I just finished reading about the MOTU's new Symphonic Orchestra plug-in. A virtual intrument of 8 gigs of what are reported to be very high-quality orchestral samples as well as convolution reverb.
Would be awfully nice to play this thing with SIbelius. Is there going to be support for VST plug-ins in Sibelius in the next version?
Adding VST support to Sibelius would be a very big job indeed. It's naturally on our list of possible future features, but more than that we can't say.
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Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
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Well I think I'll be able to do it anyway. MOTU is releasing v2 of their Mach5 sampler and I've found out it will load the Symphonic Orchestra plug-in. V2 of Mach5 will include a stand-alone version that will accept MIDI input from Sibelius.
Audio Units would represent a similarly big shift. Actually making them work with Sibelius is not too bad (because some of the work has already been done by supporting the DLS Music Device on Mac OS X, which is itself an Audio Unit), but simply making them work wouldn't be useful enough: we would also have to overhaul the way that the user is able to control the mapping of staves to devices/sounds to make the whole thing easy enough to use and understand.
Audio Unit support, like VST support, is on our (very, very long) list of possible future features.
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Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / +44 (0)20 7561 7997
Other countries: contact your distributor (www.sibelius.com/buy for details)
Figured as much. But I trust/hope/pray that Sib 4 will give us some kind of better solution to the problem of integrating high quality sounds with Sib...yes...please...? (I know you can't say.)
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Michael Mayerfeld Bell
Sib 3.1.3 and Mac OS X.2.3
Powerbook G4 800 MHz, 1 Gig RAM
There are lots of competing priorities for adding new features to Sibelius, Mike. We did a lot of work on playback in Sibelius 3, and there are lots of other areas of the program that we hope to improve, too. So we'll have to wait and see.
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Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / +44 (0)20 7561 7997
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I've noticed a big trend over the last few years, for expecting better/realistic sounds from Notation software and there is nothing wrong with that. Its pretty seductive to get LSO playback but it seems to create more expectations than it alleviates. It quickly morphs from, "I want better sounds" to "I want better sounds for my particular piece of Gear" or "I need it to work with this particular library". We all want better sounds but to expect Sib to keep pace with constantly evolving software seems a tad unrealistic, however desirable.
Remember Sib has done well being Notation Software and thats what will keep it going. I'll always take tweaking the Notation over playback sounds.
Sib 3.1.1
Vaio FRV-26, XP Home
2.8 GHz, 1024 RAM
San Diego CA USA
All that they have to do is add plug-in support. It's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a comprehensive notation pacakge that plays back your scores with libraries such as Quantum Leap Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, Project SAM, Garritan, et al. And it's only a matter of time before someone does it so well that when the composer writes a violin II section playing downbow staccato in forte, the software automatically chooses that sample (no program changes needed from the composer) - or when the composer writes a crescendo, the software automatically performs the volume ramp in tandem with a crossfade between 4 different samples recorded at 4 different dynamics for the ultimate in realism.
I don't know who will do it, but someone will. This is not an area that's going to just sit still because some people are content. The problem so far is that every company just wants to do its own thing. One makes notation software, while another makes sequencing software, and yet another makes the sample libraries. What is needed is for one company to develop an integrated solution to merge these technologies, or at the very least, to develop these things cooperatively. Someone will do it someday, and I hope it will be sooner rather than later. I wish Apple would do it so that it could be finally done right.
> All that they have to do is add plug-in support.
If only it were as easily done as said! Adding plug-in support (meaning plug-ins such as VST, DXi, RTAS, AudioUnits, plus things like ReWire support, etc.) is no mean feat. But it is naturally something that's on our list of possible future features.
--
Contact Sibelius technical help:
North/Central/South America: [email protected] / 925-280-2101
UK: [email protected] / +44 (0)20 7561 7997
Other countries: contact your distributor (www.sibelius.com/buy for details)
> It's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a comprehensive notation pacakge that plays back your scores with libraries such as Quantum Leap Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, Project SAM, Garritan, et al. And it's only a matter of time before someone does it so well that when the composer writes a violin II section playing downbow staccato in forte, the software automatically chooses that sample.
A new program, NOTION, claims to do this. We'll see.
> > It's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a comprehensive notation pacakge that plays back your scores with libraries such as Quantum Leap Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, Project SAM, Garritan, et al. And it's only a matter of time before someone does it so well that when the composer writes a violin II section playing downbow staccato in forte, the software automatically chooses that sample.
>
>
> A new program, NOTION, claims to do this. We'll see.
Their playback sure sounds a hell of a lot better than Kontakt... I hope the good folks at Sibelius are taking heed of this. They could lose a lot of business if either Notion or Overture 4.0 turn out to be what they claim to be.
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Michael Mayerfeld Bell
Sib 3.1.3 and Mac OS X.2.3
Powerbook G4 800 MHz, 1 Gig RAM
Mike Bell wrote: > > "It's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a comprehensive notation pacakge that plays back your scores with libraries such as Quantum Leap Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, Project SAM, Garritan, et al.... A new program, NOTION, claims to do this. We'll see."
Mike, I contacted Notion and asked them if Notion could be used in conjuction with EastWest (and other) libraries. This was their answer:
"As of now we are a "self contained" unit. You put in the notation and press play. Our product has its own internal sequencer but we do not use midi for the sounds. So we do not need to do midi mapping or anything like that. You compose then you hear back instantly. We are planning some things for the future where we may be more compatible with other programs and libraries.
Best Regards,
Jim Boitnott
[email protected]"
As for their playback sounds, I agree. From what I heard on their website, their sounds are better than the Kontakt sounds on Sibelius.
> Mike Bell wrote: > > "It's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a comprehensive notation pacakge that plays back your scores with libraries such as Quantum Leap Orchestra, Vienna Orchestra, Project SAM, Garritan, et al.... A new program, NOTION, claims to do this. We'll see."
>
> Mike, I contacted Notion and asked them if Notion could be used in conjuction with EastWest (and other) libraries. This was their answer:
>
> "As of now we are a "self contained" unit. You put in the notation and press play. Our product has its own internal sequencer but we do not use midi for the sounds. So we do not need to do midi mapping or anything like that. You compose then you hear back instantly. We are planning some things for the future where we may be more compatible with other programs and libraries.
> Best Regards,
> Jim Boitnott
> [email protected]"
>
> As for their playback sounds, I agree. From what I heard on their website, their sounds are better than the Kontakt sounds on Sibelius.
>
I have Notion and it does everything they say. You can notate a downbow in the violins and hear it played. Cresendos and diminundos are incredibly smooth. The best part is that you can "conduct" your score by pressing qwerty keyboard keys. You can speed up, slow down, even hold indefinitely. Just write, play and conduct.
