I just bought VDL:2 and I am currently trying to get the program up and running properly. After trying to figure it out on my own I finally decided to get things straightened out by checking out the Tapspace Forum. I have checked virtually all the Finale 2005 posts and I'm not quite seeing anything useful for my question(s). To start off I can get sounds from the VDL template to work but only on the snare line, none of the others will sound if I am cutting and pasting from previously made 2005 files. What is the reason for this? The other question I have about getting wind parts with the VDL:2 program I understand. When I do my MIDI Setup the IAC driver bus 1 is selected in the output device for channels 1-16. When I try to set up Smartmusic Softsynth for 17-32 there is no options in the drop down box. The only option available is the IAC driver bus and it cannot be used again since its already been selected once. I did notice the check box below the MIDI System pull down tab within MIDI Setup that says ";Enable Inter-Application Ports."; Do I need to use this? I have tried toying with that and cannot get any sound to come out while using this either. Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks,

Jason

Jason,

Are you using a Mac or PC?

What do you mean by cutting and pasting from previously made files? If you are taking music written in the Finale Rowloff Sounds percussion maps then you won't get the right sounds, as the VDL2 and Rowloff maps are completely different.  If you would like to playback your files wrtten using the Finale 2005 Marching Percussion sounds template, there is an ";instrument"; call Finale 2005 Combo Instrument for just that.

Have you thoroughly read the VDL2 manual?  I was also pretty unfamiliar with all of this stuff when starting up, but Jim did a great job of putting together a pretty thorough set of information for setup, making it relatively easy to get up and running.

I hope these little tidbits at least help a little.  I'm sure others will have much more.

Bryan,

Thanks for the fast reply. I did read the manual but sometimes I gotta do it to figure it out. It finally hit me that I needed to have one slot for each the snares, tenors, and basses. I thought I would only need one slot for all three instruments in VDL:2.

What I do still have problems with is actually getting the wind parts and percussion parts to match up. I did read the manual but it doesnt seem to be the same as what I have available in my MIDI Setup. I am not using a MIDI Keyboard and I'm wondering if this is the reason I can't get both the Smartmusic Softsenth sounds for the winds and the VDL:2 sounds to play simultaneously. I will keep double checking myself in the manual and toying around but any additional words on this would be appreciated.

Jason

by the way, I am using a Mac Powerbook running Mac OS X 10.4.6

[quote author=Bryan Harmsen link=topic=1127.msg4763#msg4763 date=1147804968]
If you would like to playback your files wrtten using the Finale 2005 Marching Percussion sounds template, there is an ";instrument"; call Finale 2005 Combo Instrument for just that.

[/quote]

Bryan is correct. The ";Finale 2005"; instrument (in the combination instruments folder) is designed specifically for playing back old scores that have been created using Finale's 2005/06 sounds. Furthermore, in such cases, there's no need to copy and paste those scores into the VDL2 Template since the Finale Percussion Map already exists in those old scores.

The one addition I'd offer to Bryan's comment is that typically snares, tenors, basses, cymbals are ALL being sent to the same midi channel in this case (usually set to channel 10 in Finale unless you've altered it). So be sure when you load the ";Finale 2005"; combo instrument into VDL2, that you also set its midi input to channel 10 (if that's what the battery staves in Finale are set to).

Hang in there! You already sound like you're making some good progress in the early stages.

[quote author=Gbass2004 link=topic=1127.msg4764#msg4764 date=1147810135]
I thought I would only need one slot for all three instruments in VDL:2.

[/quote]

Yes - If you're playing back a pre-written score using the Finale 2005 sounds, this is exactly right. Just be sure your output channel in Finale (Instrument List window) matches the input channel of the instrument you loaded into VDL2 (quite possibly channel 10).

[quote author=Gbass2004 link=topic=1127.msg4764#msg4764 date=1147810135]
What I do still have problems with is actually getting the wind parts and percussion parts to match up. I did read the manual but it doesnt seem to be the same as what I have available in my MIDI Setup. I am not using a MIDI Keyboard and I'm wondering if this is the reason I can't get both the Smartmusic Softsenth sounds for the winds and the VDL:2 sounds to play simultaneously. I will keep double checking myself in the manual and toying around but any additional words on this would be appreciated.

Jason
[/quote]

Jason - I'm a little rusty on my Finale know-how, but I think you may be experiencing one of its limitations (Finale folks, please correct me if I'm wrong!). When selecting to use ";internal speaker playback";, I think that will bypass the output devices you've set up in the MIDI Setup window (in your case, the IAC driver which calls out to VDL2). So it may be an ";either/or"; situation unless you have a separate software instrument (like Kompakt or something that can load soundfonts) that would enable you to send channels 17-32 (for your wind staves) out to IAC Bus 2 (which you can create in your Audio MIDI Setup).

The other option would may be to upgrade to Finale 2006, which allows you to natively ";host"; VDL2 as a plugin, while also hosting wind sounds as plug-ins via their Garritan Player. That way all sounds will be routed via a common method. Unfortunately, it seems like this is something Finale is a little finicky with.

In Sibelius, you can set each staff to route out to whichever device you want (IAC 1, IAC 2, Quicktime, etc), so this is something that might be a bit tricky to work around with your current setup. Again, I may also be missing something, so it certainly couldn't hurt to ask this question of the Finale folks. You might want to pose the question on their forums - ";Can I route channels 1-16 to my IAC Bus, and 17-32 using the SmartMusic SoftSynth?";

FYI - the ";enable inter application ports"; is not necessary. Doing so is essentially the same thing as adding Finale's version of the IAC (inter application communication) drivers. Since the Finale ones are ONLY available when Finale is running, you'd need to always be in the habit of launching Finale first, which may not always be to your liking. If you're cool with that, then launch finale first, click the ";enable inter application ports";, and substitute ";Finale 2005 Output 1"; for ";IAC Driver 1"; in both Finale's MIDI Setup and VDL2's MIDI setup. If it were me, I'd just stick to Apple's built-in IAC driver.

Hope this helps!

Hey all,

My understanding is that you cannot use both, because when you use VDL you need to turn of the the internal playback, therefore you will not be able to use the soft synth patch at the same time when you run VDL.


Freddie