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The purpose of this document is to cover the details of what the Sibelius 7 Sounds sample library consists of.
Please consult your Sibelius Reference Guide for topics we do not discuss here.
After you have installed the Sibelius 7 Sounds library from the DVDs or the large downloadable installer, be
sure you go to the Sibelius site and grab the most recent S7S updater installer. Updates for Sibelius can
be found at www.sibelius.com/helpcenter/upgrades. As of the time of this writing, the latest S7S updater
installers are:
Mac: Sibelius7SoundsUpdate710.dmg
Windows: Sibelius7SoundsUpdate710.exe
Files have been included in this package that will allow you to “sample” each patch so you will have a better
idea of what exactly all the sounds are that you have at your fingertips. Read the section that begins on page
11 for more. The files referenced are labeled “S7S_Library_7.1.sib” and “S7S_Library_7.1.xml”.
All the places in this document where it reads “hover” you will see an image of what you’re reading when you
move your cursor over that text. Example test: (hover).
For any software navigation we refer to, you will see the optional shortcut key in the hover image (if one has
been assigned). Learning as many of these and using them on a regular basis can save lots of time during
your normal writing workflow. And you can always create or modify your own set of shortcut keys to fit your
personal preferences.
To view the interactive elements in this document, you will need to use Adobe Reader 5 or later. Get the
latest version of Reader here: get.adobe.com/reader
Changes since S7S library version 7.0.3:
• All Skinner pipe organ patches have been moved up one octave.
• Range of Bass Clarinet patches has been extended up one octave.
• Range of Tenor Saxophone patches has been extended up to C6.
• Range of the Clarinet B flat patches has been extended down to G2.
4
Understanding the Patches
Ranges
The greyed keys of the pitched instruments’ keymaps are their trigger ranges, they are not necessarily
the written or concert ranges. White or empty keys do not contain sounds.
34
Octaves
The number in the upper left of every C key corresponds to the octave of the built-in keyboard in
Sibelius. Navigate to View > Panels (hover), check the box next to Keyboard to display it. Once
it’s visible, we like to move it to where it is floating and not as a docked panel. The file you’re working
in will remember this setting the next time you open it.
Lite
To help reduce the strain on system resources for slower computers, Sibelius has provided “Lite”
versions for many of the patches. You can control whether or not the lite patches are loaded simply
by changing which Playback Configuration the score is using. If you’re using a custom configuration,
you’ll need to change the sound set that is assigned to your instance of Sibelius Player. This can
be handy when you’re working in a score and are likely to be less concerned about the quality of
playback. Once you’re ready to hear the score with the full set of sounds, just modify or select the
appropriate playback settings.
The following is excerpted from the Sibelius 7 Reference Guide:
How Sibelius chooses which sound ID to use
To play a staff, Sibelius starts with its initial sound ID (as shown in the Mixer): for instance,
a solo violin by default starts with the sound ID strings.violin. Markings in the score, such
as articulations, slurs, text instructions for specific playing techniques like pizz. and so on, all
modify the sound ID by adding or subtracting elements of it. These changes are specified in the
playback dictionary. In the example below you can see the changes to the sound ID above the
staff, and the resulting sound IDs below the staff:
+mute
+staccato
con sord.
strings.violin
strings.violin.staccato.mute
-staccato
-mute
+legato
senza sord.
strings.violin.mute
strings.violin.legato
-legato
+accent
-accent
+downbow
strings.violin.accent
strings.violin.downbow
-downbow
+upbow
-upbow
strings.violin.upbow
strings.violin
+pizzicato
pizz.
strings.violin.pizzicato
Sibelius now has the sound IDs that would produce ideal playback. However, it is very common
that a sound ID is not available to be played, either because you don’t have the sound on any
playback devices, or there aren’t enough available slots or channels to play every required sound
ID at once. Sibelius then has to find the best possible alternative sound given the limitations.
As an example, suppose Sibelius wants to play strings.violin.staccato.mute (as shown above)
but this isn’t available. To find the best alternative sound ID, Sibelius uses a substitution rule
which relies entirely on the tree structure of all the sound IDs in the SoundWorld. It makes use
of the fact that, say, strings.violin.staccato.mute is a type of violin staccato sound (a child of
strings.violin. staccato), which is in turn a type of violin sound (a child of strings.violin). The
rule also relies on an order of priority between siblings such as (say) strings.violin and strings.viola.
So, starting from the unavailable strings.violin.staccato.mute, Sibelius first tries to find its first
descendant sound ID that is available, which means trying its first child (which might be strings.violin.staccato.mute.stradivarius), then the first child of that sound ID; when it reaches a
sound ID with no children, Sibelius tries its first sibling instead and its children. If no descendants
of the original ID are available, it then tries its parent, in this case strings.violin.staccato,
followed by the parent’s first child and other descendants in the same way; then eventually the
grandparent strings.violin, and so on until it reaches the first sound that can actually be played.
S3W has been structured so that this will be the closest possible approximation to the original
sound.
6
Sounds Charts
SoundsDict. Item
The available sounds that are listed for the individual instruments
are sampled variations to the main instrument’s sounds that can
be accessed through sound ID changes within the normal writing
workflow. Instead of listing the actual sound IDs that are needed
to access the available sounds, we have provided the Dictionary
items that will invoke those ID changes.
Here are a few key concepts you’ll need to remember when reading the charts:
• Sounds that are not capitalized* point to patches.
• Sounds that are capitalized* point to switches (i.e. a keyswitch or controller adjustment).
• Dictionary Items that do not have a parentheses around them are Staff Text.
• Dictionary Items that are surrounded by parentheses are input using their respective ornaments
(i.e. a slur or trill line, a staccato dot, etcetera).
• Hovering your cursor over the sounds that are italicized will reveal additional information for
those specific patches.
Example 1: When placing a tenuto marking on a note, Sibelius will look to see if there is a “+tenuto”
sound ID that it can use. If not, then it will use its back-up plan defined in the Dictionary (if applicable).
Example 2: There are many instruments that have a portato sound variation. To get these you would
use both a slur line and staccato dot at the same time. When Sibelius concatenates the two IDs
together, the net result added to the base ID is +legato.staccato.
RECOMMENDATION: Take the time to hover your cursor over all of the items in the six Keypad
layouts so that you are familiar with what each item is, or at least look at the items you are not sure
about. Many of the Dictionary elements that affect sound IDs are ornamental and will be applied to
notes using the various keypad options.
* This is to let you know whether or not the sounds listed have their own patches. The capitalized sounds are connected
to the default patch and are handled by the sound set. Will this affect the way you write? No, we’re just providing this
information for those who couldn’t go on without it.
7
Smart Knobs
The numbers listed next to each Smart Knob are their default values;
these are MIDI numbers, not percentages like you’ll see in the
Mixer. The order in which the knobs are listed for each instrument
are pertinent to the controller that is used on the staff to control the
knob for that particular instrument (patch). Knob 1 will always be
controlled by CC91, knob 2 by CC93, etcetera. Use the chart to the
right for a reference. When using MIDI messages in your score to
control the knobs, the knobs will not be animated in the Mixer during
playback.
If you’re not familiar with MIDI Messages, you can read more information about them in your Sibelius
Reference Guide.
TIP: When viewing the knobs in the Mixer, you can double click any knob you have changed
to set it back to its default value. (MIDI commands in the score will override manual tweaks
made to the knobs.)
* Many of the knobs will be more obvious than others as to what they do. For the ones we feel needed
more explanation, we placed an asterisk after the knob’s name. Hover your cursor over that Smart
Knob chart to reveal the additional information.
Controller Smart Knob
CC91Knob 164
CC93Knob 20
CC74Knob 30
CC71Knob 4 *41
CC73Knob 5127
CC72Knob 60
In the meantime, here’s the entire list:
•Air
•Amp Mix
•Attack
•Bass
•Basses Pan
•Celli Pan
•Chorus Mix
•Close Room
•Compress
•Cuivré
•Cutoff
•Decay
•Delay
•Delay Mix
•Delay Time
•Direct Mics
•Dirt Mix
•Distortion
•Distortion Drive
•Distortion Mix
•Drum Mix
•Echo Mix
•Fall/Doit Type
•Far Room
•Filter Env
•Filter Envelope
•Flange
•Flange Rate
•Fret Noise
•Glide Time
•Hi Level
•Hi String Level
•High Cut
•High EQ
•High Freq
•High Freq EQ
•High Gain
•Horn Pan
•Key Off Level
•Kick Tone
•Legato Attack
•Legato Bend
•Legato Release
•Legato Sample Start
•Lo Level
•Low EQ
•Low Freq EQ
•Mono/Poly
•More Air
•More Dynamics
•More Fretnoises
•Ooh-Aah Crossfade
•Overdrive
•Overhead Mics
•Percuss Level
•Percuss Length
•Phaser
•Phaser Mix
•Plop Length
•Pre Delay
•Presence
•Release
•Resonance
•Room Mics
•Room Size
•Rotary Mix
•Rotary Speed
•Sample Start
•Scoop Length
•Snare Tone
•Talkback Mic
•Talkback Size
•Tone
•Treble
•Tremolo Depth
•Tremolo Rate
•Trombone Pan
•Trumpets Pan
•Tuba Pan
•Vel Sens
•Velo
•Velocity Sens.
•Vibrato
•Vibrato Delay
•Vibrato Depth
•Vibrato Fade
•Vibrato Rate
•Vibrato Speed
•Viola Pan
•Violin Pan
•Wetter
8
Default Dictionary
The following Dictionary items (hover) are listed here so you can get a feel for what Sibelius offers
for default sound ID manipulation. If you need additional Dictionary items, you can always create new
ones to accommodate your needs. Not every item in the default Dictionary is listed here, just the ones
that pertain to sound IDs.
tre corde-una corda115 - 115
una corda+una corda85 - 85
Unis115 - 115
Value
(0-127)
Dynamic
Change
Dynamic
Envelope
SymbolsSound ID
Buzz roll+buzz roll
Snare drum+snares on
Snare drum, snares off -snares off
Snap+snap
Snap 1+snap
Snap 2+snap
Snap 3+snap
Mute on+mute
Z through stem+buzz roll
Mute off-mute
Fall+fall
Doit+doit
Plop+plop
Scoop+scoop
Damp 3+damp
Hand martellato+mute.thumb
Swing up+swing
Swing down+swing
Swing+swing
16 tremolos+tremolo.unmeasured
2 tremolos
32 tremolos+tremolo.unmeasured
4 tremolos
8 tremolos
Accent+accent
Buzz roll (Z on stem)+tremolo.unmeasured
Custom Articulation 1
Custom Articulation 2
Custom Articulation 3
Downbow+downbow
Fermata (pause)
Harmonic / Open+harmonic
Long fermata
Marcato+marcato
Plus / Closed+closed
Short fermata
Staccatissimo+staccatissimo
Staccato+staccato
Tenuto+tenuto
Upbow+upbow
Wedge
NoteheadsSound ID
Cross (1) *+mute
Diamond (2)+harmonic
* Cross (1): For pitched instruments, if no
sound ID is available, the notehead will
adjust the dynamic by 50%, the attack by
100%.
10
Sampling the Sounds
Included in this informational package is a .sib file that has an instrument defined for each patch in
the Sibelius 7 Sounds sample library *. These have been provided so you can “sample” the sounds
and otherwise know what you have at your fingertips. Follow these steps for setting up and using
your testing environment.
Playback Configuration
Copy and paste the included sound set file labeled “S7S_Library_7.1.xml” into one of the following
folders ** (you may need to create the Sounds folder):
Launch Sibelius and open the Sibelius file labeled “S7S_Library_7.1.sib”. Navigate to Play > Setup > Playback Devices (hover). 1) Create a new configuration. 2) Name it as you wish. Activate
Sibelius Player. 3) Assign the sound set labeled “S7S Library 7.1”. 4) Close the dialog.
* Except for the Lite patches.
** Why do we need to use this sound set? This sound set has been customized so that the unpitched patches will load
all the sounds in them without having to define any of those sounds within percussion mapping. All we’re after here is the
ability to sample the sounds in the library.
11
Loading / Listening
Go to Home > Instruments > Add or Remove (hover). Select the “- S7S Library 7.1” ensemble
from the Choose from drop down list. All the instruments defined in this ensemble have a “~” (tilde)
appended to the end of the name with the variants of subsequent patches after (you’ll need to have
View > Hidden Objects (hover) checked to view the text to the right of the tilde). Remember, the
instruments defined here are intended for sampling/testing purposes only.
In the image below you’ll see that the Violin 1 Solo has four additional patches that correspond to
them. Select all the Violin 1 Solo patches and add them to the score. Click OK. Once you’re back to
the score, hit the P key (as in Play) to load the sounds (if they haven’t already).
Once the sounds have loaded, highlight/select a bar of the first staff. Deselect it (left click into an
open area). That instrument and patch is now isolated for sampling using the built-in keyboard. You
may now proceed with reckless abandonment in the clicking of that keyboard to hear the sounds of
that patch. Proceed to the next staff when you feel you’ve maxed out the sampling possibilities of the
current one.
We highly recommend you take the time to go through and sample the entire library.
The only way to know what is in the Sibelius 7 Sounds library is to sample every sound that it
contains - especially the unpitched percussion. Knowing what you have at your playback disposal
may very well help in getting your creative writing juices flowing.
You can find a video demonstration of the above exercise here: Sampling the Sounds.
12
Wind
Piccolo
7
5
Flute 1
Flute 2
6
4
SoundsDict. Item
default
utter-tongue-tng
non vibratonon vib
non vibrato portato non vib + (slur) + (staccato)
non vibrato legato non vib + (slur)
portato(slur) + (staccato)
tenuto(tenuto)
halftone trill(trill) + half
wholetone trill(trill) + whole
Accent(accent)
Legato(slur)
Staccato(staccato)