Hi all,

Finale 2012's out now:

[url=http://www.finalemusic.com/Finale/New.aspx]http://www.finalemusic.com/Finale/New.aspx[/url]

Sorry for doubling up Justin ... I should have figured you would have announced this immediately on the forum.  Anything new in the percussion area in 2012?  Thanks.

Todd

Actually, the ScoreManager helps a ton with adding instruments and assigning VST/AU sounds from one spot.

In addition, we added a handy function under Utilities > Change Instrument. One click, the instrument changes for the amount of measures selected for display and playback, then switches back to the original instrument. No more adding staff styles and expressions to make this happen.

Thanks, Justin.  I know you have your hands full with the Finale Forum and all of the griping going on over there!  I've been following that, too.  I did download the trial version of 2012 because I am considering upgrading from 2010b.  I haven't played around with it alot as yet.  I did try to open a percussion composition that uses the 2010b VDL template.  The pitched percussion translated fine from what I can see, but the unpitched percussion did not.  The mapping of the instruments is not correct and the bassline part does not even play.  Score manager seems to have the correct maps and midi maps, but I suspect that I need to copy the midi and xml files from the template somewhere into Finale.  With the new architecture I can't figure out where they should go.  Any clues you can provide will definitely assist me, since I compose exclusively for percussion and almost exclusively using VDL 2.5.

I should also note that I have the Finale 2011 template for VDL as well, which I purchased quickly before Tapspace discontinued supporting the templates just in case no one else picked them up, and in anticipation of possibly needing it for use with Finale 2012 when it was released.  But I haven't done anything with the 2011 template as yet, just have it available. 

Thanks,
Todd

Todd,

Since you have the 2011 templates and Read Me, look there for directions on where to place the support files. This was something which changes from 2010 to 2011. Send me a PM if you still have any questions. You can also go through The Write Score for help with the templates as well as purchase future templates and updates.

Thanks, Ted.  I will do that. 

Todd

Ted - I haven't checked everything in the score that I am testing but the playback definitely seems to work correctly now.  Thanks for pointing this out.

Todd   

Glad to hear things appear to be working.

I haven't had a chance to download the trial version yet (waiting until I'm not so busy with marching season...), but can anyone tell me if the problems that several of us have had with not being able to use multiple non-pitched percussion instruments on the same staff has been resolved?  This was a problem in 2010, and didn't work with the template and speedy entry in 2011. 

I know that there is a work-around of putting the instruments in different layers, but you are still limited to only 4 instruments per staff which is less than ideal for accessory rack parts.

Anybody been able to do this in 2012?  Very interested....

Yes, this has been addressed. I'm posting something to our blog about this soon.

There's a command for Change Instrument now and it functions quite well.

Awesome!  Thanks for the quick response and I'm glad to hear that this has been taken care of!

Thanks for all your work on getting the word out and responding to everyone's questions Justin!

No problem!

It won't automatically switch full VDL at this time, but I'm working on that. You can however quickly do a change to one of the SMSS or Garritan staves then change the Layout/Map/Sound in the ScoreManager.