I was starting a new tune today for marching band.  I used the VDL template for Sibelius 5.2 for the first time.  I loaded all of my VDL instruments and also wind instruments from the band list.  When my band instruments started playing back, they sounded like percussion midi instruments.  I checked the mixer which stated that the sound should have been Garritan Trumpet ensemble.  Any suggestions to fix this?  I tried this 2 times with brand new scores and got the same results.  Please help.

Thanks,

Dennis

This sounds like a Playback Configuration/sound set assigning issue. Make sure you have your Playback Configuration correctly structured for the number and type of instruments in your score.

If you still have problems after you have tinkered with that, post a picture of what your Configuration looks like, as well as a picture or list of all the instruments in your score, including instrument changes.

That was my thought too. If Sibelius is doing its job, you should focus less on what the mixer says, and more on what you have set up for your playback configuration(s) in the Playback Devices window. If you have the Garritan CMB library and are expecting to hear sounds from it, you'll first need to assign at least one of your Kontakt Player instances to use the Garritan CMB sound set. If your only assigned sound sets are for percussion libraries, you'll undoubtedly get some odd results from wind staves.

I went back checked my configurations and everything was good.  However, I just noticed that when I put, for example, a staccato marking over a tuba note, I get a vocal ";dut"; sound.  The articulations are changing the playback in the winds.  Any suggestions how to fix this?  One more thing, this happened when I used the keypad to input staccato. 

Can you give us an exact recount (or a screenshot would be even better) of your playback configuration? Sounds like some basic things may not be set properly here.

Jim,

I emailed you an example of what I'm experiencing.  I hope you can figure this out.

Thanks,

Dennis

I won't be able to see your playback configuration from within any scores you send. That's specific to your machine. My hunch is that you may not have your playback configuration set properly to play both Essentials and VDL at the same time. There's a tutorial on this at:
http://tapspace.blip.tv/#1121038