Sibelius 7 Sounds Playback Issues.

[Ryu867]

Hello,

  I am having problems with the Sibelius 7 Sounds template.  When I open the template and load the instruments, not all the instruments playback.  Not only that, but if there are multiple staves of the same instrument, sometimes one will load while the other won't.  Another issue, is that not all the notes will play back, sometimes it's an articulation marking, and sometimes it's just a certain note on the staff.  It is seemingly random and unpredictable.  I merged the template with the VDL2 template for Sibelius 7 following the instructions in the readme, and am not sure if I caused the problems along the way.

Thank you so much for the help!

- Josh

I am using.....
Macbook Pro OS X 10.8.4
Sibelius 7.1.3
Virtual Drumline 2.5.5.
The Write Score VDL Sibelius Template 7.0a
The Write Score S7S Sibelius Template 7.1a
Kontakt 5

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Josh

Hmm, I'm going to need to look at the file, can you send it to me? (Sent you a PM.)

Please attach a screen shot of your Playback Configuration.

Hugh

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Josh, got your email.

There are a couple things that you'll want to change in your Playback Configuration:

1) Swap out the "VST" instances of Kontakt Player and replace them with the "AU" versions. (Recommended for Mac.)
2) For the KP5 instances of VDL, use "VDL SoundSet 7.0a" instead of "Virtual Drumline 2.5".
3) The Sibelius Player instance needs to use "S7S SoundSet 7.1a" instead of "Sibelius 7 Sounds".

That should clear up most, if not all, of the issues you're having.

I'll get to the .sib file later today to see if the template merge process went OK (and check playback).

Hugh

[Ryu867]

Hi Hugh,

Ok so I switched out the VST with AU options as recommended.  However "VDL SoundSet 7.0a" and S7S SoundSet 7.1a" don't appear in the pulldown menu.  I have attached the screenshot to this message.

I realized that the folder locations are in a slightly different spot.  Instead of the Library/etc.... folders being in my personal user file, they are in a shared folder on my hard drive.  The computer came set up that way so I didn't change it, is that a potential source of the issues?  Thanks again! 

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Josh

Sibelius' user's folder on Mac is at: "/Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Avid/Sibelius 7". By default this "~Library" folder is hidden. In finder, navigate to Go, hold down the Option key, click on Library, proceed.

The final path for sound set placement: "/Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Avid/Sibelius 7/Sounds

Let me know how you get on.

Hugh

[Ryu867]

AHA!!!!! There it goes! Thank you so much! This new operating system has kinda thrown me for a loop.  Thank you so much again for all your help.  I love the work you've done with the templates, and you have been so helpful.  Thanks again!!

- Josh

[Hugh Smith]

Excellent! Glad to hear you got it going.

(Oh, and I still need to look at the sib file you sent me.)

[Ryu867]

Ok, I may have gotten a little too excited.  Everything plays back except the trombone line.  Sorry to be buzz killington :-/

[Hugh Smith]

OK, finally got through the sib file.

I'm not sure what's causing either of the trombone lines to not play, both played fine for me. ... I do see a couple of other things though.

Both the Baritone Saxophone and Baritone Horn staves are not from the S7S Ensemble of instruments - note that some notes are displaying "out of range". They're also not loading the right patches because of it. To fix, add the appropriate staves to the score, copy/paste the content, then delete the old staff.

I also went into the Dictionary and removed the sound ID change for the staccato. This is optional, but I thought it sounded much better when Sibelius was not playing the actual staccato samples from the S7S library.

It may just be that you're not done writing in that file, but the suspended cymbal rolls' noteheads are triggering the short cresc sound. Again, probably just not done yet.

Other than that, it appears your merging of templates went fine, I don't see anything that sticks out to me.

Oh, I did just see that your SnareLine Manuel has a few errant note entries in the mapping (it's not because of a glitch in the merging process). To fix, go to Home > Instruments > Edit Instruments > - VDL Template 7.0a > Drumline Battery > SnareLine Manuel, click Edit Instrument, click Edit Staff Type. Delete the entries as I've marked them in the attached image (all 4 will be assigned to F#1).

Hugh

[Ryu867]

Hi Hugh,

I changed the Baritone Sax to S7S Jazz Baritone Sax instrument and also changed the Baritone Horn to the S7S Marching Euphonium instrument.  I also deleted the excess notes in the SnareLine mapping (not sure how those got there haha).

I'm kind of at a loss for what to do about the playback issues.  The Trombones and Marching Euphoniums don't sound at all.  Now the tuba doesn't playback and various articulations aren't sounding on a variety of instruments.  Could this be an issue with an audio engine setting?  Or is there another setting I should check to try and troubleshoot? 

Thanks for all your help, I'm sorry this is such a hassle!

[Hugh Smith]

Sibelius added those in a purposefully-programmed attempt to help you out. I think they do more harm than good.

Send me the file that you've made those changes to and I'll have another look.

Hugh


Oh, did you edit the Dictionary at all?

[Ryu867]

Sent you the Sibelius file.  I went in and took a look at the dictionary, but then realized I didn't know what exactly I was looking to change it to haha.  What would I be changing that setting to?

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Josh

To remove articulation sound IDs (file specific), go to Play > Interpretation > Dictionary. Select the Articulations tab, then whichever articulation you want to alter. The attached images show the Staccato and Accent. Removing either of these sound IDs is optional, but depending on the file you're working in, you may find removing one, both, or the other sounds better. This applies to the other articulations also. (You may or may not know/remember, Sibelius added these IDs - can't recall the entire list at the moment - in Sib 7 to account for the S7S library's actual samples for these sounds - at least for the ones that have samples for those sounds.)

In the new file you sent me, the only thing that didn't play back for me was the Jazz Baritone Sax in the first two bars of B. Once I removed the Staccato articulation sound ID, they played as expected. (Even though they didn't play before the ID was removed, they did trigger properly, indicating the patch associated to that sound doesn't have that in the lower part of the patch's range - which seems to be the case here. I want to say I've previously told Sibelius about this programming inconsistency, but don't remember for sure.)

Since I'm not having the same issues you are with the other staves playing back, I'm not exactly sure how to proceed. Are you using the latest version of the Sibelius 7 Sounds library? It is 7.1.2. One thing you can do is go grab that update's installer and run it again - it won't hurt to overwrite what you have even if it's already been applied. Another thing you may want to consider is re-installing the entire S7S library. What is the exact number of bytes of that directory where it's installed?

[Ryu867]

Hi Hugh,

Sorry for the delayed response, you know how it can be with beginning of the school year with band camps and such.  So I implemented your changes and it looks like everything is working great now! I haven't come across any playback issues since making the changes, but of course you'll probably hear from me again if I do hahaha.  Thank you SO much for all your help with these issues, you have been a tremendous help.  I do have one (unrelated) question though.  I'm collaborating with someone who uses Finale, and when I transfer their stuff from an XML and load it into my template, the octaves don't end up in the same place (bells and piccolo for example)  why is that exactly?

[Hugh Smith]

Excellent, Josh! Glad you got stuff figured out.

Instead of continuing here, please start a new topic for new/unrelated questions.