Hi.  Could somebody please tell me how to get the best sounding suspended cymbal roll?  For example, I've been wanting to get a whole note roll tied into an eighth note.  When I do this, I don't get a full roll.  It rolls maybe 2 beats, if I'm lucky. 

What would you recommend?

Thanks,

Dennis

I am using the latest version of sibelius (PC) for my notation.

There are two ways about going about this:

Option A) Use the three suspended cymbal playback options.  If the release doesn't line up, select the starting note, and in the Inspector window, you can set the playback to start before or after the displayed note using the Live Start Position section.

Option B) Use the sustained suspended cymbal roll and add your hairpin.  With the hairpin selected, choose cresc/dim playback from the Plug-in menu and follow the steps.

Keep in mind, the three lengths of suspended cymbal rolls in VDL (short, medium, long) are set in their lengths. So depending on the tempo of your music, a ";medium"; suspended cymbal roll might not approximate the length of your whole note example.

So you can either choose the ";short"; roll (and move its live start time position to the right for example), or keep the ";medium"; and perhaps move its live start time to the left (earlier). In most cases, we're shooting to have the crest of the crescendo align with the release of the swell.

One last thing. If you're tying it into an 8th note, the sample's ";release"; will occur pretty quickly and you might not hear the full/natural decay of the cymbal swell. To get around this, you could tie the roll into a half note, or you could put a short sustain pedal marking (you can hide this so it doesn't print) in your score which would hold that event for a bit longer.

Hello,

I have been wondering about this issue as well.  However, i am usually not happy with how my cymbal rolls and timpani rolls crescendo.  For example, I have a suspended cymbal roll that is rolled over three bars with a long cresendo over the three bars. It does not seem to crest at the right point or not enough.  I notice you mentioned that I can adjust the ";live start position";.  I selected the note and opened the inspector window, however do not see any options for the live start position.  Can someone please direct me to the right section.

Thanks,

Keith

Macbook OS X 10.9.1
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Sibelius 7.1
Kontakt 5 player
Korg microkey
VDL 2.5

You need to make sure you have Live Playback turned on. See the attached image for a visual representation of how to turn it on.

Hi folks,

Thanks for the advice.  I'm still experimenting with it.  I'll keep trying.  I'm just barely hearing the roll crescendo and it is usually at the end.  My winds are usually covering up the roll.  I don't have my winds set very high in volume.

Thanks again,

Dennis

Hi again,

thanks for the info.  It shows me how to find the live start position in the inspector.  However, I am experimenting with it on a Snare drum roll that should crescendo, though I still hear no crescendo.  Is there something else I should be doing?

Thanks,

Keith

Hey,

Nevermind.  I got it to work, thanks for all the help!

Keith

Another tip for getting this right: the dynamic marking at the start of the roll (when the sample is triggered) determines the sample that is triggered. So if you have a suspended cymbal roll that crescendos from p to ff, and you notate it that way in Sibelius, you get a roll sample that plays back at a piano dynamic.

To get Sibelius to play what you are intended, make the first dynamic marking ";p~ff";. Anything after the tilde gets hidden, so you get notation that looks correct and a roll sample that swells to a loud release.

Thanks for the responses.  I am going to try these out this evening.

Dennis