Here it is finally, again.

The [b]Sibelius/VDL Template 5.2[/b] package can be downloaded here:

   [url]https://www.tapspace.com/updates/#SibeliusTemplates[/url]

Not all of the tutorial videos are done yet (will be in a week or so), but the ones you may need to get up and running can be found here:

   [url]https://www.tapspace.com/support/tutorials/sib52.html[/url]

And a big thanks to Mr. Casella - who knows how long this would have taken without his help.


Enjoy!

Anyone using this template should know about the amount of time that Hugh Smith has put into it. Not just in building the template, but custom tailoring the sound set so they work well together. He's worked closely with the mad scientists at Sibelius to ensure the best possible performance with the various intricacies of Virtual Drumline's programming. This is definitely a tedious process, so I'd like to be the first to publicly recognize how much effort Hugh has put into this beast of a project. Thank you Hugh!!

If you're converting your 5.1 template scores into 5.2, please check out the video lessons. They're not perfect, and definitely a little long-winded, but will give you a good sense of the conversion process. The Appendix in the ReadMe will give you a good checklist of this process.

PS - I'd also recommend viewing the videos in fullscreen mode.

Thanks everyone for your patience as we've been producing these. Rest assured we haven't been resting on our laurels - the process has just been a cumbersome and tedious one to ensure best performance with the new Sound ID structure in 5.2.

Happy writing!

Let me be one of the first to give Hugh a Big Thumbs up for a job well done. Without his dedication to our little niche, we would all still be wondering what it all sounds like.

Jim again thanks for such a great product, I know it is a busy time for all of you and can't imagine how you pulled this off. Great job on the video's as well. You should go up and teach Microsoft a few things about doing it right.

Hey Hugh and Jim,

You guys deserve kudos for all the work you put into making this a great product!

Were any changes made to the template, or was this only changes to the sound set? I'm busy updating and improving my Auto Sticking plugin and from first glance it looks like the template hasn't changed. It'll be a lot easier knowing the 5.1 and 5.2 templates use the same notehead schemes. :D

Cheers

Hugh and Jim,

Thanks for the huge effort on this template update.  I'm quite excited to dive into it as soon as rehearsals end tonight at 10:00pm.  Guess I'll be up late, but I will be a happy composer/arranger.

Peace!

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2620.msg13927#msg13927 date=1217225225]
If you're converting your 5.1 template scores into 5.2, please check out the video lessons. They're not perfect, and definitely a little long-winded, but will give you a good sense of the conversion process. The Appendix in the ReadMe will give you a good checklist of this process.
[/quote]

So if we're in progress of writing our fall book it's still safe to go ahead and upgrade, or would it be advised to hold off until all essential writing has been done?

By the way, just to echo other sentiments, you guys that work on this stuff for our benefit are some of the most selfLESS people I know.  I don't know how you guys manage this and have lives too.  :)  Thanks again.

[quote author=Keith Anderson link=topic=2620.msg13934#msg13934 date=1217271798]

So if we're in progress of writing our fall book it's still safe to go ahead and upgrade, or would it be advised to hold off until all essential writing has been done?

[/quote]

It's up to you. If you're going to upgrade, don't plan on going back. If you can carve out a little time to do your conversion up front, you should be fine to continue works that are in progress. Once you've got your new score looking just how you like it, you can use it as your own template to copy/paste other 5.1 scores into for the same group you're writing for. Main thing is that before you do the copy/paste, you've saved a version of your score with the correct amount of measures and time signatures.

We're making a big deal over all the Sound ID structure changes that occurred between 5.1 and 5.2 because of the direct affect it has on our old sound set and template. However, this isn't something that will affect non-percussion folks as much (i.e. the majority of Sibelius users). So you may not hear as much noise about this directly in their new feature set. Still, there are plenty of good bug fixes. I'm a fan of the Mixer multiple track open/close as well as the warning Sibelius will give you now if you don't have enough active devices to accommodate the number of instruments in your score. So now that the template/sound set is available, I'd recommend the sooner you can upgrade, the better.

Thanks Jim.

The tutorial is very nice, and my life would be simpler if I had a Mac so we could follow along exactly.�� But, this is all being used on the most powerful computer we have which has a Vista OS.�� Is there any chance that you will be adding more tutorials for a Windows user?�� ��

[quote author=drummersmom link=topic=2620.msg13950#msg13950 date=1217357986]
The tutorial is very nice, and my life would be simpler if I had a Mac so we could follow along exactly.�� But, this is all being used on the most powerful computer we have which is has a Vista OS.�� Is there any chance that you will be adding more tutorials for a Windows user?�� ��
[/quote]

Thanks drummeresmom! The good news is that the things discussed in those tutorial videos, while on a Mac, is accomplished the same way in Windows. Keyboard shortcuts are the same, except ";command"; (on Mac) would be ";control"; (in Windows).  So while it ";looks"; a little different than what you're seeing, it's really the same exact process. In the next few days, we'll be adding some more general usage tutorials generated by Hugh Smith (the mastermind behind the template). He'll be doing them on a Windows XP machine, so you may find that those look a little more familiar. Check back in this topic for an announcement of when they become available.

Thanks again. We are just not getting the template to download in a way/place that our version of Sibelius can find the new files.  Following the video, we typed in the exact location for the files as listed on the instruction slide.  I knew something went wrong with my download process because we couldn't find it as an available soundset, nor did Sibelius Essentials (16 sounds) have an asterisk as mentioned. 

We might just uninstall EVERYTHING and start fresh, making sure Norton is turned off.  (Can't stand Vista--all the rest of our computers are running XP.)

If you do end up doing a modification to your video for Vista users, please add a lot of specifics on the download portion.  The rest is very similar. 

Excellent tutorial.  If people aren't using this before coming to the forums, they are missing a lot of great guidance.  I run it on a second computer while working on the program on another machine.  Highly recommend the tutorials.

Hmm - Maybe that has something to do with the fact that when you download the template, it's packaged as a compressed .zip file which are quite common on Windows or Mac.

For best results (if you haven't done so already), try uncompressing or ";extracting"; the .zip file so you'll have a plain old folder in which you'll find the three files. I'm not sure about Vista, but in XP you can do this by right-clicking the file, and selecting ";extract all"; which will launch the Windows extraction wizard.

[quote author=Josh Champagne link=topic=2620.msg13931#msg13931 date=1217260870]

Were any changes made to the template, or was this only changes to the sound set? I'm busy updating and improving my Auto Sticking plugin and from first glance it looks like the template hasn't changed. It'll be a lot easier knowing the 5.1 and 5.2 templates use the same notehead schemes. :D

[/quote]

Josh - Changes were made to the Template, but only ";under the hood";. All but one of the noteheads are the same, so yes, same notehead scheme, thankfully. (The one that is different actually matches the Readme now.)


For those of you who remember the part about being able to drive your new race car, what essentially happened was you got a new engine. As far as driving the car, you will not likely notice anything different. There are a few additional notes that touch on this in the Readme.

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2620.msg13955#msg13955 date=1217364736]
Hmm - Maybe that has something to do with the fact that when you download the template, it's packaged as a compressed .zip file which are quite common on Windows or Mac.

For best results (if you haven't done so already), try uncompressing or ";extracting"; the .zip file so you'll have a plain old folder in which you'll find the three files. I'm not sure about Vista, but in XP you can do this by right-clicking the file, and selecting ";extract all"; which will launch the Windows extraction wizard.


[/quote]

Messed around with the files more.�� The download had put two folders into the sounds file. Inside the non-Mac folder (I never opened the MAC one) was the sounds library file, the template file and the read-me file. I dragged the sound library out of there and up one level and dropped it into the sounds file directly--ie not inside some other folder.�� That allowed me to then ";find"; it in Sibelius.�� Since Vista is relatively new to most people using it, a lot of detail on download steps whenever you make your Vista tutorial might prevent similar problems.��Vista is just clunkier to use than Mac.�� I thought I'd post this solution in case anyone else is having similar issues. Thanks again Jim!

Thanks guys for all the hard work! I am really impressed at how streamlined you have been able to make the writing process. You have saved me countless hours of time, and made the whole process more fun and enjoyable for me!

And, it's always nice to have an audio file with great sounds to get the client excited about the arrangement!

Thanks again,
John Best