I've been using Sibelius and VDL since they both came out, and always have used OSX, so this isn't really new to me, but the way I want to change instruments within VDL is.

I have always used the ";Change Instrument"; function and the auto loading within VDL has worked fine.  It still works for the most part, but when I'm scoring dozens of staves and multiple changes on each staff, it starts to get buggy, and I lose my clean workflow along with it. 

With the introduction of more electronic instruments, and since I use Massive, FM8 and Kontakt for other sounds on a regular basis, I began using Program changes to switch between samplers and I use banks for my synths within Kontakt and it feels right to me.  So I would like to do this with VDL.

This has worked for the most part, except for the Battery instruments, which I'm not sure why.  For instance, I have 4 Kontakts open - 1 for Battery, 1 for battery instruments, 1 for synths and guitars, and 1 for auxiliary instruments - and I make a bank for each instrument.  Within that I load all the instruments I would want to change between and use the program change technique text on the staff. 

The issues I'm having: the sounds play back, but the input sets them up way above the staff and I don't get the noteheads I want.  Also, the battery instruments don't playback at all this way (I'm assuming it has something to do with the soundset of the battery instruments).  I can go through and change noteheads to what I want, and articulations and whatnot...  But I'm wondering if there's anyone out there that does this in a similar way and has worked out the kinks.  Like I said, this is just a cleaner workflow for me and keeps me organized. 

I can't be of much help with any specifics, but the note placement on the staff and noteheads are all defined within two places: the sound set (for the device you're using) and the Staff Style editor (for the instrument/staff you're using). You probably hear a lot of people here referring to this sort of thing as ";percussion mapping."; It's one reason the Write Score templates are so helpful, because they've gone to the trouble of setting all this up.

You can certainly create and edit percussion mapping in Sibelius, but it may take you some time to get the hang of it. Read up on ";Soundworld"; in the Sibelius documentation, and perhaps spend some time using Avid's support resources to learn about some of its quirks.