149: GigaStudio - adding program changes

When using Gigastudio, you often implement patch changes with a MIDI note-on command. However you do not want these extra note-ons notated and shown on the score in Sibelius, therefore you need to hide them.

To do this in Sibelius the easiest way is to set up an extra staff for these extra note-ons and then hide the staff.

Therefore create an extra staff in any instrument. Then in the Mixer window(Sounds dialog in Sibelius 1.4) set the Balance to 10% so that the staff doesn't play.

Then make sure that the new staff is on the same MIDI channel as the staff you want to change the sounds on (i.e. the staff that needs the program changes).

Then add the extra notes on that staff to achieve the program changes you are looking for. When you have finished, select the whole staff that you want to hide, and change all the noteheads to use the headless notehead style (see Noteheads in your User Guide for more details).

Now edit the No lines (hidden) staff type (see Edit Staff Types in your Sibelius 2 User Guide, or Staves in your older User Guide for more information). Switch off the Rhythms option and click OK. Change the extra staff to use this new staff type, and it will no longer show in the score, but it will give the program changes you need.

Please note that it is not possible for us to create soundsets for a Gigastudio setup since Gigastudio makes it possible to load any samples into any slot. Since there is no standard slot or program number for any sample there is nothing 'automatic' that Sibelius can do when you press 'Play' to load the sample for you.

Therefore when using Gigastudio you need to either use the above method for program changes, use the Sibelius mixer (press M to access this) and enter bank and program numbers appropriate to your setup, or turn off program changes altogether in the Play > Playback Options menu and then load the slots where you want them in Gigastudio.