Hello Tapspace Board,

Once again I'm behind the learning curve on this Sibelius/VDL business. I would like to say however, that despite the current issue I'm having, I love what Sibelius has done with this new version!

My issue is with Instrument Changes. Rest assured I have searched the forum for my problem and have watched the tutorial videos several times (and have learned a lot, for sure), but I have not found the information I am looking for.

The issue: When inserting an instrument change, I don't get proper playback. When I enter the notes, I hear the correct playback, but not when I am playing the score -- I just don't hear anything from that staff. So, the instrument [i]is[/i] properly being loaded.

Now to complicate things, when I enter my instrument change, the next bar reverts back to the originally assigned instrument. Or specifically, I am wanting my glock player to play propane tank for a while (all in the name of ";music education";), then he/she will eventually go back to glock, but not after [b]one[/b] bar.

It does not look like this in the tutorial video, or appear that in my world, instrument changes will be as easy for me as they are for everyone else. It is as if there is some toggle set to tell Sibelius to revert to the original instrument change after one bar and I just need to find it and turn it off.

Any help?

Thanks in advance!

Hey Eric,

The instrument change feature works like the clef (q) and time (t) features, in that you need to highlight for how many measures you are going to want the propane tank to be covered. It will then change all the settings needed for only those measures. So when you click on where you want it to start and that measure ONLY, you are telling Sibelius to do it for one measure.
If later on you want to make it a little longer, you can see a blue rectangle on the barline when you highlight the last measure, you can then drag that as far as you want the instrument change to go. It's quite cool!

That answered your second question, can't help you on the first. Cut me some slack, it's late,  I shouldn't really even be awake right now:)

Hi Eric,

I think this is what you're looking for. This is just a simple preference that will turn off the functionality of 1-bar selections reverting back to their original state after altered. I know this has stumped a few people in the past (myself included).

[img]http://img.skitch.com/20080428-iq3s7mekicxmubm8mqqhn46wi.jpg[/img]

Okay. Changing the item in the 'preferences' window helped Sibelius not immediately revert back to the original staff, but, I'm still having some playback problems.

I changed to propane tank, the instrument loaded and I wrote in the staff - but this time with no sounds heard at all from that instrument. The mixer indicated that the propane tank was set to MIDI channel 9 and the glock is set to MIDI channel 8. This is a red flag in my mind, but not knowing exactly how the new sound world works, that might not be a problem. I don't know!

So, for kicks, I tried another instrument change to bring the staff back to glock and it worked beautifully... Is this Karma suggesting to me that I should not be writing for propane tank?

Thanks!

One quick update:

I kind of got it to work just now. For some reason about three bars after the instrument change I tried to write some more propane tank and Sibelius started responding correctly. Here's the big difference: After three bars or so the noteheads started looking like they were appropriate for propane tank. Before, I was getting the sound, but the music still looked 'tonal', ready to be played on glock.

After some fudging, I got the correct noteheads to start where I need them to start. But, what about getting that process to start exactly where I want it? What am I missing here?

Ralph, Jim: thanks for the help!

When I'm doing instrument changes I find it very helpful to turn on Hidden Items. I believe it is under ";View"; in the menu, or you can hit Crtl+Alt+H or Opt+Cmd+H. This will allow you to see exactly where the instrument change requests are being made. They appear as light gray boxes over the staff and are linked to the instrument text. You can move these boxes much easier than using the instrument dialog. This allows me to see exactly what is going on where and allows me to make precise changes.

[quote author=Josh Champagne link=topic=2428.msg12959#msg12959 date=1209385246]
When I'm doing instrument changes I find it very helpful to turn on Hidden Items. I believe it is under ";View"; in the menu, or you can hit Crtl+Alt+H or Opt+Cmd+H. This will allow you to see exactly where the instrument change requests are being made. They appear as light gray boxes over the staff and are linked to the instrument text. You can move these boxes much easier than using the instrument dialog. This allows me to see exactly what is going on where and allows me to make precise changes.
[/quote]

Indeed. This is good practice so you can see where things are happening.

Eric - as you've discovered, it seems like instrument changes work best when placed at least a full measure before the bar in which you intend to enter notes. For quick changes, you can still get it to work. You just need to drag the instrument change over to the right when you've entered the correct looking notes. Just a Sibelius quirk I think. It was the same thing with staff type changes in Sib4.

Hmmm, I'm having a similar issue. I'm trying to add a sus cymbal roll on beats 3 and 4 for a vibe part and there are vibe notes on beats 1 and 2. So I do an instrument change to sus cymbal and place the grey box between beats 2 and 3. I get the correct playback sound from the cymbal but it takes a bar or so until the notation becomes correct. No biggie, but I'm still curious.

Thanks!

[quote author=Ben_Runkel link=topic=2428.msg13295#msg13295 date=1211953722]
Hmmm, I'm having a similar issue. I'm trying to add a sus cymbal roll on beats 3 and 4 for a vibe part and there are vibe notes on beats 1 and 2. So I do an instrument change to sus cymbal and place the grey box between beats 2 and 3. I get the correct playback sound from the cymbal but it takes a bar or so until the notation becomes correct. No biggie, but I'm still curious.

Thanks!
[/quote]

This is actually what I was referring to in my previous post. It's a bit of a hassle, but once you see where how this quirk behaves, you can plan ahead for it. Try placing the instrument change an entire bar earlier from where you want to place the sus cym part. [i]Only after you've placed it there, then enter your sus cym part.[/i] Once it appears as you like it (with correct notation), slide the instrument change over to the right into its correct placement and all should be well.

ahhhhhh, thanks Jim! Makes much more sense now!