Goodbye Sibelius, you suck. I've just been playing with Dorico 4 and love it. I'm sure there's some stuff I'll find to criticise, but so far the pros DEFINITELY outweigh the cons.  

Dear Rangi,

You must feel very lonely, but I will try to cheer you up. Admittedly it is only your own schizophrenic self replying to your own public questions, but in these covid times its the best we can manage. And the answer is, nothing.

Hope that helps, and please feel free to ask again.

Cheers,

Rangi.

Any thoughts out there on process for writing for singers? My piece will have two instrumentalists and a baritone opera singer, and will be an avant garde composition. I will create the score with Sibelius/ vsl and was thinking to write the vocal melodies using a guide cello part. How do other people do it?

Cheers,

Rangi.

I'm interested too Andreas, I'm loving the instruments I already have in the synchron player.

But I already have a lot of VI percussion, and to my casual review it seems to be a lot more comprehensive instrument list - am I correct? Will Synchron grow over time to be as extensive as VI, or should they be seen as partners?

And..... could you please record some bongos for me!

Cheers,

Barton.

Definitely need maps please!!!! I’ll switch to dorico as soon as there are maps!

Hi there - I think I'll get this as I already have solo strings, and the extras sound cool.

One question though  - I have a piece where I want the players on the short notes on the open strings, and to let them ring (l.v.). Will any of the changes to the instrument, or now being via the synchron player allow this? And how will I control it from Sibelius (I dont think it's in the sound set)

 

Barton.

no I haven't - so I'll do that asap.

Thanks!

Hi team - I just updated Vieneanna ensemble pro because it fixed a bug that had been bugging me a lot, but the update messed with my synchron player.

I can't see Tabs (perform, play , mix etc), or the instrument load hierachy anymore, and I can't find a way to make them appear. Any ideas out there please?

Barton. 

Thanks Paul, I do love gongs too, and even partial to the occasional tam tam.

But I really need a bong, I mean bongos!

So will find a work around.

Barton.

Hi all,

I love bongos, but where are they? Does anyone know which VSL library has them please?

Barton.

Thanks Gil!

And what about general functionality of Dorido v3?

Barton

Can I switch yet? Sibelius has been driving me nuts for years and I've been waiting for Dorico to evolve - so is V3 good enough yet?

The main things driving me insane (when I write) that I'd love solved are:

1. Aleatoric / Graphical capability.
2. Playback Timing; slurs - dots, there's lots of imprecise things going on between Sibelius and VSL, and the VSL team (who I believe) assure me it's Sibelius at fault.
3. Continuous controllers for dynamics and pitch (this relates to Aleatoric music  -  tone clusters, to and from pitch etc etc etc). 

And..... I'd love  a sound set,  (Solo strings, Dimension strings in particular), but I understand these are still coming. Actually I would be open to learning to work without them if core notation functionality is there, and my file will look better and play back better.

There's probably more - but if those elements were working better I'd switch.

Cheers,

Barton.

Are there any noises hiding in the BBO series? I need the sound of an orchetra stamping its feet - in sections and all together and havn't seen it elsewhere in VSL libraries.

Barton.

FYI - I've talked with Andi (VSL), and it should work, I should be able to play two violin sections at once, the problem must still be in my file somehwer.

Cheers,

Barton.

I've seen that, but it doesn't seem reasonable to me that I would need to do it. It's a lot of messing around to create something that seems obvious, ie that that an orchestral library will be able to play 1st and 2nd violins at once. Its kind of basic functionality, so surely theres a better answer tuning a sample down and a track up?

If that’s correct, then how do you create a second violin part using dimension strings, given there is only one dedicated violin preset?

Is anybody out there.......

Hi all - I've got a probelem...

I'm running a Sibelius/Dimension strings/ VI pro /VE orchestra arrangement. Every instrument in the arrangment is a VSL instrument, and 99% of it is working perfectly.

But my 2nd violins keep leaping on to the 1st violin instrument in VI. It happens with every accented note. A phrase will be playing fine  and then as soon as an accent occurs it flips to the 1sts. Which is really weird bcause 1st violins are midi channel 1, and 2nds are midi channel 2. So why would it do that?

I've read the optimising doc about 40 times, and most of it is now memorised. I've checked and replaced instruments in Sibelius, the manual sound sets are all correct, I'm using the right presets in VI. I've also just created a new test file with just a few notes in it, and the same thing happens, so it's not something hanging or hidden in the main sibelius file.  In short I've run out of things to try.

I did see some discussion of similar problems in old threads where the same instrument is used twice (ie dimension violins are the preset for both 1st and 2nd's), but the cause and soultion werre not conclusive that I could see.

Does anyone have any ideas please?

Barton.

Thanks all - two more pieces of information:

I’m running Sibelius for composition, and using the sibelius presets.

when I say full orchestra, I still mean strings in sections, not individually.

Barton.

I’m struggling too - same issue. I’d assumed I needed anew computer, but some of you have already got lots of ram etc, and still have problems.

So What’s the minimum spec to make synconised dimension strings run properly then?

Thanks all, It’s a MacBook Pro, mid 2014, 15” retina.
2.2 ghz i7
16gb ram, 500gb ssd + another 500gb external ssd for vsl library’s.

Ive got vsl solo strings, also dimension strings which I recently upgraded to the synchronised version. Also selected percussion, brass and wind - but intending to increase those.

I also have Vienna instruments pro, but not Vienna ensemble pro.

The setup was working fine writing for smaller Chamber pieces, but it can’t play a full score.

Barton.

Actually, they're probably fine, I'm just too busy to wade through the tech specs and pretend Im an it guru.  I like composing, but spend most of my time trying to figure out why nothing is playing back right!

Anyway, to my current problem: How do you buy a new apple computer with at least minimun future proof, or expansion capability, without a mortgage on it?

The trigger of all of this is that I bought syncron/dimension strings, and then my laptop had a hernia. 

Is the answer a macbook pro with max 32g ram, knowing I'll probably need more in the future and have to trade up again? or Imac, or Imac pro? As for old Mac pro's, current mack pro, wait for the new mac pro?

I'm a "mid" level user, I won't be buying pro tools or other dsp systems - but do want to able to run a full orchestra of indiovidual instruments.... is that so unreasonable?

Any ideas out there?

Barton,

Cool - I can do it soon

I think my challenge is then that I can’t see any SYzd instruments in any of the Sibelius lists - not in change instruments or manual assignment

Cheers,

Barton.

Thanks Paul,

It’s all installed now, but the articulations aren’t changing properly yet (stuck on pizz). I’ve done this a few times now, my solo strings, dimension strings etc, so I think I understand the Sibelius/soundest process generally.

Two simple questions.

Should synchron player be appearing in the Sibelius devices list, or do I select Vienna ensemble and open synchron within that ( which is what I’ve done)?

In the add/change instruments I am using dimension strings instruments, I can’t see any synchronised dimension strings instruments in the list. Is that correct?

Thanks Barton.