I have the marching snare drum loaded as my instrument, and I can see the highlighted keymap on the keyboard. When I hit a key, I get piano sounds instead of the drum sounds. How do I get the correct drum sounds.

Sorry for your dissatisfaction. The template will be ready when it is ready. Now that Sibelius 5.1 is out, good progress is being made on it. But an official date will not be released as there is no guarantee we will be able to meet that due to potential fixes that may be needed in the sound set. I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but if your question is ";When will a template be available?,"; there is no definitive date we can give you. Just know that it's a priority for us, and it is moving in a positive direction.

[quote author=Arseno link=topic=2049.msg10422#msg10422 date=1193083585]
Ok, In repsponse to Jim's post

In the playback window/ active devices tab;

available devices= kontaktplayer2
active devices=1.Microsoft gs wavetable synth, type=midi, soundset=general
�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� 2.Kontaktplayer2, type= kontakt, soundset= VDL 2.5
configuration=Sibelius Essentials (16 sounds)*

I have not done anything to the the manual sound sets, preferred sounds and effects tabs, left them as they were.

In the Performance window;

Espressivo:Senza Espressivo
Rubato: Meccancio
Rhythmic feel: Straight
No reverb, unslurred notes =100% of written duration.

Kontakt player in Sib. Mixer
Libraries= sib sounds ess. and vdl2.5
*snareline autorl, tenorline autorl mw ks, bassline manual mw ks, cym line 16in

This is a far as i can go for now. As far as the sound card settings, I don't have a clue. I did download the asio4all driver and have it on my desktop. Have not installed it yet.
* my playback is choppy. I switched to snareline manual and the rhythms were perfect and not choppy, but it was loud and didn't sound like a snare. Just wanted to throw that out to, I hope this helps.

[/quote]

Thank you for supplying some details. If you're hearing piano sounds, it's probably because Sibelius is choosing your Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as the playback device. Remove that from the ";Active Devices"; section, and you should have better luck with VDL instruments being selected. Are you using Sibelius 5.0 or 5.1?

Thank you Jim.

[quote][/quote]

Thank you for supplying some details. If you're hearing piano sounds, it's probably because Sibelius is choosing your Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as the playback device. Remove that from the ";Active Devices"; section, and you should have better luck with VDL instruments being selected. Are you using Sibelius 5.0 or 5.1?
[quote][/quote]

I'm using 5.0, kontakt works fine as the sib. plugin, I was having the piano problem in stand alone mode. I'll keep playing with it. I did not mean for this thread to go this way, just understand that I'm a 1st timer, and don't quite understand the lingo yet. Most of my problems are my own user error. But that's how we learn, right?

Ideally, you should avoid using stand-alone mode if you're using Sibelius 5. Still - that would explain why you're not hearing correct sounds. In order to use VDL in stand-alone mode, you'd have to have a virtual midi cable (like Midi Yoke or Maple) set as one of your active devices. This is not the recommended way to work in Sibelius 5.

Now that Sibelius 5.1 is released, you should download and install that as they have made several bug fixes that should help you and the VDL 2.5 sound set included with contains many important fixes.

The original suggestion holds true though. De-activate your Microsoft GS device from the ";Active Devices"; window.