Jazz rhythm section playback resource?

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Steamboat_Willie
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:09 pm

Post by Steamboat_Willie » Wed Feb 01, 2017 4:46 pm

When creating a score specifically for a jazz ensemble, is there some type of third-party addon/utility/resource that would provide me a means to have my rhythm section parts actually play back when I'm utilizing slash-notations in those rhy. sec. parts? This is, obviously, a non-issue for the brass & reed wind instruments as those particular parts have actual written notes which play back just fine. However it would be clearly impractical to write out actual notes for the entire rhythm section parts (kbd, gtr, bass, drums) merely in order to have them play back as in an actual performance. I've never been able to actually hear an entire one of my jazz compositions played-back in Sibelius because of this particular stumbling block for me. Yes, there are times in a composition that I will in fact write down "notes" for each of the rhythm section parts when it is deemed necessary for them to play something specific on their instrument. Thus, in those instances during playback I'll hear those particular "notes". But for the majority of the time, certainly in the jazz notation environment, is there any resource available to easily accomplish what I'm looking for? I have to believe that there is something but as a non-professional Sibelius user I just can't seem to find it. (My apologies if the solution is obvious.)
Thanks.
Ed


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

Post by bobp » Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:21 pm

Sibelius has plugins to generate guitar strumming, and some limited ability to realize arrangements from chord symbols. But nothing that I know of that will do what you want. It seems to me that Sibelius is not primarily a playback engine, but rather software to produce notation. As such, it needs notation to have something to playback. I always write out bass, guitar and drum parts because those are always changing. They are not just background. I even give separate lines to kick, snare, toms, and cymbals so that I can control volume better. You wouldn't do that for a score you would hand players. It's not unusual to have both a playback score and a score for real players
Bob Porter
Sibelius 7.5, W10,i5,16 GB ram,desktop

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