The available sounds that are listed for the individual instruments
are sampled variations to the main instrument’s sounds that can
be accessed through sound ID changes within the normal writing
workflow. Instead of listing the actual sound IDs that are needed
to access the available sounds, we have provided the Dictionary
items that will invoke those ID changes.
Here are a few key concepts you’ll need to remember when reading the charts:
• Sounds that are not capitalized* point to patches.
• Sounds that are capitalized* point to switches (i.e. a keyswitch or controller adjustment).
• Dictionary Items that do not have a parentheses around them are Staff Text.
• Dictionary Items that are surrounded by parentheses are input using their respective ornaments
(i.e. a slur or trill line, a staccato dot, etcetera).
• Hovering your cursor over the sounds that are italicized will reveal additional information for
those specific patches.
Example 1: When placing a tenuto marking on a note, Sibelius will look to see if there is a “+tenuto”
sound ID that it can use. If not, then it will use its back-up plan defined in the Dictionary (if applicable).
Example 2: There are many instruments that have a portato sound variation. To get these you would
use both a slur line and staccato dot at the same time. When Sibelius concatenates the two IDs
together, the net result added to the base ID is +legato.staccato.
RECOMMENDATION: Take the time to hover your cursor over all of the items in the six Keypad
layouts so that you are familiar with what each item is, or at least look at the items you are not sure
about. Many of the Dictionary elements that affect sound IDs are ornamental and will be applied to
notes using the various keypad options.