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Changing Instruments for an Entire staff

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:37 am
by tubatimberinger
I have looked through the documentation as well as this forum but cannot find out how to, or if it is possible to change an entire staff from one instrument to another. I am arranging an orchestral work of mine for concert band. I would like to just be able to change the violin (for example) to clarinet as it will be assuming much of the parts played by the violins. I just want to change the staff itself. Is this possible? or am I going to have to cut/paste the entire contents of the staff on to a blank clarinet staff? Thanks in advance.

tim

Re: Changing Instruments for an Entire staff

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:00 pm
by wcreed51
In design view, open the Staff Properties and just reasign to whatever library/instrument you want.

Re: Changing Instruments for an Entire staff

PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:33 am
by Surfwhammy
When I first started experimenting with Notion SLE for Miroslav Philharmonik, which was a week or so before I upgraded to the full version of Notion 3, I used the full orchestra template and changed instruments to whatever made the most sense at the time, which worked in some respects . . .

However, once I upgraded to the full version (Notion 3) and started using IK Multimedia virtual instruments (basically, Sample Tank 2.5 XL), I observed problems with modifying the full orchestra staves, which leads me to think that there is some extra stuff happening in the full orchestra template . . .

Consequently, I changed my strategy, and the way I do it now is to create staves for instruments that are specific to the instrument, and this works very nicely . . .

Also, I discovered how to create my own templates, so once I have a specific score configuration I can save it as a predefined template . . .

Regarding the idea of having Clarinets play a Violin part, I think it makes the most sense to move the relevant notes for the Violin part to the Clarinet staff, as contrasted to renaming the Violin staff and then assigning it to a Clarinet (solo or section) . . .

As I understand it, Clarinets are tuned differently and perhaps have a different staff or clef, but if you are using absolute pitch or whatever, then it might not matter . . .

Another aspect of modifying the way instruments are defined based on a predefined full orchestra or other template is that there also is section information in the template, so there is more stuff happening than just a set of generic staves . . .

It might be fine to change the instrument from Violin to Clarinet, but as noted I encountered some problems when I changed existing orchestral instruments to IK Multimedia virtual instruments . . .

Creating your own custom templates takes a bit longer initially, since you start with a blank score and define each instrument separately, but once you have everything working nicely, you can save the Notion 3 score and then use it as predefined template, for sure . . .

For sure! :)

Re: Changing Instruments for an Entire staff

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:48 am
by Brian
Just enter Score Setup by clicking the plus sign next to the mixer. Next, choose the gearwheel icon next to the instrument that you would like to change to enter Staff Settings and change the instrument.