Quote from: houstony97 on June 13, 2013, 06:36:23 PM
Thanks for replying!
Now the rolls are getting louder, but only to a certain point. The roll will increase in volume from p to maybe mp/mf, and then stay that volume for the rest of the time, then jump back up the dynamic. I made sure to follow the percentages the plug-in gave. The attached screenshot show the volume. The red line shows when the crescendo hits its constant "mp/mf" volume and stays there. Then it will just jump up. If you can help, I would really appreciate it!
The trick to making the cresc/descresc plugin work is to
tell Sibelius to start the crescendo at the maximum dynamic. So, in your case, you need to tell Sibelius to start the roll at "fff" and end at "fff". The reason for this is that the cresc/descresc plugin controls the
volume of the sampled roll (like moving the slider in the Mixer window), while the dynamic marking controls the velocity. To get the notation to look correct to a player, you can use a hidden marking; in this case the starting dynamic would be entered as "p~fff". As a rule, Sibelius automatically hides the tilde and anything after it, but always follows the last marking. For example, if you enter expression text of "f~mf~fff~p~mp", Sibelius will play back at a dynamic of mp.
Here are my steps for using the cresc/descresc plugin with sampled, fixed dynamics rolls so that they sound like crescendo rolls. This is useful for any VDL instrument with a sampled, fixed-dynamic roll (timpani, mallets, concert bass drum, tam-tam, marching snare/tenor buzzes, etc.).
1. Enter the desired rolled and unrolled notes.
2. At the beginning of the roll, enter expression text for the desired notation starting dynamic, followed by a tilde, followed by the ending dynamic.
3. At the release of the roll, enter expression text for the desired ending dynamic.
4. Enter the hairpin for the crescendo.
5. Select the measures in which you want to apply the effects of the plugin.
6. Run the cresc/descresc plugin.
7. Choose an appropriate starting level. The plugin uses percentages from 0 to 100, but you are really controlling a parameter (volume) that has 128 possible values (0 through 127). I find that somewhere between 40 and 50 works well. Keep in mind that the plugin only detects hairpins and disregards any dynamic markings before, during, or after the hairpins.
8. Enter an ending level of 78. This 78% is equal to 78% of 127, or about 99 out of 127.
9. Select the volume radio button.
10. I like to place the text above the staff, but this is a matter of personal preference.
11. Press OK. You now have a roll that crescendos from 40-50% of its maximum volume to 78% of its maximum volume (the default volume).
12. Play back the staff and listen to the crescendo. If you don't like it, undo and try a different starting value. If you like it, move on to step 13.
13. On the release note of the roll, add text "~C7,100". This ensures that volume is restored to the normal position at the end of the roll.
14. Go to the beginning of the score and add text "~C7,100" at the beginning of the staff you are working on. This enures that playback will always start at the correct volume when starting from the beginning of the score.
If the staff you are working on happens to have a volume marking than is not 100, then you will want to adjust the ending value for the plugin accordingly. The formula is [ending plugin value] = [normal staff volume]/127. The idea is that crescendos always start below the normal volume and arrive at the normal volume.