If I am selecting a new score in Sibelius (5.1), and I choose to have a blank document to add instruments, should I be able to view VDL 2.5 Instruments from the Instrument menu?  I know that when you choose the VDL2.5 template, you will see the instruments, but I was just curious if the VDL instruments can be viewed from a blank template.

Also, if I created a ";percussion template"; w/ VDL2.5 instruments (battery & pit) that was exported as manuscript paper, should I have any problem hearing playback from Rack Combo A or Rack B.  My playback devices are set up to 2instances of VDL2.5 but I'm having problems hearing the notes that are typed in on the rack(s).

Jeremy

Jeremy - you won't see the true VDL 2.5 formatted instruments in Sibelius' regular ";new score"; wizard builder thingy, however, read up on importing and exporting [b]house styles[/b]. Armed with this info, you can open the Sibelius template, export a house style (naming it VDL 2.5 or something), then in any new score, simply import that house style which will give you access to all the aspects of the template. In fact, ";house style"; is one of the elements the ";new score"; wizard inquires about, so in theory you can simply choose this upon creation of your new score and you're good to go.

Your manuscript paper idea is also a good one. The only thing that would prevent you from being able to hear correct playback of RackCombos A or B is whether or not the staff has those as the assigned instruments. If that's correctly assigned, and you're still having trouble, it's possible that both your KP2 instances have become filled with other instruments. Once that happens, Sibelius goes into ";replacement mode"; trying to make the most logical substitutions. If that were the case, your best bet would be to activate a third instance of KP2 in your Playback Configuration.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Jim. 

I will check out the House Styles info.  Thanks for the heads up on the Rack A/B problem. 

As far as the manuscript paper idea goes, do I need to save the original VDL/Sib5.1 template (with the slapstick) to properly load instruments with correct staff types?  Also with the KP2 automatically assigning instruments and channels through Sib 5, if I add an instrument in the score after I've started working on it, will it automatically assign the appropriate channel?  In Sib 4, you could control which instruments were on a specific channels, now it's not so controlled.  Do I need to worry about this or just trust Sib 5?  Thanks

Jeremy

[quote author=Fletch99 link=topic=2259.msg11846#msg11846 date=1201061033]

As far as the manuscript paper idea goes, do I need to save the original VDL/Sib5.1 template (with the slapstick) to properly load instruments with correct staff types?

[/quote]

What makes the Template the template is the fact that all of the instruments have to be defined in Sib 5 so that everything will playback properly, or at all. So yes, one way to have access to the instrument definitions is to start each project with a ";copy"; of the Template file. This is what I do.

Or, you can do what Jim said and import a House Style from the Template into whatever score you need it in. Pages 12-13 of the Readme.


[quote author=Fletch99 link=topic=2259.msg11846#msg11846 date=1201061033]

... Also with the KP2 automatically assigning instruments and channels through Sib 5, if I add an instrument in the score after I've started working on it, will it automatically assign the appropriate channel? In Sib 4, you could control which instruments were on a specific channels, now it's not so controlled. Do I need to worry about this or just trust Sib 5? Thanks

[/quote]

In the vast majority of cases you will not need to worry about what channels/slots are assigned to which instrument. One of the main Sibelius playback design ideas is that the software is doing all of that sort of thing for you. This can be a big time saver since you don't have to deal with assigning them yourself all the time.

Late

Thanks Hugh.