problems with pizz vs arco

[Fastel]

Hi, my first post here.

I'm using Sibelius First
in my score - i have a string quintett ( Vl 1/2, Vla, VC, DB). In the middle of the score there is a pizzicato part. So I Pressed ctrl and E for text - rightclick and then picked the "pizz.". The same at the ending of the pizzicato part with the "arco" command to come back to the normal sound.

but now the strings were sometimes played as pizzicato from every part of the score. I think 2 of 3 tries to play from elswere in the score makes a Pizz. sound. Even when I stay at the same note and just press "play" and "stop" four or five times. I'm confused... Can anybody help? I have no idea.

Ah and is there a command which allows to change the instrument?

greetings

[Sebasian]

. . . the strings were sometimes played as pizzicato from every part of the score. . . . and is there a command which allows to change the instrument?

It's hard to diagnose without a score (you could post a zipped-up Sibelius score here so someone can see if they can spot a problem).

It would also be helpful to know what device you use for playback.

(BTW It makes absolutely no difference to playback, but it is usual to use Technique text (Ctrl-T) for playing techniques like pizz rather than Expression text. )

I can't make this go wrong, so it's a bit difficult to know what advice to give, unless the score is particularly dense and fast, in which case Sibelius might trip over itself. Does it still go wrong if you Export to Audio?

To change instrument through the whole score you can choose an instrument in the Mixer. As for Instrument Changes part-way through a score, the GM-Module acts like an ordinary GM device and will accept MIDI messages like ~P45 to change instruments. You need to know which numbers are which, but you can use the Mixer (as if you were changing the instrument for the whole score, but don't click on the instrument when you've found it) to see what the instrument number should be.

[Fastel]

Sorry of coure its right to use ctrl and T for this commands and thats what I did. Just a mistake in my question.
I'm using the Audiophile 24/96 but I had never problems like this. I don't think that my PC cant handle this.

maybe you can give me a short explaination how to set the automatic change of an instrument? maybe thats the better way.

sorry I cant attatch my score, maybe I get in trouble when I post this for an open community.

thanks

[Sebasian]

maybe you can give me a short explaination how to set the automatic change of an instrument?

Change instrument in Sibelius First uses MIDI messages, which are not automatic (other than a few standard ones, such as pizz and arco). The form of the message, which has to be in some Staff Text (such as Technique Text) is ~P followed by a number. The number is the number of the GM instrument. If you haven't got a list of these available, the graphic shows how you can use the mixer to find the numbers.

So to change to Alto Sax you would put something like ALTO SAX ~P65. This shows on the score with just the instrument name — everything after the ~ is hidden.

Be patient with instrument changes (including pizz and arco) — Sibelius has a lot of work to do and sometimes misses these instructions, but you should find that starting from the beginning or exporting as audio all the changes will be as you have specified.

[Fastel]

thanks for the hint...
The problems in my first post were simply caused by wrong driver choice.