I'm having an issue with buzz rolls being triggered on but not triggered off. The result is a buzz roll that lasts for an entire recording. Also, when another buzz roll happens in the music, multiple buzz rolls end up sounding on top of one another.

I'm using Sibelius 7 to write a marching band score. I have 4 mallet parts which occasionally switch to cymbals (using 18"; constantinople), Timpani, and 5 staves of percussion which all pretty much use concert band combo. However, the percussion staves occasionally switch to something else like brake drum or wind chimes and then BACK to concert band combo.

I experimented with having only certain instruments play and that seemed to alleviate the problem until certain other instruments played again. I also tried to insert a new instrument in the score and hide it just to be used for playback purposes (while muting the other track). Also, I tried purging all sounds from some modules in Kontakt player through Sibelius' mixer. I didn't have any success with that but I did notice that the concert band combo instruments were sometimes sharing ";slots"; ... which I am not sure if that is the same as General MIDI's channels. I have a lot of instruments in my score, so maybe I have exceeded 16 channels?

Has this happened before? Like I said, I found a temporary solution, but when I tried to export a sound file, the buzzing snare sounds were back.

Please help! Thanks in advance.

SPECS:

HP Pavilion dv6
Windows 7
6GB RAM
Intel Core i7
Sibelius 7
VDL 2.5
Kontakt 5

You need to activate at least one more instance of Kontakt Player so Sibelius will have enough slots/channels to load everything. If you think you'll exceed a total of 32 VDL instruments, a third instance will be necessary.

We're going to need more information as to the buzz roll problem. What instrument(s)? Are you using a tie? Please attach screen shots.

My first guess would be that your score has some sort of rogue pedal marking (sustain pedal) that's forcing the buzz roll to never release. Maybe try inputting the following text into your Concert Band Combo staff at the point where the buzz roll occurs. Essentially this sends a message to release the sustain pedal (if for some reason it was instantiated earlier.

~C64,1

It may also be possible that you put an open tie on that part which may not release the note. If using ties, be sure to always resolve them so the note is released.

A combination of the two suggestions has done the trick.

I first added another instance of Kontakt player. I exported a recording and I had a triangle roll (but not the snare rolls) keep ringing. I then put in the code to release the sustain pedal and it worked in the recording.

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that the Perc. 5 staff would switch to a woodblock sound - not unlike Sibelius' click track sound. I wanted it to play a concert bass sound but i was just getting a woodblock. I went in to the Sibelius mixer and changed that track to the second instance of Kontakt and all was fixed.

As far as ties go, I did tie the rolls and I did resolve them. I had never previously had an issue with ties.

I think this issue may be resolved - but now I know for next time to add another instance of Kontakt and there may be a need to release the sustain pedal!

Thank you.