I am not sure how to even articulate the question so please bear with me.
I have a (in it's time) rather good Technics keyboard. (SX-PR804). It has a particularly nice sounding "Modern" Keyboard sound. It would be very helpful if I could get Sibelius to play this sound. I don't want or need all the sounds for this keyboard (there may be a couple of thousand), but it would be nice if I could get this one.
The problem is that Technics was sold several years ago to Panasonic and Panasonic basically did not try to do much with the instrument. I don't know if or that there are any drivers for this keyboard that would have meaning to Sibelius.
My question is how hard (or is it even possible) it might be to map this one sound to a score so that when it plays back it plays back with this particularly nice modern piano sound?
You won't get the sound INTO Sibelius. But you can attach the keyboard by MIDI and route an Instrument to it. Export Audio won't be any use, you'll have to record audio playback externally.
Technics Musical Instruments were always part of Panasonic. In fact, they were labelled National or Panasonic long before they changed the name to the more 'up market' Technics.
Trouble is that they stopped making musical instruments some years ago - they were not making enough money out of them! This was one of their later instruments and they did a lot with it! It was a very flexible and comprehensive instrument/
Every sound in the PR804 digital ensemble piano is accessible via a combination of a Bank Select MIDI command (made up of two parts, the MSB and LSB) and a Programme Change message. The Data Sheet for the piano will list these.
Using this info, you can input the require numbers into the score or (presumably as I've never bothered to try!) set up a manual soundset that will access this one sound.
As for connecting it to the computer, if it has a 'To Host' socket, that will be for an old style serial port. I think it's pre-USB but even if it does have USB, getting drivers for any recent OS will not be possible. It will, however, have MIDI ports so you could use a MIDI-USB adaptor.
Remember that the sound will come from the piano's speakers, not the computer, and playback will be almost instant. If you have latency on your audio system, any computer generated sounds, like the Sib 7.5 sounds, will play back slightly behind the piano. ASIO4ALL or an ASIO soundcard will get this delay to manageable times.
Yes, Bob, I'm sorry if I am redundant. I remember posting the question last year, but the solution is a little technical and I do not yet quite understand. I went back and reviewed the original question. Perhaps with that and this I can get to it.
I do not need to send the score to someone else so that they are able to hear the "modern" sound I am looking for. But I would like to have it come out of my Keyboard speakers when Sibelius plays back.
It sounds like this is doable but exactly what I do to make it happen is not clear. I have attached a simple test file. I have the numbers Andy spoke of earlier for this sound. The MSB number is 32 and the LSB number is 0. There is an additional number titled PCNo. Its value is 6.
Given the above, what would I do to make my test file (Twinkle Twinkle little star.sib) play back with the sound I've mentioned?
1) The instrument assigned to the staff is "unnamed", so Sibelius does not know that it is meant to be a piano;
2) The score's assigned playback configuration is "Sibelius 7 Sounds (Lite)", which is guaranteed not to go to the MIDI piano;
3) It is a general property of Sibelius that nothing in the score determines which playback device will play it: all that is determined at playback-time by the Playback Devices configuration, which you have not shown us (it does not travel with the score).
If you want to send output to the MIDI piano, then you need to create a custom Playback Configuration which routes MIDI signals to the MIDI piano (assuming that it is plugged in and Sibelius can see it as a MIDI output device).
You will also need a SoundSet file, or a manual SoundSet configuration. If the MIDI piano is GM-compatible, then you can try using Sibelius's "General MIDI" SoundSet for the MIDI piano device.
Edit: it turns out that the SX-PR804 has one "mode" that is GM level-2 compatible, so you can use the Sibelius SoundSet "General MIDI 2"; but you would need to set the SX-PR804 into GM Level-2 mode using its own configuration controls beforehand.
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Sibelius 7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6.3 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
Alright, Thank you Robin. I think I'm getting a handle on it.
I created a playback configuration that seems to work. That is, I am able to start a score and after pressing the "Modern" button on my keyboard, it does indeed come out (is played back by Sibelius) as the sound I was looking for. There are still a couple of things unclear to me however.
Where do Andy's words about MSB and LSB numbers come into play? Is this something separate from the method you've delineated or a part of it I don't yet understand?
When I start the piece it does not start with the Modern Piano. It's only after I press the button on the Technics keyboard that it kicks in. I can start the piece with a blank first bar if needed (and press the button during the first bar, but is there a simple way to tell Sibelius to use the voice from the start?
If you are using Sibelius SoundSet "General MIDI 2", you should use the configuration options of the piano to set it into "GM level-2" mode. Then Sibelius should look after the rest, sending the necessary commands to select the appropriate sound needed for each staff.
You do need to have a piano instrument assigned to the staff.
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Sibelius 7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6.3 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
Actually, not all that instrument's sounds come into the GM2 soundset!
Technics' best quality voices were all classed as 'native' sounds, rather better than the GM and GM2 voices that they also had on board. (same thing with Yamaha today). So using GM or GM2 configuration won't get the best out of the Technics. You may be able to access this particular sound but all the other good'uns will be hidden.
After studying the Sibelius GM2 soundset, and the Technics Reference, it appears to me that you should be able to obtain the Modern Electric Piano sound by adding a piano staff to the score using the Sibelius pre-defined instrument:
"Electric Piano (Stage)"
which has Sibelius SoundID: keyboard.piano.electric.stage
which translates to: BankHigh="121" BankLow="0" Program="6"
in the Sibelius "General MIDI 2" soundset.
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Sibelius 7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6.3 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
I appreciate your additional effort to help me with my score. This is a big subject, and because it covers a variety of entities that need to work homogeneously, there seems to be no "one page" or even one place where "several pages" cover the subject. However, I think I've found a solution to my immediate problem. And, to be more specific, sometimes when I writing I need an instrument that really "rings" the chords, like you would have if you owned an upper-end $10,000.00 acoustic guitar. The built-in Modern E.P. of the Technics makes a good substitute, but thanks in part to your comments I have found a MIDI sound that does the same. In General MIDI 2, "EP Legend" comes close enough. I am aware of no built-in Sibelius sounds that do the same.
If I am asking more than can reasonably be expected please let me know and I will stop. But on the chance that I haven't taxed you too much already I will say the following:
As I mentioned earlier, I am able to use a Program name in General MIDI 2 called EP Legend, and this solves one problem. It has a disadvantage though in that every staff on the score now comes out with that sound.
The other way of dealing with the problem is to use the built-in "Modern" keyboard sound of the Technics keyboard itself. This too has an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that everything in the score (all staves) do not have the modern sound - only the Piano Staff has that sound. However, the disadvantage is that this works with only one piano staff. That is, if you have more than one piano staff on the score, and you want them both to sound "Modern", at least in my current configuration, you're out of luck. Only the top most "Piano" staff will sound modern.
I have included a screen shot of how I have things setup for the Technics "Modern" option. Perhaps there something obvious that I am not aware of. If so, perhaps someone could point that out.
Thank you all again, particularly Robin for hanging in there.
> As I mentioned earlier, I am able to use a Program name in General MIDI 2 called EP Legend,
> and this solves one problem.
> It has a disadvantage though in that every staff on the score now comes out with that sound.
That doesn't sound right. Please attach a score which plays like that, so that we can see what is going on.
In Sibelius Preferences -> Playback, make sure that "Use same slot for similar instruments" is NOT checked.
> However, the disadvantage is that this works with only one piano staff.
> That is, if you have more than one piano staff on the score, and you want them both to sound "Modern",
> at least in my current configuration, you're out of luck.
> Only the top most "Piano" staff will sound modern.
I've never come across this before. Again, can you attach a score that is doing this?
> I have included a screen shot of how I have things setup for the Technics "Modern" option.
I cannot see anything in that screenshot that would set anything up for any particular Technics sound. What else is being done?
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Sibelius 7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6.3 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
I am sorry to be long in responding to your last point Robin. I had some other things come up that required my attention.
I am attaching two Sibelius files that demonstrate the problem. The one titled "Test_05 Technics Modern" contains and uses the Playback configuration I created to get the Technics "Modern" sound to work.
The one titled "Test_06 MIDI Modern" contains and uses the "MIDI Modern Keyboard sound" playback configuration I created.