I am trying to notate a vibraphone part and the motor is turned on. How do I change the speed of the fan using some sort of text like ";Technique Text?";

I am using:
The latest update of VDL
Sibelius 6.1

If you didn't want to fool with editing the existing Dictionary terms, you can just using the CC21 and CC22 MIDI controllers for Fan Level and Fan Speed, respectively.  So if you want level at 100 and speed at 50, you'd enter two separate technique texts as such (with the tildas just hiding the text):

~C21,100
~C22,50

If you had a particular setting you liked, you could edit the Dictionary definitions by going to [b]Play > Dictionary[/b] then do as follows:

1) Find ";motor on"; then Duplicate it, and give it a name like ";motor 50%";
2) Change ";Sound ID Change"; to ";Control Change";
3) Set MIDI Controller to 22 (for fan speed), and the value to 64 (for 50% of 127)
4) Create any other Fan speeds you might want.
5) Duplicate the motor 50% term and name it ";turn on motor";, giving it the values 21 (for level) and 127
6) Duplicate that and name it ";turn off motor";, giving it the values 21 and 0
7) Click Ok

The ";turn motor on"; and ";turn motor off"; definitions are different than the ";motor on"; and ";motor off"; terms because they address the mod wheel directly, rather than referencing the sound set (which is where all of the real magic happens).  As a result, you can now make fan level and speed adjustments in the same technique text. For an example, see the attached image.

Honestly, it'd be easiest for you to just using the C21 and C22 texts, but creating the Dictionary terms will make it easier to remember, rather than having to worry about which controller does what. You also don't have to use the same terms as me.  If you'd prefer something simpler like 25%, 50%, or 75%, you could use those as well.  Sibelius will let you know if the terms you choose conflict with any others, as they all have to be unique. I just chose to include motor in the terms to make them more identifiable in the Dictionary.

Enjoy!

Great explanation, Bryan!

It's easy to forget which knobs are assigned to which controller numbers. You can always look this information up in the VDL User Guide which is in the ";Documentation"; folder of your VDL installation. You'll find this information under the [i]Instrument Knobs[/i] and [i]Other Specialized Instrument Knob[/i]s sections.

@Bryan Harmsen
Awesome! Thanks for the help. I will definitely do the dictionary settings.

@Jim Casella
I totally forgot about looking in the User Guide. Thanks for the heads up.

Something else that you can mess with is the ";Continuous Controller Change"; plugin.  If you wanted to do a smooth pedal speed change from say 0 to 127, you could do it with that.  I'm pretty sure that comes packaged with Sibelius and is under the Plugin > Playback menu, with the Crescendo plugin, which is also handy.

How would a continuous controller change for vibe fan speed sound with the VDL vibes? Are the vibes sampled at different fan speeds or are the sound files modulated in real time to achieve the fan effect?

Joe,

Check out the attached image and sound clip.  You just have to use a line like the one I have there to use continuous controller changes.