When i first got sibelius 4, i was using the general midi sounds that were already on my computer. They were awful, so I bought VDL 2 this past summer. After i got all the battery sounds working the way i wanted them to, i tried using them along with the general midi horn sounds... but they don't play back anymore. My question is-

What, when setting up VDL2, did i change in sibelius that could keep me from using the general midi sounds for my horn voices?

The way i would do this is open the VDL2 template, cut out the pit voices (i was only writing for battery/horns) and then use the ";I"; shortcut to add the horn voices to the score. This makes me think it is a mapping issue. any ideas
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It sounds like you just need to assign which staves you want to use GM, and which you want to play through VDL. This is accomplished by selecting said track in the [b]Mixer[/b] window, and setting the device in the [b]Device[/b] pulldown menu. All tracks may be set to whichever device is set as the default in the ";Playback and Input Devices"; window (shown in blue letters), but you can override this default by simply selecting another device per track in the mixer.

Yea, i thought to try this, because obviously VDL isn't going to playback any horn sounds. I changed the device to ";Microsoft GS Wavetable SW synth"; and still have no sounds playing back.

[quote author=snareoutanowhere link=topic=1491.msg6925#msg6925 date=1167868812]
Yea, i thought to try this, because obviously VDL isn't going to playback any horn sounds. I changed the device to ";Microsoft GS Wavetable SW synth"; and still have no sounds playing back.
[/quote]

Couple things to try...

You may need to set up that device (Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth) as your default soundcard playback device in Windows. Go to Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices>Audio, and check what's set under ";Midi music playback."; I'm guessing this should be set to ";Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth";.

In Sibelius>Play>Playback and Input Devices - is the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth set to ";yes"; in the [b]use[/b] column? If not, you won't hear anything from that device.

If neither of these suggestions helps, I'd suggest following up on the Sibelius forum at:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?groupid=3

Still no change... It's strange, these sounds work fine in finale 2006, but they don't work in sibelius OR the creative soundfont bank manager. Could this have anything to do with the bank high  values, program number  values, etc. in the mixer? I know this is probably more of a question for the sibelius file, but I figure it is worth asking...

[quote author=snareoutanowhere link=topic=1491.msg6927#msg6927 date=1167895384]
Still no change... It's strange, these sounds work fine in finale 2006, but they don't work in sibelius OR the creative soundfont bank manager. Could this have anything to do with the bank high  values, program number  values, etc. in the mixer? I know this is probably more of a question for the sibelius file, but I figure it is worth asking...
[/quote]

I'm not sure. The bank settings in the mixer may very well have something to do with this. You might try setting to 0 (zero), or 1 for both, and see if either makes a difference. Definitely ask around as I'm sure there's a logical explanation.