I recently received VDL 2.5 and am still fairly new to it. I am learning a lot about it from the forum and have made vast improvements on how I write my music and play it back in Finale 2008. One thing that I haven't found in the forum is how to make all the notes sound the same (i.e. not have different sounds for LH's and RH's). I know this is useful for some stuff but I think that it sounds tacky in regular pieces and I would like to make all the notes sound a like. I do not have a midi keyboard which would probably make this very easy to do. Please let me know how to accomplish this with a keyboard and mouse.

I am also having problems with the beams of my notes extending over eighth rests and sixteenth rests while using the Finale 2008 templates. I would like it to connect the beams of the notes within a beat and that is it. If there is an eight rest and an eight note in one beat then i want the eight not to have the flag on it and not an actual beam. It is just an aesthetics thing when it comes to me which isn't important for playing the files back. If anyone knows how to adjust that in Finale that would be great.

One final question. I am using the Finale 2008 template but I only want the parts for snares, tenors, basses, and cymbals. I have looked to no avail on how to get rid of all the other staffs. Fill me in on how to do this as well.

Thanks

I forgot to ask one thing. I have a bunch of music already written in Finale 2008 and 2006 and I was wondering if I had to re-write them all in a template in order to get VDL to work with it. I am assuming that I do since most of the notation and stuff is different but it would be so much easier if there was just a simple way to convert the stuff.

Thanks

I'm not a Finale guy anymore, but you can use the AutoRL feature for the marching drums.  This will automatically alternate the strokes each time the note is entered.  If you use all right or all left, I think you will be less excited about the results as opposed to alternating.  You will start to hear a machine type sound that is painfully unnatural sounding.

Are you saying that the left and right hand hits sound slightly different or that you are hearing to distinctly different sounds such as a RH hit and a rim shot? Having a midi keyboard to use for note entry will make the process easier because all of the sounds are mapped to different midi numbers/key assignments. Attempting to use simple entry is just way to time consuming to be effective.

Regarding beams and removing staves, instructions for these can all be found in your Finale documentation.


Ted Boliske

I am using AutoRL to write and the main problem I have is the bass drums sound bad alternating in my opinion, the snares sound too awkward at slower tempos, and when I use syncopated rhythms the stick alternations get off beat and it starts to sound really bad. The basses sound like the right hands are almost accented compared to the left hands. Anytime i have an odd number of hits in a measure the seems to get off.

Also, is there any way to make the unison bass sound louder than the rest so that it actually sounds like multiple bass drums are hitting the note? I know i can just put accents on every unison beat but that is extremely tedious and a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

If you are concerned about the different hand sounds creating odd sounds in syncopated measures, use the MANUAL instruments. That's what they're their for, after all. That way you can get paradiddles and things like that sounding they way they're supposed to.

System specs would be a big help here. one of the symptoms you're describing could be the result of not enough memory, the sound card you're using, system problems such as running an audio program with Vista. To paraphrase, ";we need the frickin' info here";.

Ted

Specs are always a good thing to include, to help verify that we're talking about aesthetic likes/dislikes about the library itself, and not actual problems with the way the library is functioning in your setup.

In terms of not wanting to hear the RH/LH inherent differences, just use one or the other upon entering, and not with the AutoRL instrument versions but the manual ones. Same thing for bass unisons. Although the differences you are hearing there are basically because they were recorded using the setup that most people would be hearing them in (i.e. one head facing you and the other facing away from you).

Bottom line is that the library is diverse enough that you can manipulate it however you like to get the sounds you want. A healthy working knowledge of the notation program you use is a must for this. And can't recommend highly enough how much time you'll save by using a MIDI keyboard. There are many cheap ones that will do the job.

[quote author=Breaker9229 link=topic=2803.msg14872#msg14872 date=1226292380]
I forgot to ask one thing. I have a bunch of music already written in Finale 2008 and 2006 and I was wondering if I had to re-write them all in a template in order to get VDL to work with it. I am assuming that I do since most of the notation and stuff is different but it would be so much easier if there was just a simple way to convert the stuff.

Thanks
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This is a different topic than the one you originally started. You should post it as a new topic and it may have a better chance of getting answered.