Sibelius plug-ins from Kenneth Gaw

Plug-in creator Kenneth Gaw has recently introduced a new addition to his impressively useful plug-in repertoire, and he has updated several others as well. Here’s a run-down of the goodies.

All of these plug-ins may be downloaded directly through Sibelius 7 or 7.5 at File > Plug-ins > Install Plug-ins > [Category]. Or, click on the link on each plug-in name to be taken to the plug-in’s page on Sibelius.com, where you can download the plug-in and install it manually, or by using the Install New Plug-in plug-in.

1. Import and Export Mixer Settings is actually two plug-ins found in the Composing Tools category and, named, appropriately enough, Import Mixer Settings and Export Mixer Settings. This is a brand new plug-in that addresses a surprising deficiency with Sibelius: the ability to export volume and pan settings and import those settings into an existing file. Kenneth says, “I normally work with a hardware sound module but use Sibelius Sounds when exporting audio. This allows for saving different mixer settings without creating two versions of the file.”

2. Decrease and Increase Dynamics, also technically two separate plug-ins, is found in the Text category, and the latest update fixes a bug which caused it to crash when reading fp.

3. Delete Voices 1-4 is found in the Filter and Find category. It sees an update whereby voice 1 is now never left empty in a bar, when deleting voices 2, 3 or 4. If no voice 1 notes or rests are present, a bar rest is added, like in this example:

Be sure to see this post from last year which describes Decrease and Increase Dynamics and Delete Voices 1-4 in more detail, along with how to assign shortcuts to them for maximum efficiency.

4. Apply Series, found in the Composing Tools category and designed to help with serial composition, is now bumped up to version 3.0 with a major upgrade. The octave position of the series notes can now be determined by the selected notes, and the series can now be applied one stave a time or across all selected staves in the order that the notes are played.

5. The new version of Paste Rhythm to Pitches, Kenneth says, is “much more useful than the previous one.” It’s found in the Notes and Rests category. This plugin superimposes a rhythm of the notes on the clipboard on to a selected passage of music, and Kenneth says that the “the addition of a multipaste option, which will paste the clipboard rhythm repeatedly, makes a significant difference.” Kenneth has posted a video tutorial to explain an offset option, which gives the user more choice in the way the rhythm is pasted over the existing pitch material: