I have 1 question.  I am somewhat of a knowledgeable person in the field of MIDI.  However, I am very new to this ";sound sample"; thing, so forgive me if this is a silly question.


I bought VDL:2 so that I could add realism to the ensembles that I am working on/will be working on.  I have used Finale for close to 15 years now, and have been using Sibelius off and on for the last 7 years.

I know that Sibelius only allows the user to run 1 set of 16 MIDI channels, and Finale will allow you to run up to 8 sets of the 16 MIDI channels.  With the way the Human Playback works in Finale, every instrument should be on its own MIDI channel (even like instruments, ex. Mar. I and Mar. II on different channels). 

Often times I work on scores consisting of the following instrumentation: Snare, Quads, Bass, Cymbals, Bells, Chimes, Vibe I, Vibe II, Xylo I, Xylo II, Mar I, Mar II, Mar III, Mar IV (bass marimba), Timpani, Percussion I, and Percussion II.  That equals 17 different instruments.  In Finale it works best to run each part on its own MIDI channel, therefore needing at least 17 channels.  In Sibelius, you can put like instruments together...that comes to 11 channels in Sibelius (counting each battery as separate instrument).  How am I supposed to access at least 11 instruments sounds of the VDL:2 sounds when the Kontakt Engine only lets you chose 8 instruments?  Maybe I am confused, but I have looked all over the manual, and there isn't much regarding this.

I am wanting to run the great battery sounds in conjuction with the really great pit sounds.  But from what I am looking at right now, I can only use the 4 battery sounds plus 4 additional pit instruments.  Even if I ignore Human Playback in Finale and put like instruments together, I still don't have the room to use all of the instruments that I need/want (11).  Is this true?  Is there some kind work-around?  Or am I just missing something that should be very obvious?  Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx,
Robby

There are a number of ways to do this...

You can load up multiple copies of the plugin into a host application, each of which can hold 8 sounds. I do this with AULab - there's information about that in the tutorials.

You could buy the full version of Kontakt, which I think allows you to load many more sounds.

I'm sure there are other ways that people will chime in with as well.

Corey, I think he's referring to the channel assignments in Sibelius or Finale, and not the Kontakt Player.

Honestly Robby, I've worked on some huge scores in the past (full orchestral scores) and I've yet to find a limitation when it comes to number of channels I can assign.

Robby - if you are using Finale 2006, you can load multiple instance of VDL2 which are directly hosted within Finale. Even though the VDL2 Kontakt Player only gives you 8 channels, you can simply load another instance in a separate MIDI bank (finale channels 17-32, 33-48, etc) to get more.

You are correct in that the best scenario is to run each staff on its own midi channel. You can share, but doing so can lead to phasing when playing unison lines. Also, if you do decide to share a marimba between two tracks, I'd recommend raising the polyphony on that particular instrument by simply dragging the number upward to say, 64 (rather than the default 32) so you don't start hearing breakups in the sound. This meter is described on pg 26 of the VDL2 user guide.

As Corey mentioned, you can also load all your VDL2 instruments into the full version of [b][url=https://www.tapspace.com/kontakt2.html]Kontakt[/url][/b] which allows 4 banks of 16 channels (total 64 channels. This is usually how I work when I'm writing in Sibelius. I run Kontakt 2, load all my instruments, then output midi from Sibelius via a couple ";virtual midi cable"; bus', and i can get a lot going at once (since I have a good bunch of RAM).

The other method mentioned was to ";host"; multiple instances of VDL2 in a program which will allow you to load it as a plugin. AUlab is great for this and comes included for free with Mac OSX (in the developer tools section). Refer to Corey's tutorial in the ";hints"; section of this forum. There are some other host programs such as V-Stack, Bidule, RAX, and many more. Check the ";host programs"; thread (also in the ";hints"; section of this forum). Doing it this way also requires you to run a separate virtual midi cable for each instance of VDL2.

So for example, instance 1 might have Snare, Tenor, Bass, Cymbals, Bells, Chimes, Xylo 1, Xylo 2 - those all receive midi on Virtual Midi Cable bus 1 (i.e. Midi Yoke 1).
Then, your second instance of VDL2 might have: Mar 1, Mar 2, Mar 3, Mar 4, Vibe 1, Vibe 2, Timp - these would all receive midi on Virtual Midi Cable bus 2 (i.e. Midi Yoke 2).
If you need a third instance (for aux percussion channels), do the same as above, and assign it to Virtual Midi Cable bus 3 (i.e. Midi Yoke 3).

Once you've set this up, you can save this setup in the host program. That way, next time you launch it, all the instruments will load on their pre-configured channels. Same goes for Kontakt 2...just save your setup as a ";multi"; and name it according to the project you're working on. Big time saver.

Hope this helps!

Jim and everyone,

I appreciate your help very much.  I am a little confused about you saying ";you can load multiple instance of VDL2 which are directly hosted within Finale.";  I am not sure what this means.  Do you mean VDL2 as a stand alone I can run it more than once?  Or do I need to install the VST plugin into Finale?

Also, I am wondering how you get Sibelius to output to channels above 16?  I have not seen this, and Sibelius seems so screwy to me, that I haven't been able to figure this one out.  Thanx for the help though, it certainly gives me something to think about.

Robby

Hey guys,

After searching around in Finale, I think I see what you are talking about.  I will get back to you if I run into another problem. 

Thanx so much,
Robby