Hi,

This is my first experience with any form of VDL and I absolutely love it!!  My question:  How do I access sounds that are below my keyboard's range?  Example:  accessing the metronome clicks in the SnareLine Lite (MW) instrument - they are about four notes below my keyboard.  I've tried transposing the keyboard, but it's not picked up by Sibelius.  Is there a way to do this within Sibelius of VDL?

Thanks!

Beau

P.S.  Bonus points - I'm having a hard time getting an authentic buzz roll - very choppy - any ideas?

Beau,

First, what kind of keyboard are you using?  If you're using one that has the ability to change octaves, you just need to go down and octave and access the sounds.  The Sibelius template will do the rest.  If your keyboard won't go down  or up at all, you can enter in a regular snare hit then move that note down to the bottom staff then press Alt+Shift+52 (or 53).  The notehead will disappear but it should trigger the sound you want.  A piece of advice, make sure the notehead is on the D space below the staff before you change the note head.  If I remember right, I programmed the Metronome accent on the E line (notehead 52) and the unaccented metronome on the D space (notehead 53).  When you press 52 or 53, you'll need to do it quickly.

How are you entering the buzz rolls?  Are you puttin in 4 16th's for example and a buzz on each note?  Some more specifics on that will help greatly.

Bill -

Your trick with the Alt-Shift-52 on line E worked great!  Question:  is there a way to see that mapping?  How do you know it's 52?  Where's the metronome accent then?

As for the keyboard:  I have a Roland EM-10.  I'm using a Midiman Midisport 2x2 to transfer the sounds to MidiYoke and into Sibelius.  I tried manually transposing the keyboard itself, but it doesn't seem to get picked up in Sibelius - even if I transpose C4 to C3, when I hit C4, it still gives me the C4 sound.

Admittedly, I have not tried too much with the buzzes.  Yes, I did 4 16th notes with a buzz, but the mapping must not be correct because Sibelius doesn't pick it up.

Thanks!

Beau

Beau,

The reason I know where all the note head numbers is because I created many of the keymaps for Sibelius.  :)  If you click on House Styles>Edit Staff Types, then click on the percussion radio button a long list of all the percussion mappings will pull up.  The ones that start with VDL:2 are the newest maps.  Click on any one of those and then click on the Edit button to see the map.

WARNING...Unless you know what you're doing, don't try to change the map.  If you accidentally save it, which I did more than once, you may run in to problems fixing it.  For the record, noteheads 52 and 53 (the metronome notes) are actually headless stems.  So, finding them on the map is a challenge to say the least.

4 16th notes buzzed will not sound good.  Imagine if you will playing that part as written with no ties.  Buzz, lift, buzz, lift, buzz, lift, buzz, lift.  Not a pretty sound.  My advice is if you want a buzz and not a crush, enter a longer note (qrtrs on up usually) and you should be fine.  Don't tie the roll to the release as sometimes it won't release.  If you're wanting crushes, those are found on C#/Db and D#/Eb above the regular left and right snare hits.

The mappings find, it's just trial and error.  Might I suggest you pick up a keyboard that allows you to change octaves?  The Keystation 49e is a popular budget minded keyboard.

Bill -

Followup question -

In Sibelius 3, is there any way to use the ";Save as Audio Track"; function with VDL?  It seems that when I try to do this, it saves a blank track (using the VDL template on this web site).  However, if I change the sounds to Kontakt Player's default sounds, it saves fine.

Is there a way to ";sub out"; Kontakt's instruments for VDL so that the ";Save as Audio Track"; function will work with VDL?

Thanks man, you've been a big help!!

Beau

Beau,

The Save as Audio Track feature only works in conjunction with the Kontakt Player that comes with Sibelius.  It will not recognize any other sound sources.

If you're wanting to make recordings, there are a few threads on here already pertaining to that.  However, look in to #1 Sound Recorder or if you want to make your recordings sound the best they can, you will want to look into getting a sequencer (like Sonar, Cubase or similar).  With those, you do all the writing in Sibelius, make the music as perfect as you can, then save it as a MIDI file and open it in your sequencer to do all your sound editing.

How do I write something readable and avoid struggling with the symbols?

I am currently making a notemap for a Snareline Auto RL staff that I saved from the template.  I altered the labeling in a Snareline Full/Lite (MW) staff, saved it as a Snareline Auto RL staff, and am redoing the notemap.  I don't have a keyboard to enter notes in with, and it's much easier for me to use the Snareline Auto RL option. 

Also, do I need to use separate channels and instrument slots for multiple, identical instruments? (I.e. Multiple marimbas)

Thanks,
JSmith

JSmith,

We've answered the ";How do I make music readable without a keyboard"; question numerous times.  The answer is, is that while we strongly recommend using a keyboard (it saves a TON of time), it is still possible.  What you need to do is go in and place the notehead where it should be on the staff, then press CTRL+ALT+# (where # is the number of the notehead, reference the staff type for the specific numbers).  That will change the notehead to what you want it to be and trigger the correct sound.

Most of us, as far as I know, will load one marimba even if we have multiple marimbas when we are writing, then when we do our mixing/recording, we'll load in multiple marimbas for realism.  Yes, you can route same instruments to the same channel.

Ok, then I need to get a keyboard..  Thanks for your help!

JSmith