403: Using an on-screen MIDI keyboard with Sibelius

If you would like to input music into Sibelius using an on-screen MIDI keyboard, there are a number of programs available that you can use alongside Sibelius to achieve this:

• Windows: Bome's Mouse Keyboard (shareware; $20 to register, or send the author a postcard)
• Mac OS X: MidiKeys (freeware)

Read on for instructions for setting these programs up for use with Sibelius.

Using Bome's Mouse Keyboard with Sibelius

You will need a virtual MIDI driver to connect Bome's Mouse Keyboard to Sibelius. There are several possibilities (e.g. MIDI Yoke, Hubi's Loopback, etc.), and if you already have a solution in place, it will work fine with Bome's Mouse Keyboard.

Assuming you don't already have a virtual MIDI driver installed, let's download Marblesound's freeware Maple Virtual MIDI Cable.

Follow the simple installation instructions for Maple, then restart your computer. Then:

• Run Bome's Mouse Keyboard
• From the MIDI Out menu, choose Maple MIDI Out: port 1
• Run Sibelius
• You will probably be told that your MIDI devices have changed; click OK
• In Sibelius's Play > Devices dialog, set the Input Device to Maple MIDI In: port 1
• Try clicking on a few notes on Bome's Mouse Keyboard. The MIDI input indicator in Sibelius's Devices dialog lights up green.
• Click OK in the Devices dialog. That's it!

When you want to use Bome's Mouse Keyboard, simply run it before you run Sibelius, and then you can use it as you would use a normal MIDI keyboard, e.g. for step-time (or even Flexi-time!) input.

If you use Bome's Mouse Keyboard a lot, please register it to support the author's efforts in writing the program!

Using MidiKeys with Sibelius

Midikeys works on any version of Mac OS X later than 10.2 (Jaguar);these instructions assume you're using Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), but in fact the procedure should be identical.

• Download MidiKeys
• To install, drag the MidiKeys application out of the mounted Midikeys volume on your desktop into a folder on your hard disk, e.g. Applications
• Run MidiKeys, and ensure Destination is set to Virtual source
• Run Sibelius
• You will probably be told that your MIDI devices have changed; click OK.
• In Sibelius's Play > Devices dialog, select MidiKeys in the Input Devices control.
• Try clicking a few notes on MidiKey's keyboard. The MIDI input indicator in Sibelius's Devices dialog lights up green.
• Click OK in the Devices dialog. That's it!

When you want to use MidiKeys, simply run it before you run Sibelius, and then you can use it as you would use a normal MIDI keyboard, e.g. for step-time (or even Flexi-time!) input.