Hey there, I have been using VDL for quite some time, but I have taken some time away from the music writing world and have recently come back. With that said, I do have a bit of a working knowledge with what I am doing, but know that I am a bit rusty. Here's my predicament......

I am using a Mac, and have Finale 2011. I recently purchased the VDL 2.5.5 library upgrade, and got the Finale 2011 templates from The Write Score. (I know, I know, but I don't have much need for bowed crotales sounds just yet!)

I can get all of my sounds to work properly, but none of them (non-pitched) are appearing properly. When I go into the ";staff tool"; and edit the percussion notation style, click on VDL 2.5 Snareline Manual (for example), all I am seeing is a few generic sounds mapped out. Most of the sound named are labeled ";custom";. I am used to seeing every sound labeled correctly. I get orange note heads for every sound that I input with my MIDI keyboard (keystation 88es) and the note position is generally on the correlating note position, i.e. Snare RH shows up on the A line above the staff.

I do not really know a better way to describe this. Basically, everything sounds right and looks wrong. Please help! :)

The VDL 2.5.5 update was made available after the 2012 Finale templates were first created. You will need to update both Finale and the templates. I will need some time to see if it is possible to make them backward compatible.


EDIT: May sure to go to the Instrument List and specify the correct XML or Percussion MIDI Map. This may be the cause of the 'orange noteheads'.

I just noticed that my thread says that I have a really poopy computer! I'll have to update that, even though I don't remember putting those specs in there lol. Anyways, when I go to the instrument list, it has the VDL maps listed in italics, which I heard was a bad thing, but I didn't see anything better to use. Was I supposed to add something from somewhere else to choose there? I don't remember ever having to worry about the MIDI map before.

Looking forward to hearing back about the templates. Thanks for the help.

The information that the italic percussion midi maps is a bad thing is incorrect. what is means is that you need to select the percussion midi map. While the location from user to user is generally the same, the actual file doesn't know where to look when first opened. Review the Read Me file and verify that you have copied the XML files to the correct location and that Finale is looking in that location.