Tuba patch issue

[Mr_Bowe]

I'm attempting to transcribe a marching band score in order to compose its percussion parts using VDL2, so I started a new document with the VDL Template 7.0, and added flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet 1, trumpet 2, horn, trombone, baritone, and tuba from the "band instruments" selection in Sibelius 7. All of the horn parts played back, but the tuba and baritone did not (because they used the same patch: Bb Tuba) until the & of 3 of their first full measure; tapping the notes with the cursor or using the directional keys didn't result in playback either...until the & of 3. I also observed that when I removed the articulations (an accent on the half note covering beats 1 and 2, and a staccato on the eighth note that fell on beat 3) the notes played back fine. However, the note on the & of 3 had a tenuto, but it played back regardless! And of course every note after that played back fine. (see attachment)

I also made a few observations:

1) If I change the playback configuration from the one I normally use for VDL (one instance Kontakt, one instance Sibelius Essentials) to Sibelius 7 Sounds, the tuba and baritone do not play back at all. However, if I save the changes, quit Sibelius, and then re-open the program and score, all instruments, including the tuba and baritone, play back perfectly.

2) If I change the playback configuration BACK to the one I normally use for VDL, it now does not play back the tuba and baritone at all, articulations or not. However, Sibelius' mixer does pick them both up in the equalizer for some reason.

3) A few times throughout this process, Sibelius has abruptly crashed.

This is a very confusing, irregular issue, any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Justin

1), 2)  Sounds like you may have some bugginess with your playback configurations. The only way I know of to "fix" it is to go into your Sibelius users folder and delete everything that's there. Delete the last directory of this path (Mac): /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Avid/Sibelius 7/Playback Configurations. Don't worry, once you start Sibelius again, it will recreate the folder. From there you'll need to rebuild your configurations.

3) You'll have to contact Sibelius about that. Though, I suppose the above could be causing it.


Let me know how you get on.

[Mr_Bowe]

It was a noble effort, but it didn't seem to work...I went in and deleted the "Playback Configurations" folder and went into Sibelius and rebuilt my Virtual Drumline playback configuration, then opened the file and nothing had changed: the tuba patch still doesn't play unless I switch to the Sibelius 7 Sounds configuration, save, quit, and re-open the program and file.

[Hugh Smith]

I can't remember if you said already, but does it still do this in a new, fresh copy of the template?

[Mr_Bowe]

Yes, and it is the newest Sibelius VDL template.

[Hugh Smith]

Does it do it when you start a new score from one of the Sibelius default manuscript papers?

[Mr_Bowe]

I tried it with Sibelius' "Blank" manuscript paper, and the same thing happened that I outlined in the diagram in the first post...the tuba/baritone don't start playing back until the & of 3 of their first measure.

[Hugh Smith]

That's definitely weird.

An idea I just had was to place some notes into bar one of that staff. Before or after you've entered them, place 'em into layer 2 and hide 'em (or leave them in layer 1 and use layer 2 to show the rest). My thought here is to get Sibelius to not have to mess with articulations and their sound ID changes right at the beginning of the score (first notes that Sib comes to for that staff).

You obviously shouldn't be seeing that buggy behavior to begin with, but if it persists after trying my hack (or any other similar attempts on your part), you'll want to escalate the troubleshooting to Sibelius.

Hugh

[Mr_Bowe]

Thanks for the creative idea. I tried it and had mixed success. It worked with the baritone part, but strangely, not with the tuba part. The baritone part will now play, but it still will not play any notes that have either a staccato or an accent anywhere in the 5 bars I have transcribed. And the tuba part will not play at all. I'm guessing it's time to probably take this to the Sibelius forum?

[Mr_Bowe]

After consulting with Sibelius on the issue, I have discovered that these problems I've been having are probably due to a bug in Sibelius where the Sibelius 7 Sounds are just having trouble working together with Kontakt. For me the problem was just the tuba patch not playing; I guess theoretically it could have been any number of instruments not playing back.

For anyone else who might be following this thread:

Here is the thread on Sibelius forums:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?com=thread&start=601230&groupid=3#601237

Although I'm sure Sibelius will be working to fix this issue in the future, I will share my temporary solution to the problem.
1) Start a new document in Sibelius under the configuration "Sibelius 7 Sounds."
2) Write/arrange/transcribe all your horn parts there, and export an audio file once the whole thing is done.
3) Copy those horn parts into an identical score using your VDL template, using your VDL configuration.
4) Write your percussion parts (You won't be able to hear all the horns, but you'll be able to hear enough to write your parts).
5) Export only the percussion parts as an audio file.
6) Combine both your audio files together using a DAW-type software (I used GarageBand because it's simple, and coverts to MP3).
7) There you have it - a finished product: winds and percussion together.

Although it's not the easiest solution, it will work until Sibelius can fix the bug. Thanks Hugh, for the help in pointing me the right direction!