I've been trying to use a mix of the new Sibelius 7 Sounds and VDL sounds (for now, via the Sib 5 Essentials), but found that, for most of the percussion sounds, I can only use one library for percussion sounds.  For example, I can't use the Sib 7 pitched percussion or orchestral percussion along with the VDL battery sounds. 

Is this typical?  Is anyone experiencing this?  Is there a way around this?  I assume that users should be able to choose a library per instrument.

Sib 5 Essentials would have its own instance of Kontakt Player (more than one instance if needed). Sibelius 7 Sounds will use its instance of Sibelius Player. With a Playback Configuration that's setup properly, you shouldn't have any conflicts in accessing both libraries at the same time.

Hugh, I think what he's saying is: with a playback config with both Kontakt and Sibelius player active, adding a percussion instrument only loads a VDL instrument.  It won't load a percussion instrument from the Sib Essentials library when you select ";Choose From: Band Instruments - Pitched Percussion";

Pretty close.  If I add, say, a sax, a marimba, and a snare drum, Sib 7 will load the horn sound using the Sib 7 sounds.  But for the percussion, if I want to use the VDL (Essentials) snare drum and the Sib 7 marimba, the marimba won't load.  I have to switch it to VDL (Essentials).  I'm not sure why.

Yes, that makes more sense. Misunderstood what he was after.

Phillip, one way or another you have to tell Sibelius which patches you want it to load. You can make those assignments each and every time in the Mixer, or have the instrument definition(s) you're using do it for you.

The reason you're getting mixed results from your pitched instruments is because the sound sets and instrument definitions are both using generic sound IDs. If Sibelius then sees more than one matching patch to choose from, it will decide for you.

Hugh, I think you may be misunderstanding the issue: No matter what player is selected, either manually via the mixer or by Sibelius default, [i]some[/i] sound should load.  In my case, when I'm using the configuration that uses both Sibelius 7 Player and Kontakt Player 5, NO sound is loading for some instruments using Sib 7 Player (in my previous example, the marimba), only Kontakt.  I find this to be true of percussion sounds, but also some horn sounds.

I should've been more clear on how I assign my players.  I always check the mixer to see what player is assigned to what instrument.  In my sample score set-up from my previous post, I assigned Sib 7 player to the sax and the marimba and snare to Kontakt 5.  The Sib 7 marimba won't load.  I have to switch it to Kontakt 5 in order to play.

Oddly, I was setting up a test score for Sibelius tech support and found that several instruments assigned to Sib 7 Player weren't loading, including pitched percussion.  When I started a marimba-only score using the Sib 7 Player, it didn't play back.  I switched the click track to Sib 7 Player, and, after loading the sounds, the marimba worked!  I switched back to my test score and, after some lengthy loading (for a single instrument), the marimba finally loaded and played back using Sib 7 Player.  The other pitched percussion - and as an aside, baritone horn - did not load or play back.  In order to hear those sounds, I have to switch to Kontakt.

I want to be able to use both the Sib 7 and VDL sounds.  I assign players manually with each score via the mixer, though have considered assigning some preferred sounds (I know I can manually switch them in the mixer later).  But, no matter what player is assigned to what instrument (percussion or otherwise), [i]some[/i] sound should load. 

While, in another post, I've been told that using the full VDL won't pose any problems, I fear that perhaps Sib 7 isn't ready to use multiple players.  I'll see what Sibelius tech support says, but I am interested to know if anyone else is having this problem.

Yeah, you've got something else going on there. And you're right, each instrument should load [i]something[/i]. Not sure what Sibelius support will tell you, but maybe reinstalling Sibelius and the S7S library will help. Are you using the 7.1.2 version of each?

I am.  And I resintalled all the sounds plus the sounds update.  Didn't reinstall Sib 7 itself, though, but I did update to 7.1.2.  Using it seems fine.  It's just the sounds problem.

We'll see what tech support says.  I'll share here in the hopes that it will help someone else.