Batch adding of instruments?

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Machynlleth51
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:53 am
Sibelius Version: 6
Operating System: Windows

Post by Machynlleth51 » Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:42 am

I need to add staves for a full orchestra to 15 pieces which are in short score, and vary widely as regards instrumentation and number of staves. Temporarily appending them in order to add all the instruments once would need a lot of preparatory work in matching the number of staves etc.

I haven't been able to find a plugin called something like 'add instruments to folder of scores', but is there one, or a similar one, out there? Or is there a workaround I haven't thought of? (Edit: I've just remembered 'Impose Sketch Onto Template', which comes close, but would also need a lot of tweaking after being run.)

One idea I had was to create an 'instrument' consisting of the multiple staves of an orchestra, so that I could just add this 'instrument' to each of the fifteen scores, but I couldn't work out how I might do this.



I'm using Sibelius 6.


MikeLyons
Posts: 1631
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:20 pm
Sibelius Version: Ult. 2024.3.1/7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by MikeLyons » Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:41 pm

Start with or create an orchestral template.

Your idea won't work. Instead, try creating a MSS paper with the instruments you require. You can then add staves for the 'short score' and copy the music from the short score onto those. If the orchestras needed are widely different you will have a great deal of work to do to get them matched. Sib will NOT append scores with different numbers of instruments and will often get it wrong if they have the same number of instruments, but different instrument names.
Sib 6.2, 7.5 and 2023.6, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 16TB 7200RPM Storage, 2TB SSD, Note Performer 3.3.2, EWQLSO, EWQLSC, Harmony Assistant and some others. mike@mike-lyons.co.uk

Machynlleth51
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:53 am
Sibelius Version: 6
Operating System: Windows

Post by Machynlleth51 » Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:54 pm

Thanks for responding. I have often in the past added dummy staves to scores in order to append them (usually temporarily, for a purpose such as this), but in this case, as you rightly say, that process would be more trouble than it was worth.

MikeLyons
Posts: 1631
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:20 pm
Sibelius Version: Ult. 2024.3.1/7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by MikeLyons » Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:37 am

Maybe it's not entirely hopeless. If you create a score with all the instruments you need, you could copy/paste from your 15 scores without using append and, although you'll have a bit of tidying to do afterwards, it would probably be quicker. You could use the Instruments dialog (i) to change the order of the instruments to match the next score so that copy/paste can be done in a block. Just a thought.
Sib 6.2, 7.5 and 2023.6, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 16TB 7200RPM Storage, 2TB SSD, Note Performer 3.3.2, EWQLSO, EWQLSC, Harmony Assistant and some others. mike@mike-lyons.co.uk

Machynlleth51
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:53 am
Sibelius Version: 6
Operating System: Windows

Post by Machynlleth51 » Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:22 am

Thanks again, Mike. That chimes with my experience: I've often double-boxed an entire score and pasted it into a template, and what happens of course is that it pastes everything (crucially - and vitally - including all time-signature changes, instrument changes etc.) into the top staves of the template. All that remains to do then is to copy-paste the material in them into the correct staves of the template - not, as I discovered to my cost, Ctrl-x-ing them; as that (if I remember rightly) deletes the original stave as well.

So, I think my plan will be to create my orchestral template, but adding on top of it a sufficient number of 'dummy' staves, with no instrument specification, to accommodate the maximum likely number of staves copied over from the 'short' scores. That will make it easier, I think, to manage the operation, and even makes the Ctrl-x trap irrelevant. Any dummy staves can then easily be deleted once the operation is complete. Job - I think - done!

Update... That idea wasn't practicable either - all the 'dummy' staves had to be renamed, for one thing. However, I learned this morning that there were such things as 3rd-party macro recorders, so I downloaded the evaluation version of the first one I came across (it's called JitBit), and within minutes I'd created a routine which added all the required orchestral staves to the individual scenes with just one keystroke. Couldn't be better! :D

Gareth

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