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 A-PRO. 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 in 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.

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: ray@musictechnologymatters.com Web: www.musictechnologymatters.com