To get my hairpins to play correctly for the battery, I usually Filter for all hairpins, go to the properties/playback panel, and bump up the percentage to about 30 or 40. This works great for the drumline, however my hairpins aren't playing at all on my keyboard percussion.

Any Suggestions?

Powerbook G4
768 RAM
Sibelius 4
VDL2 (and lovin it)
AU lab for playback and recording (and REALLY lovin in)

Hairpins can be a little deceiving sometimes as they will typically only affect a span of successive attacks by increasing or decreasing [b]velocity[/b]. If you're trying to hear a cresc or decres hairpin occuring during a sustained part (i.e. a whole note roll on marimba), you will only hear the velocity of the first initiated attack. This is typically more of a concern for wind arrangers who tend to write more sustained parts.

The thing to know about VDL2 is that different instruments will react a little differently to these velocity curves depending on the amount of velocities sampled, and the sensitivity of the volume filters. Depending on where the cresc or decresc is starting, you may hear more or less emphasis when entering the 30 or 40 percent entry (great technique by the way...I do that all the time!). If you want it to sound more extreme, it's sometimes worth creating a hidden dynamic (i.e. pp...hide it by selecting it then clicking apple-shift-H). This will adjust the starting velocity of the hairpin, so your altered percentage might be more noticeable.

Or you might try experimenting with the ";transform live playback"; option from the play menu.

Hope this helps a little.

I know it is a bit more work but the live playback velocities option in Sibelius is what I have begun using. I have begun setting the individual velocity for each crescendo or decrescendo I write and it definitely helps give a more realistic sound. I can truly make the crescendo sound the exact way I want with this method.

After some experimentation I discovered a few things.

1. My score wouldn't play back any expression for the mallets but would with the drumline.

2. After going to the Play menu and unchecking Live Playback, all my dynamics and Hairpins worked wonderfully.

3. On the VDL template and a few other scores I have, the hairpins playback correctly for mallets.

I think the problem is that this is one of the first scores I made when I first got Sibelius (I'm a finale convert). And I may have experimented with some ";Transform live playback"; settings with all the mallet parts selected. This happened months ago, and these settings overrided the new dynamic markings that I have put in since then.

Thanks for the idea about the hide feature! I've read about it in the manual, but didn't think about how I could use it to make playback more realistic while not messing up the printed score. I try not to use the Transform live playback feature much because once you make a change, it's hard to see later what you changed. I've also used a few sequencers to get more accurate playback, but If I can figure out how to do most of the dirty work in sibelius (with features like ~C1.127) it will save some time.

Thanks again

[quote author=perpetualpoet link=topic=1010.msg4192#msg4192 date=1140669743]

Mac lover Windows hater
[/quote]

I good Karma for your signature alone my man!

If you select ";live playback velocities"; from the VIEW menu (with a checkmark), you'll easily be able to see where you've made live velocity adjustments. This creates a visual ";velocity slider"; above each note that you've applied a live playback change to.