Good morning,

I have upgraded to 5.2 and everything is working fine in the VDL
world. I took Jim's advice and made a 5.2 house style file
so I could import it into my 5.2 VDL template and be able to
access the instruments that were missing due to a
glitch in the 5.2 template (like b-flat clarinets,
b-flat trumpets, et al.)

Here's the problem:  When I take a Finale file, export it as an xml,
open in Sibelius and then copy into the 5.2 template
with instruments added, it plays back like all of the
instruments are playing in different keys.  I tried
copying the opened and converted XML file into the 5.2 template
in concert pitch and transposed as well.  Either one does
not work.  The key signature in the template
is correct as are the instruments and their order.
I've tried copying in insrument groups (woodwinds etc.), individual
instruments, and I get the same result every time.

Anyone have any idea as to what's going on?
Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Neal

The first file is taking from the VDL 5.2 template
The second is the converted xml file

In the Finale file, are the transpositions set correctly?

Tyler,

Yes.  If you play the files using Finale, they play back fine.
I have Finale 2008 and can play back the files just fine.
They are ETF's and are transposing scores.

Thanks,
Neal

What if you export a MIDI file instead?  I've never had luck importing an ETF.

Just tried doing the midi route.
Same thing.  I copied in just the
piccolo and clarinets.  Clash city!

What happens if you open the XML file in Finale instead of Sibelius?

This is what happened:

Re-export as an XML from Finale and save it to your desktop, then try to Import it again.  Do you get the same error?

Tyler,

Same error.  It was not listed as a readable file when I
went to open it.

Take care,
Neal

It seems to be a channel issue.  i just changed the
piccolo to channel 6 and the clarinets to channel
7.  We have vocals on channel 5 (this is a score
for a cheer).  It plays back correctly, but then stops when
playing when the drums enter in measure #2.  We're
getting close.

Neal

I noticed in your score images you have the same key signature for clarinets and flutes.  Is your score set to Notes > Transposing Score?

That was my first thought. It sounds like your score isn't actually using transposing instruments. You can find out by clicking once on a measure in a selected staff, going to the ";Edit Instruments"; window, and seeing what's set for that instrument's transposition values. If middle C equals middle C on a B-flat instrument, there's the reason for your clash.

Even though your score indicates ";Clarinets in B-flat";, it appears that may not be the case since they're in the same key. Either that, or your Piccolos are in B-flat. Interesting.

Selecting ";transposing score"; will only affect whether you're viewing things transposed or in concert pitch. What you need to focus your attention is on is the instruments themselves to make sure the instruments are assigned to the correct transpositions. For best results, i'd focus on getting this right in the imported XML file first - correct transpositions and key sigs. Once that's working, delete all wind instruments from your VDL score, recreate them by adding transposing instruments to your score, then paste the music from the XML file into the VDL score.

I checked the instruments transposition values in the current score,
and they are correct.  The two examples you have above are
non-transposing scores.  I've tried it both ways, transposing and
non-transposing and neither resulted in proper playback.  I
am familiar with the transpositions of the instruments in the
score and, again, did check the transposition values.  I'll
Try re-importing an xml file and checking on the transpositional
values.  This has literally taken up my entire day.  Not fun.

Sorry for the pain Neal. I've had many days like that, so I understand.

Actually, if the transpositions are correct (in the instrument definitions), it would seem that the transposed pitches actually didn't export from Finale. If you select your entire Clarinet staff, then hit ";shift-T";, then transpose it by a major 2nd, you should be good to go. You'd need to do this for any of your staves for transposing instruments using they're appropriate transpositions.

With this in mind, it seems that maybe Finale exported the WRITTEN values rather than the SOUNDING values. Maybe it would help if the score exported from Finale was a concert score rather than a transposing score. Just a thought that might yield different results.