The Sibelius Forum

I have a score with 4 staves for SATB, with a fermata over the third whole note in a 4/4 bar. On playback the first note in the next bar refuses to play except the bass note?!! When I click them they play, but not on playback. I have extended the duration of fermata to 250, with an added gap of 20. Elsewhere in the score I have very similar situations and Sibelius plays back perfectly.
I have tried recreating new bars and re-inputting notes but still no luck.
I attach a screen grab of the section showing the notes that do not play in red
Can anybody suggest why this is happening & how to get it to play

For playback, and as an experiment, delete all the fermatas. If all the notes play, add a fermata over the soprano note (and define it as you wish). This should now playback correctly. If not, you may have to start from scratch. Sometimes you can copy and paste lines into a new score and have it work.

I find that sometimes I need two scores. One for composing and playback. And one for printing out parts for musicians. In your case, if the multiple fermatas are confusing Sibelius (odd, I know, that it would), then only put the other fermatas (alto, tenor, base) in on a second copy of the score for printing.

In other words, one score for composing and getting Sibelius to playback like I want, and one for printing.

Thanks Bob Porter
I think I may have to resort to having two versions. What I don't understand, is that elsewhere in the score there are fermata which perform exactly as I want, it is just in this one point that it won't.
I have already tried removing the fermata from each staff, but it doesn't make any difference. As soon as I put one fermata over a note, the next note but one for SAT doesn't play but the Bass note does!?

Just a thought, but have you got 'Use same slot for similar instruments' ticked in the File - Preferences - Playback dialog? Try unticking if it is ticked.

2nd thought - Have you turned off all of sib's interpretation features? (Play-->Performance - set all to meccanico.)