Dynamic errors and bad sound, working with Sibelius 6.2 and Vienna Ensemble (VI special Edition...

[frederique]

Hello, I had many email exchanges directly with vienna support as I was first trying to make my new Vienna sounds work with Sibelius at the time 5.2 version. I had to uninstall and reinstall everything (Vienna and Sibelius) and then got the Sibelius 6.2 version and assigned Sibelius and Vienna to a different account on my computer, to make sure it would start fresh ignoring whatever it was that made things not work properly before. So finally I got it to work even though it still seems to take up a whole lot of memory on my computer. No instead of just sending another email to Andreas at support ,I decided to write on this forum to get more feedback from other people that might have had the same situation and hopefully got to improve it. Since I finally had the whole thing going I've been working hours on my Sibelius score to readjust dynamics and phrasing, it seems that each time I hear it differently and no matter how many times I go through it I still have to keep readjusting because something that sounded fine with pp now suddenly is too low and other similar cases. And then sometimes its just impossible to get what i want. Like the strings pizzicato with a "ppp" dynamic still sounds too loud when at other times legato with a p dynamic sounds very quiet... it just is so inconsistent, not to mention the sound of the sax that still is mostly harsh no matter what I do. I decided to listen to my old Sibelius sound version thinking that the comparison would get me to hear the difference and make me feel better... Well unfortunately not really, the Vienna Sounds version does sound a bit better but not 500$ and some 50 hours of work better, definitely not... At this point I don;t know anymore if it is my ears, my brain, my computer or simply the program itself that is not working for me. I have a Mac Book, Mac OS X version 10.6.6, Processor: 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo,Memory: 2.5 GB 667 MHz Any ideas, suggestions, similar experiences anyone out there? thanks Frédérique Trunk

[andi]

Hi Frederique!

I'm sorry to read, that you are having problems. However, I'm sure that we can make sound everything better for you. Here are some hopefully useful tips.

Use the Vienna Symphonic Library House Style. Besides including additional dictionary and percussion instrument entries, all the dynamic values have been optimized for the Vienna Instruments. If you haven't done so yet, you can download it here:
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/68/141/460/576/655.htm

Set the Sibelius/Playback settings espressivo and rubato to "Meccanico" or "Senza espressivo (rubato)". These settings are in the Sibelius/Play/Performance menu.

Have you tried out working with Velocity XFade? Normally this should bring good results concerning dynamics. How you can do that is described in the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual, page 16.

I can't imagine, that the volumes change by themselves each time you load your score/playback configuration.

Best regards,

[frederique]

Hello Andreas, I had downloaded the Symphonic Library House Styles, you actually helped me do that remember? TO get it to show in the" import House styles" in Sibelius... NOw I did set Playback Setting to Meccanico in Sibelius, I guess that helps a bit. I also had read the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual and do what is said with Velocity XFade... it seemed to help at the time but certainly for the sax, where I then undid it. THe thing I so don;t understand what I;m doing when I do something like that , following instructions , but not knowing the wisdom behind it all, that I feel that I;m not getting this program enough to use it well. My main disappointment is I must say the sound of the saxophone. The sad thing is, the sound of the sax IS what got me so annoyed with Sibelius sounds, and what got me to buy Vienna... There are a lot of stuff in perform and other components that I;m not using, I know there must be a way to get this sax sound better, is there a specific manuel for that? I don;t need fancy slur or jazzy stuff, just a good lyrical classic sax sound... that can play" piano" without sounding like it's an electronic fade out... you know what I mean? thanks Frederique

[andi]

Hi Frederique!

For better understanding here are some explanations:

Velocity X-fade will actually blend between the recorded dynamic levels. This way dynamic transitions should sound very natural. As CC11 by default also controls Expression, turning this off will avoid having double dynamics. I guess this was one reason for your problems with dynamics.

The Sibelius settings for rubato and espressivo should in theory bring some humanize effects. In my experience they make some exaggerations in timing and dynamics that do not work very well with our sounds.

Do you play the saxophone with the "VE Woodwinds+Brass" sound set? Do the articulation changes work as supposed?

I think the best way to learn about the saxophone is by loading the different patches and playing them on a MIDI-keyboard.

Best,