In response to user concerns, Avid Audio Vice President Martin Kloiber said the company wanted to “integrate Sibelius development more closely with the rest of Avid’s audio development teams in California”.
However, a year later Avid closed the UK office where Sibelius was developed, causing a great deal of alarm at the time - not least because the then-current development team would not be a part of the company’s plans for the future.
The release of Sibelius 7 in 2011 returned the program to its original nomenclature (from the early ‘90s when it ran only on Acorn’s RISC OS) and introduced a brand-new user interface. It would be fair to say that Sibelius has gone through quite a period of change since this magazine last reviewed version 6 in the December 2009 issue. Is this much-loved notation package still in safe hands?
Sibelius 8 sounds package software#
So inputting CC data on Sibelius will create hidden text messages in the score that will control our libraries so that you can switch articulations, amount of vibrato or dynamics! This is fiddly and time consuming, but it will result in some great mock-ups if your only audio software is Sibelius.The first new release of Sibelius in three years comes from the program’s relocated home in California. Short articulations, which are velocity sensitive, will react to dynamic markings (Expression text in Sibelius) so if you write a p in the score, a lower velocity will be triggered than writing an f or ff. Here is a list of all the current UACC articulations:ġ2: Trem muted (tremolando/flutter cs/stopped)ġ4: Trem hard/high (flutter overblown, trem sul tast)ġ5: Trem muted lower (tremolando cs/stopped sul pont) The CC32 values for all the articulations will be consistent throughout our products (with the exception of some of our older products). You will see a message under the articulation that will tell you the value of CC32 you need for the selected articulation: With the increasing number of articulations in one same patch, it became necessary to set a standard for our libraries, and this is what the UACC (Universal Articulation Controller Channel) is for. The easiest way to type this text is in Technique text (Cmd/Ctrl + T). Note that these messages are case-sensitive, so a lower-case ~c will not be valid. Midi CC messages range from 0 to 127 and in order to input this information correctly into Sibelius, you will need to follow this syntax exactly: In this particular example, Sibelius will set CC32 at a value of 11 and CC1 at a value of 120. For instance, if you want a note on the oboe to start quiet – or piano ( p) – and get louder – maybe mezzo-forte ( mf) or forte ( f) – you will tweak the parameter called Dynamics with a CC so as to reflect this increase in loudness.īy default the Dynamics control is assigned to CC1, Expression to CC11, Volume to CC7, Vibrato to CC21 and Articulations to CC32.
Note that in the Active Devices, you will have to have as many instances of Kontakt listed as you intend to use.ĬC (Continuous Control) data is crucial in using our products, since all the different parameters that alter the sound of a specific instrument are controlled by CCs.
You should now be able to add instruments in Kontakt through the Mixer: This will take you to the Playback Devices options, where you should create a new Configuration and add Kontakt as one of the Active devices: Go to Play – Setup and click on the little icon shown below: You will need to make sure that Kontakt 5 is listed as your Playback Device in Sibelius. Although we do not encourage our customers to use our libraries with Sibelius - as it is mainly a notation software - creating realistic mock-ups with it is also possible, and there are a few tricks that will help you achieve that using Spitfire products.įirst of all, have a look at this demo, specifically created to show as many dynamics and articulation changes as you can fit in two lines of music!