Drums notation

[DaMaTro]

Hi

I've just started using Sibelius and I'm trying to create some drums notation.

I can't make the open hi-hat and closed hi-hat notation show from the 'Rock Band' template. In this template, if I choose the drum staff and 'edit instrument' 'Edit Instruments > Drum Set (Rock) > Edit Instrument... > Edit Staff Type...', under the percussion tab I can see that for open hi-hat the 'Input using pitch' is G#5 and for closed hi-hat it is D#5. No matter what I do, including playing every single pitch on my 88-note midi-keyboard (set to non-transposing) I cannot get either of the hi-hats to show with the 'o' or '+' articulations. I have a feeling it should be much easier than this using such a basic default score and without editing the mapping in any way.

You should be able to reproduce my issue by doing the following:
Quick Start > Rock and Pop > Rock Band > Create
Select a measure in the 'Drum Set' staff and use midi keyboard to enter G#5, D#5, or as I tried eventually, every chromatic note on the keyboard.

How do I get the articulations ('o' and '+') to show that are defined in 'Edit Instrument... > Edit Staff Type...'?

I've been through the manual and watched numerous videos and read forum post after forum post but just can't find the answer.

Thanks!

Daisy

[MikeLyons]

The symbols you need are on the keypad, on one of the layouts (3?) Select the note to which you want them to apply and press the key on the keypad. They will only play with the correct sound when the piece is playing. Hi hat should be placed on the g space at the top of the staff. They should also use notehead type 1 (select the notes and press [shift][alt]1).

Hope this helps.

[DaMaTro]

Hi Mike

Thanks for your response.

In the drum map, there are the following symbols:

Hi-hat closed (no symbol above)
Hi-hat closed (with '+' symbol - commonly used on first closed hi-hat after an opn hi-hat)
Hi-hat open open (with 'o' symbol)

Each of these has a different input note.

If the symbols aren't intended to be added when the note is input, then why would they be set up like this in the map, and why would you be able to set them up like this at all without at least a warning.

D

[DaMaTro]

The manual also states the following:

"If you input this music using a MIDI keyboard in step-time or Flexi-time, however, Sibelius automatically maps the pitch of the notes you play on your MIDI keyboard onto the appropriate pitch, and also chooses the correct notehead (and articulation, if specified)."

Is anyone able to get Sibelius to add the correct notehead AND articulation directly from step or flexi input, as the manual states?

Note that I did have to remove an instance of a note that had the same input step (G#5) from earlier in the map, but now that has been done I don't see any reason that it shouldn't work.

[MikeLyons]

I've always found midi input of drum notation to be extremely unreliable. Using midi, the drum notation has to use channel 10. Some keyboards seem to have issues setting this up. After years of trying, I gave up and just started inputting by hand. In the end, it was too time costly to try to play the drum line in.

There are many half truths in the manual. Don't believe everything you read!