Classic & MIDI: Coda Responds

OS X MIDI with Classic is possible.

This article is a follow-up to my article OS X Music and Audio: When will it be Ready to Rock?. Coda Technology, makers of the music notation programFinale, has responded to clarify MIDI compatibilityissues.

OS X MIDI with Classic is possible.

This article is a follow-up to my article OS X Music and Audio: When will it be Ready to Rock?. Coda Technology, makers of the music notation programFinale, has responded to clarify MIDI compatibilityissues.

I’ve just finished reading your article, and wouldlike to clarify somethings regarding Finale and MIDI.

First of all, our statement that MIDI drivers shouldbe compatible with OSXmay be a bit ambiguous. The MIDI Drivers should ofcourse be compatible withClassic mode (and thus run alongside Finale).

Second, Finale does run WITH MIDI under Classic mode(at least for me) usingFreeMIDI. Here’s my system:

- iMac DV 400 w/320MB RAM
- Keyspan USB Twin Serial Adapter (driver version 1.8for OS 9.1, not thebeta OSX drivers)
- FreeMIDI 1.46 (1.45 worked as well).
- MIDI Interface (happens to be a Time Piece II)

I installed OSX over a fresh OS 9.1 partition on theiMac, then installedFinale and FreeMIDI from an OS 9.1 boot (not Classic).Here I also set upFreeMIDI to see the Keyspan emulated Printer port, andadded my devices. ACheck Configuration showed the instruments responding.Next, I booted to OSXand started Classic Mode. I again started FreeMIDI andchecked connectionsto find them still responding. From here it was simplya matter of choosingFreeMIDI as the Finale MIDI Driver and setting theinput/output devices asdesired.

I’ve yet to try a USB MIDI Interface (unfortunately,none of the USB MIDIinterfaces I’ve got laying around here supportFreeMIDI, and OMS justdoesn’t seem to work in this equation), but I see noreason why thatwouldn’t work.

Hope this is helpful information for you.

Ryan Demlow
Quality Assurance Representative
Coda Music Technology

This certainly makes Finale the only MIDI applicationI can think of that is successful running under OS X.Other MIDI applications I have tested refuse to loadat all. Of course, we can certainly expect thesituation to improve in coming months.

One note to Ryan’s response: there is little MIDIdriver support for OS X from 3rd party vendors, butMidiman has released OS Xdrivers for their Midisport line of interfaces.I’d be interested to hear how a Midisport / Finale /OS X combination works for anyone who has it.

If any of you would like to report on your successstories with MIDI and audio under classic, drop me a line!