Sibelius ----> Vienna Ensemble --- No Articulations

[LStephens84]

Hello, I just bought the Solo Strings I and am trying to get it to receive articulation messages from Sibelius but something is wrong. Here's what I've done so far: 1. I downloaded and installed the VSL Sibelius Soundsets. 2. I imported the VSL House Style to my Sibelius Score 3. I configured the Sibelius Playback Device to Vienna Ensemble with the VE Strings Soundset and manually set each channel to my desired instruments (2 Solo Violins, a Solo Viola, and a Solo Cello) When I press play none of the techniques (pizz, arco, detache etc.) change in ensemble. If I go into ensemble and click stac then that instrument will stay staccato for the entire piece, ignoring any written changes in Sibelius. What am I doing wrong?

[andi]

Hello LStephens84 and welcome to the forum!

It can have different reasons when articulations do not change as supposed. Please check the following things:
- Do you have the instruments notated on Solo Violin, Solo Viola and Solo Violoncello staves in Sibelius? If you are not sure, I would add these instruments once again from the instruments menu. Then cut and paste the content from the old staves to the new ones.
- Did you load the VI Presets for the Solo Strings that came with the sound set?
- If you have made output or channel settings in the Sibelius mixer, please reset all outputs to (Auto). Making settings here can mess up the playback.

Further help with troubleshooting can be found at the end of the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual.

Best regards,
Andi

[LStephens84]

I went into my Sibelius Score and added Solo Violin (two of them), Solo Viola, and Solo Violoncello staves to cut and paste to. After I cut and paste onto the new staves nothing changed. I went back to add/change instruments menu and strangely it listed Violin, Violin, Viola, Violoncello. There is no "Solo" text even though I selected and added the "Solo Violin" etc. I've repeated the process and sure enough everytime I add Solo Staves whenever I check back to make sure it lists them as "Solo Violin" etc. it somehow keeps changing to simply "Violin." I'm very confused.

[andi]

In the score the Solo Violin (Solo Viola, ...) is called "Violin" by default. Nevertheless it is a Solo Violin. You can rename it if you want to, but that doesn't have an effect on the Sound ID (which is important for playback). So by now you should  have the correct instruments in your score. [;)]

Best,
Andi

[LStephens84]

Ok that's good but it still did not solve my issue of ensemble not receiving any articulations. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a customer service number I can call for support?

[andi]

I'm sorry to say that we don't offer telophone support, but you can reach us anytime at  . We will do our best to help you within 24 hours.

Please describe in detail what you have tried. I have pointed out two more possible reasons and solutions in my initial answer. Did you look into these?

Best,
Andi

[LStephens84]

After alot of trying all of those suggestions I realized that I was using the regular presets in ensemble instead of the Sibelius presets. Thank you for helping me clear that up :) Now I'm getting the articulations but the crescendo/decrescendo stopped working (oddly enough they were working before I switched Ensemble to the correct Sibelius preset). Any ideas why that would be happening?

[andi]

That's odd. The Solo Strings VI presets for Sibelius are prepared to use Velocity X-Fade with CC11 for dynamic control. During playback can you see the Velocity X-Fader move when you change dynamics or use hairpins?

Best,
Andi

[LStephens84]

Yes the velocity fader changes correctly for dynamics but on hairpins (crescendo/decrescendo) it moves slightly but still doesn't seem to to have much of an effect. Maybe this is normal I don't know?

[andi]

Then everything seems to be alright. How strong the effect is depends on the strength of the dynamic change. If you have a hairpin that doesn't lead directly to a new dynamic, Sibelius changes the dynamic by one step (for example from p to mp). If you want to have a wider dynamic in general, you can raise the DynR fader in the Vienna Instruments menu Advanced/Perform.

Best,
Andi