Hey everyone!

I have a question regarding battery instrument notation in Sibelius 6. I am writing an ostinato groove for the tenorline and the bassline.  The tenorline is playing a simple groove on drums 4 & 2 while playing downbeats on the spock drum.  Their left hands are playing with a regular mallet and their right hands will be playing with a dreadlock.  I know how to input a regular mallet sound and I know how to input a dreadlock sound.  But I can't figure out how to do them at the same time.

I'm using an M-Audio KeyStudio 25, so I can't press both keys at once because they are located in different octaves.  I tried simply inputting two regular mallet notes and manually changing one of them to a spock sound, but I can't figure out how to do that.

Help!

Thanks!

Brian

Brian,

Your last try was correct.  Enter in the two notes, then change the notehead for the dread part.  Are you on a Mac or PC?  If you're on a Mac, press Option+Shift+ the notehead number you want.

Hi Bill

Yes I'm on a Mac.  Thanks for the help!  I'm not by my system right now so I will have to give it a try later.  Once I change the notehead, will that change the sound as well?

And for anyone interested, the same keyboard shortcut (that Bill mentioned) on a PC is Alt+Shift+ the notehead you want, using the top row of number keys.

Hey Bryan! 

Once I change the notehead, willit play the desired sound?

I need to change a spock drum notehead for tenors from a regular mallet to a dreadlock. 
First, which # key will take care of that, and also, will it now play the desired dreadlock sound?

Also, is there a way I can do this using my midi keyboard?

Thanks!

Ok Guys I was able to do what you suggested and I'm able to change the notehead just fine.  Thanks for the help!  One thing I'm curious about is where I can find a key map.  Is there a map or legend somewhere thattells me which # key cooresponds to what notehead?

Also, when I changed the hotenead, I did not get ANY sound at all.  It's total silence.  How can I change the notehead and get the dreadlock sound I would like?

Thanks for the help!

Brian

Hahahaha, well in the middle of me posting, I may have found my solution. 

I was able to change the notehead AND get the dreadlock sound.  The #1 key that gave me the sound was #1.  The one thing I find interesting though, is that the notehead gives me the correct sound, but it's a different notehead then what my Midi Keyboard entry would give for the same sound.  Does anyone know why this is the case?  Is there a way I can make it consistent?

Thanks!

You can mind the mapping diagrams containing all of the noteheads and their corresponding sounds in the Sibelius Template ReadMe.

The reason you aren't getting the corresponding sounds is because it seems that Sibelius plays back the sound you have your mod wheel set to, when pressing a key that has multiple sounds mapped to it. In other words, those twelve keys (F2-E3) contain sounds for Rims, Dreads, Shots, and Rods, so depending on where the mod-wheel is set or which sound was played most recently, you'll get varying sounds (regardless of which notehead is inserted).

Hope this clears up any confusion!

Hey Bryan

I discovered the issue you're talking about with the mod wheel.  I was able to remedy that.  So yay!

The one thing I'm curious about is why the notehead shape is different then what it would normally be if I had inputted a dreadlock sound initially.

When I input a dreadlock notehead using my Midi keyboard, it looks one way.  If I change a notehead from a regular mallet to a dreadlock sound, the notehead looks another way.  Why do you think this is?

Hey again

Well I am able to see how the mod wheel settings can effect the sound when inputted.  However no matter where the mod wheel is set, it always plays it back as a rim sound.  How can I set it to be dreadlock and always dreadlock during playback?

I have another question!!!  (big shocker)

I added some text above the bassline staff that read, ";Bass #1 & #2 play RH on rim

For the rest of the entire piece during playback, I only heard bass #1 & #2 parts, but ALL on the rim.  No unisons, and no other drums were played.  What the heck?!?!?!?!?!

Is there a way I can add text above a staff, just simple instructions, without it effecting the playback?  I know Finale this is SUPER simple.  I can't seem to find textaddition in Sibelius.

Thanks!

Whatever the last sound or notehead you use is the sound that will play when you enter notes with your MIDI keyboard.

With regards to the rim issue, read this post: https://www.tapspace.com/forums/index.php?topic=3511.0

In Sibelius it is also very simple, but as I outlined in that post, if there are text items built into the ";dictionary"; of Sibelius and in the VDL Template, you might have some undesirable playback results. You [i]can[/i] use Technique text for basic text. You just want to avoid using anything that's in the playback dictionary (found at Play > Dictionary), if you are in fact not wanting the playback results they'll produce. In Finale this is all done with the Expression tool, whereas in Sibelius it's done with any kind of Staff Text (which includes Technique, Expression, and Staff text, among a few others).

Also, instead of posting 3 rapid fire posts, you can click the little pencil to the bottom right of your post, making it easier for people to read. Just a thought. Glad to hear that you're getting closer to being squared away.

Brian

It sounds to me like you need to spend some more time reading your documentation. Aside from probably re-reading the entire [b]VDL_README_6.0a.pdf [/b] file, definitely go over the [b]Inputting Notes[/b] section that starts on page 22.

From there you may want to spend some quality time with the [b]Mapping Diagrams[/b] to get more familiar with what noteheads are mapped to which sounds; those start on page 31. Use the Properties > Notes panel to see exactly which note is used in your score.

    [url=https://www.tapspace.com/pages.php?pageid=29]https://www.tapspace.com/pages.php?pageid=29[/url]

Go to the above page and at least watch the video covering Noteheads. Should be the last one in the available list.