Cannot adjust dynamic levels of staccto articulation

[starrmark]

When I play back a melody with Orchestral Strings - Violins, every note in the melody that has a staccato dot plays much too loudly. 

So, I went into Sibelius' Playback Dictionary to edit Articulations/staccato.  After checking Adjust Dynamic and Adjust Attack, I reduced the values by half.  After closing the dictionary, I played back the orchestral violin part.  There was no audible change at all in the dynamic level of the staccato notes in the melody.  I repeated the above actions -- still no change during playback.  Then I set the values for 0.  Still no change during playback.  Every staccato note played back much too loud in comparison to the legato notes in the melody.  Then I set the values for 300.  Still no audible change in playback.

This makes no sense to me.  I tried the same kind of modications of the dynamic level and attack level on notes in the melody that had a tenuto mark.  During playback, all of the notes with tenuto marks responded to the changes I made in the playback dictionary.  When I set the levels for tenuto marks at 0, the notes in the melody with tenuto marks disappeared.

The only way I have been able to bring staccato notes to the same dynamic level of other notes in the melody is by marking each staccato note with a much lower dynamic -- such as dropping from mf to p.  This is not a practical solution.  Why don't Orchestral Strings or VE respond to changes in the Sibelius Playback Dictionary for dynamic levels in staccato?

MS

[The Minstrel]

I'm not using Sibelius myself, so this might not apply to your situation, but have you by any chance activated velocity x-fade under the perform tab in VI?

[starrmark]

 Hello Minstrel:

Many thanks for the tip,  I've tried playback both with xfade activated and not activated.  Evidently, xfade has no effect on dynamics and attack for notes with a staccato dot.  The playback is audibly the same -- i.e. these notes still stick out because they are too loud.

By the way, I see I am not the only one who is trying to solve this problem.  Back in January, Oceanview posted the following:

   "Very interesting discussion about dynamic values. I want to suggest a similar thing needs to be done with the string sounds in VSEd to even them out with each other. For example, at the same dynamic staccato patches tend to be louder than other string sounds. I also find that the staccato sounds are too fierce - i.e. staccato 1/4 note sounds more like a staccato 1/8 - it ought to have more sustain and weight."

I find the uneven dynamics in the string parts -- especially in the violin parts -- to be a major problem.  In my pieces for string orchestra, the violins (both first and seconds) frequently fade in and out, sometime to the point where they vanish completely from audibility.  But notes marked with a staccato dot or an accent mark are unnaturally loud and stick out of the line irritatingly.  The violins are always much weaker than the violas, cellos and basses.  However, in any passage marked f (or ff), all strings (including the violins) play much too loud. 

Boosting the volume of the violins in the Sibelius mixer (or in the VE Mixer) only exacerbates the wavering dynamics and the faulty balance.

Regards,

MS

[andi]

Hello Mark!

It's true that some string staccato articulations are louder than the sustain patches. The Sibelius "espressivo" setting adds to that. So first I would set espressivo to "senza espressivo". Then I would simply put down the level of the staccato patch a bit. That can be done in the Vienna Instruments/Control Edit/Edit Cell menu. Don't forget to save your playback configuration after that.

Here is why changing the dynamics of staccato in the dictionatry has no effect. The Sound ID change + staccato is used in all of the VSL sound sets. The adjustments you can make for the staccato articulations in the dictionary will only take effect, if there is no such Sound ID available.

Best regards,
Andi