BRUSHES

[DSW]

Hi - I'm creating an accompaniment of strings, vibes, bass and drums - (the problem). Firstly I open a New Score> Change instruments>select Drum Kit and Drum Set> Drum Set (Brushes). The score opens with a staff entitled Drum Set. How do I get it to play snare drum brushes? All the members of the Drum Kit and Drum Set family seem to have identical sounds.

[Jeremy Hughes]

Hi there

Which version of Sibelius are you using? And (crucially) what sound configuration (device and sound set) are you using?

In Sib6 (I just checked) and probably in Sib5, the Drum Set (Brushes) has different 'Best Sounds' selected for it, and if you have those sounds available in your sound set, they will play.

Go to Play>Playback Devices to see.

Jeremy

[DSW]

Hi Jeremy

Thanks for your interest. I'm using sib. v.6. The configuration options I have are:

General MIDI (basic)
General MIDI (enhanced)
Sibelius Essentials (16 sounds, Kontakt)
Sibelius Essentials (32 sounds, Kontakt)
Sibelius Sounds

...from which I select Sibelius Sounds

In Active devices:

Sibelius Player Sibelius Essentials

I don't see 'Best sounds' anywhere.

As I said all the drum sets give me the same sounds. However if I go to IDEAS and use the filter BRUSHES, I get a sample which actually plays a brushes sound. This sample just plays back - I can't play in that sound from my keyboard.

Regards

David Wright

ps I was going to attach a screenshot but 256kb won't hack it

[Jeremy Hughes]

Hi again

'Best sounds' is found like this:
1. Select a bar of your Drum Set staff, and choose House Styles>Edit Instruments... The correct instrument is chosen for you in the list.
2. Click on 'Edit Instrument... in the bottom right. (Say Yes to the message that appears.)
3. Click on 'Edit Staff Type' in the centre-left of the dialog that appears.

Now you have a list of all the possible noteheads and 'pitches' in the top window; their attributes appear as you select each notehead, and Sibelius plays you the sound associated with it. Some of these have brushes sounds, apparently. Take note of which pitches and which noteheads will produce them. You'll probably find that only some of the sounds you want appear in the default sound set, although drum sets is not my area of expertise, so I don't know for sure.

Hope that helps a bit, anyway...

Jeremy

[DSW]

Hi Jeremy - Thanks - after step 3. I get the top window with all the drum style noteheads on their respective pitches but they are only the ones which I can input anyway. I can't work out how to add other noteheads representing brushes.

The confusing thing is that when I copy 'COUNTY DRUM KIT 5' from Ideas, that includes a brushes sound which plays back (which can't be used to input notes) so that brushes sound is hiding somewhere in sib. But where?

David

[Jeremy Hughes]

There is a special notehead in use in the brushes drum kit that your Country Drum Kit 5 idea uses. The crotchet (quarter note) on C5 looks like a normal one (number 0) but is number 20. (These numbers are shown in the Notes pane of the Properties window.)

Sibelius knows it's different and the drum kit associates the brushes sound with that notehead. Try it in the brushes kit staff: Enter a note on C5 which will be a notehead of type 0. Choose 20 from the dropdown list in the Notes pane, and then audition your note - it should play back with brushes.

Hope that helps

Jeremy

[DSW]

Many thanks Jeremy - that's done the trick

David