Hello,
    I just switched over from finale to sibelius. One thing I can't figure out is how to assign different midi chanels and voices (patches/sounds) to each layer. In finale I could basically use each of the 4 layers as a different patch for the synthesizers I write for. Each sound/layer had a seperate midi chanel. I am running sibelius 4 with kontakt on a Windows XP pc. Any help anyone could give would be great. I must say that I like the powerful tools that sibelius offers. I just need to figure out a few more things and I'll be set. Thanks so much for your time.

Mike Lloyd

Hi Mike,

As it currently stands, I don't think you can assign different midi channels to the same staff in Sibelius. Channels are staff specific rather than layer specific. Usually I load my sounds into Kontakt 2, then send a program change in sibelius (by typing technique text ";~p2"; to switch to program 2 for example), and have those various instruments loaded into an ";instrument bank"; in Kontakt. If you're not using Kontakt, you might try inserting an ";ossia staff"; to the staff in question. You can assign a unique midi channel to that ossia staff which would only appear during the points in the music that you specify.

Hope this helps. You might also try checking in with the Sibelius folks on their forum at:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/

They may have more info on whether or not they might ever plan to implement individual layer channel settings in future versions.