audio from a Dorico vst on that model of Roland. Not unless you plug an audio cable into that mic input. It doesn’t have an audio driver that you could somehow select over USB that Dorico could use for output.

Just trying to get you a solution.. Something is off here…

I’m not meaning to beat a dead horse. It just means that midi - not audio - was once going from Dorico to the Roland. We can make happen, but you would be replacing a vst with an external midi instrument in your project.

~~~~~~~~~

Please tolerate the ‘legnthiness’ of the following, as I am only trying to walk you through my process, with as much precision as I find possible.

I so appreciate your attention, and I seek to be very clear. I am new at the piano-midi audio Dorico vst ‘thingmebob’, but I am telling you what’s really happening, and has been so, since I started working in Dorico August 2024.

=> I never work in Dorico, while listening to its playback through headphones, plugged into the back of the iMac.

=> However, have always had an extension cord (mini plug) plugged into the iMac headphone port, just in case I would want to, for listening to Dorico tutorials.

=> my external headphones were always plugged into the mini piano keyboard, which would allow me to listen to my own playing, plus any score playback I submitted in Dorico

=> I choose not to use midi piano key note input at all. My technique is imprecise for realtime input. I would figure what I wanted to input, and always use mouse to Score in Dorico (far superior to a pencil and eraser).

=> The following describes exactly my process:

• notate in Dorico and playback to audition it

• The Dorico library of selected VST instruments/voices would play through my piano midi headphones (typically SATB voices, seleted as individual instruments, ie. Voice Soprano, Voice Alto, Voice Tenor, Voice Baritone, as well as Keyboard Piano, and Upright Bass (even with a jack resident in the iMac external headphone jack).

=> To turn on the Playback of scored notation, I would click on a note, and then press ‘p’ and all the selected VST ‘instruments’ would sound through the headphones plugged into the Roland FP 80 external Headphones, whether or not the midi piano’s sliding volume was set to 0 or high. Volume control would only be through the iMac Volume icon positioned on top banner of the screen.

~~~~~~~~~~

nb * To check midi ‘functioning’, I have now downloaded to my iMac, MidiView (Midi Monitor).

The following is a test with Step by Step outline, I just carried out, in response to your last email (to assist you in your analysis, perhaps):

1a) Cold Boot up of iMac

1b) Turn On Roland midi Piano, run MidiView app, to confirm midi is recognized by iMac

1c) Turn Off the Roland midi piano and disconnect from a) the FP 80 and b) from the iMac cable plugs (each end)

  1. Confirm through MidiView that the midi piano is no longer mapped into iMac

  2. Open Dorico software

  3. In Dorico Preferences:

Confirm Roland FP 80 no longer Displays in Preferences/Play/Midi Input Devices, and

Confirm in Preferences/Play/ Recording that the folliwing options are no longer selected: (enable midi input) (enable midi thru) (Filter out Midi Controllers) and click Apply and Close

5a) Shut Down the Dorico Software

5b) Shut Down the iMac

5c) Cold Boot iMac

5d) Reopen Dorico Software

5e) From top Banner :

Help/Create Dagnostic Report and submit and write time reported in iMac Desktop of report completion (11:37 am Sep 7)

5f) Shut Down Dorico Software

5g) Shut down iMac

  1. With Midi ‘off’, reconnect Roland midi piano to the iMac

  2. Turn on Roland midi keyboard and confirm with headphones in midi jack that midi keyboard piano sound occurs, and leave volume on ‘low’

8a) Cold boot iMac

8b) Run MidiView app to confirm midi is recognized by iMac

8c) l Boot up Dorico

9a) In Dorico Preferences/Play/Midi Input Devices/, ensure that the Roland midi is listed, as well as the new app MidiView

9b) add checks to midi Recording selections

and click ApplyClose

9c) confirm via iMac banner icon Sound, that External Headphones has been selected

9d) observe that a jack with no headphones is still resident in the iMac external headphones port

9d) Submit once again via Dorico banner Help / and confirm date and time of .zip file on the Desktop (12:03 Sep 7)

  1. Create a New Project:

- Create New / Empty/ Change Key Signature/ Create Project/ Add Single Player/

   Woodwind/Instrument/ Flute

Dorico Banner/Setup/

   New Single Player/Singers/Soprano/Add

   New Single Player/Singers/Alto/Add

   New Single Player/Singers/Tenor/Add

   New Single Player/Singers/Baritone/Add

   New Single Player/Keyboard/Piano/Add

   New Single Player/Singers/Strings/

           Upright Bass/Add

* I have never used external vst instruments

Save as ‘Sep7 Midi Headphones Test’

Mouse Notate on score a few bars

  1. Wearing headphones plugged into the midi piano, and setting the midi piano volume to 2/3 on, with jack in the iMac External Speaker port, submit Playback of the new score.

12a) Confirm:

 => if you hear output from the Dorico score

        => no output audible AT ALL on midi headphones

        => Output ONLY audible through iMac External Headphones 

        => nb : with External Headphone Jack resident inMac port, and Device Control selection       

              changed to External Speakers, Output is audible through the Speakers and not thru keyboard headphones and also not audible via iMac External Headphones (note that a Jack had continually been resident un the iMac headphones port

Please note that I can only map to headphones if a Jack is resident in the iMac port. That’s exactly why I can tell you that the Dorico Playback used to come through the midi keyboard headphone jack.

12b) Create another Create Dorico Diagnostics with date and time for zip fole on Desktop ( Sep 7 1:03 pm )

I am attaching only the final "Diagnostic zip file because the process overwrites the previous zip file.

And the Dorico Score file.

Main issue is the Dorico playback no longer is audible, in any way, through the midi piano keyboard headset port.

I am sincerely attempting to save you time, but I apologize for the run on details. I also wanted them for my retention.

It used to work, i.e. Dorico playback through my Midi Piano External Headphones.

Michael

Sep 7 Midi Headphonres Test.dorico (828.4 KB)

Dorico Diagnostics.zip (747.4 KB)
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It appears one can connect an audio source to the FP-80 and play audio through the FP-80’s amplifier. That is not the same as feeding MIDI into your machine. If you can no longer hear Dorico sounds through your FP-80, you should investigate the audio cabling rather than MIDI. This appears to be an FP-80 interface problem, not a Dorico problem.

14

Dumb question - sparked by your comments of hearing while the volume on your keyboard had no effect- you don’t happen to have headphones that are also wireless/Bluetooth do you?

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I value your questions.

The FP80 whichbI have is not wireless (no bluetooth headphone connectivity.

Michael

16

I wonder now if I could feed the iMac headphone output directly into the Roland FP80 so that I could hear the Dorico playback through the midi piano headphones??

hmmm

17

would it be better to use midi in and midi out 5 pin cables? or is that config irrelevant to my problem?

M

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I suspect that the MIDI five-pin sockets mirror the USB connection.

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I was wondering more if the Mac could be sending audio by Bluetooth to the headphones, not the Roland - just wondering

20

Yes, you could do that.

I also had a look at the demo project that you posted earlier, and indeed, during playback Dorico sends MIDI only to the internal HALion Sonic VST, so the piano does not come from your FP80.