I currently have Finale 2010b and use VDL 2.5.  I recently purchased the Finale template and have everything set up exactly how I want it.  My only question (and it may be an easy answer I have not discovered yet) is how do you change the VDL sounds in a single score from one mallet selection to another.  For example:

I have my Timpani staff set up using channel 9 in Finale and matched up in VDL on the same channel to play the TIMPANI MED LITE [MW].  How can I begin writing in my Finale score for several measures using this setting, and then later in the score, switch to the TIMPANI SOFT LITE [MW], without overlapping their sounds of course?

Thanks so much,
Mark

If you're familiar with layers, that would be the simplest way to go about doing it -- perhaps putting your Medium instrument in Layer 1 and the Soft instrument in Layer 2. Assuming you're using the VDL Template:

1) Click on the arrow next to the Timpani line in Instrument List
2) Click the arrow next to the Timpani instrument on Layer 2, then select New Instrument
3) Give it a name indicative of the instrument (perhaps Timpani Soft) then select a channel that hasn't been used in your score yet.
4) Load the instrument into Kontakt Player and make sure the channel corresponds with the one in the Instrument List.
    -Note that if you're using more than one instance of Kontakt Player, instruments in the second instance will correspond with 17-32 in the Instrument list, and 33-48 in the 3rd, etc.
5) Write Medium parts in Layer 1 and Soft parts in Layer 2

You should be god to go at that point.

Mark - just to second Bryan's suggestion, I recently tried this and found it adds alot of flexibility to playback.  Specifically, using the VDL Template for Finale (2010a in this case), I set each of Vibraphone's up so that layer one is Synth Medium, layer 2 is Synth hard and layer 3 is Synth Soft.  I did the same thing for the Marimbas (3 Synth, one Birch) and for timpani as well, except for the timpani in layer 4 I added the Glissando instrument to be able to get that effect.  The only drawback is that expressions applied to any instrument will apply to all instances of that instrument (i.e. - you can't have one Marimba Synth Medium playing at forte and another playing at mezzo-forte at the same time).  But if you can live with that, it really economizes on Score size!  Good luck.

Todd