velocity xfade in sibelius

[stevetrumpet]

Please can someone tell me where I'm going wrong here.

I set xfade in the perform map control to the same controller as expression (ie C11)

The both sliders (exp and xfade) then go up and down as expected but the sample doesn't "seem" to change ie I do a cresc from pp to ff and down again in the brass and the sound gets louder but stays at a nice warm mp timbre.... rather than changing to the brassy timbre one would expect at ff and gets with a simple dynamic instruction.  

Been messing about with this for ages to no avail

It has occured to me that maybe SE doesn't have velocity xfade? 

Can someone (Andi? being the VSL sib expert) tell me in what way I'm being stupid?? Do I need to do anything  else in VE to get the crossfading to work?  

Thanks in advance to anyone who can put me out of my misery! 

Steve

  

[Conquer]

Hi Steve. Um - stupid question maybe, but have you turned velocity X-fade on? It has its own little on-off switch in the VI 'Perform' page's 'perform control' window. SE patches do have different velocity layers (the number of which is displayed under the patch name once it's loaded) so the function should work. One thought - if you map CC11 to both expression and x-fade you'll be getting a double dose of dynamic variation, might be better to assign a different controller to X-fade.

[stevetrumpet]

Turns out it wasn't a stupid question! Would you believe, having changed the Soundset and tried all sorts of other complicated things, the answer was staring me in the face all along

I feel a little silly.....

Thanks Conquer

[Conquer]

You're welcome! It's easy to overlook those little switches.

[andi]

Actually using the velocity crossfade with CC11 is a good idea. I also do it in my arrangements. In order to avoid double dynamics, as Conquer said, you can turn off expression.

Andi

[Beat Kaufmann]

 Hi Steve

Even if you are successful with X-Fade - have a look here:

http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/vitutorials/index.html

or closer to x-fade 

http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/vitutorials/vitipstricks2/index.php#0439199b0213d3501

Best

Beat

[stevetrumpet]

Andi

Thanks for the response

All working nicely now with one exception  - Timps! Apparently (from Sam at Sibelius) the timps are set to reset C11 to 127 so although I now get  lovely cresc and dims through the velocity layers (which I did not before) single notes seem to default to full volume!!!

Any way around this?  - ie do you know what I might need to tweak in the soundset to keep the timp at whatever previous C11 value it was at?   

Thanks for any insight

Steve 

[Mahlon]

Steve,

Would you be willing to post a short example of your current state of achievment integrating VSL into Sibelius. I'm interested in this route, but I have no idea how far one can take the sound. It would be great to hear an example from someone who's spent some real time with it.

Mahlon

[stevetrumpet]

Mahlon

No problem at all

To clarify; I use this strictly to compose with ie these are not supposed to be finished "renderings", and the Stravinsky and Wagner were essentially done as learning projects. Never the less I think they give a fairly good represenation

A little Stravinsky - www.stephenhicks.co.uk/rite.mp3

A spot of Wagner - www.stephenhicks.co.uk/siegfried.mp3

And to finish, part of my latest big piece - www.stephenhicks.co.uk/boundaries.mp3

Let me know what you think! Oh and if you want to compare the last one with a real orch playing it, for reference - www.stephenhicks.co.uk/boundariesexc.mp3

Cheers now

Steve

[Mahlon]

Very nice. Gives a good idea of a rough. How do you handle tempo changes, ritardando, etc. in Sibelius?

Mahlon

[andi]

Hello!

The Special Edition and Special Edition PLUS sound sets have been updated. If you want to, you can use C11 as controller for Velocity Crossfade instead of Expression also for the Timpani now.

Best,
Andi

[stevetrumpet]

Using the new 5.2.5 soundset with sib 5.2.5 - if I try to use C11 for Vel Xfade I get no response for normal dynamic markings (unlike all the other "melody" instruments) and if I try to use expression as well (just an experiment) I get this rest at volume 127 all the time!

How do you set it up so that you can get the vel xfade for cresc and get the normal dynamic markings without the 127 reset??

Cheers

Steve

PS I am also in contact with Sam at sibelius about this         

[andi]

Hi Steve!

This is strange. It's working for me with C11 set to expression, set to Vel crossfade and set to both.

Did you download the latest soundset from our website?

It does not work with the sound set that comes with Sibelius 5.2.5, as I did only implement it after your request. [;)] 

Best wishes,
Andi