I'm on sibelius 5.1 and VDL 2.5. I am currently working on inputting the score of our indoor program into VDL to create an mp3 of the show and I am experiencing some issues with the rolls playing back correctly.

I think I'm only hearing the issue in my vibraphone parts but the probem is that whenever I enter a roll, it sounds like it plays back as the generic sibelius tremolo. I know rolls are a rare thing on vibes but this is being done for a particular effect.  Since VDL 2.5 doesn't contain roll samples on the vibes, I'm probably answering my own question by posting this but there isn't anyway to avoid without it sounding mechanical is there?

What effect are you trying to reproduce? With that information we might be able to shed a little more light.

If you're going for a double vertical style roll, you could just write the roll in voice 1 then hide a two note tremolo for the actual roll. If you want a ripple roll or some variation of a double lateral roll you could just enter/hide those notes in a similar fashion as the double vertical roll.

If you want to do something with an accelerando feel, you could use feathered beams in a similar fashion as the last two suggestions feathered beam.

Hopefully these will help at least a tiny bit.

I'm really just trying to reproduce a roll sound on the vibes for this one particular section of music instead of using the pedal to sustain a whole note, etc. It is basically just a 2 mallet roll across different notes. I'm actually not concerned about the look of the music right now because the full score is actually coming from our arrangers so i just want to make a decent sounding mp3.

I'll try it again with the 2 note tremolo instead of the 3 to see if that helps slow down the mechanical sound. Otherwise, I may also try writing out all of the notes in a sixtuplet form to see if that works any better. It just can't seem to get the rolls in the vibes to mesh with the rolls in the xylophone and marimbas in this particular section.

[quote author=gbass598 link=topic=2141.msg11074#msg11074 date=1196953975]
I'm really just trying to reproduce a roll sound on the vibes for this one particular section of music instead of using the pedal to sustain a whole note, etc. It is basically just a 2 mallet roll across different notes. I'm actually not concerned about the look of the music right now because the full score is actually coming from our arrangers so i just want to make a decent sounding mp3.

I'll try it again with the 2 note tremolo instead of the 3 to see if that helps slow down the mechanical sound. Otherwise, I may also try writing out all of the notes in a sixtuplet form to see if that works any better. It just can't seem to get the rolls in the vibes to mesh with the rolls in the xylophone and marimbas in this particular section.
[/quote]

I think your best bet is writing out the roll.  You can make it sound and look good by writing the sextuplet in voice 2 and hiding it.  Write the published part in voice 1 and un-click ";play on pass"; under the playback tab of the properties box.

HTH,

Gabe

If playback is the primary goal, another handy method that works is to use a [b]trill[/b]. Write the left-hand note (let's say it's middle C) and put a trill on it (create>line). Then if you want the right hand rolling on E (for example), select the trill, go to the ";playback"; section of the properties window, and type in a 4 in the ";half steps"; field for the interval. The nice thing about doing this is that you can alter the speed of the trill (say around 9 or 10 depending on range) which can give you a way to make it sound less metered and mechanical.

And that,  my friends and fiends, is why Jim is the man.

You learn something new every day.

Great, I'll give that a try.

Thanks,

OK, Jim,

I'm trying to use the trill option you presented but for some reason, the trill option is set to 1 half step by default and it the box is not active to allow me to change the number of half steps. Is there another setting somewhere I am missing?

nevemind, I answered my own question.

For anyone interested, you need to uncheck the diatonic box on the properties playback menu.