I have a question that I have not been able to find the answer to yet here on the forum (or FAQ).  I recently installed Finale 2011 onto my laptop (a fairly new HP laptop running Windows 7).

Everything runs great.  It did take me a while to figure out how to make the VDL lite sounds match the volume of wind instruments.  But my question is:

For some reason, the snareline instrument is unable to produce rim shot sounds.  When I enter the notes in (manually with a mouse, I am not using a keyboard or other MIDI input device) I see the ";x"; notehead, and it claims to be rim shot, but during playback it is the same sound as the rim click.  I swear the first day I heard it play rim shots, but now even after shutting my computer down and restarting, all I get are rim clicks.

Since I am currently using the VDL lite included in Finale 2011, I do not have the kontakt player installed.  It is runing through the Aria player included with Finale.

I really like the program, though, and am seriously considering puchasing the full blown VDL.  However, this issue with the rim shots has me a little concerned.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

Things to remember,

1) the VDLite sounds which are included with Finale are a very small sample of the sounds available in Virtual Drumline, they were licensed to Garritan

2) when working with percussion notation in Finale you must select a Percussion Layout (found using the Staff Tool) and a Percussion MIDI Map (found with the Instrument List)

3) the two items mentioned above must be identical

4) the Percussion Layout allows for placing specific noteheads and their associated sounds on the assigned staff, the Percussion MIDI Map connects these note names (Percussion Note Types) with the associated sound for playback

5) all of this changed with Finale 2010

6) it may be that you do not have the items mentioned in step 2 selected correctly, if they are correctly set then it is possible that they were not configured correctly either by Garritan or the people at Finale

7) if you choose to purchase Virtual Drumline then I strongly suggest you purchase the templates created to work with Finale and Virtual Drumline. There is a great deal of work going under the hood of Finale, as it were, to make both the notation and the playback successful. Templates for Finale 2010 are currently available and templates for Finale 2011 are under development. Check the links on the Tapspace home page for more details and information about the templates.

Hope this helps a bit....