Hello all and especially Jim Casella!

Jim, I spoke to you several month ago when I purchased Virtual Drumline. If you recall, our drum group asked you permission to play "Spice Mon" to our followers. Thanks again!

The question I have has more than likely been asked before, but hopefully there may be more on the subject presently.

I think I know the answer to this question already, but here goes...

Does anyone know or have used a MIDI Drum Pad (sticks on pad) controller in Sibelius 2.0 > that can correctly score flams, grace notes, etc., in real time that normally would require slow single mouse clicks to capture? I can create the drum line notes just fine manually, but it would be so much greater to have an input device working together with VDL and Sibelius, that could score these notes (or at least get close) when certain ideas hit my head.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW Jim, we (The Mason Dixon Drum Ensemble) of Maryland will be playing and giving you due credit for the "Spice Mon" piece this coming spring, at our indoors shows.

Best Regards! --Bill--

Bill,
Hi there - thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad to hear "spice mon" is working out.

As far as entering notes via a drum trigger, I think your results will be bad. I don't think sibelius (or finale for that matter) has the capability of discerning grace notes. It'll also interpret diddles as actual beamed rhythms, so your output will most likely be quite ugly. Drumline music is such that the details can't be accurately achieved unless you take the time to enter those details, and your intent, manally.

The other drawback to using a pad in trying to access Virtual Drumline sounds is that you won't have enough pads or surfaces to access each of the VDL sounds. On the snare instrument for example, there are several midi pitches mapped, with each pitch creating a different snare sound. Unless you have a lot of trigger pads to assign to these midi notes, you'll have limited access to the sounds.

It's a nice idea to be able to do this, but I don't think technology has quite caught up to the concept yet. At least not that I know of...

All the best to you and Mason Dixon!
jim

Hello Jim!

I appreciate your speedy reply!

Yes, you sort of confirmed what I feared was already the case. I guess I can't complain too much because, with the great help of VDL and Sibelius, I am able to do quite a bit more than I use to scoring the old hand written note way.

It sure would be nice though to have a WYPIWYG "What you play is what you get) concept.

Again, Jim, best of luck to you and Tap Space for such a great product and "active" forum!

--Bill--

You're very welcome Bill. Thanks to the growing number of Virtual Drumline users, this forum is becoming a great place for extra help and ideas. I'm off to Europe for the week to do some clinics, so I won't be around for a bit.

all the best,
jim