Avid Sibelius 1.4 User's Manual

Sibelius patch files

N.B. This document contains the essential information about patch files but is not intended as a comprehensive specification.

Creating a patch file

Sibelius stores its patch files in the Sounds folder within the main Sibelius program folder.

Copy one of the existing patch files (we recommend using General MIDI.txt, unless another supplied file is closer to your particular device) under a new name and modify it according to the details below.

Numbers

Are all in decimal.

Sounds on the MIDI device are listed in the form bank/channel.

Banks are written as (MSB x 128) + LSB. So MSB = 84, LSB = 1 is written as (84 x 128) + 1 = 10753.

‘BanksTimes128’

“True” for MIDI devices where the bank number is in the MSB rather than the LSB, e.g. Roland SC88 family.

‘DrumSetChannel’

Is in fact the channel minus one, so typically is channel 10–1 = “9”.

‘Programs’ section

Lists sounds on the MIDI device and their names.

The list of sounds need not be complete – you can miss off sounds you never use.

The names you specify are shown in the Sounds dialog box. To avoid confusion, it is advisable (but not essential) to use the names given on the MIDI device’s control panel or in its manual.

The order is the order in which you want the sounds to be listed in the Sounds dialog box, which needn’t be numerical order. It could be (say) alphabetical, or in score order, or with the most frequently used sounds first, or grouped according to instrument family (e.g. all strings, all woodwind, etc.)

‘BestSoundsForInstruments’ section

For each instrument name in Sibelius (as listed in the Create Instruments dialog box), this lists one or more appropriate sounds to use when playing this instrument back on the MIDI device.

Each sound is listed as bank/program followed by the sound’s name. The name must be identical to that entered in the program listing earlier in the file. If the names don’t match, the

The first sound listed for a Sibelius instrument is the default sound for playback.

Any subsequent sounds listed are alternative sounds which may be used in imported MIDI files. E.g. in the Roland JV-1080 Orchestral patch, four sounds are listed for Horn in F. The first sound is used by default for playing back music on the Horn in F instrument. If the second, third or fourth sounds occur in a MIDI file, Sibelius also notates that track’s music for Horn in F.

Note that a sound can be listed as a ‘best sound’ for more than one Sibelius instrument. For instance, in the Roland JV-1080 Orchestral patch the sound 10371/62 “Brass Section” is an alternative sound for several brass instruments including Horn, Trumpets and Tuba. If this sound occurs in an imported MIDI file, Sibelius will decide which of these brass instruments should be notated depending on various criteria, primarily the range of the notes (if they’re high it will write Trumpet; if they’re low it will write Tuba).

Sound column in the Sounds dialog box will appear blank.

Do not change or delete any of the Sibelius instrument names.