more sibelius help please

[conwaylemmon]

HI,
I'm just getting started with sibelius and i love the note input controls, but i can't seem to find a way to record velocities along with the note input. is this possible? please help
thanks

[dbudde]

Turn on "live playback" in the play menu.

[conwaylemmon]

is that all it takes?
I had it turned on and i was step-inputting with my controller, being sure to exaggerate the velocities, but when i played back, it was all the same.
is there anything else i need to turn on?

[dbudde]

You can view and edit the velocities. View>Live playback velocities.

If you had live playback enabled when you recorded, it should work. Also, you may want to select some notes and go to properties and make sure in the playback section that live velocity is enabled. Maybe this got disabled somehow.

[Mattssound]

I believe, that unless you change the playback velocity with the LIve Playback, Sibelius uses default velocities associated with your dynamic markings. Have you used Expression text to input these?

MsP

[conwaylemmon]

no, i haven't used expressions.
i'm talking about recording the velocity that i play on the keyboard(MIDI). I'm positive i did this with finale more than 1o years ago. i'm sure sibelius can do it. i just can't get it to work. if it's not a feature, it's a serious omission. IMHO

[dbudde]

Are you using flexi-time input mode? I know this works since I do it all the time. But live velocities only get recorded in flexi-time input mode.

[steve martin]

Hi,
from what I know, and just checking my old Sib 2 manual [I do have Sib 4], if you are using step time input, this does not take any record of the velocity of the notes you are inputting, it just takes the information of what note you are playing on the midi keyboard, and puts it on the staff for you.
To get the velocities of your performance, you need to use 'Flexi-time" input.
This records all midi performance parameters such as the use of the pedal, velocity, and note length etc.
I don't know what version of Sibelius you have. Do you telling me which one you have? I've had Sibelius versions right from Sibelius 2 to 4, and I don't thinki the difference from Sibelius 2 step input to Sibelius 4 step input has not changed.
When you are playing back what you have recorded during "Flexi-time" input, you must make sure "Live Playback" is switched on also.
I don't know if this helps, I'm just speaking from memory and also by having a quick look at the old Sib 2 manual.

If you want to check the actual velocities of the notes you have played in, you can view them by switching on the view/live playbackvelocities, and you'll get the blue bars where you can zoom in and check the velocities, or switchin on the Properties window - window/properties/playback, and select the note and all of the properties of the note - velocity, live start position/duration etc will come up and you can view these on this, and also make changes manually yourself.

If this is not helpful, please let us know, and see if we can help you out again. You can also create your own velocities for the notes, if you haven't inputted them yourself through live playback. If you'd like to know, let me know and I'll try and explain.
best regards,

Steve.

[conwaylemmon]

thanks everyone for all of your help. i really appreciate it.
i'm beginning to think that i can't do what i want to do. :confused:
i think i might have to go back to Finale. I got sibelius when i switched to OSX to save a little money and because i never really used finale that much anyway, but when i did use it, i'm positive that i was able to record note velocities with the step input. that's all i want to do.
thanks again. i'll keep trying, and then maybe i'll stop.

[NeoDavinci]

That is the entire point of flexi-time input/quantization. Sibelius has always done this--even Sib 1.
If you're talking about rhythmic manipulation during normal input (which I think is usually a bit faster anyway), you change the note duration with the keypad, then play the note on your keyboard.

[conwaylemmon]

no, that's not what i'm talking about. i don't want to use flex-time.
I want to use step-input AND record the velocities that i play on the keyboard.

[steve martin]

Hi Conwaylemmon,

I use Sibelius a lot, but I'm not the best expert on this. Have you tried the Sibelius Chat page at the Help Centre? It's just that other people who are more expert than myself with Sibelius are there and I don't want to accidentally give you the wrong answer here.
You can leave a message there detailing your problem and you are sure to get a correct answer for this problem.
Here's the link:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/search.pl?com=main

On the bottom left of the page you'll see where you can enter the chat page.

I hope this will help you.

best regards,

Steve Martin.

[conwaylemmon]

thanks a lot steve.

[Elmer]

Conway,

I just tried recording different note velocities into Finale using their step-time entry method (called speedy note entry) and the note velocities did not record differently at all. Are you *sure* you were able to do this in Finale?? If so, please tell me how you did it because from what I can tell there is no way to do that in Finale using their step-time input.

Thanks,

Elmer

[conwaylemmon]

I think you're right. I used finale a long time ago (late 80's or early 90's i think, whenever it first came out) in a workshop at oberlin college, and i deffinitely remember it recording velocities with step input. but then i remember later in college (late 90's) trying it again with a later version and it didn't work. maybe i've lost it, but i'm sure it used to work. seems like an important feature to remove.

anyway, thanks for your help. i've recently switched to cubase from protools and i'm having better luck. protools would record velocities in step, but i could barely get enough instruments loaded before it crashed or froze, plus protools has no score editor. cubase seems much better. so far, i've been able to load a full orchestra (minus piano) on my G4 powerbook with 1 GIG of ram. it must be the difference between VST(cubase) and RTAS(protools).
when i'm ready to make a score i'll just export a midi file into sibelius.
thanks

[CallMeZoot]

thanks everyone for all of your help. i really appreciate it.
i'm beginning to think that i can't do what i want to do. :confused:
i think i might have to go back to Finale. I got sibelius when i switched to OSX to save a little money and because i never really used finale that much anyway, but when i did use it, i'm positive that i was able to record note velocities with the step input. that's all i want to do.
thanks again. i'll keep trying, and then maybe i'll stop.

I've pretty much given up on trying to get a good sound out of any notation software.

I do all of my composing and mocking up in SONAR, and then export to Sibelius or Finale to create the score. I don't even hit play in my notation software--it's just a word processor or desktop publisher as far as I'm concerned.

If Finale or Sibelius can implement sequencer-like MIDI control, I will be psyched, but for now it's not worth the time and effort. I prefer composing in sequencing software anyway, you can slide things around more intuitively, without being shackled to barlines.

Since you do film/tv music and you're using OSX, I'm guessing you have Digital Performer--I'd stick with that for your sound, and just hit mute when it comes to working with the score in Sibelius. (By the way, I love Sibelius and recommend that you keep working with it--just don't expect to get a good mockup out of it).

chris.