Sibelius: Problem with SE and Violins Articulation Selections

[Jurgen Beck]

I'm running into a strange problem with the violins articulation selections in SE. I've followed the setup instructions for Sibelius and SE and yet the violins articulation in VE always switches to the staccato patch no matter what is specified in Sibelius. For example, when a legato passage is written in Sibelius, VE will switch to the staccato patch (7A).

This does not happen with the violas. 

I have also made sure that the sound IDs are properly selected. All this happens straight out of the box without any further modifications made other than following the setup tutorial for Sibelius with SE.

Any thoughts where to start looking?

Thanks,

JB

[andi]

Hello Jurgen!

Are you talking about ensemble strings or solo strings?
You have to be careful with choosing the right instrument in Sibelius. Use Solo Violin, ... for solo instruments and Violin 1, Violin 2, Violin I, Viola, ... for ensemble strings.
The program you choose on the manual sound set page has to match with the instrument.

Btw. 7A is pizzicato. Does it switch to pizzicato or staccato? Also be careful not to mix up Special Edition with Special Edition PLUS. Use the Special Edition sound set for a VE instance with SE matrices loaded and the Special Edition PLUS sound set for a VE instance with SE+ matrices loaded.

Best wishes,
Andi

[Jurgen Beck]

Thanks, Andi, for jumping in!

Clarification first: I meant the pizzicato being 7A, so yes, any note played back from within Sibelius switches to the 7A patch, it being pizzicato.

As for the strings matrix, yes, this is for the ensemble strings, so I made sure that the Violin I in the score is using the strings.violins.ensemble sound ID. The sound set I use is the VE Special Edition (downloaded from the VSL Needful Things section). I've also tried it with the soundset that is included in Sibelius 5.2.5 with the same results.

I'm convinced that this is a mismatch somewhere, but it sure eludes me as to where exactly it's happening. I've had mismatches before, but then at least the articulations would switch (although to a wrong patch). With this one it's always the 7A patch. Really strange.

I've also looked at the House Style (Edit Instruments) to see what ID is being sent for Violin I and it is the same strings.violins.ensemble ID. 

I'm really scratching my head on this one...

Jurgen

[andi]

Are you using one or more violin sections? If more, does it go wrong with all of them or just with one?

Maybe it helps if you go to the Sibelius mixer and set the Sound ID of the instrument there (3rd line of every instrument in the mixer).

Andi

[Jurgen Beck]

Alright, we're making progress. I think I just figured out an important clue:

Seems that the articulation selection issue has to do with the Manuscript Paper selection when starting a new score in Sibelius. I have to track down the exact source of the problem, but when selecting a String Orchestra manuscript, everything works as expected. The articulations switch properly for the violins, and with the same playback device setup.

I assume this has something to do with the House Style selection, so I have to find out exactly what it is that is causing the problem.

I'll dig a little deeper, but if you have any suggestions, I appreciate it.

Thanks,

Jurgen

[Jurgen Beck]

I think I have found the problem: 

The complete manual soundset needs to be defined for whatever instruments are used in the score. If not, especially the Violins I will not use the proper articulations.

Let me explain:

When starting a new score with say just a string section (violins, violas, cellos, basses) and having a manual soundset that just uses those instrument assignments, everything is working just fine. When you add new instruments above the violins, the violins articulations are wrong until all added instruments have a corresponding VI sound assigned in the manual soundset setup. 

This may be an obvious fact, but it sure threw me for a loop as I was in the middle of setting up Sibelius and VE or VI and couldn't figure out why I didn't get the correct articulations in the violins until all instruments had been properly assigned with corresponding soundset selections.

Hope this makes sense to anyone else running into the same problem. Bottom line is that all instruments used in the score need to have corresponding VE or VI instruments assigned in the manual sound sets.

[andi]

Thanks for pointing that out.

Andi

[DaveDrewry]

Interesting. I had a similar problem. I use a single 4Gb PC running Vista64 bit, Sibelius 5.2.5 and VE2/3

Everything worked OK with a particular midi file and manual soundsets using 3 standalone VEs (Woodwind, Brass, Strings) supplemented by SibeliusEssentials. When I created a plug-in equivalent using the same midi file, same woodwind soundset (other than swapping midi type to fixed) and loading just the woodwind instruments in the plugin VE instance supplemented by SibeliusEssentials, I observed all the earlier pre-Sibelius 5.2.5 problems with 2nd instruments e.g. Flute 2, Oboe 2 not responding correctly to articulation changes - typified by reset to sustain not working.

The woodwind staves were setup correctly and consistent with the woodwind manual soundset, re-applied etc - the problem was only corrected after setting the Sibelius mixer devices to auto for instruments in the score I wasn't listening to and getting Sibelius to recalculate which devices to use.