Two quick issues I'm seeing.

Some instruments (like the 20"; constantinope) seem to decay as I'd expect a cymbal to.  If I notate a quarter note with a tie as a l.v., it decays naturally.  Some other cymbal attacks, (including gong strikes) are a little more unpredicatble. Sometimes they stop right on beat 2 if notated w/ a quarter note.  What is the proper way to notate this/set it in KTKT2 so that the cymbal decays are natural?

Also, I attached a program change (~p2) to a note in a multi instrument and it changed the instrument properly, but it also changed the other multi-instruments (I have 4 total in this score).  The channels are different, so I'm not sure how those channels are getting that midi message.  Any ideas?

Decay - it's always a good practice to notate as close as possible to the actual length you want to hear. If you want to hear a tam tam sustain, it's not a bad idea to actually write it as a whole note, even perhaps tie it to another whole note to give it a longer ";note on"; time. When you write it as a quarter note, the ";note off"; message gets sent immediately, and then you're stuck with however short (or long) a particular instrument will fade out after the note off.

Be careful in using ties to notate ";L.V"; (let vibrate) notation. If a tie isn't connected to anything, essentially you are creating an everlasting note-on, with no release. This can cause problems if you later want to re-trigger that sound.

I've found it works pretty well to write parts that need some natural decay, simply with half notes (i.e. the release of a sus cym swell...release into a half note) or whole notes. With other things going on in the ensemble, even if the decay occurs a bit more quickly than completely natural, the right sound is still achieved. If you still want the ";visual"; of the ";let ring"; tie type symbol, I'd suggest either using a slur marking, or simply using a symbol (neither will affect note duration like a tie will).

About your program change problem, I'm not sure I'm completely following you on that one. Are you saying that you have different instruments in K2 that are receiving program change information from a different channel? That doesn't seem to make sense, so I think I'm missing something there. The channels are different in Sibelius as well as in K2?

Thanks Jim, that all makes sense.  The Sibelius manual mentions using an actual tie for laissez vibrer effects but I can see where that could cause problems on the sampling side.

Yeah the program change problem is strange.  I'll try to explain it a little better.

I have 4 multi instruments set up in the following and created by the Load/Save ";New Multiple Instrument"; command:

1: Bd/Tam Tam combo, metal shaker, 9"; grover triangle
2: 20"; constantinople, guiro, ribbon crashers
3: Rack combo, brake drums
4: Latin combo, orchestral tambourine

In the piece, percussion 1 switches from bd/tam tam to shaker, and I sent a ~p2 message on the first note that switch occurs.  I noticed that my conga rhythm dropped out, so when I brought up Kontakt 2 to investigate I noticed that in addition to perc 1 changing, perc 4 (latin combo) had switched to a tambourine as well.  In fact all of the multi instruments seemed to be switching programs in reaction to percussion 1's change.

The program changes are only in perc. 1, and all of the instruments are on different channels (6-9) so I'm kinda stumped as to why it's doing this.

I am having a similar problem with regards to all staves reacting to a program change made for one staff.  I've tried altering the positioning, but every time a program change is run (using the standard ~p#), no dice.

I'm using the most recent update of Kontakt and Sibelius 4, so I should be up to date as far as I know.

Justin, did you ever figure out what the deal was in your case?

Hmm. That's wierd. I'm sure you've probably checked this already, but take a second to double-check that NO instruments (banks) in Kontakt are set to ";omni"; for their midi-in channel. While you're checking channels, for good measure, double check that your staves in Sibelius (mixer) are properly set to the correct channels. If, by chance, you've done a ";reset sounds"; in Sibelius (again, in the mixer), it probably reset your Sibelius channels. Though I'm sure you would have noticed that immediately without the program change issue.

Just to be sure, try sending an ";All notes off"; message from Sibelius (in the play menu) to ensure there's not some sort of midi data clogged up.

If all the above checks out, you might want to try changing your virtual midi cable to a different bus. For example, if you're using MIDI Yoke, set everything to MIDI Yoke NT 2 (instead of NT 1), or Apple IAC Bus 2 (instead of bus 1). If that fixes your problem, it may be something glitchy in the virtual midi cable. Perhaps, try de-activating it, then re-activating it.

So, the fix was about as simple as it gets... check to make sure that the most recent release of Kontakt is being used :-)

And now I go sit in the corner... Thanks for the help, Jim.