Now you hear it, now you don't

First of all, thanks for an awesome product.  I am a very satisfied customer!

Now my current problem:

I'm writing a work for a rather large instrumentation (percussion ensemble)that involves numerous special effects.  A common one is bowed vibes.

The issue is changing the instrument sounds on a given part.  The problem is in the playback.  When I begin playback BEFORE the measure of the instrument change, I hear nothing.  When I begin playback ON the measure of the instrument change, it works perfectly. (The sounds [Marimba Rosewood Soft moving to bowed vibe] are on a single bank as patches 1 & 2.) I have the patch changes assigned via the Expressions menu.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.


Mac Book
2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 gig ram
OS 10.7.5
Finale 2012c.r13
VDL 2.5.5
the WriteScore

The first thing to try is to set an expression in measure 1 for that first instrument. Since you're using banks rather than the new  ";Change Instrument"; capabilities of the Score Manager, the very first patch assignment needs to be made. Let us know if this helps or if you are already using this function. 

Thanks for the quick response.  I realize this really isn't a VDL issue, and I really don't HAVE to have it sound perfect... I just want it to!

I have done as you suggested with the same result.  The first sound works fine, and I have placed a VDL percussion map ";patch"; change after the first instrument is done in the score.  After several measures of rests in the part, I placed an Expression titled ";Vibe w/bow"; with the patch changing to the appropriate instrument in the VDL bank for that part.  (Did that make sense?)


What you are saying makes sense and should work. The next thing I would check is the text expressions you are using for the patch changes. The text is included in the templates, but you will need to specify which patch number is assigned to each instrument. Specific patch numbers are not included because I would have no way of knowing  which slot an individual user might place a sound. Keep me posted on your progress.

I neglected to include that I made sure the Expressions ";Playback"; had the patch changes to the corresponding instrument already.  So, ";check"; on the next step!

Also, when I play the passage in question (beginning a few bars before the entrance) I can see the instrument changes in my Kontakt Player window, but no audible sound or sound level in the volume control for the bank in question.  (The volume control slider is set at -.6, which works fine for the original instrument.) When I play the passage beginning in the bar of the entrance, everything works fine.  Other banks continue to function normally, including patch changes.

It's just an intriguing issue...


So the most puzzling aspect of this whole issue is this:

I make the exact same instrument change earlier AND later in the work, and everything works perfectly.  Just this one isolated stretch of measures has a mindset all its own.

VERY perplexing to me!

I think I'll let this one sit for awhile and get on with the next movement...
I'm wondering if there isn't a stray midi message just before the change that is causing this issue. If I understand correctly, this change works as expected in other places within the score, just not at this one particular instance.
That's correct. 

The stray MIDI message makes sense, and I have tried to clear all the MIDI data for that line of the score in the measures in between the entrances, but to no avail.

That would explain why the playback works fine as long as I start on the measure that includes the instrument change, right?
That's my thinking, there is/are some stray control messages. Would attach a copy of the score in question. I'll take a look and let you know what I find.

Thank you so much for offering to look at my score.  I have spent about an hour this evening cleaning up the score to produce a ";product"; that would be somewhat decipherable by someone else.  In my cleaning up process, I went back through all the control messages for the part in question and redid them.  And, you guessed it!  Problem solved!  It turns out that I had an Expressions message labeled ";to Vibes 3 w/bow"; that contained a patch change very early in the score that for some reason was creating a stray message that didn't affect the part until WAY later.  I'm still not sure exactly how, but thanks to your suggestions and some real digging, now I hear it ALL the time.

Thanks again,

Glad to hear the problem has been solved.
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