Sibelius First Demo: No Sound

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MarcDHall
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:36 pm

Post by MarcDHall » Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:58 pm

Hi

New here. Just to set a context I have been making music for well over 15 years. I'm technically literate. I have used a few different DAWs. Recently I have decided that DAWs generally lack something that modern classical notation has. So I found Sibelius.

The demo simply produces no sound. Not even the metronome.

I have an external firewire Mackie interface using ASIO. This works fine. I can launch Ableton live and everything is good. I then close Live (making sure it is gone from the system tasks... the sound object doesn't like to be shared) open Sibelius and it doesn't make a sound no matter what combination of any setting I use.

The only support I can find is "have you selected your sound device from the drop down"... of course I have. "Are your headphones/speakers plugged in"...

Also, generally, Sibelius makes no sense to me. I mean from a user experience perspective. There is a "Playback Devices" window, it has a "Available devices" pane that lists a midi keyboard, a usb-midi interface and the MS Wavetable Synth. 3 of these aren't playback devices and the one that is, the MS WTS, won't activate. So it's not clear what this option is even for.

My audio interface is selected in the Audio Engine Options view, it shows a non-zero latency, but no sound is coming out to it. The correct channels are selected.

In Sibelius' internal mixer, the Click channel has activity, but none of the other channels do. Including the master.


Thanks in advance.


bobp
Posts: 1182
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:53 am

Post by bobp » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:52 pm

If I remember correctly, the Sib First demo does not come with sounds. To download them takes hours at any download speed.
In which case Sibelius uses GM sounds already on your computer. To get things working, I suggest disconnecting your interface and starting from scratch until you know how the software works. It is different from anything else. When Sibelius installs, it usually does a good job of setting itself up especially if no external playback device(midi keyboard, or other interface) is connected. On the bottom left of the Playback Devices window is an Audio Engine button. Select it and another window opens with a list of audio drivers installed on your computer. If no audio driver is selected (and sometimes one isn't by default) then you will get no sound. Sometimes Sibelius selects an audio driver that doesn't work. if you are using a PC , try the DS driver. If that doesn't work, try the MME.
It's also possible that you don't need to disconnect everything first, and that you just need to select a driver. Since I'm not sitting in front of your computer, It's hard to tell.
Once you get some sound then you can connect your other stuff, activate it and use the ASIO driver if you want.
It's a British program, they do things a little differently. You may need to check the manual.
Sibelius First is a bit limited in what it can do, so make sure it will supply your needs.
By the way, I think you are the first person I've ever heard say a DAW was lacking something. Unless is was a good notation printout.
Bob Porter
Sibelius 7.5, W10,i5,16 GB ram,desktop

sbaz2836
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 20, 2015 6:52 am
Sibelius Version: afadf
Operating System: Mac

Post by sbaz2836 » Wed May 20, 2015 7:03 am

Also, generally, Sibelius makes no sense to me. I mean from a user experience perspective. There is a "Playback Devices" window, it has a "Available devices" pane that lists a midi keyboard, a usb-midi interface and the MS Wavetable Synth. 3 of these aren't playback devices and the one that is, the MS WTS, won't activate. So it's not clear what this option is even for.
www.solitairechamp.biz

andyg
Posts: 1727
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:55 pm
Sibelius Version: 7.1.3 and 6.2
Operating System: Windows

Post by andyg » Thu May 21, 2015 7:28 pm

I have a MIDI keyboard that is a valid playback device. It has the entire GM2 and XG soundsets, plus hundreds of 'native', higher quality sounds. Don't confuse 'MIDI keyboard' with an input or controller keyboard.

And of course a USB-MIDI interface is a valid playback device, providing it has something (like a keyboard, synth or older sound module perhaps) connected to it via MIDI.

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