I'm trying to help an amateur choir, consisting mainly of non-sight-readers, to learn their parts at home between rehearsals. I have a full 4-part vocal .sib score of what I would like them to learn. I have given them directions for installing Scorch on their PCs or Macs - all that is OK.
What I would like to do is issue 4 variants of the full .sib score files to be played by Scorch: one variant with the soprano part at a higher volume than the others, one with the alto part at a higher volume than the others, and so on, so that the learners can pick out their part from the others. [Within Sibelius itself, this can be achieved using the Mixer panel during playback to semi-mute the other parts - but these settings are not saved in the .sib file, so are not communicated to Scorch.]
I want everyone to see the same full score in Scorch, but to hear differently emphasised parts. How can this be done?
If that much is possible, I would then also like to go further and make the emphasised part even more distinguishable by substituting a different MIDI instrument for the normal "ah" voice sound during Scorch playback, but without affecting the visible full score. Is that possible too?
Would it work for you to adjust those mixer settings and then save before you send the various versions of your piece to Scorch? I did this and saved to CD for various singers in a production for which I wrote the music last summer.
As I explained in the original post, what you suggest is not working for me. All the four saved variants sound exactly the same in Scorch: the mixer settings saved in the .sib score file are not respected by Scorch, which plays the score as it was before the mixer settings were applied. The saved variant files sound different when opened in Sibelius, but not when opened in Scorch.
Or maybe I have not properly understood what you are suggesting.
Or maybe this worked in previous version of Sibelius, but is not working in Sibelius 5.
Have you tried adjusting the volume sliders, rather than using the half-mute? If this doesn't work, another possibility would be to insert ~C7,x MIDI commands at the beginning of the staves -- or use hidden dynamic markings, if nothing else will work.
Robin, rather than using the mute/half-mute buttons in the Mixer, try simply changing the volume of the staves by dragging their faders. That should be successfully retained when you export a Scorch web page.
Thanks for the feedback so far. It looks as if at least part of my problem lies within the new Scorch 5.0 plug-in, as mentioned by "Daniel at Sibelius" in:
"The new version of Scorch, however, is unable to respect these Mixer
playback settings ...
We are working on this issue and hope to be able to issue a further
update to Scorch shortly that will retain these choices of playback
sound. For the meantime we have re-released Scorch 4 while we work on
these problems."
I am doing the same thing for a choir I am in, but instead of using scorch, I just save to WAV files and burn to CD. The WAV files can also be made into MP3s and emailed around. This way choir members can listen to their own part via normal stereo equipment, or on their computer, or on an MP3 player.
Scorch is neat, but the novelty wears off, and following the music on a printed score is fine for most people.
I have also found it useful to put each target part on say, the left channel (by using the pan control on the mixer), and all other voice parts plus accompaniment on the right channel. Using a normal cd player, you can then use the balance control to adjust the relative volume while you listen to the track, so the listener can fade in the other parts as desired.
Robin - I frequently send chorus files with certain parts prominent, and have found this method very effective:
1. First, set all voices at a lower volume by triple clicking the entire score, Choose PLAYBACK>TRANSFORM LIVE PLAYBACK>select CONSTANT VELOCITY and enter, say, 64.
2. Triple click the part you want to emphasize. (If there are two voices on one staff, then do EDIT>FILTER>VOICE x ONLY)
3. Choose PLAYBACK>TRANSFORM LIVE PLAYBACK, select LOUDER, enter, say, 40, into the ADD box. Click OK
4. Score is now set with one part prominent
5. Save the score with appropriate name (Adoramus Te - Alto II)
I've also found that using a different sound than choir oohs or aahs for the part you want to emphasize is very effective. Try setting the part you want to Clarinet or some other characteristic instrument and see how you like it.
I use Jim's technique. Usually I go for oboe for the main part and piano for the rest, since I utterly hate most oohs and ah synth sounds. But the idea about left/right pan is absolutely inspired - thanks!
