I'm playing back an orchestral piece which has played back fine until now. (I had sorted a problem via the forum in March. The sounds are distorting very badly, with crackly sounds also. What do I need to do to stop it happening? Thanks
This may be overly obvious, but have you shut down your computer and then restarted it? If Sibelius has been open for a long time, and occasionally if my computer has been open for a good while, playback will get very shaky - lots of clicks and notes dropping out; restarting solves this. Can't say why - it always feels as though my computer has just gotten tired of Sibelius; and yes, I realize that is not a very technical answer. But the restart does the trick for me, so just a thought.
Or you can copy and paste. Use the print screen (prtsc) button.
press Function (FN)+ prtsc. That copies the screen. Open Paint. Press CTRL + V (paste). Save As to make an image file you can post.
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Bob Porter
Sibelius 7.5.1,W8.1,C2Quad OC'ed to 3.4 Ghz,8 GB slower ram than I'd like, 250GB SSD.
Hi - thanks for idea of shutting computer down - I've done that for other things. On this occasion I'd only just fired it up.
Thanks also for idea of cutting and pasting - I tried to copy and paste several times - got as far as saving the document in dropbox but it won't copy into this box.
My next, rather feeble answer is to wait for my husband to come back and ask him as he is an IT consultant! I just wanted to be able to do this!
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Sibelius 8/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 8.0.3, Dolet 6.4 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
Yes, but what about the "Playback Devices" screen-shot?
In the meantime, we learn from your screen-shot that output is sent to "Primary Sound Driver". The next thing we need to understand is what that device is, as physical hardware. The Windows control panel "Sound", tab "Playback", should tell you what is selected as the default sound output device.
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Sibelius 8/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 8.0.3, Dolet 6.4 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
So, we discover that the sound output hardware device is a chip on the motherboard: this will be an economy consumer-grade mass-produced device, and will be limited in its performance capabilities.
We still have not seen the Sibelius "Playback Devices" dialogue, which you should have discovered on your way to "Audio Engine Options".
In "Audio Engine Options", the "Sample rate" is set far too high: this needs to be reduced to 44100. Does Sibelius perform better with that setting?
If not, you might have reached the limits of the capabilities of the audio output hardware on that PC.
Sometimes, the performance of such single-chip solutions can be improved with the installation of "ASIO4ALL" from http://www.asio4all.com/ but that introduces a whole new layer of complexity for the user to configure and manage.
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Sibelius 8/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 8.0.3, Dolet 6.4 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1 4GB, Windows 8.1 64-bit 16GB.
Thank you - I am receiving a computer with a larger capacity at the end of this week - for writing for screen, so I think these issues may well resolve, but I want to work on a piece over the next few days. I'll adjust the "Sample rate" setting as you suggest and test that. Thanks.
ok I changed the "sample rate" setting to 44100hz. The sound is still distorting, although less so. Perhaps then your suggestion that I may have reached the limits of this computer's capability is the correct answer. Therefore, I will wait now and see what happens on the new computer. Thanks again for your help with this issue.
Rosemary, I suspect at least one of the following also applies:
You have 4GB or less of RAM
You have limited hard drive space
You may be running a lot of background programs
Your sounds are loaded from the same disc you are running the program from (Drive C:)
We already know that you are using the bog standard chip that comes on most motherboards.
You might also experiment with different buffer sizes. This can both make it better and make it worse. Note the current setting and then you can always put it back to the default starting position.
You may get an improvement in performance if you use a free ASIO driver. Many people use ASIO4ALL. Again, it works for most - but not all situations. If it doesn't work, you've lost nothing.
If you can afford it, you might also try NotePerformer. For me, it gives much better results than Sibelius sounds.
Hope this helps.
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1.6GHz Intel i7 Quad core, Win 7 Pro (x64), 8GB, 7TB HDD, Scarlett 6i6, Sib 6.2, 7.1.3, 7.5 EWQLSO Plat, Miroslav Phil, NotePerformer, Harmony Asst, EWQLSC, GPO, COMB2
Si me castigare vis, necesse est me intellexisse.
Sibelius playback page for help forum.png