VDL bass guitar instrument set up

[gbass598]

I've noticed some differences between the Virtual Drumline instrument set up versus the bass guitar as part of the sound essentials within Sibelius in regards to the range of the instrument as well as the transposition of the instrument.

I believe that the VDL bass guitar is transposing the notes too low and the range may not be correct based on copying and pasting the same music into a staff for each.

Which is correct? Should I edit the VDL bass guitar to mirror the same settings of the sound essentials bass?

[Bill]

I usually move everything up an octave for the bass parts and it works fine.  That is, if I'm copying something from a non VDL score.

[Joe]

My impression from talking to bass players is that the VDL notation is expected (i.e. everything is written up an octave). To caveats:
1. These are high school bass players and could easily be wrong. But I don't play bass so how would I know?
2. The octave-too-low bass parts I need to move up an octave for the VDL bass are coming from .xml imports originating as Finale files, so that could be throwing things off.

[gbass598]

I think that could be part of the issue. I'm typically importing this music from a finale xml files from the band director I work for. I'll double check with my bass player at rehearsal tonight. I typically try to provide both a music score and a tab score and he is the one that told me it was a bit off originally. I probably won't bother to provide the tab this year since he doesn't need it. I just want to make sure what is displaying on the page is transposed correctly. I just has seemed that the VDL bass guitar  appeared a bit low on the staff when I pasted it in there.

[TBoliske]

The E below the bass clef staff is the lowest written note for bass guitar. An acoustic bass may have a low C extension, but only the acoustic. Just transpose parts to work within that structure.

[Hugh Smith]

The current default setting for the Transposition was a general consensus request from about 3 or so years ago.

If you need to have it display differently, you can easily make the adjustment by going to House Styles > Edit Instruments, find and select the Bass Guitar within the VDL Template 6.0b Ensemble > Timpani, Rhythm & Steel Family > Bass Guitar, then click the Edit Instrument button.

From there, adjust the octave(s) in the Transposition area to suit your preferences. (See attached image.)

[Joe]

The E below the bass clef staff is the lowest written note for bass guitar. An acoustic bass may have a low C extension, but only the acoustic. Just transpose parts to work within that structure.

Thanks; I'm glad to hear this from a professional. This is for a 4-strings bass, right? I think the VDL bass goes lower before it indicates out-of-range. I always change this in my scores because my students have 4-string basses and I don't want to write notes lower than E (or D if we use drop-D tuning).