Realistic crescendos

[ceg]

I'm struggling to get a convincing sounding crescendo, using Sibelius 7.

Quite often it seems that the note after the end of the crescendo will "blare" out a lot louder, or with a different timbre.  How do I prevent this from happening - generally I am wanting to crescendo to a new volume, seamlessly, with no sudden "changes of gear".  Also, I'll quite often want a crescendo over quite a long period of time - think Rossini!

I've had a quick dabble with the Inspector feature in Sib 7, but I don't really know what I'm doing.  What does "auto" do (I've been advised not to use it!)?  What is the difference between "of Maximum" and "Change"  Both are a percentage, but of what?  For the former, it looks as though you can specify values of 0% - 255%.  For the latter, you seem to be able to go from -128% to +127%  What are sensible values to use?

Are there any YouTube videos or manuals to help me get the hang of it?

Thanks

Charles

[andi]

Hello Charles!

In order to get realistic crescendos and decrescendos under single notes, I recommend using Velocity X-Fade. How to use Velocity X-Fade with Sibelius is explained in the "Optimzing Sibelius Playback" manual, page 17.

Normally you won't have to change the crescendo behaviour in the Sibelius inspector. Just go with the default values.

Best,
Andi

[J.Hall]

The sudden blare might be because you have not set espressivo to "meccanico" in the performance setup window. Not sure if it will solve this but it's worth a try. I always put Sibelius on meccanico playback. Also, I sometimes use CC11 on both Expression and Velocity Crossfade when working in Sibelius, but with an adjusted curve for expression. It depends a lot on what kind of music it is, sometimes I find CC11 on expression does more harm than good. :)