Sibelius 7 Sounds and other problems..

[barrystronge]

I am greatly disappointed with Sibelius 7 Sounds. The harsh, metallic sound of the oboe makes it unusable and the same goes for the trumpet. The time taken to load sounds is unacceptable, especially when it is required in mid-session, for example on introducing pizzicato.

There are also program faults not present in previous versions. Write a trill in voice 1 and you will also get it in voice 2. Write a staccato note in voice 1 and any concurrent note in voice 2 will also be staccato. I do not recall any such problems in previous versions.

Editing facilities, on the other hand, are good in Sibelius 7. My practice now is to continue to write in Sibelius 6, using the satisfactory Sibelius Essentials sound library, then, after I have made my audio file, to reopen the score in Sibelius 7 for printing purposes.

[Kevin]

I did not like the sounds either Barry which is why I got the Note Performer package. It is worth a try. If you want an example post a score here and I will send you an mp3 of it using NP.

By the way the owner of NP is a member here so you can always post a question for him.

[barrystronge]

I have not previously heard of Note Performer. Can you tell me more about it or supply a link, please?

[wizzarts]

Well, for a good example you should send Kevin a file. So you can directly compare both noteperformer and Sib-sounds with a familiar piece of music.

Here is the link to the developers homepage.

www.noteperformer.com/?mode=news

Although I am using VSL, EastWest and others I was really impressed of the result one can do with NP. It is not an improvement of Sib-sounds but a real step ahead.

3ndy

[Kevin]

Hope you are getting on well now Barry.

[barrystronge]

I am very pleased so far, thank you.

[Kevin]

Are you setting things up so that it runs correctly Barry? There is a way to get the best out of it.

[barrystronge]

I am making progress, but any advice on obtaining the best from NP would be gratefully received.

[Joseph]

Barry, per advice from Arne, be sure to turn off Sibelius' "live playback" option for the best use of NP. Joseph (I also am just learning the ins and outs of this software)

[Kevin]

Have you read the handbook?

[Joseph]

Apr 24, 2014 17:10:14 GMT Kevin said:

Have you read the handbook?

there are 2, maybe 3 pages out of the 37 that truly need to be read regarding performance;
Turn off the live playback features in Sibelius, turn off the espressivo, and don't nest slurs.  Also, don't turn off the global reverb . . . I'm pretty sure that covers playback in the manual.  Oh, set all the volume faders in the mixer equally to begin with. 

I am finding that NP doesn't necessarily like it if you run hairpin plugins but I cannot say for sure.  NP seems to care for such issues within itself.  I've had to back out the plugin messages to clean up the piano sounds.  

As long as NP is caring for all markings there probably is no need to process hairpins.  Are the other users finding this to be true?

[barrystronge]

I have followed all those recommendations. I am pleased with the results, but I would like to be able to adjust some note durations and I cannot see how that can be done without use of live playback. Sometimes notes not under slurs are rather non legato. Conversely, repetition of a note sometimes loses articulation of the second note.)

[Joseph]

Barry, I too, noted a lack of articulation here and there. Maybe someone else has an answer? Joseph

[barrystronge]

A further consideration. Two voices on the same staff, say, flutes 1 and 2. Flute 1 plays E followed by G. Concurrently, flute 2 plays C followed by E. Flute 2's E does not sound. It does not matter whether the two chords are slurred or unslurred. When a legato note in one voice is immediately followed by the same legato note in another voice, the second one is silent. I have used Sibelius in versions 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 and this fault has persisted in them all. The only way I know of to get the second note to sound is to shorten the first, no matter by how little, and that requires live playback.

[Kevin]

I have sent Arne a PM about this. He will get here when he is not too busy!!

[Deleted]

Hi all!

Barry, are you using straight tempo, or some other "rhythmic feel", such as "waltz", "march" etc? Please note that just entering the word "waltz" -anywhere- in a score will switch to that rhythmic feel, even if you've set "straight" under the Performance panel in Sibelius.

The reason why I'm asking is that there's a known bug in Sibelius, that if you use a rhythmic feel, sometimes if you repeat the same note, the second note will not sound. This happens because the rhythmic feel changes the timing of notes, so that notes can overlap. And when notes of the same pitch overlap, you get this problem.

I'm not 100% sure, but I vaguely recall this having been resolved in Sibelius 7.5.

Regarding CC11 messages, I would strongly advice NOT to insert manual ~MIDI messages into your score when using NotePerformer, but leave all dynamics handling up to the plugin. I would also advice not to change timing of notes using Live Performance. This is of course up to each one to decide, but articulations such as slurs may not work properly if the timing of notes isn't right.

If you want to use the "cresc." keyword and want it to be heard in playback, don't insert CC messages using the plug-in, but just insert a graphical crescendo hairpin from Sibelius and make it hidden if you don't want it to show in print! From the Inspector/Properties for the hairpin you can control exactly how you want the dynamics to change.

If you experience problems with a particular score, I'm happy to take a look at it for you!

Best regards,
Arne,
Wallander Instruments

[Kevin]

Thanks for that Arne, I am sure it will help!

[barrystronge]

Thank you Arne. I always use straight tempo without espressivo or rubato. In Play/Performance I always shorten unslurred notes to about 98%. That makes no difference to the fault. In Play/Dictionary I can adjust the durations of notes under slurs. That makes no difference to it either. The only solution, as far as I can see, is to have first and second instruments on separate staves which is OK for the parts but I think less desirable in the conductor's score.

[Kevin]

Separate parts are okay Barry. Your scores are never very big so there should not be a problem reading them.

[Deleted]

If Live playback is turned off and it says "straight" in the performance window, and you still get this, I would double-check and triple-check and make sure there isn't a keyword in the score somewhere changing the rhythmic feel, such as "waltz", "valse", "swing", "shuffle", "samba", "pop", "funk", "fusion". I've had this problem a few times and although it's difficult to spot, that has always turned out to be the problem in the end.

If you for example have named your song "My little waltz", that could be a trigger for changing the rhythmic feel, even if you've set it to "straight" in the performance window.

I would also try deleting everything but the bar that have this problem, and see if the problem still occurs. If it doesn't, there's something in the score causing it. You could then try deleting just parts of the score, and keep going until you've pinpointed what's causing the problem.