I was having trouble with the Finale 2010 percussion mapping with VDL 2.5. I haven't tried the ";fix"; yet, but here is what the good folks at Finale tech support sent me - I am too busy arranging in Finale 2008 (a known quantity) to check this out for a few days. If anyone puts it to use - please let me know how it goes.

1. File: [url=http://www.4shared.com/file/112087340/5326adc1/VDL_25_XML_Maps.html]http://www.4shared.com/file/112087340/5326adc1/VDL_25_XML_Maps.html
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2. Instructions: setting up a new score with VDL 2.5 and Finale 2010?  If so, try the steps below:

1. Close Finale 2010

2. Download the attached ZIP file to your desktop and unzip the package

3. Copy the included VDL 2.5 Layouts.lib file to the following locations:
a. Windows: C:\Program Files\Finale 2010\Libraries
b. Macintosh: Mac HD->Applications -> Finale 2010 -> Libraries

4. Copy the included XML files to the following locations:
a. Windows: C:\Program Files\Finale 2010\Finale MIDI Devices
b. Macintosh: Mac HD->Applications -> Finale 2010 -> Finale MIDI Devices

5. Open Finale 2010

6. Go to File -> New -> Document With Setup Wizard

7. Under Select an Ensemble, choose VDLite Battery Percussion

8. Complete the Doc Setup Wizard

9. Choose the Staff Tool and navigate to File Menu-> Load Library

10. Load the VDL 2.5 Layouts.lib file

11. Go to Window -> Instrument List

12.  Change the Snareline Perc MIDI Map to “VDL SnareLine -> VDL Snareline Manual”

13. Go to MIDI/Audio Menu -> Instrument Setup.  Change the 1st bank to Kontakt Player 2 and click Edit

14.  Locate the VDL 2.5 module, click on Instruments Dropdown, and navigate to Drumline Battery -> Snares -> SnareLine Manual (MW)

15. Close the Kontakt Player 2

16. Choose the Staff Tool and double-click on the Snare Staff

17. Click “Select” next to Notation Style

18. Select the ‘VDL2.5 Snareline Manual Full/Lite (MW) layout

19. Repeat steps 11-18 for the rest of the instruments in your score

Please note that some note types might display as ‘Custom’ in the Percussion Layout selection.  We are currently working on adding these note types to a future release of Finale.  For reference, please refer to your VDL 2.5 user guide for the full keyboard layout for each instrument.

Bravo Vita!  I had been playing with this for the past two days and was just about to write the Finale folks myself.  I will try the fix and report back how it works.

All - the ";fix' works well as it is layed out.  There are still alot of ";Custom ##"; midi note assignments, and it also looks like the mapping to the staff is different than the Tapspace VDL Template for Finale 2008 (at first look), so a bit different perhaps than we are used to seeing, but at least we get some of the benefit of the new percussion mapping features until Finale can do some additional work on the map.  Ironically, I find the new percussion layout system less flexible than the old percussion maps in terms of being able to map sounds to both the staff AND do midi assingment in one place.  The layouts are fine if you want to work within the Sounds for Finale limitations.  Oh well, two steps ahead and one back.

if you are goig through this procedure, you can save time by changing the all the midi maps in the instrument list, and changing the channel assignments while you are there too.  Then when you open the KP2, load the VDL Battery Lite multi and you are good to go with that.  You will still have to edit each staff to assign the appropriate percussion layout for that staff (snareline, tenorline, etc.).

Once folks have had a chance to play with this, if someone figures out a way to create a template within Finale with the VDL mapping, I'd love to know how they did it.  Thanks in advance!

Todd

[quote author=toddski link=topic=3146.msg16623#msg16623 date=1245114851]

Once folks have had a chance to play with this, if someone figures out a way to create a template within Finale with the VDL mapping, I'd love to know how they did it.  Thanks in advance!

Todd
[/quote]

A Finale 2010/VDL template is the next thing on the list, after completing the FIN09 template. Yes, I know it will be a year late.

[quote author=ted_boliske link=topic=3146.msg16624#msg16624 date=1245115090]
[quote author=toddski link=topic=3146.msg16623#msg16623 date=1245114851]

Once folks have had a chance to play with this, if someone figures out a way to create a template within Finale with the VDL mapping, I'd love to know how they did it.  Thanks in advance!

Todd
[/quote]

A Finale 2010/VDL template is the next thing on the list, after completing the FIN09 template. Yes, I know it will be a year late.


[/quote]

Ted - late or not, you are performing a great service and many appreciate your results!

David

[quote author=toddski link=topic=3146.msg16623#msg16623 date=1245114851]
All - the ";fix' works well as it is layed out.  There are still alot of ";Custom ##"; midi note assignments, and it also looks like the mapping to the staff is different than the Tapspace VDL Template for Finale 2008 (at first look), so a bit different perhaps than we are used to seeing, but at least we get some of the benefit of the new percussion mapping features until Finale can do some additional work on the map.  Ironically, I find the new percussion layout system less flexible than the old percussion maps in terms of being able to map sounds to both the staff AND do midi assingment in one place.  The layouts are fine if you want to work within the Sounds for Finale limitations.  Oh well, two steps ahead and one back.

if you are goig through this procedure, you can save time by changing the all the midi maps in the instrument list, and changing the channel assignments while you are there too.  Then when you open the KP2, load the VDL Battery Lite multi and you are good to go with that.  You will still have to edit each staff to assign the appropriate percussion layout for that staff (snareline, tenorline, etc.).

Once folks have had a chance to play with this, if someone figures out a way to create a template within Finale with the VDL mapping, I'd love to know how they did it.  Thanks in advance!

Todd
[/quote]

Todd,

I agree with you - I was poking around the percussion map interface and some of the features that came in handy in past Finale versions seem to have been removed. I am going to start a thread on this forum to see if others want to ";weigh-in"; on what previous features might be restored.

Thanks for your report on using the fix.

David

David -

Thanks - I'm still exprimenting with the new library.  One thing I tried to do was see if I could use the new library in the old FIN08 template for VDL2.5.  After a promising start, it really didn't work well, too many sounds drop out from the percussion staves for them to be useful.  I'm going to continue to pla around with this approach but for right now it seems that the best way is to create the full score from scratch as the fix file suggests, save it blank and re-use it.

Thanks to the Tapsapce guys for working on the new template, I appreciate all the work that goes into that and I know it will be coming out in the future, at which time we will all be tremendously grateful too!!  We are just trying to relieve some of the pressure!!

Todd 

Todd,

Try this for your older document:

1) Open your older score in Finale 2010

2) Go to Window -> Instrument List

3) Change the Perc. MIDI Maps for the appropriate staves (for example, Snare would be set to VDL Snareline-> VDL Snareline Manual)

4) Go to Document Menu -> Data Check -> Reconvert Percussion Note Types

5) Select the correct Percussion Layout to Update (select Snareline Manual for example)

6) Under Change Note Types Based on This Type of Map, select VDL SnareLine Manual and press Apply.  Repeat for other mapped staves.  (You may receive some errors here about note types not being found.  You can ignore those)

7) Try to enter some notes/edit your music

Work OK?

Justin -

It does seem to work and retain the original mapping.  I was also able to ";create"; a revised template with the new mapping.  I need to play with note entry a bit more but the dreaded ";orange"; notes are gone, and there was much rejoicing.  Thanks for your help.

Todd

[quote author=toddski link=topic=3146.msg16637#msg16637 date=1245188268]
Justin -

It does seem to work and retain the original mapping.  I was also able to ";create"; a revised template with the new mapping.  I need to play with note entry a bit more but the dreaded ";orange"; notes are gone, and there was much rejoicing.  Thanks for your help.

Todd
[/quote]

Great!

Please let me know if you run into any big snags.

Justin - I hit one rather large snag .... for some reason, Snare Section Hits and Snare Section LH Hits are not mapped to the midi/text files that produce those automatic titles as you move the mouse cursor up and down the staff.  This renders simple entry pretty much useless without a midi keyboard (which I do have).  The sounds are still available but I can only access them using the ";+"; and ";-"; keys.  If you have a chance, see if you can validate what I am experiencing and let me know.  Thanks again.

Todd