Sibelius Ultimate Manual
Merja Caryk
Sib. 5.2: Manually adjusting spacing between staves
Posted by Dean - 30 Aug 06:41PM Hide picture Is there a way to manually adjust the spacing between staves?
For instance, if I have a half page worth of music (very short, I know) Sibelius wants to spread that over the whole page. I'd like to have the staves "normally" spaced.
But when I try, Sibelius jumps from "spread over the whole page" to "all staves piled on top of each other".
Any workarounds???
Dean Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2: Manually adjusting spacing between staves
Posted by Terry Carter, Rural Michigan USA - 30 Aug 06:50PM (edited 30 Aug 06:55PM) Hide picture >engraving rules >staves
"justify staves when page is at least 65% full"
That means "spread the staves to fill the entire page when there are enough staves to fill the page 65% full; otherwise keep them at normal spacing" and allow manual adjustment by dragging.
Try changing that number from 65%.
100% means never spread the staves to fill the page.
1% will always spread the staves.
You can drag the bottom staff up from its justified position with shift/click/drag as opposed to just click/drag. Shift/click/drag also moves any staff without adjusting the position of the other staves.
- Terry Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2: Manually adjusting spacing between staves
Posted by John Harding - 30 Aug 09:31PM Hide picture This may be my cue to say that after a recent lengthy and stubborn defence of manual dragging of staves, as opposed to manipulating justified ones, I have listened to what people told me and found that I get on a lot better than I expected to with 1. first allowing Sib. to justify right across the page and then 2. dragging top down and bottom up until I reach a reasonable layout.
I think that some of my earlier frustrations arose from not realising that some apparent impasses and anomalies require "Reset spacing Below Staves" as well as "... Above ..." Also that upward-dragging of the bottom staff only seems to work if you've let it justify.
So, to Terry and others who took a 70-year-old curmudgeon to task over this, thank you.
Is there another software forum that can hold a candle to this one? Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2: Manually adjusting spacing between staves
Posted by Wim Hoogewerf - 31 Aug 08:46AM Hide picture Also check Engraving Rules > Staves > distance between Staves and between Systems. (Note that in this context a single stave is called a System.)
And yes, you may take John's advice, especially if this single age belongs to a bigger score, which needs a general setting, including justification.
Once your bottom staff has been dragged upwards, do Layout >Reset Space above staff to even the layout again. Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2: Manually adjusting spacing between staves
Posted by Sam at Sibelius - 31 Aug 01:00PM Hide picture FYI,
Don't forget the Layout and Formatting free web training we have here:
Sam
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Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / +44 (0)20 7561 7997
Australia: [email protected] / 08 82 771 722
Other countries: contact your distributor (www.sibelius.com/buy for details) Back to top Allthreads
Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by James Mablin - 06 Apr 07:48AM Hide picture I've hit a problem with Sibelius 5 that is driving me crazy! Up until Sibelius 5, I had complete control over the midi channels in the mixer. This is no longer the case. From what I have read, the way the mixer now works it apparently does a number of complicated calculations to assign channels which is meant to be far superior to what I can do myself, but I tend to disagree! I have a Roland XV-5080 hooked up to the computer with 2 sets of 16 midi channels. I am using General Midi 2 as the sound set. The problem I am having is that a lot of what I write is for large orchestras with over 32 individual instruments. To get round this in the past I have always set the whole brass section to the same general brass sound and stuck them on the same midi channel, even though they are split over a number of staves. The same with the strings. The trouble is now, even if I set different instruments within the same family to the same sound, most of the time they will still be assigned different midi channels, so I end up with staves not playing back as the mixer runs out of free channels. Is there an easy way to take control of the midi channels again, or will I have to create my own sound set? This sounds complicated, and the whole reason I have stuck with general midi for my sound set is because it is "plug and play" and I can get straight into writing music and not worry about the whole midi side of things. I hope this makes sense, and any help would be greatly appreciated, :) James Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by James Mablin - 06 Apr 08:33AM Hide picture To reply to my own message, I've just set up a manual sound set using the general midi 2 sounds I needed. It is much easier than I thought, didn't take very long and actually makes setting my own midi channels much easier than it used to be! Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Peter Cernuska - 07 Apr 11:54AM Hide picture How did you learn how to accomplish that task? I'd appreciate a pointer to some kind of learning resource.
I tried reading the Sibelius manual and (for the first time ever!) found it completely useless in explaining a part of the program. I've been struggling with this for some time and was unable to figure out how to force Sibelius back to the easy and logical way it handled things before. Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Daniel Spreadbury - 08 Apr 12:37PM Hide picture Peter, have you read the 'Working with virtual instruments' topic in
Help > Sibelius Reference? It covers how to use Manual Sound Sets to
solve this kind of problem.
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Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / 020 7561 7997
Australia: [email protected]
Other countries: contact your distributor (www.sibelius.com/buy for details) Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Peter Cernuska - 08 Apr 01:33PM Hide picture Hello Daniel!
Yes, I read all the relevant sections in the manual. However I still feel overwhelmed by the whole thing. It seems silly that working with Cubase and VSTs since version 2, doing pretty large orchestral mockups and the like, did nothing to help me understand the concepts that were introduced with Sibelius 5.
It seems that for the first time the (otherwise excellent) manual is way over my head. Another problem is that I can't access the user guide of the sound set editor, which I hoped could shed some light on the inner workings of the whole system. Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Russell D - 08 Apr 06:39PM Hide picture Peter, does this help to get you started (or point you in the right direction)?
1) Build your multi (outside of Sibelius)
2) File / Preferences / Playback - Allow manual soundsets.
3) Add the Kontakt 2 VST dll to the folder that Sibelius scans (and rescan the folder) so that Kontakt 2 is recognised as an available device [Play / Playback Devices / Audio Engine Options / Virtual Instruments and Effects folder]
4) Create a new configuration, having activated as many instances of K2 as you need (depends on number of samples)
5) On the second (Manual Soundsets) tab, tick Use manual soundset so that you can allocate the number of midi channels you need. Also, click on Show to select and bind your multi to the configuration.
6) Save the configuration.
7) Open the score you wish to use with the configuration.
8) Bind each stave to Kontakt 2, midi channel and sample in the mixer.
9) Save the score.
10) Play back.
--
Sibelius 5.2.5
AMD Quad-core 9950, Vista x64, 4 GB RAM, Creative X-Fi Titanium
Kontakt 2, EWQLSO Gold Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by James Mablin - 08 Apr 06:57PM Hide picture I agree with you Daniel. The sense of fun and sensibility that the guys at Sibelius used to have seems to be gone. Plus a couple of years ago I could e-mail my ideas for improvements in future versions and get long replies addressing all of my issues, whilst now I can't even get a reply from tech support when I try to e-mail them! Personally I think it happened as soon as Avid took them over.
Here's what I did (although bear in mind I am using an external box not VSTs):
I had created the score using my default automatic soundset. I then went to Play - Playback Devices and clicked on the Manual Sound Sets Tab.
I checked the "Use Manual Sound Sets" box, and made sure the device was the same output as usual. I set the soundset to General Midi 2 which is what I usually use. (The instruments then appeared in the Program Name drop down menu below)
Having already made a list of what instruments I needed in my score, I then went down the channels and assigned patches. Make sure though that the "Send Program Change" box is checked, and hit test to confirm it's working on each channel.
I then saved, went back to my score and voila, I had control over midi channels in the mixer at last! It's then just a case of heading on down the mixer and matching up the sounds you assigned to your soundset to instruments in your score.
Be aware that if you want to use technique text like pizz. or con sord, you will have to set up the sound in your soundset. Sibelius will then find it and change automatically.
Hope this helps a little. I've changed my mind however, and this is much more complicated than it used to be! :) Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Russell D - 08 Apr 07:02PM Hide picture > Be aware that if you want to use technique text like pizz. or con sord, you will have to set up the sound in your soundset.
There are several parts to getting an articulation to work in a manual soundset, based around the sample itself and the sound id. There is a section on this (SoundWorld) in the manual.
--
Sibelius 5.2.5
AMD Quad-core 9950, Vista x64, 4 GB RAM, Creative X-Fi Titanium
Kontakt 2, EWQLSO Gold Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Peter Cernuska - 09 Apr 07:47AM Hide picture Thank you for those explanations! I will give the manual another go and try to combine it with your suggestions. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 5.2.5: Manually Choosing Midi Channels
Posted by Daniel Spreadbury - 10 Apr 10:57AM Hide picture I'm sorry that you find you don't get responses from technical support
any longer. I can assure you that all of the same folks who used to
provide technical support before Avid acquired Sibelius in 2006 are
still with the company now, and they are still as committed to providing
excellent support as they have ever been.
Furthermore, if you want to submit a list of ideas or feature requests,
you can send it to me, and you'll get the same level of response as I
have been providing for the past ten years (which I hope has generally
been sufficient)!
Anyway, regarding the Manual Sound Sets feature in Sibelius 5: the idea
behind this was to allow you to have some of the benefits of the
SoundWorld system that automatically allocates the best avaiable sound
to staves in your score without having a sound set file (as there are
too many devices out there for us to be able to provide sound sets for
all of them), and doing it in such a way that it only has to be done
once: after you have set up a manual sound set, it will work with all
scores that you create. It is a different approach to that taken in
e.g. sequencers, because in a sequencer you have to manually assign an
instrument and a patch for every track, and furthermore you have to do
that for every project you start.
It is one step removed from setting things up in the score, but the
reason for that is that you should only have to do it once.
--
Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / 020 7561 7997
Australia: [email protected]
Other countries: contact your distributor (www.sibelius.com/buy for details) Back to top Allthreads