In finale 2008 I had set up my template with the percussion maps that I used set as ";staff attributes.";  This worked well for changing instrument maps within a given staff.  With finale 2010, I can set this up, but with the new mapping it doesn't work.  As far as I can tell, since you now have to have the ";layout"; assigned in the instrument list, you can't do what I had previously done. (When you change that setting it applies to that staff throughout the entire document.)

Is there a way in 2010 to make this work?  If not, is there a way that I can write for various instruments on one staff and have them appear correctly on the staff?  The rack combos are great, but I have really been spoiled by having access to all of the concert bass drum sounds, sus. cymbal sounds, etc. . .

Hopefully I'm just overlooking something.

Thanks in advance.

Here's the update on my issue.  I have figured out that I can assign different maps to each of the 4 layers in finale through the ";Instrument List.";  The problem now is that I am still limited to only 4 maps per staff, and each of those have to be assigned to a different channel.

I am used to writing a couple of ";rack"; parts for my front ensemble, and those students could be playing as many as 12-15 different small percussion instruments within a piece.  Anyone have any ideas?

Taking the time to learn Sibelius doesn't seem so bad any more . . . . .

Switching between multiple staff styles in Finale 2010 is a bit tricky within the new percussion mapping design. I may be wrong, but as I understand this is one of Finale 2010's limitations and I think it's something they're planning to address in future updates. I would encourage you to submit a friendly, well-described feature request directly to them to help illustrate the need for this functionality. They may also be able to provide you with other tips on how to work around this.

Jim,

Thanks for the response.  I will address this with the folks at MakeMusic and see if there is anything that they can / will do.

Here is how to deal with personal Percussion Maps

Title: Adding a 3rd party VST/AU library or MIDI device for percussion playback
Link: http://makemusic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1678

 
1) Close Finale

2) Download the ";Custom Instrument.xml"; file from the link above and save it to C:\Program Files\Finale 2010\Finale MIDI Devices.

3) open Finale 2010a and create a document.

4) MIDI/Audio Menu -> Device Setup -> Edit Percussion MIDI Maps. This opens the Percussion MIDI Map Editor
(Percussion MIDI Map Editor.png)

5) Click the down arrow beside ";Select a MIDI device to edit"; and choose ";Custom Instrument";
Now it will say ";MIDI Device: Custom Instrument";. Click on the ";New"; button beside that and save it with a name that makes sense. I called it ";CAMB Concert Toms"; but you can call it anything that you want. Type in beside Display name and give it a name. ";Concert Toms"; will do, but call it what you want.

6) Click on ";Select a note type to add";. Choose ";Custom"; then choose ";Custom 1";. Click on ";Add Note type";. Click under ";MIDI Note";. It will highlight the 0. Enter ";79";. At the bottom beside ";Custom Note Type Name"; enter ";Tom 1"; or whatever you want to call it.

7) Repeat Step 6 five more times until you have all 6 concert toms listed and save the percussion map
(Percussion MIDI Map Editor Final.png)

8) open the ";Staff Attributes"; window and change the notation style to ";Percussion";. Close the ";Staff Attributes"; window";

9)open the ";Instrument list";. Under ";Perc. MIDI Map"; Click on ";CAMB Concert Toms"; then ";Concert Toms";. Close the ";Instrument List";

10) open the ";Staff Attributes"; window again. Beside ";Notehead Font"; at the bottom, click on ";Select"; and choose ";Maestro Percussion";.

11) Beside ";Notation Style: Percussion"; click on ";Select";. At the top of the ";Percussion Selection Layout"; box, ";Percussion"; should be highlighted. Click ";Edit";.

12) Now you should see the ";Percussion Layout Designer"; box. This is full of standard General MIDI percussion phrases which we are about to change for this map. Beside ";Layout name"; change ";Percussion"; to ";CAMB VDL Concert Toms"; or whatever you want. Click on ";Snare Cross Stick"; to highlight it. At the bottom left is a ";+"; and a ";-";. Click on the ";-"; to delete the ";Snare Cross Stick";. Highlight ";Floor Tom 2"; and click on the ";-"; to delete it. Continue clicking on the ";-"; until only the top 6 drum names are still there.

13) Click on the top drum name ";Bass Drum"; to highlight it. To the right, beside ";Note type:"; click on the down arrow beside ";Bass Drum";. Choose ";Custom";, then choose ";Tom 1 (Custom 1)";. [I wish it didn't say ";Custom 1";. That implies that you can only ever have 128 custom names]

14) Do the same with the rest, choosing ";Tom 2";, ";Tom 3";, ";Tom 4";, ";Tom 5";, and ";Tom 6";

15) Once all the drums are renamed, highlight each one and drag the handle of the note in the small pane to the right to whichever position on the staff that you want it to be located. For simplicity, I chose the spaces in the staff as well as the space above and the space below the staff. When you are finished click ";OK to close the ";Percussion Layout Designer";.
(Percussion Layout Designer.png)

16) In the ";Percussion Layout Selection"; box the highlighted name should now be the same as the name that you typed into the ";Layout:";. Make sure that it stays highlighted and click on ";Select";.

17) Click ";OK"; to close the ";Staff Attributes"; box.

18) Hopefully, if you did everything right in step 12, 13, and 14 you didn't delete too many pre-existing drums, and you didn't end up with any drums with non-standard noteheads to fix. I'l let you figure out how to fix them if you did.

19) At this point, save your file, or all this effort is lost. Now when you enter notes on the staff you should only be able to enter them in the staff location that you chose in step 15, and hopefully they will play back. Don't forget to set up the CAMB in the VST, or you'll just hear a piano. :-)

20) We should be able to modify an existing map, or create a new map in an existing larger 'folder', such as creating a new CAMB Concert Toms map inside the existing CAMB Single Drums 'folder' (for lack of a better word. Finale seems to call it a MIDI Device). 

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