Hi all,

In the percussion book I'm writing right now the front ensemble doesn't have a specific synth player, they have two players that alternate through synth, malletkat, and DTX.  My question is what would be the best instrument to select to start writing for this setup that will allow me to still input things like bass drum and gong hits with VDL sounds?  Thanks.

Jeremy,

In my opinion, it would be best to have a notation staff of sorts, then the staves that actually produce the playback. Set up the staves you want to have play back���in your case a synth staff, rack staff, and whatever sounds you're wanting the DTX to play���then set up a dummy staff that won't actually play anything, but will be the composite notated music of all of those others. After writing your music on the playback staves, simply copy it to the ";notation staff"; and turn off ";Play on pass.";  Or you could just mute that staff all together so that it won't play back at all. This is what I do for my rack players when I want to have them play more than what is built in to the combo instrument I'm using, which is usually Concert Band Combo.

Once you're done writing, you can hide the playback staves either using the ";Focus On";, or by hiding all of the music on those staves, then selecting them and using ";Hide Empty Staves.";

Hope this helps!

Awesome, that should work.  One last question, when playing back suspended cymbal rolls how do I get them to not add the release sound on the end?  I have it notated the usual way (roll note with tremolo tied to a quarter not release with sustain tie) but I don't want to hear the downbeat.  I'm using the 18"; K Constatinople sample.

There are also cymbal rolls with a choked release, in short, medium, and long lengths. For the regular suspended cymbals and chinas, they are on the accidental keys one half-step above the rolls with releases, if you're using a MIDI keyboard. Check out the maps that came with a the template files for where they actually lie on the keyboard. If you're not using a MIDI keyboard, just check out those same maps to find the corresponding notehead numbers for each roll.

Bryan you're awesome as usual.  Last question...is there ANY way in Sibelius 7 to do a mid-meausre instrument change (say from marimba to sus. cymbal or back)?  I know in the past it was a measure by measure thing but I know it's possibly somehow because I've heard it before.  Thanks again!

I do mid-measure instrument changes all the time in Sibelius 6. I assume you can do this in Sib7 as well. Can't you drag the instrument change box left and right and put it where you want it?

Select the last note of the current instrument and do the instrument change there.  That'll place the change to happen immediately after.

Also, last thing (I hope).  The keymaps I have do not line up with what is happening on my keyboard.  I have both the Write Score and the VDL user guide keymaps and neither like up exactly on some instruments.  Specifically cymbals (I can only find one muted cymbal sound on my keyboard).  When I go into the instrument list I see two things listed: Ex. K Constaniople and K Constinople (A).  What is the reason behind that and what is the difference?

I've done the click and drag box thing but it doesn't change the mapping in the measure in 7.  For instance I change back to Vibes from sus cymbal and I get all the vibe note sounds but the note only places itself on the F line where my cymbal was.

[quote author=JeremyLogan link=topic=4725.msg24299#msg24299 date=1403211781]
When I go into the instrument list I see two things listed: Ex. K Constaniople and K Constinople (A).  What is the reason behind that and what is the difference?[/quote]If you look at your VDL_Maps_7.0a file, you will see the difference. There are a number of VDL instruments in the Sibelius 7.0a template that have (A) mappings. This stands for ";alternate";. Alternate mappings provide a different way of notating the same sounds.

In this case, the (A) suspended cymbal mappings have the cymbal rolls mapped to ";x"; noteheads. The non-(A) mappings have the cymbal rolls mapped to solid standard noteheads. Depending on how you prefer to notate your suspended cymbal parts, you use one or the other.

Ok, I think I've got most of this figured out now.  It's just been so long since I've written I forgot how to do things!

Edit:  Except for the mid-measure change...it's still not mapping right.

The issue you'll run into with mid-measure changes is that���for whatever reason���when receiving MIDI keyboard input, Sibelius doesn't recognize or properly input notes that correspond to the mapping until the [i]next[/i] measure. However, if the notes are after the little, gray Instrument Change box, they should be recognized during playback.

I've always done is put the instrument change in the measure prior to where it's actually happening, enter my music into the correct measure, then move the actual instrument change object to the correct measure. That should work, if everything is configured properly. That's why I tend to put the instrument change on the correct bar, then just budge the box slightly to the left to get it into the previous measure.