If you wish to run BP2 under OMS, first launch the OMS Setup utility and make sure that the required output runs fine. When you setup OMS the external MIDI device(s) must be plugged to the Mac and switched on, so that OMS will sense them automatically and create the appropriate studio setup document accordingly. Needless to say, the MIDI interface should also be powered on.

If the IAC Driver used for Inter-Application Communication is not displayed on the document, you should include it. For this, quit OMS Setup and run the customized installation of OMS.

The studio document should also display the QuickTime Music icon. If the icon is crossed, double-click it and check the box of QuickTime Music. Clicking the icon also allows you to set the pitchbend range to 2 semitones, the value used in examples of this document.

If a MIDI device (keyboard, synth...) is connected to the MIDI interface attached to a serial port, the icon of the port ('modem' or 'printer') should be dispayed along with a line connecting it to the icon representing the device.

Type cmd-T (command-T) to activate "Test studio" and click the icons of QuickTime Music and other output devices. You should hear chords sent by OMS to these devices. Playing a MIDI keyboard should similarly produce a visual effect on the studio document.

If there is no communication, select " OMS MIDI setup" in the "Edit" menu to select the proper serial port.

In OMS MIDI setup you shoud also check "Run MIDI in background" as BP2 may be used as a server.

When done with all this, save the studio document and quit OMS Setup.

Users of MIDIshare should make sure that messages are routed via OMS. BP2 does not recognise MIDIshare and will communicate with it only via OMS.

If you try BP2 to use OMS while OMS is not active on your system, you will get an explicit error message and BP2 will switch to its own built-in driver, which has limited features.

At startup, BP2 reads information about the default OMS input and output stored in the "-se.startup" file. This file is supplied by default with the setting of QuickTime Music as the output, and no input.

Double-click BP2.9.3 (68k) or BP2.9.3 (ppc), depending on the type of computer you are using. In the welcome alert, click "Data", then click the button "Check MIDI" on the Control panel, and take the option "Check output." A dialog with 16 buttons resembling a calculator is displayed. Click button '1' to play random music on channel 1.

You may not hear anything at all. No panic! Try the following procedures:

• If BP2 displayed a message telling that it failed to sign in with OMS, you must install and activate OMS, unless you wish to use the in-built MIDI driver. If BP2 did not complain about anything, it means that the MIDI interface, the synthesizer and/or the amplifier are wrongly connected, not powered, communicating via the wrong MIDI channel, or set to volume zero... Some MIDI interfaces such as Opcode MIDI Translator II have input/output lights that keep flashing when data is transmitted. This helps tremendously.

By the way, don't forget to check the volume pedal on the synthesizer! I have spent hours finding it...

• OMS may be installed and yet inactive because the "OMS" extension or the "OMS Preferred Device" (plus perhaps more extensions and control panels in future versions of OMS) are inactive. Check this in the "Extension Manager" control panel and restart your Mac.

• If OMS is active you won't get any warning at startup and OMS items will become active (displayed in black) in the "Devices" menu. Select "OMS input-output" and pull down the output menu to activate "QuickTime Music". If you have gone this far it generally works.

• If OMS is active but you cannot find "QuickTime Music" in the output list, select "OMS Studio setup". If "QuickTime Music" appears crossed out on the studio document, double-click it and switch in on.

• If you expected BP2 to play sounds on an external MIDI device, and OMS is active, select "OMS input-output" and check the name of your MIDI device. If it is not in the list, run "OMS Studio setup". If you still don't hear it, run "OMS MIDI setup" to select 'modem' or 'printer'. This may require entirely switching off the MIDI interface, the synth and the Mac, including disconnecting the power supply from a PowerBook... because the serial port, the interface or the input of the synthesizer might be stuck.

• If OMS is not active, you are using the in-built MIDI driver. All you need is to check either 'modem' or 'printer' in the "Devices" menu, assuming, on certain Macs, that you run IRTalk or EtherTalk instead of LocalTalk. (See the "AppleTalk" or "Network" control panel.) Remember, this will not work on some old PowerBooks such as the PB 150, which cannot communicate with MIDI unless OMS is installed.

• If OMS is active and BP2 runs in background, for example you launch it from a FileMaker Pro database such as "TryAppleEvents.fm", you will not hear any sound unless "Run MIDI in background" is checked on the "OMS MIDI setup" panel that is accessible from the "Devices" menu. Since it is an application-independent setup this option will remain set until you decide to change it.

Once you have performed changes in the "OMS input-output" menus, these may not work immediately. In any case you should store these changes to the default settings file. Select " Modify '-se.startup'" in the "File" menu. BP2 remembers where it found the startup settings file and will replace it with the updated one. If communication is not working, quit and restart BP2.

If the MIDI output is still dumb... There are bad days like this, notably when a group of enthusiasts or a person you invited for a candle dinner is sitting around waiting for a demo! Check cables, power supplies, amplifiers, speakers and the synthesiser's MIDI set-up until you hear sounds. (Maybe your device is not receiving on the proper MIDI channel? Check the channel number, set OMNI ON, or else, just call your little brother who knows all about such things...) Et voilà !

Don't invite your 'windoze' neighbour over a show until you can manage to make sounds. Otherwise s/he'll feel like saying something silly, for instance "my SoundBlaster card works better!"...