I occasionally compose marching band front ensemble parts where mallet players are required to simultaneously strike a cymbal with one hand and a pitched bar on the mallet instrument with the other hand. In previous versions of VDL templates (say 6.0a or 6.0b) I'm pretty sure this worked with less necessary complications than it does with the current 7.0a template. Let me explain:
In 6.0a/b, if I recall correctly I would input the mallet pitch as normal, which is Notehead 0. Then I would add another note above that one the same beat, change this note to Notehead 1 for proper notation, and move it to the desired location on the staff. I'm pretty sure that Notehead 1 notes didn't play back in template 6.0a/b. I would then add a hidden staff in the score and input the cymbal strike in that staff. That gives me proper mallet/cymbal playback.
With Template 7.0a, Notehead 1 notes in mallets instruments are playing back as if they were Notehead 0. Obviously this creates ugly noises if one of those notes is actually supposed to be a cymbal hit. So, to work around that issue I have to enter a Notehead 1 note in layer 2, uncheck play-on-pass, use Sibelius' adjustment of X-position to get the notehead where I want it (so the stems line up between Layers 1 and 2) and then extent the stem of one of the notes so it looks like a typical double-stop notation with the appropriate stem length.
All of this work (OK, I'm exaggerating, but it is a minor annoyance) is necessary because Notehead 1 notes are playing back on mallet instrument staves. Am I going crazy, or was this behavior different in Templates 6.0a and 6.0b?