Welcome to another
helpful hint in my ‘Tips
and Tricks’ sessions.
Today’s tip helps with
setting up the preferences
in Sibelius 7.
Hi there,
Here is my set of preferred classroom settings and preferences to help you use Sibelius 7 more
effectively and to make your flexi-time recordings more accurate.
If you have any questions, just contact me on +61 418 159 916
Cheers,
Ray
Setting General Preferences for Sibelius 7
Open Sibelius 7. Your ‘Quick Start’ window will be on the screen. To access the ‘preferences’
menu item, you will need to create a project (score). Let’s simply double click on ‘treble staff’
template that is located at the top in the ‘Quick Start’ window.
Double click on the ‘Treble Staff’ Template.
The following window will appear on your computer screen.
Go to the tab ‘File’,
Click on
‘Preferences’,
Then, click on >Input Devices.
Here, you will be able to select the
input device (keyboard, electronic drum
kit, etc.) that is connected to your
computer.
In my case, I am using a Roland
controller keyboard known as an APRO. You’re your device may be
‘USB’, ‘USB keyboard’, ‘USB device’,
Yamaha, Casio, etc.
If your device is not showing in the
Input Devices Window, try
clicking on the ‘Find New Input Devices’ button.
If your device is still not showing, you may need to check your connections or reinstall the
appropriate driver.
Do not click ‘OK’ just yet!
Now, click on >Mouse and select
‘Click mouse to position it’,
select ‘enable copying with
mouse’.
This will stop the students from
placing objects on the score in
the incorrect places.
Do not click ‘OK’ just yet!
When you playback a score
Sibelius 7, the screen
sometimes it ‘zooms in’ and
sometimes it ‘zooms out’. I
find this very annoying.
To fix this, click on >Score
Position and
Un-tick ‘Use different zoom’.
Do not click ‘OK’ just yet!
Now, when using a keyboard to enter notes in the Percussion Staff, you may find that the drum
sounds do not coincide with the appropriate note heads.
To fix this, click on >Step time
and Flex-time and Tick ‘The
MIDI device’s Drum Map’.
Do not click ‘OK’ just yet! But you will after the next setting.
in
I find the intro music when Sibelius opens to become quite annoying after a while. So I generally
turn this off. However, I know that many teachers like to hear that intro music so that: •
•
The students can test that their speaker/headphones are working
Teachers know when the students have opened the program before they are asked to do
so!
However, if you would like to turn
off the intro music, click on > Other
and ‘untick’ Play Music.
You may now click OK and close the Preferences window.
The following preferences are provided to assist you and your students when you record
using the
‘Flexi-time’ facility (ie. Recording to a metronome click).
In the previous section, you selected your MIDI
input device.
To choose which ‘sound set’ you would like
Sibelius to play, click on the ‘Play’ tab.
Click on the ‘Configuration’ icon.
Set the configuration to your desired sound set
(in my case, I am using the Sibelius 7 Sounds).
Now, I recommend doing the following before using the ‘Flex time’ recording feature.
Go to tab item ‘Note input’,
Click on the small down facing
arrow
located just to the right of the
words,
‘flexi-time’.
This will bring up the
Flexi-time options window.
Go to the ‘Flexibility of tempo’ drop down menu and select ‘None’.
Doing this will keep the beat of the metronome at a constant beat rather that speeding up and
slowing down as the student plays the keyboard.
To set the number of bars for the count-in, go to the
‘Introduction’ box and type in the number ‘1’.
You may have found that when
you press the ‘record’ button to
start a ‘flexi-time’ recording,
Sibelius will add 100 bars to
your score. I find it more
appropriate to set the number of
bars I wish to record before I
start my recording.
To do this, go to the ‘Record up
to ‘X’ bars’ (100 is too many)
and select the number of bars of
your choice. In my example I
have chosen 16.
Generally, if you choose to re-record a
section of your music, you would wish to replace the existing music.
So I set the Existing Music to ‘Replace’.
Now, unless you are recording a piano part where ‘multiple voices’
are required, I would recommend setting the Voices to ‘Record into Voice 1’.
Finally, let’s make Sibelius listen to how we
are intending to play rather that how we
actually play. We do this by adjusting the
smallest ‘Note Value’ that Sibelius will
transcribe.
Firstly, click the notation tab.
Then, set Adjust Rhythms to the smallest
value note you will be playing. I have
selected ‘Quaver’.
The students generally use classroom
keyboards and are not usually accurate
in responding to staccato and tenuto
performance. So I have Un-ticked
‘Staccato’ and ‘Tenuto’ and will add
these markings later.
Setting Split point to ‘Automatic’ is
usually appropriate.
Finally, you can select whether
Sibelius will allow ‘tuplets’.
For my recording, I have chosen ‘Simple’. Click OK.
Any questions, just contact Ray Partridge at Music Technology Matters.
Phone: +61 418 159 916
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.musictechnologymatters.com