Mono-linear snare notation

[JoeViviano]

Hello,
I write a lot of marching percussion parts, and I generally use what's been called monolinear notation, Berger notation, Basle notation, Swiss notation, or Scottish notation. The idea is that rather than writing Rs and Ls for the notes, right-handed notes go above the line and left-handed notes go below (see link). Anyway, in Sibelius 3.1, this meant that I got all kinds of goofy sounds during playback. In Sibelius 5.2, I get no sound at all from anything except directly on the line.

How do I make these notes sound like snare drum notes during playback?

[Sebasian]

How do I make these notes sound like snare drum notes during playback?

The solution in both Sibelius 3 and Sibelius 5 is to edit the drum map. In earlier versions it would be House Styles > Edit Staff Type > Percussion; then read the Manual or just experiment. It's similar in some ways to the following instructions.

Sibelius 5:

1. Select the staff
2. House Styles > Edit Instruments and follow your nose until you get to the large Edit Instrument dialog
3. Click Edit Staff Type (halfway down on the left).
4. Insert two New notes, one below and one above the staff. (Note that Sibelius will automatically sort the notes according to pitch, so your note above might hidden off to the right if there are many noteheads in this map).
5. Choose sound for each note. (In Sibelius 5 there must be a note in the drum map before it will make any sound). Make sure all the sounds in the map are all from the same 'kit' or named patch.
6. (Optional) You may want to change the 'Input' pitch (i.e. the note you play to insert a Left or Right with your MIDI keyboard or QWERTY keys).
7. Choose the Notes and Rests tab and set stems to be Always Up or Always Down (according to taste).

This instrument definition will apply only to the score you are working on. To use it in other scores you can Export House Style; this House Style (or at least the Instrument Definitions part) can then be imported into other scores.

[JoeViviano]

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I'll try this later today and make certain that everything works.

EDIT:

Everything works perfectly. Thanks so much for the quick reply with details. This makes my life easier. I've been composing with the sound muted.

[JoeViviano]

With note stems set to down, it would make sense for accents to appear above the noteheads (imho), but instead, they appear below. I can select the accent, press x, and have it flip to the other side, but is there a way to change the default so that the accent appears above on its own?

[Sebasian]

is there a way to change the default so that the accent appears above on its own?

House Styles > Engraving Rules > Articulation and tick "Always Above" for the accents you use.

[JoeViviano]

Thanks again.

[JoeViviano]

Somehow accents continue to appear in the wrong place. Any reason why that you can think of?

[Sebasian]

Any reason why that you can think of?

Very hard to diagnose without a score. Can you try to attach a zipped fragment of score here? The page says .zip files are allowed, and it will, occasionally, accept them (up to 256KB).