Dimension Strings for Sibelius

[andi]

The sound set "VE Strings" has been updated. It now includes settings and VI/VI Pro presets for our new Dimension Strings collection. For this occasion also the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual and the "Vienna Symphonic Library" House Style for Sibelius have been updated. The new House Style version is needed in order to add the right instruments for the Dimension Strings in Sibelius.
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/68/141/460/576/655.htm

Best regards,
Andi

[Anssi]

Thanks Andi. This is great, although i don't have this DS library... at least not yet. There are some things that i would like to check. The Optimizing Sibelius...pdf listed different commands for getting different effects, but couple of things caught my eye: -there were listed only two 2 players unisono: "a2" and "a2.2". Since there are 8 players, should there not be also "a2.3" and "a2.4" commands too ? -There was only one command for getting a single player: "solo". This seems to select the player 1 with "all" preset, but i find this rather limiting. Will there come, in the future, an option also to choose any of the 8 players? With Dimension Brass it is possible to choose any particular player by using "1." or "2.", etc. command... i would like to see similar thing with Dimension Strings too. Thanks. -Anssi

[andi]

Hello Anssi!

Thanks for your interest.
We have a preset for Group 1 (Players 1, 3, 5, 7) and a preset for Group 2 (Players 2, 4, 6, 8). So with the two commands "a2" and "a2.2" you can address all four groups of two players. Also with the "solo" command you can address Player 2 as soloist if you have loaded the Group 2 preset. Additionally there are presets for each single player. So you have the freedom to make any combination of players you want to. For unusual combinations you could load more than one instrument to the same MIDI channel.

Best regards,
Andi

[Anssi]

Hello Andi, Thanks for the reply. So how does it work if i want to have "normal" one stave Violin I and i want to, let's say, have one passage played by the player number 5? So i want 8 violins, but for one passage i want to use just the player number 5 and all are notated on the same one stave in Sibelius and using one VI Pro instance. Also: so with "All" preset / one VI Pro instance i can't choose all available desks (only 1st and 2nd)... for getting access to others i would need to use two VI Pro instances / 2 group presets and have two Violin staves? Thanks. -Anssi

[andi]

Hi Anssi!

If you have loaded the all preset, you cannot change to player 5 solo or to desks 3 and 4. To be honest, I'm not sure why you would want to do that. You can access them with other presets. A preset that would offer all players in all combinations would be out of proportion. Somewhere has to be a line. ;-)

Best,
Andi

[Anssi]

Hello Andi, Thanks for the reply. That doesn't sound so good :( I would want, well i would expect too, it to be just like with Dimension Brass: i can choose any single player or 4 or 3 or 2 players using one stave / one instance. Can't it be done with Dimension Strings "all" preset: i mean aren't all the players available within that preset? In the end is it just a question of programming it? If so, then i don't quite understand: you have such a product that offers the possibility, but then it is not used...? Thanks. -Anssi

[andi]

Hi Anssi!

You can choose any amount of players with the all preset. It's just not possible to switch to a distinct player as a soloist. And I'm still not sure why you would want to do that. With the Dimension Brass there were 4 players. With the Dimension Violins we have 8 players. So there would be far more possibilities to make combinations, but there is only a limited number of keys for matrix keyswitches (the lowest octavce). In order to not get the Sibelius sound set out of proportion the keyswitches have to stay the same for all Dimension Strings presets (Violins, Violas, Celli, Bassi).

We have chosen Player 1 on purpose to be Player 1. If you prefer Player 5 (or any other player) as a soloist, you can replace the Player 1 matrix in the all preset with a Player 5 matrix. To do so just load the Player 5 preset, save the matrix, load the All players preset and substitute the Player 1 matrix.

I haven't seen a score yet, where we have a string group change to different soloists within this group and every soloist is notated on the same staff. If you want to make this kind of music you can still notate it on more than one staff. I can't see why this should be limiting.

Best,
Andi

[Anssi]

Hello Andi, Thanks for the reply. Well i have seen such a score... :) I have made such a score ;) Ah, i see it's using keyswitches for that... My particular score calls at one moment, passage (playing alone... sometimes with solo mark, sometimes not) 4 different bass players, 4 different cello players, 3 different violas and 2 different violins and each string sections has only one staff in Sibelius. So, for that i would need at least one extra violin for the violin section. As the rest of the Dimension Strings will be smaller... so there are, probably?, more room for keyswitches with the rest of the string sections. How many keyswitches there are left? Would it be possible to get at least 4 different player possibilities for the official Sibelius sound set release? (or at least 1 more player for the violin section and 4 player possibilities for the rest of the sections?) Anyway, does the player changing work like this: "solo" command in Sibelius sends keyswitch event and that particular key (seen in the VI Pro instance matrix at leftmost / fist?) has been assigned for the Player 1? Thanks. -Anssi

[andi]

Hi Anssi!

If playback is important for you, I would always notate the instrumentation you are suggesting on one staff for every instrument. Please remember that Sibelius is not capable of sending different voices on the same staff to different MIDI channels and therefore you will not be able to have two instruments on the same staff play different articulations.

Also all single players in the same preset would only be of use for your suggestion, if they never play at the same time, which probably isn't the case.

Anyway, the divisi matrix, which is included in the all preset might be of interest for you. The first voice in your score will be played by Player 1. Additional voices will be played by the next players - always one player for every voice.

Best,
Andi

[Anssi]

Hello Andi, Thanks for the reply. Well i want to have one score for printing / playback; keeping it simple.... thus if a situation is similar as is the following: Violin section playing 500 measures from 505 measures together, but for each one measure left from 5 measures one different player would play alone one measure from them (so 1 voice at a time, therefore the divisi matrix would not help)... it would be quite awkward to have 5 separate violin staff + possible 5 separate Viola, Cello, Bass staff too. No sense in that. Yes, Sibelius can assign only one midi channel per stave / all voices (although one can change the midi channel by using commands / soundset). It would be easy to have just separate VI Pro instance for a single player and notate it as voice 2 for example, if Sibelius would be able to assign different midi channels for different voices. So as a result "only" easy way to do this with one VI Pro instance is if i would have similar commands that are in Dimension Brass soundset / preset. But if there are not going to be any official preset for this(?) it seems then that i must do them myself (if i will ever buy this Dimension Strings anyway). With Dimension Brass it seems that i couldn't do them easily if "Sib_DimBr_4_Horns_PRO" preset would not contain already this single player choosing function. I couldn't find any single separate "DimBr_4_Horns_P1_PRO" matrix file to load for if it would not been included already in that "Sib_DimBr_4_Horns_PRO" preset. I don't know how the situation if with DS: could i get somewhere the Dimension Strings Sibelius presets to look for that can i do them easily myself? Thanks. -Anssi

[andi]

Hi Anssi!

I have sent you a mail.

Best,
Andi

[Anssi]

Hello Andi, Ok, thanks. I'll reply there. -Anssi