I am trying to get the VDL for Garritan  tenorline, etc. percussion map to appear correctly within Finale 2008.  I've gone and looked at all the definitions within the ";edit"; page, and it appears that everything should be working fine.  Unfortunately, when I input, say a note on drum 1 (C4), it appears on the C space, not the ";staff position: 9"; as defined within the map itself.
Now, I went over to the VDL template and everything works fine (as I suspected it would...).  So the question is, why won't the VDL Garritan tenorline one work the same way?  Is there a way to override the pitch position with the staff position?  Is there something I have to tell it to do?  It would be great if this can be fixed so I don't have to copy and paste all the horn parts from my band director's score back and forth (workflow, you understand)...
Any info would help!

Thanks in advance.
I love Sibelius,
Carl

Dell XPS laptop
4 GB RAM
Windows Vista (not thrilled)

Carl,

Are you using the most recent FIN08 templates? They were updated in May. The updates include the Finale percussion maps  which appeared with FIN05. This would allow you to use the Finale mapping with VDL sounds, but not Finale sounds with VDL mapping. Also, to clarify note entry, with the Finale maps tenor drum 1 is mapped to E5, F5, and F#5 for hits, shots, and sustained rolls. There is no right or left hand mapping with Finale only VDL.

Hope this answers your question. Let us know if there are other problems.


Ted Boliske

Thank you for the response...it sort of answered my questions.
To be more clear, what I want to do is use VDL2.5 to input sounds/notes on a full band score that was written on something other than the VDL template for Finale 2008.  Can this be done?  Will the notes appear on the right part of the staff?  or do I have to cut and paste the band parts onto the VDL template (like I used to have to do in Finale 2006).
I figured Finale would now have something like Sibelius ";house styles"; to fix this type of thing...any ideas?
I thought I could do it through the percussion map editing, but perhaps I simply don't know enough about that stuff...

Thanks for the help!
Carl

Your issues is that the ";VDL for Garritan"; was made specifically for use with Garritan Concert and Marching Band library.  When they were made, the information from Garritan was not completely correct  - so there is wrong information in that Map.  This is a reason why they were not included in the Macintosh installers.

I would just use the template from Tapspace (when using the Full VDL) unless there is an absolute need to use the VDL for Garritan text files - since those maps in the Finale program are meant for use with the Concert Marching Band library from Garritan.

Let me know if you have any questions.  BTW - the problem is not a FINALE issue per say as an an issue with the Percussion map itself.  Finale and the templates work just fine.  Most issues with software get blamed on the software itself when the issues are actually more user errors.  This forum is riddled (at times) with users that put other software down.  This is not really needed as both programs serve their  purpose and do a great job at doing what they do. Please refrain from loaded statements like ";I Like Sibelius"; or ";I >Used< to use Sibelius"; alluding to the fact that you feel inclined to tell people about your dissatisfaction with Finale.  This does nothing but spur conflict and an environment that is not helpful or conducive to learning.  And by the way, most of those issues are user errors caused by people's own lack of knowledge on how the program is designed to work.  Granted there are valid issues, but a majority are not.  I am off my soapbox.  This is not meant to spur discussion on Sibelius vs. Finale either.  Just a statement on some basic forum etiquette. 

[quote author=CarlEppler link=topic=2510.msg13424#msg13424 date=1212726669]
Thank you for the response...it sort of answered my questions.
To be more clear, what I want to do is use VDL2.5 to input sounds/notes on a full band score that was written on something other than the VDL template for Finale 2008.  Can this be done?  Will the notes appear on the right part of the staff?  or do I have to cut and paste the band parts onto the VDL template (like I used to have to do in Finale 2006).
I figured Finale would now have something like Sibelius ";house styles"; to fix this type of thing...any ideas?
I thought I could do it through the percussion map editing, but perhaps I simply don't know enough about that stuff...

Thanks for the help!
Carl
[/quote]

You may want to contact Finale regarding making a percussion staff sound right when it already looks right....for working with documents that were not setup for things like VDL or GARRITAN.  Here is a link that might help:

MAKING A DOCUMENT THAT LOOKS CORRECT SOUND CORRECT:
[url]http://makemusic.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/makemusic.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=148&p_created=1170963100&p_sid=Q8Um*z5j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MzAsMzAmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cGVyY3Vzc2lvbiBtYXBz&p_li=&p_topview=1[/url]

MAKING A DOCUMENT THAT SOUNDS CORRECT LOOK CORRECT:
[url]http://makemusic.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/makemusic.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=149&p_created=1170963214&p_sid=Q8Um*z5j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MzAsMzAmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cGVyY3Vzc2lvbiBtYXBz&p_li=&p_topview=1[/url]

Hope this helps a bit on working with Percussion Maps.  Definitely one of the more difficult areas of Finale.

I haven't seen how the ";VDL for Garritan"; maps actually look or work, but based on Scott's description they're likely not as detailed or functional as the VDL templates that Ted has made for the Tapspace ones. These sorts of maps almost [i]have[/i] to be made by a percussion writer, and my guess is whenever those Garritan maps were built the same level of detail may not have gone into them.

Carl - one other thing that may be worth investigating if you haven't already killed too much time researching instead of working:
In Finale, you can save ";Libraries"; which can include things like percussion maps. So feasibly, you could open the Tapspace VDL Template, export a Finale ";library"; which contains all those complex VDL percussion maps. Then import this library into your other Finale score, where you should then presumably be able to assign these percussion maps to your staves as usual. There may be some quirks to this, so if others have more full experience doing this, it may be helpful to learn where the quirks may lie.

Let's not take the ";I like Finale"; or ";I like Sibelius"; jabs too personally folks. Especially if they're made in jest. It's probably safe to say there's enough red vs. blue to go around elsewhere. Group hug anyone? ;)

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2510.msg13427#msg13427 date=1212740483]
In Finale, you can save ";Libraries"; which can include things like percussion maps. So feasibly, you could open the Tapspace VDL Template, export a Finale ";library"; which contains all those complex VDL percussion maps. Then import this library into your other Finale score, where you should then presumably be able to assign these percussion maps to your staves as usual. There may be some quirks to this, so if others have more full experience doing this, it may be helpful to learn where the quirks may lie.
[/quote]


This would have been my next suggestion. Importing the libraries is a fairly straight forward task. This could allow you and your wind arranger to create a single template to work from, thus eliminating the need to import libraries for every score.


Ted Boliske

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2510.msg13427#msg13427 date=1212740483]


Carl - one other thing that may be worth investigating if you haven't already killed too much time researching instead of working:
In Finale, you can save ";Libraries"; which can include things like percussion maps. So feasibly, you could open the Tapspace VDL Template, export a Finale ";library"; which contains all those complex VDL percussion maps. Then import this library into your other Finale score, where you should then presumably be able to assign these percussion maps to your staves as usual. There may be some quirks to this, so if others have more full experience doing this, it may be helpful to learn where the quirks may lie.


[/quote]

Just make sure when you import the libraries and apply it to that staff, Select Edit and make sure the 'Highlighted Note"; check box is checked.  For some reason when importing Percussion Maps, that doesn't seem to get checked, thus leading to some unneeded aggravation.  Thats the only quirk i've run in to.

Also, it is quite easy to do.  Just open up the VDL template.  Select FILE -> Save Library.  Check Percussion Maps. Hit OK.  Then save as an easy file to Identify (I used VDL2).  Then any time you need to Use VDL in any other Score, simple go to FILE -> Load Library.  Select the file you saved that library as.  Now the maps are all set to use as so desired.

Thanks to everybody for the help!
Ted, Dave, and Jim - the importing library thing worked the best!  And Dave you were right, you do have to make sure the notes are selected in the ";edit"; screen.
Scott - thanks for the tips on the library editing...it is one of the more difficult things for me, the casual user, to understand.  No disrespect meant to the fine folks at Finale.

That's why this forum is a great thing,
Carl

[quote author=CarlEppler link=topic=2510.msg13433#msg13433 date=1212849184]
Thanks to everybody for the help!
Ted, Dave, and Jim - the importing library thing worked the best!  And Dave you were right, you do have to make sure the notes are selected in the ";edit"; screen.
Scott - thanks for the tips on the library editing...it is one of the more difficult things for me, the casual user, to understand.  No disrespect meant to the fine folks at Finale.

That's why this forum is a great thing,
Carl
[/quote]

I would be happy to help you anytime getting with any mapping help.  It is hard to wrap your brain around at first sometimes, because you have to make the staff look like another staff, etc.  Even I get this completely wrong.  LOL

We can even do a remote desktop session if you want and I can even give you a tutorial.

I just posted something about this a couple minutes ago.  I didn't see this before posting.  I did a search...really :)

I saved as a library, imported, made one map change and I was off and running...if I'm reading this thread correctly.