Hi everyone;  Apparently a Ph.D. in music is not enough for me to understand how to install VDL 2.5 on my computer so that it works with FINALE 2011.  I have a MAC with Snow Leopard (10.6.4) and, as I said, have FINALE 2011.  On the FINALE support website (by the way the FINALE support people are very unhelpful and rude) it says that if you have FINALE 2011, you should drag specific files from VDL into Finale 2010 folders.  Why 2010???  Interestingly, I still have Finale 2010 and so I followed those directions sort of knowing in the back of my mind that this made no sense.  I certainly would have dragged the files to the the appropriate files for Finale 2011, but there is no folder for Finale 2011....just its icon under applications.  Now, the Finale support team tells me that the folder is located in a different place, but they tell me that the Tapspace folks know where it is.....why wouldn't the Finale people know where it is??  Should this whole operation be so difficult?  Also, Tapspace keeps mentioning Kontakt 2 player.  Finale 2011 has the ";Aria Player";.  Can anyone help me with this?

Finale uses the Garritan Aria player for its playback. This is for the Garritan sounds which are used with the initial purchase of Finale. The full version of Virtual DrumLine uses the Kontakt Player made by Native Instruments.

There are specific Finale files created to be used with the full version of VDL and Finale. These files include percussion midi maps, percussion layout files, and text expressions which allow the user to utilize the full functionality of both programs. These may be the files to which the people at MakeMusic are referring. They are available with the purchase ($10) of a set of Finale template files. The most current templates are for use with Finale 2010, the 2011 templates are near completion.

With Finale 2011, file management has changed from previous versions. Only the application icon appears in your applications folder. All other support folders should be found in  (user)>Library>ApplicationSupport>MakeMusic>Finale. Template files would be placed here. Directions for this will be available with the templates.

Thank you.  This really helps.  Guess I'll have to wait until the 2011 template to come out.  I downloaded the one for 2010 because this is what was recommended for 2011 users, but apparently it won't work with Aria player as yet.  When I select Kontakt Player in the MIDI device menu, I find that VDL is there and I am able to select different instruments. That's a relief.  However, is there a way to change which MIDI notes these play on so I am not locked into having theme notated with excessive ledger lines??  Thanks again!

You won't be able to change which VDL sounds are mapped to which midi notes using the Kontakt Player. The maps are well thought out with regards to keeping similar and common sounds together.

gilli1dr - It's good to hear you're able to successfully see Kontakt Player from within Finale. That tells me you're installed correctly.

Your question about MIDI notes, however, would pertain more to using the percussion mapping/layout features of Finale. The method in which this is done changed in Finale 2010, and is one reason the templates are very useful. Percussion notation/playback has a notorious reputation of being complicated, mainly for the reasons you point out, because two things are being accomplished - A) Making the part ";look"; right, and B) making the part ";sound"; right with a wide range of percussive effects that are mapped across several octaves.

If you already purchased the 2010 VDL Template for Finale, I'd suggest checking out [url=http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F7FD4112833580D0]these two videos[/url] which point out the main aspects to getting up and running with the template (if you haven't already). Since these demos were done in Finale 2010, as Ted pointed out, Finale's folder structure has changed. Keeping us on our toes!...

The main place you'd be dragging files (from the Template) is here:
[b][i](user)>Library>ApplicationSupport>MakeMusic>Finale 2011[/i][/b]

Take note: In 2010, the ";[i]Finale MIDI Devices[/i]"; folder is the equivalent of 2011's ";[i]MIDI Device Annotation[/i]"; folder. At least, I think this is the case. This is the folder where the various VDL .xml files would belong, and if you're using the Tapspace template, their placement here would be crucial to the template behaving properly.

With those pieces in place, you'd start by launching one of the .MUS files included with the template package, then deleting/adding any staves you didn't want to use. Wind staves could also be added to this file, then assigned to play via the ARIA player (rather than Kontakt Player). Using this template .mus file, you'll see that each VDL instrument has already been mapped for you, which will solve your issue of those nasty ledger lines.

Starting from a Tapspace template score file, then adding staves to it seems a bit more reliable than starting with a pre-existing score then loading the VDL Template Library into it. It's not mandatory, however, doing it this way will ensure the categories of VDL instruments retain their organization when selecting them within Finale's ";Percussion Layout Selection"; window.

Sorry to be so wordy. Virtual Drumline is a pretty detail-oriented product, and when notation software changes from version to version, we end up with the ongoing task of maintaining how VDL integrates into that. Keeping us on our toes, for sure! :)

Hope this info helps!

I just upgraded to the VDL 2.5.2 templates for Finale 2010b. I installed the library files and the XML files in the User/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/Finale 2011/Libraries folder and the User/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/Finale 2011/MIDI Device Annotation folders respectively. When the library files were copied, they do not display the Finale icon, instead displaying a terminal icon (see attached file). When i try to load the library in Finale, the files are grayed out and I cannot load them (see other attached file). It seems I had this same issue at first when I purchased the original Finale 2010a templates, and was sent revised library files. Any suggestions?

I am running:

Finale 2011b
Mac OS X 10.6.5
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Open Finale then open the file you'd like to use the library in.  Go to [b]File Menu > Load Library[/b].  Navigate to where you saved the VDL Libraries to and change the file type under [b]Enable[/b] to [b]All Files[/b].  You should now be able to select the Library.

For some reason the extension was removed from the .lib file.