For some reason, it's now working - I can locate the VSL Ensemble soundset. I deleted the file I had and redownloaded it from the Sibelius site..!

Is it possible someone could help me regarding the choice of instruments to be used in the Vienna Ensemble. Is it better, for example, to load up separate instances of a single Horn instrument (and assign them to the same Horn channel set in the Sibelius playback configurations), or to open a Horn ensemble? I'm guessing the first option is the wiser, as if I want more than one horn each playing legato passages, there may be problems having all horns on one stave...? Bearing this in mind, if I wanted a conventional orchestral set-up, could you tell me what instruments I should load up in the Sib configurations? Thanks a lot for your help guys 

@andi said:

When you use 2 instruments of the same kind, they need two seperate channels in Sibelius and Vienna Ensemble. Also don't forget to give the second instrument the soundID with the "2" added.

Andi

I have set up Flute 1 and Flute 2 in the playback settings, and have also set these up in the Vienna Ensemble, each channelled to their respective channel. Each line still cuts one another off when playing back two separate legato passages.....  

Then something must be set up wrong. Check if the channels in the Sibelius mixer correspond with the channels in Vienna Ensemble.
Also check Manual Sound Sets in your Playback Devices. The Second Flute should have ".2" at the end of the SoundID.

To your other question: If you have more instruments of the same kind playing different things, it is better to give each instrument its own staff, its own channel (in Sibelius and in Vienna Ensmeble) and its own SoundID - at least for Playback reasons. If the Layout is more important then maybe you have to compromise a little with the Playback.

If you want to use more than two instruments of one kind, you have to edit the sound set. If you want to do that, take a look at this thread:
http://community.vsl.co.at/forums/p/17434/124653.aspx

I've got it to work with 2 flutes - I discovered that in the Sibelius Mixer, the second flute was set to channel 1 and not 2 as it should have been. Does this mean everytime I load up 2 of the same instruments I will have to adjust the settings in the Sibelius mixer? Or should this all be automatic?

@andi said:

If you have more instruments of the same kind playing different things, it is better to give each instrument its own staff, its own channel (in Sibelius and in Vienna Ensmeble) and its own SoundID - at least for Playback reasons.

Isn't the problem with this, however, that you can only load up a maximum of 16 channels in the Sibelius playback configuration. So, for example, assigning 4 separate horns their own channels already takes up a quarter of your choices, which could be restricting if you want to produce a full orchestral score. Hope I am making sense here?

Thanks,

MT 

But then you can have as many VEs as your computer can handle. Any two core or better machine should be able to handle at least three VEs I think so 48 channels which is good for most orchestral scores.

Ah of course =) wow - the Vienna Ensemble really makes life that bit easier. Imagine running 48 instances of VI in Sibelius!

Okay, but does anyone know how to get multiple instances of VE working in Sibelius?  I have seen suggestions in threads here that it can be done, and suggestions that it doesn't work very well.  I haven't been able to get it to work.  If it can be done, can some kind soul please post a step-by-step set of instructions for doing this?  I would certainly appreciate it.

I am using a Mac Pro 8-core, 8 gig RAM, Sibelius 5.1, VSL SE, Logic, etc.

Hello maavsl.

I have virtually the same configuration as you. I had sent a message to tech support and they responded with the following answer, which worked great. I have copied and pasted the entire exchange below (from most recent to least). Be aware, first try loading multiple instances of VE as an AU plug-in within Sibelius, and then try the stand-alone option if you max out the total RAM of the plug-in.

--Forwarded message-- 

Hello Philip!

Due to limitations in a 32-bit system, it is not possible for a single
application to load more than 3 GB RAM. Depending on the configuration of
the system this value may even be lower (in your case about 2 GB). It is
indeed possible to load additional stand-alone instances of Vienna
Ensemble, which will allow you to load the same amount of sample data
additionally. If you want to open more than one instances of VE stand
alone, you have to copy the Vienna Ensemble application and name it
differently. The stand alone instances are not recognised from within
Sibelius. You have to open them from the applications folder.

In order to communicate from Sibelius with stand-alone VE you have to use
IAC or a different virtual MIDI-port. Be aware that you cannot load the
sound set if you choose IAC or a hardware MIDI-out. However, there is also
a way to solve this problem. Open the sound set with the sound set editor
or a text editor and change the entry PatchLoadMechanism from "Fixed" to
"MIDI". Save the sound set with a different name. Now you can communicate
from Sibelius over the IAC-Port with the Stand-alone Vienna Ensemble and
the modified sound set takes care of the articulation changes.

Best wishes,
Andreas

> Hello Andreas.
>
> Thank you for your message. Sorry if I was not clear. I am able to open
> 2 instances of the VE plug-in in Sibelius. The problem is that I am not
> able to load more than about 2 GB total between the two instances. When
> I try to do so, VE crashes. Is there a way to load more samples into VE
> without it crashing? If I loaded a third instance of the VE plug-in,
> would I be able to access more RAM?
>
> I have the latest version of VE, from Feb. 4 2008.
>
> Thank you,
> Philip
>

Philip,

Thank you very much for your response.  I am now able to run two instances of VE through Sibelius (meaning, like you, I can open two instances of VE in Sibelius; I am not using the second VE as a stand-alone).

However, I am now encountering two new problems:  First, in testing playback I get some scratchy noise artifacts which become even more prominent using the Logic reverb plugin.  Second, power panning does not seem to work with the reverb.  I have seen other posts addressing this second issue, but I haven't gotten that ironed out yet.

Any words of wisdom on these issues?

Thanks,

Mark

Mark,

Regarding the reverb, do you mean the AU MatrixReverb? There is an issue where opening multiple instances of this plug-in causes the scratchy artifacts you describe. I don't think it is possible, unfortunately, to successfully use multiple instances of the AU MatrixReverb plug-in.

Instead of opening the reverb within VE, try opening a single instance in your playback configuration in Sibelius. (in the "Effects" tab under "Master Insert Effects") when you configure your playback devices.

Perhaps this will solve your power panning issue as well?

Philip,

Thank you again for your response.  I was indeed using two instances of AUMatrixReverb and, as you suggested, that seems to have been the culprit causing the scratchy artifacts.  Unfortunately, however, I am still left with the power-panning problem when using the reverb plugin.  It doesn't matter if I add it in VE or in the effects part of the playback configuration in Sibelius:  add the reverb, power panning doesn't work; remove the reverb, and power panning works.

I'll have to check the community here on this issue, but do you have any suggestions?  What do you use for reverb in your setup?

Thanks again,

Mark

Mark,

That's interesting. I don't have a chance to check it out right now. If you find out how to resolve the problem, please post your solution. I assume you know that VSL does not respond to MIDI pan messages from Sibelius (but it sounds like that would be a separate issue anyway).

What I actually did for the last project was export audio from Sibelius for each choir separately (winds, brass, strings, perc) with no reverb. Then I brought the resulting audio files into Logic and mixed it there, along with some other tweaks. I used the Space Designer reverb (unfortunately it's not an AU so it's not available in other applications).

I am sure there are others here who have different and better setups and would be curious to know about any of them regarding VSL/VE, Sibelius & Logic.

Philip