Mixing Your Score

As you learned in Project 1, the Mixer panel is a powerful tool for controlling how Sibelius plays back your score. The Mixer lets you
change the sounds used to play back each of the instruments in your score, add effects such as reverb and chorus, edit specific parameters
to adjust each instrument’s sound, and balance the overall mix of the playback of your score.

Use the Mixer to mute the Synthesizer staves, since you no longer need them now that you have arranged the music from them for a
string section:

1 Press M to open the Mixer panel.

2 Find the Synthesizer (a) and Synthesizer (b) staff strips.
3 Click the Mute button ( ) on each. This partially mutes the staves (if you can’t see the Mute button, make sure that the Mixer panel
is shown at full size).
4 Click them again to fully mute the synthesizers.

Mixer panel, full size

5 Now play back your score. You will hear that the string parts have replaced the Synthesizers.
6 Adjust the volume of the staff strips to balance the string parts.
7 If you want to change the volume of the whole string section together, use the group strips at the right-hand side of the Mixer panel.

There are group strips for each family of instruments in your score. Adjusting these changes the relative volume of the whole family.
If you can’t see the group strips, turn them on by clicking the Show/Hide Groups button ( ) at the left-hand side of the Mixer panel.

Changing Instrument Sounds

Select which sounds Sibelius should use to play back each individual instrument.

For example, change all of the string sounds to use solo instruments rather than ensemble strings to give the score a smaller, more
intimate feel:

1 Make sure the Mixer panel is displayed at full size.

2 Find the Violin 1 staff strip.
3 Make sure that the middle of the three read-outs near the top of the strip displays the Sibelius Player playback device (S. Play).
4 Click the arrow next to the read-out that currently displays (Violins).
5 A menu appears that displays the available playback devices. Select Sibelius Sounds.

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Arranging and Playback