Sibelius 7.1.3 articulation problems

[Charlie Looker]

Hi. I'm using VE 5 with Sibelius 7.1.3 and the strings are switching to tremelo randomly, staying staccato when should be legato, stuff like that. I checked the Optimizing Sibelius playback document but it wasn't helpful.

I'm not using the Sibelius solo strings presets because when I load them the samples don't show up (Is that because I don't have a specific license for the presets or something?) I have the individual solo string matrices loaded in to 5 channels (string quartet plus contrabass). Playback is working ok other than this huge articulation switching issue.

I imported the House Style for VSL (the playback stuff, not the engraving stuff). 

Before, I tried upgrading to Sibelius 7.5 but that didn't help. So I downgraded back to 7.1.3 because that had worked for me in the past (back when I had a PC. I had to reinstall all this stuff when I switched to a Mac).

I tried using both VST and AU versions, but same problem with both.

Any help would be great, as I'm right in the middle of some important projects!! Thanks!

Charlie

[andi]

Hello Charlie!

I have seen in our records that you have registered the Special Edition Vol. 1 and Vol. 1 PLUS (amongst some single instruments). The strings from these libraries can be used in Sibelius with the "VE Special Edition PLUS" sound set and the VI presets you find under PRESET/Sibelius/Special Edition 5.2/SE+ Vol. 1.

Best regards,
Andi

[Charlie Looker]

Hi Andi. I loaded that Preset and that soundset and I'm afraid there's the same problem.

[Charlie Looker]

The main thing is tremelo stays on non-tremelo notes (until there's a slur or staccato marking). And when there are staccato markings, the staccato stays on non-marked notes until there's a slur or other text. Sometimes harmonics stay when they're not supposed to, although other times they work ok.

[Bill]

If samples aren't showing up in the preset there's some basic problem with your installation independant of Sibelius. You should get that striaghtened out fisrt.

[andi]

It can have different reasons why articulation changes do not work as supposed. Please have a look at the "Troubleshooting" chapter of the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual. For most such problems you should be able to find a solution there.

Best,
Andi

[Charlie Looker]

Hi Andi,

I'm returning to this problem from a few months ago, which i was never able to solve... 

When I load Vienna Ensemble with matrices, and I attempt to playback with Sibelius, it keeps switching articulations randomly. It keeps tremelos going in the wrong place, switches to trills randomly, etc. I know that in the Optimizing Playback manual it says to load Presets, not Matrices. But when I load presets, the samples don't show up (they're in red). Why would this be? I know I installed the strings properly, just following the instructions I was given.

I imported the VSL house style into Sibelius. 

I used to run Sibelius and VSL on a PC, and I always used matrices, not presets. That's how I learned how to do it, and I never had any problems. Since I switched to a Mac, that's when this problem with articulations started...

[Charlie Looker]

Hi again. Sorry for the confusion, but I actually just figured out why those samples weren't showing up in the presets and I fixed that, so that's ok.

But now that I'm trying to work with the presets, the trills still won't stop even after the trill line is over. Similar problem to when I was using matrices. And tremelos still continue through non-tremelo notes, until there's a slur or staccatto marking to undo it. I went into the Playback Dictionary and the No Symbol notes are defined with sound ID +legato, which should undo the trills and tremelos, but it isn't working. I added -trill and -tremelo to that sound ID change, and it still doesn't stop the trills and trems.

Any ideas?

[Charlie Looker]

Also, it plays a whole note as a staccato note just because it comes after some notes marked with staccato dots!! Do I really have to type "legato" over a whole note? 

[andi]

Hello Charlie!

As mentioned earlier it can have different reasons, why articulation changes don't work as supposed. So I can only guess. Maybe you don't have the correct instruments in your score. Please note that that the instruments Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, ... are ensemble instruments and will not work correctly with solo strings. For solo strings please use Solo Violin, Solo Viola, ... More possible reasons for your problems can be found in the "Troubleshooting" chapter of the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual.

Best regards,
Andi

[Charlie Looker]

Andi, I have been using solo strings as the instruments. As I said before, the Optimizing Sibelius playback manual troubleshooting section provides no solutions. That's why I'm writing to you. When you say, "there are many possible reasons" for articulation problems, can you please guess some other possible reasons? 

[Charlie Looker]

Ok it's fixed! I think the problem was, I had changed the ensemble violin staff to solo violin using "change instrument" instead of creating a whole new staff with solo violin.

Just when I start to get frustrated, I figure it out. Sorry to keep bothering you Andi. But I'm sure I'll bother you again! :)

Thanks for you help,

C