@DG said:

Of course Digi will make sure that there is no integration with other sequencers, so that is a lost cause.
Obviously the current PT developers know very little about notation software but I would hope that they would take a lot of advice from the Sibelius team when it comes to implementation, otherwise it could end up looking like Cubase/Logic etc. notation features; cr*p [[:|]]

DG

Morning Daryl!

It's that potential 'exclusivity' of sequencer that gives me pause to see this move as less than desirable.
And given the general low priority that sequencer developers give notation as a part of the total package, i don't hold out much hope for this one either.

How's the shed doing?

Regards,

Alex.

@hermitage59 said:

It's that potential 'exclusivity' of sequencer that gives me pause to see this move as less than desirable.
And given the general low priority that sequencer developers give notation as a part of the total package, i don't hold out much hope for this one either.

How's the shed doing?

Regards,

Alex.

The sad thing is that most people think ProTools must be a good audio application and sequencer because it is used in most commercial studios. What they don't seem to realise is that the MIDI features are like something out of the dark ages and for most people PT means PT LE, which has audio limitations as well. So in fact unless you get the full version (£££££££££££££) Cubase SX is better in every respect that PT.

Shed is nearly finished; secondary glazing is going in on Monday and then I'm moving in later in the week.

DG

I just bought Sibelius 4, everything seems pretty clear but I just can't find the damn dynamics! [:@] I assume there must be a chart of all the dynamics such as p,pp mp etc.

@Guy said:

I just bought Sibelius 4, everything seems pretty clear but I just can't find the damn dynamics! [:@] I assume there must be a chart of all the dynamics such as p,pp mp etc.

highlght the note control/E and and then Control P or F or right click for more fancy markings.

Of course it's probably one of the first things in the manual - but no doubt like me when you get a new toy you just wanna play. [:)]

@Guy said:

I just bought Sibelius 4, everything seems pretty clear but I just can't find the damn dynamics! [:@] I assume there must be a chart of all the dynamics such as p,pp mp etc.

Depends what you want. Sibelius is first and foremost a notation programme, not a sequencer. As such is you want "ffffffz" you can have it. And, within certain limits, if you want that to affect playback, you can edit the dictionary. Common dynamics are available in the shortcut menu from "Ctrl-E" then "right-click" (from a PC). But there are almost no limits on what can actually be done.

Sibelius is always my first choice to compose music in. But to actually "play back" music, I tend to export the "MIDI" results, and use a sequencer, and something classy... like VI!

Thanks Dave and Cutler,

It works fine now thanks and I stopped cursing at the keyboard [[;)]]

Cutler, yeah, I have no intention of using it to hear the music, strictly for printing purposes.

The midi is working fine but I can'T hear the sibelius sounds when I trigger them from my piano.

Any way of hearing the VSL sounds instead?

@Guy said:

Any way of hearing the VSL sounds instead?

Instead of what?

DG

@Guy said:

Any way of hearing the VSL sounds instead?

Instead of what?

DG

Sorry, I'm just figuring this out as we speak, I presume then we could select the bank of sounds we want, not just the Sibelius crappy sounds...

You need to route from Sibelius via a virtual MIDI cable into your VST host. Then as long as you can change patches etc. with MIDI controllers, you're good to go.

D

Just to add something to the original topic of this discussion:
Sibelius has not been bought by Digidesign, but by AVID which happens to also own digidesign (as CM already pointed out). so there's no reason to assume that it will become PT only. Quite the opposite, actually, I think that they will add timecode capabilities (what with AVID being a video company), so that Sibelius will finally be able to integrate with sequencers (any sequencer, that is). Sibelius can already print tc into the score, so it might as sync to it. I am dreaming of VST integration, too, but one step at a time.

At least I hope that this will be the result from the AVID buyout.
Constantin

Wouldn't it be cool if Sibelius could rewire into a sequencer? So you could do something like compose on your seq. and the notes would naturally automatically transfer into Sib. You could put all the dynamics and stuff on the score window, which would be Sib, and it would control the MIDI playback - or, put velocity/volume envelopes on your MIDI track and have it replicate as hairpins/cres./dim etc on the score window!

Not only do you have perfect integration with the music sounding the same on both your sequencer and Sib, but you finish both the composition AND the notation at the same time!

Ok, I'm writing to Sibelius..... [:P]

@Jonny Mantle said:

Wouldn't it be cool if Sibelius could rewire into a sequencer? So you could do something like compose on your seq. and the notes would naturally automatically transfer into Sib. You could put all the dynamics and stuff on the score window, which would be Sib, and it would control the MIDI playback - or, put velocity/volume envelopes on your MIDI track and have it replicate as hairpins/cres./dim etc on the score window!

Not only do you have perfect integration with the music sounding the same on both your sequencer and Sib, but you finish both the composition AND the notation at the same time!

That is a good idea! It would also be nice if the link was completely bi-directional, so that you could enter a passage in Sibelius, and have it automatically show up in your sequencer. Some things are just soooo much easier to figure out in score, IMO -- voice leading, harmony, orchestration, etc... oh, and really tricky rhythmic passages - quintuplets, septuplets, and so on, which are a pain to enter on most sequencers, and which my crap keyboard skills make impossible for me to play!

J.

Guys, before you all get too excited please remember that Sibelius_is_not_a_sequencer. Therefore it does not work in a linear way. In a sequencer notation is derived from the MIDI, in a notation program it is the other way round. In order for this to change in Sibelius it would probably need a total re-write.

DG

As an addendum, the latest PT version has a "send to Sibelius" button. This sends a MIDI file of your current session to Sibelius. Two things to note:

1) You already have to have Sibelius on your computer; it does not give you any sort of "free" version.
2) There is no ongoing communication between the programs. All it is doing is bypassing the export MIDI file, import into Sibelius steps.

DG

Ah, there's always someone to poo on your potatoes. shame on you [:(] .

OK, I'll let you wallow around in ignorance next time. [8-)]

DG

Well, I don't pretend to know what I don't. Was only an ideal type of integration, can appreciate that technically it would be... well, don't know, but assuming from your knowledge the operative words would be a minimum of "very very hard if not impossible". I'm still in total amazement that a computer can even boot up and do something on its own because of someone typing weird language, let alone give someone the ability to sequence, mix and master music! I can only just manage to change a lightbulb. And even then i don't know how the darn thing works.

But then I guess it takes people like me that don't know anything technical to make the suggestions, because my thoughts are based on a "wouldn't it be nice if.." scenario, rather than knowing what technology can currently achieve. Helps to push boundaries. IMHO.

@Jonny Mantle said:

Well, I don't pretend to know what I don't. Was only an ideal type of integration, can appreciate that technically it would be... well, don't know, but assuming from your knowledge the operative words would be a minimum of "very very hard if not impossible". I'm still in total amazement that a computer can even boot up and do something on its own because of someone typing weird language, let alone give someone the ability to sequence, mix and master music! I can only just manage to change a lightbulb. And even then i don't know how the darn thing works.

But then I guess it takes people like me that don't know anything technical to make the suggestions, because my thoughts are based on a "wouldn't it be nice if.." scenario, rather than knowing what technology can currently achieve. Helps to push boundaries. IMHO.

You're quite right that we should always ask for the impossible. However, understanding how something that already exists works can make a difference in how we phrase requests. I have found that what will almost certainly get a "can't be done" can often be worked around if explained in a different way. I, like many others, would desperately like to have a notation "front end" to my sequencer that actually bears some relationship to music. However, unless either the sequencer manufacturers start to take notation more seriously or Sibelius branches out into sequencer land, I'm not too hopeful. Maybe in the future there will be a proper plug-in for ProTools that will allow some degree of what we currently do in Sibelius to happen, but as PT is currently lightyears behind the other major sequencers, it would still make this option unusable for me.

DG