I was asked today to put vdl2 sounds to a already finished score in finale 2005 (not written in the vdl template). The guy im doing the work for told me just to add some extra staves at the bottom of the score instead of using the vdl template. Im new to both programs so this seemed alittle  confusing to me , but would there a way to write the music in the vdl template and sync it up with the already existing score from finale 2005? And if so, how would I go about dong that? Any help would be most appreciated, thanks.

It will depend on the score. Was it written to make use of Finale 2005's marching percussion sounds? That will affect whether or not you should work from the existing score, or start with a fresh VDL2 template, then import the music from his score.

They knew when writing the score that they wanted in vdl2, so I dont think they would have set it up to use the finale sounds. But, would there be a way to disable the finale sounds if they did in fact set it up that way? The score that I am working with is an entire band score so would importing that into the vdl template be a problem. Once again, thanks for the help.

I don't think you're quite following me. What I'm asking is whether or not they entered the notes using the Finale 2005 percussion mapping. You can set their score to play using Finale 2005 sounds (smartmusic softsynth playback), or you can just as easily route the midi OUT of Finale, into VDL2 running in the background (with the ";Finale 2005 Map"; instrument loaded into VDL2).

Importing other scores into the VDL template is rather easy. Good ol' copy and paste works like a charm as long as you have all your time signatures and additional staves entered (manually) into your new score. That's a heck of a lot easier than re-doing all your own percussion mappings to match the VDL2 mappings.

Thanks Jim