Avid Sibelius 2 User's Manual

Sound sets in Sibelius 2

For advanced users only!

Before attempting to create your own sound set, it is worth checking if one is already available: see the online Help Center at
http://www.sibelius.com/helpcenter/resources/ for the latest additions.

Disclaimer

Sound sets are complex files and are not designed to be user-editable. Us ing a sound s et with incorre ct syntax may cause your copy of Sibelius
to behave unpredictably or even crash. Sibelius Software accepts no responsibility for any loss of data or other problems experienced as a
result of editing the supplied sound sets or creating ne w ones . This docume nt is provi ded ‘as is’, and no warranty , impli ed or ot herwise, covers
the information contained within.

Please also note that we do not offer technical support on the editing or creation of sound set files.

Filenames

The filename of a sound set file is insignificant (i.e. it is not shown in the Play Z Devices dialog), but we recommend that it s hould be fairly
descriptive. It should also be 31 characters or less (including the .txt file extension) to ensure compatibility with all file systems.

Sound set syntax

Please refer to the General MIDI.txt file inside C:\Program Files\Sibelius Software\Sibelius 2\Sounds for an example of
correct sound set syntax. In fact, you may wish to copy this file and use it as the basis of your own sound set.

The sound set starts with an open brace { and ends with a closing brace }.
The body of the sound set contains the following fields within the opening and closing braces as a series of ‘tree nodes’, in this order:

MIDIDevice

Syntax: MIDIDevice "GM (General MIDI)"
The name of the device, e.g. ‘Roland SC8820’.
If you intend your sound set to be usable on bo th Mac and Windows, this must be the e xact name of the device as returned by FreeMIDI. If

OMS uses a different name, then you will need to create a separate copy of the file with the OMS name substituted here (so that running
under OMS will load this file).

FileVersion

Syntax: FileVersion "0010000"

Include this line and leave it unchanged. It does not repres ent the version number of the particula r file on which you are working, bu t rather
the version of the syntax used by the file, i.e. the value 0010000 corresponds with Sibelius 2, but this may change in future versions of
Sibelius if the sound set format changes . (Check the sound set files supplied with future versions of Sibelius to determine if this version
number has been increased.)

DefaultDevice

Syntax: DefaultDevice "True"
This should always be set to False, unless it’s the General MIDI.txt sound set file. Only one sound set file in the S ounds folder can have

this parameter set to True; this determines which sound set is selected by default in Sibelius’s Play Z Devices dialog.

ProgramsCountFrom0

Syntax: ProgramsCountFrom0 "False"
This value describes whether the program numbers in the soun ds fi le are liste d relative to 0 or 1. The value s dis played in the Mixer window i n

Sibelius itself are relative to 0 or 1 depending on the setting in the Mixer’s Display dialog.

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Controllers

Syntax: Controllers

{
Reverb "91"
Pan "10"
SustainPedal "64"
SustainOn "127"
SustainOff "0"
}

You should enter the above list of MIDI controllers and their corre sponding controller numbers. The names mus t be identical to those listed
above (from the General MIDI.txt list) – no other controllers will be recognized by Sibelius (although including them won’t harm its
execution). The numbers should usually also be the same, as e.g . the sustain pedal is MIDI controller 64 in practically every MIDI device. Note
that SustainOn and SustainOff are not MIDI controller numbers, but rather the da ta byte that should be applied to the MIDI
controller declared in SustainPedal to achieve the pedal-down and pedal-up effects.

Programs

Syntax: see below.
This contains a list of all the patches (banks and program numbers) and their name s. The list can be in any orde r, but you mig ht find it u seful

to keep it in program number order as this will simplify the construction of the Groups and BestSoundsForInstruments sections (see
below). Each entry in the Programs list has the following structure.

msb/lsb/pn “patch name”
{
ChannelMask “mask”
NumStr “num string”
NoteNames
{
nn “note name”
}
}

Words written in italics are variables, as follows:

• msb is MIDI controller 0 (or bank MSB) value. It can either be empty (meaning don’t send MIDI controller 0) or otherwise it must be
in the range 0-127 inclusive.

Note that if empty, you should still include the slash (so you may get e.g. /23/34 “Name”). Note also that 0/ is not the same

as /; if 0 is present, Sibelius will send a bank change to MSB 0; if no number is present, Sibelius will not send a bank change.

• lsb means MIDI controller 32 (or bank LSB), and the same conditions apply as for msb.

Again, if empty you should still include the slash (so you may get e.g. //34 “Name”).

• pn is the program number. It too must be in the range 0-127 inclusive but it cannot be empty.

• patch name can be any text at all – it is required. This is the name that appears in the list of sounds in the Mixer.

• mask is a 16-bit mask, and can be any number between 0 and 65535. If you were to convert it into a binary number, each bit in that

number would correspond to a MIDI channel. 1 means this sound can go on this channel, and 0 means it can’t. So, say a patch could
only go on channels 1, 4 and 12. Since we count MIDI channels from 0, this becomes 0, 3 and 11. With the least significant bit being
the lowest channel number, this can be represented by the binary number 100000001001 and in decimal this is 2057. So for this
patch, the ChannelMask field would take the value 2057. If you leave out the entire ChannelMask line, Sibelius assumes that
the mask value is 65535 (i.e. the patch can be set on any channel). The three most common mask values are 65023 (all channels
except channel 10), 512 (channel 10) and 65535 (all channels).

• num string is not currently used by Sibelius but is created by FreeMIDI and OMS. If you’re creating sounds files by hand from scratch,
don’t bother with these fields, but if you’re starting out with a FreeMIDI sounds file then you might as well leave the fields there – they
do no harm.

The NoteNames list is optional. It contains the mapping from MIDI key number (or note number) and a name for that key. This is used by e.g.
drum set staves, where Sibelius needs to map a MIDI key value to a note name such as “Tambourine”.

• nn is the MIDI note number. It has to be in the range 0-127 inclusive.

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• note name is the corresponding note name. It is essential that note names remain device-independent. For example, say MIDI device

A has a drum set with a triangle sound. That sound might be called “Triangle 1”. It is essential that another device MIDI device B, if it
too has a triangle sounds on a drum set, that the sounds there is called “Triangle 1” too. If you were to call it “Triangle” or “triangle 1”
or “Trngle” then Sibelius wouldn’t know that it was the same sound. What this amounts to is that we need to agree on a common set
of drum note names for all devices. A complete list is in Appendix A, which also specifies the General MIDI note numbers for each
sound.

Groups

Syntax: see below.
This is used to organise the sounds into gro ups that will appear whe n accessing the Sound menu in the Mixer window (when yo u have the

Display sounds by type option switched on in the Mixer’s Display dialog). Each entry consists of a list of indexe s into the Programs
list. These indexes are relative to 0 (so the 3rd entry in the Programs list will be ‘2’ in the Groups list). One program can appear in
several groups if required.

The Groups section consists of a list of lists, e.g.

Groups
{
"Keyboards"
{
22
1
2
}
"Pitched Percussion"
{
114
10
13
}

and so on. Each sub-list has a title enclosed in double quotes (e.g. "Pitched Percussion" above).
Note!

It is essential that a patch referred to in a Groups sub-list actually exists. For example, say you had 128 patches in the Programs list. If
you put the number 140 in one of the Groups sub-lists then Sibelius may become unstable or crash while using this sound set. More
precisely, if there are N entries in the Programs list, then the index numbers used in the Groups sub-lists must be in the range 0 to N-1
inclusive. Indices into the Programs list count from 0.

You may want to copy the Groups section from an existing sound se t file (e.g. General MIDI.txt) and remove the lists of indices in e ach
sub-list as a basis for your own groups.

BestSoundsForInstruments

This section is used by Sibelius to work out which program number to use to corre ctly play back a particular staff. With a new sound set file
you may need to press the Reset Sounds button to set each staff to use the correct program number. This section is also used when
importing a MIDI file, so that Sibelius can determine which ins trume nt is require d on each s taff accordi ng to the program numbers used i n the
MIDI file.

It is essential that this list contain every instrument included in Sibelius. You may want to copy this section from an existing sound set file (e.g.
General MIDI.txt) as a basis for your own sound set.

A complete list of instruments is in Appendix B. Note that the names in this list are internal; that is, they are not necessarily as they appear
in Sibelius either in the Create Z Instruments dialog or as instrument names in the score. Some of the names include special ‘escape’
characters (such as \n\ and ~) which you should not remove, edit or change. These internal names should still be used even if your copy of
Sibelius is a foreign-language version, rather than translated instrument names. As a result, sound set files are largely language-independent
(apart from the names of the sounds themselves as they appear in the Mixer, which can be in any language).

Sibelius will reject any sound set file that lists any instruments that are not included in Sibelius and, conversely, it will also reject if there are
instruments in Sibelius which aren’t listed here (the exception to this rule is specializations – see below).

The syntax is as follows:

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BestSoundsForInstruments
{
"Bass Viol"
{
43
49
}
"Crotales"
{
114
}

and so on. Under each instrument is a list of patch indices:

• This list of indices can be empty. If you don’t supply any indices, Sibelius will default to piano for this sound, or will not change the sound
if it is a ‘specialization’.

• The first index in the list is used when creating an instrument in Sibelius. So for example, if you create “Violin I”, Sibelius will look up
“Violin I” in the sounds file and use the first patch indexed under this name. The other patche s indexed are used when mapping from
bank/program numbers to instruments when reading MIDI files into Sibelius.

• The rules governing index ranges are exactly the same as for Groups.

• In order for Sibelius to be able to map keywords such as “pizz” and “mute” to patches in a device independent way, “ins truments” are
known internally by Sibelius which aren’t real instruments at all. Appendix B includes these “instruments”, which never show up in
the Create Z Instruments dialog in Sibelius, and which represent sound effects such as pizzicato, tremolo et c. You will find these

“instruments” at the end of the BestSoundsForInstruments section in the General MIDI.txt file.

• At the end of t he list of instruments in Appendix B you’ll also find some specializations, e.g. “Mute:Trumpet”. Specializations
are optional and should only exist if that particular MIDI device supports that sound.

The syntax for this is “sound-effect-instrument:real-instrument”. sound-effect-instrument has to be one of the following:

Solo
Tutti
Harmonics
Mute
Legato
Detaché
Sul Ponticello
Snap Pizzicato
Col Legno
Spiccato
Tremolo
Pizzicato

real-instrument has to be a ‘real’ instrument in Appendix B (e.g. ‘Violin 1’ or ‘Clarinet’). This is so that you can distinguis h between,

for instance, a muted trumpet and a muted trombone.

If Sibelius sees that you’ve got a keyword which maps to the Mute effect in the Trum pet staff, then it will look in the s ound set file for

“Mute:Trumpet” and, if it finds it, will use it. Otherwise, it will use the “Mute” entry (which must exist).

For the sound effect “Solo” and “Tutti” you should make sure that spe cializations should come in pairs , e.g. if you have “Solo:Flute” y ou

must ensure you have “Tutti:Flute” otherwise Sibelius has no way of switching back and forth between the two. You’ll notice that most of
these sound effects are not used in the General MIDI.txt file (i.e. they’re empty) – that’s becaus e those sounds don’t exist in the
General MIDI sound map.

Appendix A: Drum sounds

This is a list of the General MIDI drum sounds and their corresponding MIDI note numbers:

35 Acoustic Bass Drum
36 Bass Drum 1
37 Side Stick
38 Acoustic Snare
39 Hand Clap
40 Electric Snare
41 Low Floor TomTom
42 Closed Hi-Hat
43 High Floor TomTom
44 Pedal Hi-Hat
45 Low TomTom
46 Open Hi-Hat
47 Low-Mid TomTom
48 Hi-Mid TomTom
49 Crash Cymbal 1
50 High TomTom
51 Ride Cymbal 1
52 Chinese Cymbal
53 Ride Bell
54 Tambourine
55 Splash Cymbal
56 Cowbell
57 Crash Cymbal 2
58 Vibraslap
59 Ride Cymbal 2
60 Hi Bongo
61 Low Bongo
62 Mute Hi Conga
63 Open Hi Conga
64 Low Conga
65 High Timbale
66 Low Timbale
67 High Agogo
68 Low Agogo
69 Cabasa
70 Maracas
71 Short Whistle
72 Long Whistle
73 Short Guiro
74 Long Guiro
75 Claves
76 Hi Wood Block
77 Low Wood Block
78 Mute Cuica
79 Open Cuica
80 Mute Triangle
81 Open Triangle

Appendix B: Complete list of instruments

Piccolo
Eb Flute
Flute
Shakuhachi
Alto Flute
Bass Flute
Sopranino Recorder
Soprano Recorder
Descant Recorder
Alto Recorder
Treble Recorder
Tenor Recorder
Bass Recorder
Great Bass Recorder
Contrabass Recorder
Tin Whistle
Flageolet
Ocarina
Panpipes
Oboe
Oboe d'amore
Cor Anglais
English Horn
Baritone Oboe
Bass Oboe
Heckelphone
Clarinet in E~b
Clarinet in D
Clarinet in C
Clarinet in B~b
Clarinet in A
Alto Clarinet in E~b
Basset-horn
Bass Clarinet\n\in B~b
Bass Clarinet [bass clef]
Contra Alto\n\Clarinet in E~b
Contra Alto\n\Clarinet in E~b [bass clef]
Contrabass\n\Clarinet in B~b
Contrabass\n\Clarinet in B~b [bass clef]
Contrabass\n\Clarinet in E~b
Sopranino\n\Saxophone
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone [bass clef]
Bass Saxophone
Bass Saxophone [bass clef]
Contrabass Saxophone
Contrabass Saxophone [bass clef]
Quart Bassoon
Quint Bassoon
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
Harmonica
Bagpipe
Didgeridoo
Woodwind
Horn in B~b [no key]
Horn in A [no key]

Horn in G [no key]
Horn in F
Horn in F [no key]
Horn in E [no key]
Horn in D [no key]
Horn in D~b [no key]
Horn in C [no key]
Horn in B [no key]
B~b Basso Horn [no key]
Wagner Tuba in B~b
Wagner Tuba in F
Tenor Tuba
Alto Horn in F
Alto Horn in E~b [no key]
Mellophone in F
Mellophone in E~b
Mellophonium in F
Mellophonium in E~b
Soprano Bugle in G
Mellophone Bugle in G
Baritone Bugle in G
Euphonium Bugle in G
Contrabass Bugle in G
Piccolo Trumpet in B~b
Piccolo Trumpet in A
Trumpet in G [no key]
Trumpet in E [no key]
Trumpet in E~b
Trumpet in D
Trumpet in C
Trumpet in B [no key]
Trumpet in B~b
Trumpet in B~b [no key]
Trumpet in A
Trumpet in F
Bass Trumpet in E~b
Bass Trumpet in B~b
Bass Trumpet in D
Soprano Cornet E~b
Cornet in B~b
Cornet in A
Flugelhorn
Tenor Horn
Trombone [treble clef]
Trombone
Alto Trombone
Tenor Trombone
Bass Trombone
Contrabass Trombone
Euphonium
Euphonium [bass clef]
Baritone Horn
Tuba
Bass Tuba
Sousaphone in B~b
Ophicleide
Serpent
Bass in E~b
Bass in B~b
Brass
Cornet
Solo Cornet B~b
Repiano Cornet B~b

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2nd Cornet B~b
3rd Cornet B~b
Solo Horn E~b
1st Horn E~b
2nd Horn E~b
1st Baritone B~b
2nd Baritone B~b
1st Trombone B~b
2nd Trombone B~b
Euphonium B~b
Timpani
Drums
Drums [drum set]
Drum Set
Percussion [1 line]
Percussion [2 lines]
Percussion [3 lines]
Percussion [4 lines]
Percussion [5 lines]
Bass drum
Bongo
Conga
Cymbals
Gong
Roto-toms
Side drum
Snare drum
Taiko Drum
Tambourine
Tam-tam
Temple blocks
Tenor drum
Tom-toms
Triangle
Whistle
Wood blocks
Almglocken
Antique Cymbals
Crotales
Cimbalom
Dulcimer
Zither
Handbells
Tubular bells
Chimes
Steel drums
Steel drums [bass clef]
Glockenspiel
Orchestral Bells
Xylophone
Xylorimba
Marimba
Vibraphone
Harp
Troubadour Harp
Guitar
Guitar [tab]
12-string Guitar
12-string Guitar [tab]
Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar [tab]
12-string Acoustic Guitar
12-string Acoustic Guitar [tab]

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