Playback Dictionary
NOTE: The dictionary items used by this template are listed on a per instrument basis. Please refer to each instrument’s Map in the file VDL_Maps_7.0a.pdf.
For a long time now, Sibelius has used a powerful feature called Dictionary to control certain things playback-wise. We can do a lot with it to control certain aspects of the Template without needing to resort to cryptic MIDI messages. You can always view what’s available in the Playback Dictionary by going to Play > Dictionary. We’ve already setup the playback functions for VDL in this Template, so as long as you’re using the dictionary terms supplied with each Map (if applicable), everything should work as expected.
A valuable feature of the Sibelius dictionary is that it can perform certain tasks based on the articulations used in your parts. For example, you may write a part for Timpani that is supposed to roll (tremolo). So you put three slashes on the note so your timpanist knows it’s a rolled part. Since VDL contains actual sampled rolls, Sibelius will see these slashes, reference the dictionary and the sound set, and realize this means it needs to playback VDL’s sampled rolls. It will also ensure that it doesn’t try to “fake” the roll by performing a series of MIDI attacks since the sound set has told Sibelius that this is an actual roll sample. This is a hugely time-saving feature of Sibelius’ playback system. This sort of feature works for any VDL patch that has sampled rolls or tremolos.
Under the hood, what most of these definitions in the dictionary are doing is performing “sound ID changes” to create a new outcome. So for example, when your Electric Guitar staff encounters the word “mute” essentially Sibelius interprets that as +mute, which will alter the sound of that instrument. Sound ID’s can get pretty complex and there can be many variables at play, but the way the sound set has been designed, you shouldn’t have to deal with them directly.
If you were to study the many sound IDs assigned in the dictionary, you’d see that [reset] is a sound ID change used frequently. This removes all previously applied sound ID changes on the staff resulting in the reset of the instrument’s altered mod-wheel/keyswitch settings back to their default states, with no extra sound IDs affecting it. In any instrument, you can always return to its default state by typing nat. into your score. nat. will activate the [reset] sound ID message, and in many cases will look at home in your score.
You may find certain dictionary terms to be items you don’t necessarily want to print in your score. Simply hide the text by selecting it then going to Home > Edit > Hide or Show. Alternately, you could use a tilde (~) and as always, Sibelius will hide anything you type after it.